El Chaltén, the land where God used photoshop

     ARGENTINA

 

 

Even the bus driver was unease with the great storm on the way to El Chaltén. Visibility was almost null. Wind was blowing so strongly that the poor driver could not use the windscreen wipers to clean the heavy rain out of his sight and suddenly the zigzaging bus was literally dragged to the opposite side of the road, almost falling off the cliff.

 

Having been told that this route was wonderful, we could only wait that the harsh Patagonian summer would allow us to enjoy the landscape upon our return…

  

 

El Chaltén is a small isolated village of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, located in the riverside of Río de las Vueltas and at the base of the mountains Fitz Roy and Torre, the two most predominant peaks of the Los Glaciares National Park.

    

 

 

Although built in 1985 for tourism purposes only, this village is still quite off the beaten track and nearly deserted during off-season. Until 2008 it did not even have an ATM!

 

Considering the very limited number of beds El Chaltén has to offer, we were lucky enough to find accommodation in the peak season and even luckier for having some quite cool roommates. There was a British couple called Cat and Nick; a tiny Japanese brought up in America with a funny name: Yuki; and another Nick, the Australian.

 

 

The first night was hilarious. We just could not stop laughing for a long time. Well, all but Nick, the Australian. It was around midnight when, one after another, we woke up with his thundering snoring. First, Cat tried to gently wake up Nick by whispering his name and lightly touching his arm, but there would be no reaction at all. Then, one by one we started to call him, louder and louder, but the sound he emitted seemed somehow to be deeper and deeper, as if it was echoing out of some profound caverns.

 

At some point Nick, the Brit was shouting at his ear and tiny Yuki - whose bed was just under Nick the Australian’s one and was earthquaking each time he would breath out – was punching and kicking the upper neighbor with the fury of an Asian tiger. Nothing was capable of daunting Nick until a sharp and fatal punch was administered on his arm from below by tiny Niponic, as if she would be incarnating her karateist ancestors altogether. He barely opened his eyes and made half-turn in his bed. We could not stop laughing again…

 

 

  

 

The day after the storm was unforgettable. We made a twenty-six kilometer walk to the astonishing Cerro Fitz Roy, which was sacred for the Tehuelche. It is also known as Chaltén mountain, a Tehuelche word meaning “smoking mountain”, for the clouds covering its peak almost all the time made them believe that it was a volcano.

 

 

The charming touch of civilization…

 

The trail is surrounded by breathtaking landscapes that might well be some of the most beautiful on the planet with its lush mountains, imposing glaciers, transparent-water rivers and turquoise lakes and lagoons. There is a surprising diversity, each landscape being painted with different colors and modulated with a myriad of shapes, composing stunning sceneries filled with grace and poetry. As we left from El Chaltén in the morning and returned only in the late evening, we could witness sunlight changing the tones of the very same landscapes all through the different hours of the day.

 

 

Some views of the trail towards the Fitzroy mountain

 

 

 

 

  

The wonderful Fitz Roy mountain, Glaciar de los Tres and the Lagoa de los Tres

 

 

Laguna Sucia, the most turquoise lake water we ever saw

 

 

A rare moment where the peak of Fitz Roy is unveiled

 

 

View to Río de las Vueltas from the trail towards Fitz Roy mountain by sunset

 

We also experienced for the first time an outdoor activity that never appealed to us and proved to be fascinating: rock climbing. And what a better place than this little village at the base Fitz Roy, reputed of being ultimate amongst the most experienced climbers worldwide (it was first climbed only in 1952).

 

It all started with Cat and Nick, the Brits, who met two other English guys currently living somewhere else in Patagonia. Steve is a rock climber and Chris works as a snowboarding instructor. The four of them had previously arranged going together for a rock climbing experience and eventually we were invited to join them. It was quite a great challenge, considering that we were the only ones who had no mountaineering experience at all and, therefore, did not start from the basics. It required, indeed, a lot of focus, strength and adrenaline, but it it was a lot of fun!

 

Rock Climbing

 

We ended up the day cooking big amounts of homemade pizzas, drinking Argentinean wine and playing cards, this time with the Portuguese on the leadership.  The day after, some more rock climbing would be waiting for us…

 

 

 

Special Thanks to:

Cat, Nick, Steve and Chris for the rock climbing experience and especially for all the fun and great company!