El Chaltén Day 1

We woke up after our first night in the car, and I actually managed to get some sleep! Hopefully that continues the next few nights. We unfortunately also woke up fo a surprise flat tire (despite speaking to the Hertz when the earning came on when we first started driving and then dismissing us). The morning was spent trying to get it sorted. The local gas station didn't have air, but pointed us in the direction of a mechanic because he said the tire needed replaced. We drove close to the mechanic and had a go at changing the tire ourselves. Allan did great! I read instructions and assisted, but he did all of the hardwork.

The weather wasn't the best today, so the mountains weren't very visible. We decided to not hike, and just get our bearings for the next few days. We stopped off at the Visitor's Center across the road from the campsite to check the weather, get a map, and scope out the trails we plan to do. Friday and Saturday look good weather wise. Tomorrow we will hike to Cerro Torre, which is pretty long so I'll probably only do half, and on Saturday when visibility is meant to improve even more, we will do the big Laguna de Los Tres (Cerro Fitzroy) hike. I'm hoping the wind dies down because holy 🐄 it is crazy windy here!

We then had a walk around town, and were continuously shocked by the prices here. It's more expensive than being back home! For dinner we found reasonably priced burgers, so we shared a burger and a couple empanadas. And then walked back to the car. Sadly the clouds were still covering the mountains so we didn't really get a decent view at all today.Read more