Hosteria Kau Si Aike El Chalten

... no chance!

Next plans:-
Buenos Aires one night 20th. Then I fly to La Paz- routed via Lima on the 21st. Arrive La Paz 01.30 Sunday morning at 12000 feet or so.. Then I am free in Bolivia for a week before joining a bus trip through the Atacama desert to Santiago, Chile. It takes 3 weeks- but excursions on route.
That reminds me . We had morning coffee in a roadhouse in Southern Patagonia where Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid holed up after ...

... Tijdens de klim naar boven kwam ik nog bekenden vanuit Torres del Paine tegen, erg leuk. Inclusief een offtrail detour naar een waterval die dag 7 uur onderweg geweest, bleek een goede opwarmer voor de daaropvolgende dag, ik had namelijk een gletsjer tocht geboekt.

Die tocht begon om 7 uur īs ochtends dus vroeg uit de veren. Om de gletsjer te bereiken moest je via een touw over een rivier heen. Een persoon van een ...

... blown into the air by freezing winds and 100mph ice drops! I don't know if it's like that regularly or if today was just particularly crazy but I'm going back for sure! I never thought these kinds of winds could exist outside of a hurricane, but not I definitely have to go to Antarctica (maybe not this year) and sail the mighty Southern Ocean because that must be about 5 times more crazy that what I experienced today.

Day 2 - went back to Laguna Torre ...

... back to Chalten...but they wanted 400 pesos for this service - the same as the full excursion! F*ck that.

We began our walk to the main road (just off our map - the alternative short cut was fence-ridden, hilly and boggy). It was miles, and in the wrong direction. Thankfully a passing pickup stopped and drove us to the main road. Nice people, it probably saved us 3-4 km, but we had already walked most of the way. Here, we began walking back, whilst trying to thumb a ...

... after Everest was climbed! Only the very elite can even contemplate climbing these peaks so mere mortals like us are limited to sitting there and gazing in awe.

At Lago Torre, thousands of chunks of ice from the glacier at the foot of Cerro Torre had broken free and were slowly bobbing along the shoreline. Sitting there in slience was an amazing experience. For a place which demonstrates the immense power of the mountains it was completely still and peaceful ...

Arrived in El Calafate for a day spent doing nothing and caught a bus to El Chalten, the hiking capital of Argentina the next day for an overnight stay. Set up at the worst hostel ever where they charge you for toilet paper. Went on a 3 hour trek though light rain and mist and through some scary woods to a waterfall. Trekked up the mountain behind the waterfall for a bit and went back to the hostel. Learnt to cook ...

El Chalten is a small town in Santa Cruz , Argentina. It is a town that is literally embedded within mountains and is known as the trekking national of the world. Literally all there is to do there is trekking. El Chalten is a town inside the southern part of the glacier national park therefore you don't have to pay an entrance fee, and all trekking is free! The paths are well marked, and all the water is drinkable ( glacier water) I ...

... 00pm: Descent is ten times worse than the ascent.... i am in pain... people are passing us out every minute... i think i have pulled my hamstring..... i am thinking of emergency services... 4 ...

... staying the first night. I was shown into a four bed dorm with an attractive French girl on one of the bunks. Things are looking up, I thought, until her boyfriend arrived a few minutes later. Supper in the Refugio and drinking beers with a group from the Czech Republic one of whom proved a star on the guitar. Next morning up and off on my own along well marked trails along to the French Valley. Met several friendly people along the way ...

... which I'll be able to show you as soon as I find a PC capable of loading up some photos without having some sort of cyber breakdown!



After admiring the view and listening to the small waves gently crash rhythmically into the shore, we set off back to town via an alternative route, which took us around the other side of the hill ...