El Chalten

Somewhere along Andes, north of Ushuaia and south of Bariloche, lies a sleepy, unspoiled town by the name of El Chalten. A place where the word supermercado (supermarket) is, in my opinion, used very loosely, and where jagged peaks dwarf it on all sides. I believe we are actually inside Los Glaciares National Park.



Yesterday, from here, I dragged myself up possibly the most stunning trail I have seen yet. Views to die for every half hour or so and a trail that almost promised nothing less! We (6 of us) did this 9 hour hike in just over 7.5 hours and returned the hostel quite triumphant, with visions of a large steak dinner to follow. After all, it was the 3rd all day hike this week and none of us are what I would describe as endurance hikers... even before the vino tinto!








And that rocky mound just below the snowy peaks... was where we were heading!


End of the trail! Cold and windy, but time for lunch.


I'm not sure the pics could ever capture the steepness of the rocky climb... 500m in 1 hour...or the gale-force winds or even the fine snow and rain that pelted us on and off for about 4 of those hours. I didnt manage to capture Danie getting blown off a small bridge into a black bog, or the way we constantly stopped to layer on and layer off and I missed the opportunity to photograph our small group gourging themselves on various Argentinian snacks while tucked under a rock at the top - because I was too engaged in shoveling food into myself as fast as I could!

Dinner was everything we imagined it to be... if we had imagined that Argentinians really like to serve raw meat and are a little insulted if asked for the steak to be at least warm in the middle! Nothing a microbrewery and extra large piece of pie couldn't fix anyway. And I was not alone when I thought yesterday was one of the best days yet...