El Chalten

After an early bus ride we arrived in El Chalten. We had heard that we could piece together a short 3 day trek. It turned out this park was completely free so it was an easy choice to camp. The bus stopped at the entrance and a park ranger gave us a passionate talk about the park before we could enter. We had only brought our camping gear to El Chalten and left the rest at the hostel in El Calafate. The grocery stores are pretty sparse in El Chalten, so we had to visit 2 before we found everything we needed. We then hired a taxi to get us a trailhead outside of town at El Peliar.

To start, the hiking was completely different than Torres del Paine. We had selected the main trails closest to town. These trails are relatively flat, and by that I mean much easier. More challenging hikes were available, but they were not in our plan and further outside of town. The mountains and surrounding area also had a much different feel. There were more trees and green grass and to our delight the leaves had started changing colours and we were surrounded by beautiful red, oranges and yellows. The hike was also shorter so we were able to make up all the time we lost with the border on the previous day. The first day hike took us past Glacier Blanco. You can see it in the distance in the photos. We continued on the trail ended up camping at Poincenot at the foot of Mount Fitz Roy. Since we arrived early we did a side trail that almost brought us back to town. Only 5 hours of hiking the first day.

On day 2 we planned to climb a further 1km up the mountain for a Fitz Roy sunrise. To our disappointment, we awoke to heavy snow and opted to sleep in. We attempted the hike a bit later but met people on the trail that said it wasn’t worth it with the weather. We retreated to our tent for another hour and then packed up and made our way to camp De Agostini. The trail led us around the mountain and the snow disappeared as we reached the far side. Another 4-5 hour hiking day. We set up camp and were surprised there was only one other tent on site.

Tonight was a lively night. In Ontario, you don’t bring food into your tents because you don’t want the bears. Down here there are no bears but we received mixed instructions about what to do with food because of mice. The prevailing theory was to bring food into the tent. I wasn’t a big fan of this theory and opted to hang the food but gave myself a little leeway and brought a chocolate bar into the tent for dessert since it was so cold outside. Settling in, we both had a couple hours of sleep and then I awoke to the sounds of scurrying. At first I thought it was outside the tent but then I saw some movement. I sat upright and grabbed for my head lamp. Argghhh! A mouse got into the tent. Not a small field but a giant rat sized creature. I quickly opened the door and lost sight of it. It moved so fast, we weren’t even sure it left the tent and searched for a bit. There goes the idea of bringing food into your tent. The tent now had a few small holes in the mesh. No real damage. What was also interesting was the hole in the roof the tent. The mouse somehow climbed up there trying to get into the gear loft where the chocolate rapper was sitting! Silly rat, we ate all the chocolate. I dreamed of mice the rest of the night.

The last day was a short walk to a viewpoint and then an easy 4 hr walk out of the park. We passed a ton of photographers in the park with really expensive cameras. I am guessing a lot of photo tour groups come to this park because it so photogenic. Back in El Chalten, the town felt like a ghost town as the main tourist season had ended 1 week earlier. We found the only open restaurant (restaurant hours can be really strange in South America, some close all afternoon and don’t open until after 9pm) in town and holed up in there until the next bus departed back to El Calafate.Read more