Knowing it was high season we booked a room ahead of time. However on arrival we were rather rudely informed that there was no room for us. Fortunately it was early evening and we had to time to wander around and find somewhere that could accommodate us. After finding half a dozen places that were full, we finally found a couple of spare beds. The next morning however we needed to set off again in search of somewhere a bit more in budget. Finally we settled for our stay at a nice little hospidaje called La Nativa. In the end we were lucky enough to have the three bed dorm to ourselves for three out of four nights.
El Chalten sits on the Rio Fitzroy and is surrounded on nearly all sides by sheer cliff faces and snow capped mountains. The town is so small and new that most of the roads do not have names, (tough job for the postman!) but El Chalten houses just enough amenities (supermercado, laundrette and a handful of restaurants) to sustain the summer tourists. Due to the size of the country, a lot of Argentinians travel domestically for their holidays, and we met a lot here in what is a popular location for Argentines. El Chalten lies within the borders of the Los Glaciers national park, so provides ample opportunities for some great hikes, but not much else, it is fast achieving the reputation as the trekking Mecca of Argentina.
After the rigours of Torres Del Paine we chose not to over exert ourselves on the first day, so we took a short hike up to a couple of miradors (viewpoints) of the town and the surrounding mountain range. A clear blue sky gave some incredible views of El Chalten, the Fitzroy and Cerro Torre mountains.
On the second day feeling more adventurous we decided to take on the 25km round trek to Laguna Torre and the Glacier Grande at the base of the Cerro Torre. A long day had us hiking about three and a half hours each way with another final scramble for an hour around the lake to get a better view of the glacier at the bottom of the mountain. A tiring day but the views at the end were truly stunning and it was an incredible place to just sit and take in the surroundings.
The following day with slightly blistered feet we decided to take a hike to the Fitzroy. However not wanting to risk further damage to our now well worn feet and with clouds covering the summit of the Fitzroy we decided to detour to the Laguna Capri and mirador instead.
On our final full day we took a trip to the Glacier Viedma. Having little room for additional material goods we decided at Christmas we would pay for each of us to do something together outside of our daily budget. So three weeks after Christmas we put this into action by splurging for each other to go for an ice expedition and trek on the glacier.
Viedma is the largest glacier in Argentina, and although very close to El Chalten we still had to get a bus and boat to our destination. After a final short climb over rock to the front side of the glacier it was time to throw on the hat and gloves and strap on the crampons. We had a good two hours on the ice and learnt how to walk on the glacier, which is surprisingly different techniques required to trekking. We also explored a few caverns and caves whilst getting some very cool (no pun intended) views of the glacier. To wrap up the trip our guide cracked open a bottle of Baileys, and we enjoyed a chilled Baileys on ice, on the ice!
To end a great stay in an awesome location we spent our last evening at the local Cerverceria, a microbrewery and sampled their home brew beers and a warming apple pie and ice cream!
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