After seeing the wonders that Torres del Paine had to offer, I was really looking forward to El Chalten and The Fitz Roy Range, which is basically the Argentinian version of Torres del Paine National Park. Took a bus there and we stopped off on the way to take a few photos.
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The road to El Chalten is typically Patagonian, bumpy (as it isn’t sealed or surfaced) long, straight and goes for miles and miles and miles…….
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This road was really good (for a while) but the surface that you see at the edges is the norm but I suppose it will all be surfaced in a few years. Anyway I met a guy called Eric from San Fran, who I had met the previous night coming back from Torres del Paine. Checked in at the National Park info centre and got our maps, etc. Since it was kinda lunch time I was planning on a lazy day and then start trekking the following day. Eric has other plans for us though and we ended up doing the trek to see Cerro Torre.
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Now I’ve had zero exercise since I left home, whereas Eric did the “W” in Torres del Paine in 2 days!!!!! I’m not kidding, that’s pretty hard core trekking in the region of 70km, with a big backpack. Some of it he even ran! So this was my trekking buddy – oh dear! Struggled a bit at first but it was fine after the first few km. There were some nice views on the way…….
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……… and we got a glimpse of Cerro Torre…….
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…..but of course seconds later the clouds rolled in and the rain/hail started. So we retreated to the campsite for a while and started to head back. The wind in El Chalten is almost as crazy as in Torres del Paine. So frozen to the core, we headed out for a drink in the Microbrewery. I met up with Albert and Kerstin who I met in Bariloche and El Calafate. After a 19km trek we had a well-deserved chillaxy night and said our goodbyes as they were heading back North the following day. I also met up with a german girl called Nicola and we were going to meet in Ushuaia a couple of days later.
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The following day was a bit crap as the weather forecast said there would be zero visibility. I decided to do a trek to Laguna Torre anyway as there isn’t a whole lot to do in El Chalten otherwise. It was all good apart from the last 5km where the wind and hail were in my face all the way. Also Eric had stayed in bed (well deserved in fairness) so I had no one to chat to incessantly!!  I persevered anyway and got to Laguna Torre which looks like this on a crap day……
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….but I trekked 22km to see it so I’m putting it up here!!!! Had to kinda leg it back down as I was taking a bus back to El Calafate but it didn’t take as long as I thought and there were some great views coming back to the town. I know i keep going on about it but the landscape here really is amazing and I was completely blown away – physically and otherwise.
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Hanging around for the bus, I met Stefan from Switzerland and we hit it off. We were both staying in the same hostel too and I arranged to meet him in Ushuaia with Nicola.
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I kinda had been thinking about Ushuaia for a while and I figured since I had come this far south I said I might as well go all the way to the end of the world. It was only another 30 hours or so from El Calafate, which sounds like a lot but actually really isn’t in this part of the world. So I headed back from El Chalten to El Calafate and even though I’ve totally fallen for Patagonia, I have to say, I’m glad to be out of the wind and rain.
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Until next time….more photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157613678780982/