The way from Puerto Natales to El Chalten takes you through the relaxed but very touristic town El Calafate, where we started our Argentinian part of the trip. We slept there in a hospedaje, which is kind of a small guesthose that is located in the back of the house of a family, so basically you pass through their livingroom on your way to the room. Alechandra, the seniora of the hospadaje, is an old lady that looks and behaves like a wicked Eastern European house owner. As soon as we told her that we are from Israel, she narrowed her eyes into two thin slits and said in a terrifying voice: "NO AMIGOS!", which actually means: "I know you Israelies - taking one room and sleep with all the group". We agreed quickly and Alechandra took us to our room which was nice and cheap.
The main reason to visit El Calafate, except for the bus to El Chalten, is to see the Perito Moreno. This is a large glacier which is quite active and has won the nickname "The smashing glacier". The glacier moves about 2 meters every day, dropping pieces, that can be as small as an apple or as large as a 3 stories building to the water. These pieces smashes into the water with a sound of a thunder. There are, alas, more of the apple size falling pieces then the large building sized pieces, so most of the unpatient visitors might have quite a disappointing show. We, however, were lucky to see a large piece falls to the water when we joined an hour cruise to the far side of the glacier. Later, after the cruise we spend couple of hours on the large decks that are spread all over the peninsula that looks on the glacier. The lonely planet recommended to take the late bus to the glacier, which leaves at 13:30 and comes back at 20:30. That was a pretty dumb idea! It gets dark and cold at least an hour before that and the cafiteria closes at 18:30, so we just sat an hour in the bathrooms because it was the only warm place around.
The next stop was El Chalten which is a lovely, (very) little town in the valley near the Fitzroy and the Cerro Torre mountains. We´ve started the Fitzroy trek at the same day. We hiked to Laguna Torre, which has a nice lookout towards the pointed teeth that are the Cerro Torre and its fellow mountains. From the laguna we took the hard way to the Poincenot campsite that passes near the mother and daugther lakes (Lagunas Madre y Hija) . The next morning (if 5:30AM can be considered as morning...) we went up to see the colorfull sunrise. A hour of steep climb took us to the Los Tres Laguna where we saw the Fitzroy turns red for 3 minutes, not before waiting in the cold cold wind for almost an hour. One thing you´ll never take from Patagonia, it does have amazing sunsets and sunrises. We came back to town only to find that we have two extra days in the town before we can catch the bus to Bariloche. We spent the next day doing small hikes to two lookouts and a waterfall. At the evening, we got the full Argentinian experience when we ate two 420g steaks for less than 10$ each, and drank some wine.
Today we are homeless, but we´ll also join the large Israeli migration towards Bariloche and get there right in time for Pessah.
Ver Treks en un mapa más grande
Tip 1: Take the cruise in the Perito Moreno. It is not that expensive (about 12$) and it's worth the money.
Ver Treks en un mapa más grande
Tip 1: Take the cruise in the Perito Moreno. It is not that expensive (about 12$) and it's worth the money.
Tip 2: Don't take the late bus to the Perito Moreno. Why? If you're asking that, you haven't read the post carefully.
Tip 3: Don't miss the waterfall north to El Chalten. It's less than an hour of easy walk from the town.
Tip 4: 10$ for a good 420g steak in Ahonikenk Chalten in the main square of El Chalten. Need we say more?
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