Situated at 3:30 bus north of El Calafate, El Chalten is a funny little town of 500 souls, built in 1985, dedicated to trekking and mountaineering al (it says here mountaineering, obviously). More than just a city, El Chalten is a patchwork of houses that appear to have been placed there at the foot of the mountains, next to each other, at random, without unity. But what makes the fame of El Chalten, c is its position north of Los Glaciares National Park, near Lake Viedma and the foot of the famous peaks Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. Many climbers have tackled these granite needles be deemed impassable despite their low altitude. Many have left their lives. Fitz Roy, 3400 m has been conquered by a Franco-Argentine expedition in 1954, the Cerro Torre in 1974.
Coming to El Chalten, the bus stopped in s is what might be called an inn on the high road, La Leona, of historical fame. It would home in 1905 Bud Cassidy, Sundance Kid and his sidekick wife, after that they have rob a bank in Rio Gallegos. Leona located in the steppe facing the tumultuous river of the same name was used primarily to advance the position of breeders who moved with their livestock. The building was renovated to look like hui Aujour of cool ranch gauchos. The view arriving in El Chalten is so great that it is moving: the snowy mountain ranges with all peaks and peaks of granite and at the forefront of Lake Viedma deep blue. El Chalten is s self proclaimed national trekking capital. Several hiking trails allow s approach of many glaciers, which are all part of the Patagonian Icefield and hands-Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre Poincenot.
We made several hiking for the day: The first in
6h return up to Lago Torre with views of the Cerro Torre (unfortunately partially covered by clouds), and another massive snow-capped Cerro Solo-that we see already the village and the Great Glacier. A magnificent condor is happening above our heads before continuing his flight into the depths of mountains.
For the second hike we followed the route of Madre e Hija Lakes without difficulty, in RA 6h. The trail passes al go to Lake Capri and made a loop for a superb view over the glaciers of Los Tres. The sky was overcast and the wind, the area is famous for its climatic conditions can be extreme. It has been seen and photographed from near the woodpeckers, the one with the red crest, the one with the black crest. They seemed to attack them with rage s tree trunk on which they were hung!
Yesterday the sun was back: we took the opportunity to climb up to the Lago de los Tres s approach to the Fitz Roy 8am in return. The trail goes again to Laguna Capri, it was a very beautiful view of lakes Madre e Hija against bottom. The last hour and climbs pretty sight as I arrived at the Fitz Roy is sublime at the forefront of the lago Los Tres, overcomes the needle Fitz Roy and its left many other peaks whose Poincenot. In cons down, Laguna Sucia.
El Chalten village
Trek Laguna Torre
Fitz Roy Trek
Traveling in Argentina is not given, at least here in Patagonia . Buses are less well that in Chile and quite expensive. Fortunately, food rating, we find a little more choice that in Chile. Even if in the same way, the word veggie not part of the Argentine culinary vocabulary, we can find salads, raw vegetables in the menus. Argentina because the country is really the meat with all its factory farms. There is a fancy word to designate every piece of meat, hard to find between sy lomo, Carnero, cordero, bife, salchichas has this or that ... but it is very tender and well cooked with generally often parrilla (cooked on the grill) or a la plancha (butter) accompanied of course by ... potatoes. Another delicious dish: guisos the kitchens that are baked and served in individual earthenware dishes. We particularly enjoyed the guisos of Lenteja (lentils, bacon, sausage, potatoes and carrot pieces), there has also guisos meat, tripe ...
Argentines are very difficult to understand. They have a strong accent which is far from castellano: in particular they pronounce j double letter ll and there (yo me llamo becomes jamo jo me) and do not distinguish the sounds S or Z. Therefore s hang to understand that they speak for all super fast. But hey, we did sy!
Next stop on the Ruta 40, tomorrow 25 March toward Los Antiguos, a 13h drive from El Chalten. The distances are huge in Argentina ...
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