After a late arrival in El Chalten we checked into the hotel that was included in our Route 40 deal and got quite a surprise, it was a great hotel! We thought there had to be a mistake because we had not paid enough for the kind of hotel we were in, however, we didn’t tell anyone and just locked ourselves in our room before anyone noticed the mistake. The next day, after realising we couldn’t afford another night in that hotel, we found a downtrodden hostel, kitted ourselves up and hit the mountain.
El Chalten is a small village at the base of the Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy mountains. El Chalten has one main road and to the dismay of all travellers, no working cash point! However, it is a great base for trekking and seeing the Fitz Roy glaciar. Emily and Daniel (our new-found travel buddies), together with Christian and myself trekked up to the “Lagos de los Tres” mountain lake and took in some stunning views on the way.
Fiona and the Fitz Roy
The trek up to the “Laguna de los tres” is fairly easy until the last hour, when it turns into a steep climb. At the top we ate our lunches with frozen fingers, put our hands into the water (just because we could) and walked around to get a misty view of the glaciar. It was very cold at the top and so we soon descended into the warmth. For a long time on the decent we talked about what we were going to have for dinner, a barbeque (Asado in Argentina) and a good bottle of red wine – we deserved it! That evening after our eight hour hike we enjoyed a fantastic meal at Como Vaca, it was all we had dreamt of on our leg shaking decent.
After a good nights sleep in a bad dorm room, we breakfasted on facturas (Argentine sweet pastries) and got a bus to El Calafate. In El Calafate I would be meeting my dad and also one of the largest glaciars in the world – Perito Moreno. I was excited about both.
Writing this blog entry with the luxury of hindsight I can safely say that the Fitz Roy mountain range is the most beautiful I set eyes upon in Patagonia, and probably the world. We didn’t realise when we left but we would be returning sooner than expected…
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