El Chaltén (Patagonia Argentina)

After our detour into luxury in Buenos Aires, it was time to prepare for our last big (pre-planned) adventure of our travels: Hiking the W- circuit in the Torres del Paine National Park in the Chilean Patagonia in mid november. Well-nourished (/full of and fed up with meat) we could not wait to slip into our hiking shoes and finally getting a glimpse of the famous landscapes of Patagonia! 😍
We started in the argentinan part of Patagonia, mainly because we know now that Argentina is much cheaper than Chile - which was still true for the Patagonian area, but turns out everything is more expensive in Patagonia anyways 🤷🏻‍♀️. To be honest, our very first impression of Patagonia on our 3 hour drive from el Calafate airport to our first destination was a very sobering, not to say a bit shocking one: There were (still are 😕) HUNDREDS of dead Guanacos hanging in the wired fences along the roads or just lying dead behind it - whole little families at some points! We were properly shocked and we do not know until this day why there are so many dead Guanacos (may be the cold, may be they die of thirst) and - especially - why noone cares… What is clear, however, is that there‘s no shortage of Guanacos in Patagonia.
And now, on to happier topics: Our first stop was el Chaltén, which is described as a ‚sleepy mountain village‘ (even though it is in a valley and not very mountain-y) and they certainly made sure to make it feel more mountain-y by adding lots of buildings made of wood logs etc, but as Swiss citizens, it did not do the trick for us 😂. The temperatures, however, were very mountainlike indeed: -4 to 4 degrees 🥶
We stayed at another Airbnb for our time in el Chaltén - our first time in a tinyhouse (which definitely deserves the name 😂)! We did three out of the many hikes around the area: Loma del Pliegue Tombado, Laguna Torre and Laguna de los Tres. As you will see in the pictures of the following footprints we were (as always 🙄) not very blessed by the weather gods, but at least we were able to test our trekking gear to the very core before going to the Torres del Paine National Park - happy to say that everything passed both the cold- and the snow-tests 😉
Our favorite hikes, however, were on non-marked trails in el Chalténs backyard: Away from all tourists and surrounded by wilderness with beautiful views on the Rio Las Vueltas and the Fitzroy. Now THAT‘S what we expected from Patagonia! 🥰Читать далее