El Chalten and Mt Fitz Roy

After a 4 hour dirt track bus ride north of El Calafate, we arrived in El Chalten in the most northern part of the Los Glaciares National Park. El Chalten is a very small and rustic town at the foot of the Mount Fitzroy range; dirt roads, few pavements and limited facilities but it is rapidly growing as evidenced by a huge amount of building work that was going on. This town only came into existence about 10 years ago but is rapidly becoming flooded with tourists during the summer months. The timing of our visit was just about right as it is coming to the end of the season and so both town and trails were nice and quiet.

We were in El Chalten for 2 1/2 days purely to trek around Mount Fitz Roy. On the first day we took a long trek to Laguna de los Tres and were rewarded with the most magnificent views of Mount Fitzroy and its surrounding peaks and glaciers. We sat making up our fresh baguettes and soaking up the sun and the atmosphere. We have been lucky enough to see some pretty stunning scenery from our treks in the Alps and the views over Mt Fitz Roy and the surrounding peaks definitely rate up there with the best. The weather was perfect and made for a really great day.

On our second day it was a little overcast but the mountains were still clear of cloud, so we made a slightly shorter trek to Lago Torre for views over Cerro Torre, a mountain to the west of Mt Fitz Roy. It was a pleasant day, but the slightly shorter trek didn't feel that much shorter! With aching legs we treated ourselves to some handmade ravioli and a large beer. Even Bi is getting a taste for the local cervezas as they are served ice cold and are really refreshing after a long day in the hills!

Our hostel in El Chalten is definitely worth a mention. We had the dreaded room number 2 - a dark and cramped dorm built for four beds but in which they had shoved six. The second whammy came for Bi when she realised that she had to share it with five blokes!!!! She was not impressed but braved it for the three days... albeit feeling a little traumatised by the time we left. In the early hours of one morning she was to be found spraying air freshener around the room as the rest were sleeping! Unfortunately we could find no availability elsewhere!

Needless to say, whilst El Chalten itself was lovely, we were both glad to be leaving. After a brief stopover in El Calafate we took the early bus this morning across the border to Puerto Natales in Chile. We have just arrived and are staying in a lovely B&B which feels somewhat palatial in comparison! Tomorrow we sort ourselves out for 5 days of hiking and camping in the Torres Del Paine National Park, which we are quite excited about... back to the big outdoors!