El Chalten

The Patagonia leg of my trip has begun. El Chalten is a tiny little town at the base of Mount Fitz Roy. The town was originally built by the Argentinians to mark the land to prevent Chile from claiming it as their own. It's a tourist town and has amazing hikes on offer. The downside of it being a tourist town is that it's expensive.
Hostel - Aylen Aike. I was able to pay in cash which made it pretty cheap. It also had a nice homely feel. The owner was a slightly odd character but I met some lovely people there.

I was here for 5 nights which meant I had 4 full days.
Day one. I hiked to a viewpoint called Loma del Pliegue Tumbado. It was 20km there and back. I climbed up a huge hill at the end which gave me a 360 degree view of the area. It was incredible but pretty scary coming down as we lost the first part of the path.
Day two. I did the most popular hike in the area, Laguna de los Tres. This brings you to the base of Mt Fitz Roy. Luckily it was a clear day so you could see all the peaks. I did this with Declan from my hostel. We set off at 6am so that we could beat the crowds. On the way back we took a wrong turn to what we thought was the correct way to another viewpoint. We did see a beautiful viewpoint of a glacier, however this ended up being 10km in the wrong direction. Thankfully a local that was out for a hike was able to give us a lift back to town. All in we did 25km.
Day three was a much needed rest day and day four I hiked to Laguna Torres. I did this with a lovely couple from my hostel and ended up seeing Roz Purcell. Another 20km day and little feet are feeling like a rest is needed.

I really enjoyed my stay here. It took a little while to get used to the slower pace and get over missing BA. I did meet great people in my hostel which made me kind of wish I was staying here for Christmas. Onto El Calafate for what I think will be a lot of chill time.Read more