El Chaltén

We got up at 6 to finish packing and have a quick breakfast at the hostel. I went to the reception again and got a little bit further with the refund on the credit card. Then we walked 20 minutes to the bus terminal to catch the bus at 08:00 to El Chaltén. The drive went by pretty quick, we even made a stop on the way at a former station and now hotel. It's a popular spot along the famous Argentinian Route 40 that goes through the whole country. 3 hours later we arrived at El Chaltén, a small village consisting mainly of hostels, restaurants and bars.

The first thing you see when arriving is a large wooden sign welcoming you to El Chaltén, the "National Trekking Capital" 🥾🎒 And after a few minutes there we felt like being in a trail town of the Appalachian Trail... Everyone completely geared up with poles, people laying around on small patches of green, massive portions in the stores and smelly hiking boots 😅 It was fun and weird because just everyone is a hiker. Our first stop was the hostel we had booked a night at the other side of town. We were too early for checking in but they said we can store our luggage and use all the facilities. We discussed the options for hiking today because it was rainy with strong winds. The receptionist gave us recommendations for hikes, one a waterfall (Chorillo del Salto) and the other a laguna. We decided for the waterfall because we're going to see the laguna tomorrow on the way to one of the highlight hikes in town. As tomorrow's hike will take around 8 hours we decided to stay for another night but this hostel was fully booked. Luckily the one across the street had some free spots ☺️ So we booked it and then hiked to the waterfall...
The rain and wind got stronger on the way there and it was super uncomfortable and cold. Also I led us on a little an unwanted detour 😬 But after more than an hour getting soaked and frozen the rain ceased and when we arrived at the waterfall there were small sunrays breaking through the clouds. The waterfall was really nice with a free fall and then cascading down into the pool. On the way back the combination of sun and winds almost completely dried us by the time we arrived back at the hostel. We checked in, moved out luggage and then had a late lunch at the restaurant. We couldn't finish the huge portions, so we stored them in the fridge for tomorrow.

As the sky had cleared we decided to go have a walk to the other side of town where there are two viewpoints located. Even though it was uphill it was an easy walk and the views were great from both. Only the cold wind made it a little uncomfortable sometimes. We enjoyed the scenery and on the way back we came by a camper parking lot. There I spotted a vehicle that looked familiar, it was the remodeled ambulance with Swiss license plate that had been in the harbor in Hamburg with us. Funny coincidence and somehow a full circle 😁 At the hostel we had a shower and chatted a bit with our roommates from the US about hiking and the AT. As we wanted to grab the leftovers from lunch they were gone 🥲😡 Someone had stolen our precious Pizza... Lesson learned, next time we're going to take it to our room. We got some sandwiches then for tomorrow's hike and ordered Loaded Fries for dinner ☺️Read more