"I think I have never seen a place as isolated from the rest of the world as this one."
Charles Darwin
Warning: This post contains a lot of pictures of a mountain called Fitzroy. A lot! In all kind of perspectives. It therefore may be not suitable for people who don't like mountains. But who doesn't like mountains anyway??
After the wonderful days in Buenos Aires and meeting the group, the Patagonia adventure finally started. Just in case you're wondering what kind of tour we did, here is the map:
We had to get up at 4 a.m. - reason enough for some people not to sleep at all. We took the plane from Buenos Aires to El Calafate. There, our guide Facundo (better known as Facu, but please be careful with the pronounciation!!) picked us up. Once in the bus, he turned on the music. Michael Jackson. Not what I had expected, but perfect to keep us awake. He asked everyone of us why we're here. Most common answers: The Landscape. The mountains. The food. Hiking. The penguins.
On our way to El Chaltén, we drove along Lago Argentino. I was amazed by its different shades of blue and the snowy mountains in the background - and I knew: Patagonia will be awesome!
After 1.5 h of driving we did a little stop at La Leona. It was the first try to find out what you get if you order a vegetarian meal. Well... It's EMPANADAS! I stopped counting how many empanadas I ate during the whole trip, but it would definitely need more than my 2 hands to count! ;-)
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| In the bus with the group - and Facu, our local guide (always with his cup of Mate) |
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| Endless street - am I the only one who thinks that "Born to be wild" would be the appropriate song here? |
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| La Leona Ranch |
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| Shades of grey in Patagonia |
We continued our journey to El Chaltén, a village that was found only in 1985 only to prevent that Chile gets the land there (don't know if I've ever been to a city that is younger than me!!). On the way, we suddenly were able to catch glimpse of a mountain that probably was one of the reasons why we all came here: Mount Fitzroy, also known as Cerro Chaltén. 3406 m, challenging to climb and usually wrapped in clouds (that's why the natives gave it the name "Chalten", which means "smoking mountain". Fitzroy instead was the name of the captain that steered Darwins expedition boat "Beagle" along the Rio Santa Cruz). I took hundreds of pictures - just in case it would be wrapped in clouds soon again. What a luck!!
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| Smoking mountain, happy tourist, empty road |
As you can see, we were already acclimatizing. It was quite windy, but as we learned later, this is only one part of the Patagonian weather. During the next days, we had quite menopausal weather: hot, cold, wind, rain, snow, sun. All changing within some minutes or hours. Four seasons in one day. I learned really quickly that the dresscode in Patagonia is Layers, layers, layers. To dress like an onion. Or a matrioshka. Call it as you wish.
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| First Patagonian inhabitant we meet. Slightly smaller than his neighbors that we meet later: The condors! |
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| Don't tell me I didn't warn you! A lot of mountain pictures! |
Finally we entered our first national park: Parque Nacional de los Glaciares, known as a paradise for mountaineers, hikers and Swiss people with an admiration for shark teeth-shaped mountains... :-)
We stopped in El Chaltén, a colorful village with about 1,600 inhabitants, surrounded by mountains. We checked in into the "Vertical lodge" hostel. But there was no time to rest, we wanted to enjoy the good weather as long as we can, so we hiked up to the "Mirador de las condores". From there, we had a wonderful view over El Chaltén village, the Fitzroy mountain and we even saw some condors (not the last ones on this trip!).
Back in town, we had a nice dinner with the group in a cute little restaurant called "La Tapera" which looked like a ski chalet in Switzerland. I was quite afraid that it will be difficult to find vegetarian menus but actually I never had problems during the whole trip. I ate a delicious salad with a looot of cheese on top (I guess that's because the cook thought I would starve otherwise by just eating salad).
Downtown El Chaltén after dinner - can you believe it still wasn't dark?
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| In my next life, I wouldn't mind being a Patagonian horse... At least they don't seem to have density problems like us... |
The next day we started our first big hike. It had been a good decision to take the photos of Fitzroy the day before, because the weather today was much worse. Wind, rain, fog, some sun. Patagonian weather. Layer on. Layer off. After grabbing our lunch boxes, we started the hike that took us up to the Laguna de los tres. Some parts were quite steep, but the view on the way was stunning. Layer on. Layer off.
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| Glacier on the way... |
When we arrived at Laguna de los tres, that's what we got (see photo below). Looked a bit different than the photo that I had on my Lonely planet guide... :-) The lagoon was frozen, but anyway, the place was quite stunning.
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| Just imagine a blue lake with the reflection of Mount Fitzroy in it, Mount Fitzroy in the back. This would have been the nice weather-photo... |
Just by coincidence we found out that there must be another lagoon next to this one. When we asked our local guide, he told us that we can go and check it out. He said this without a lot of motivation or enthusiasm, so we didn't expect too much. Well, sometimes it's good not to trust local guides! This is what we found:
Quickly eating a sandwich before we headed down again. During the ascent a variety of sasons. Cold, hot, wind, sun, rain. Layer on, layer off.
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| Laguna Capri - but I guess the water would be warmer if you take the other Capri! |
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| Spring in El Chaltén. Did we just see a frozen lake before?? |
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| Downtown El Chaltén |
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| My favourite Travel Agency so far |
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| Eatable souvenirs... |
After 9 hours of hiking, we arrived back in the hotel - with aching knees, but very happy! What a great day!
The next day, we had some more time to explore El Chaltén and its surroundings. So some of our group decided to hike up to Mirador Torre, another viewpoint.
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| In El Chaltén, you can still feel a little bit of "hippie groove" |
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| Mirador Torre |
My tips for El Chaltén:
- Hike to the "Laguna de los tres" (about 9h in total). If you're happy you'll have an amazing view. If not, you'll have an amazing view as well, but just a different one! Make sure you don't miss the little lagoon next to the big one!
- Tired of the first hike? Then do a little one the next day! The hike to "Mirador Torre" takes only 1.5 h and is less steep. But the view is great too!
- Sleep at the "Hostal Vertical Lodge", a very nice hostel next to all the activities.
- Climb up to Mirador de las Condores & de las Aguilas. Nice viewpoint not far away from the village. From there you have a great view over the village and the Fitzroy mountain.
- Eat at "La Taperia" (Antonio Rojo 74). A really cute, little restaurant in the style of an old wooden chalet. All kinds of collected things on the wall (not hard to say that owner Chipo is a fan of Maradona). Good food, good wine, great atmosphere!
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