El Chalten

El Chalten - is a small mountain village, known as the newest town in Argentina and the national capital of trekking.

The driving distance between El Calafate and El Chalten is 220km, about a 3-hour bus drive. Despite the fact that it was the peak season, the traffic on the highway was surprisingly light, maybe one car passing by in either direction at the interval of every 10 minutes.

El Calafte is relatively small even though its population has increased steadily, but El Chalten is much smaller.  It takes roughly 15 minutes to walk thru the town from North to South or from West to East. In many countries, cookies cutter houses exist because they are built by development companies.  Here, houses are built individually and uniquely.  Each has its own characteristics, in terms of architecture (shape), building materials, colors, and sizes.  No two look-alike..  75% of local businesses are closed during the winter time.  And that is why this town is full of tiniest houses I have ever seen - no bigger than 200 sq/ft, used to house the temporary workers during the holiday seaons, which last probably 5 months.  

Personally El Chalten is ranked top on my most favorite and least polluted place lists.

As the bus slowly approaches the town, you were greeted by pure majestic view of the jagged Fitz Roy range presiding over the town.  The view alone made your heart soar and concerns of life disappeared.  All buses (with passengers) are directed to stop by the visitor center, right at the entrance of the town, for a briefing by the park ranger.  They provided us maps and general information regarding the hiking trails, clothing, food, wild animals, weather, and drinking water.

Three things amazed me. 

1) All water in the rivers in El Chalten are drinkable, fresh from the glaciers.  Therefore, we don't have to bring bottles of water as we hike.  Just bring bottle.  Instead, we can readily drink straight from the streams/lakes/rivers.

2) The wind on some of hiking trails could reach up to 100km/hour.  

3) The efforts the authorities and its inhabitants are making to keep El Chalten as contaminated free as possible.

Our time at El Chaten was short, two days/one night. We arrived around 11am and left the next afternoon at 6pm. Within the 31 hours, we spent roughly 18 hours hiking two trails, Senda A Laguna Torre and Laguna de Los Tres (the most famous and also physically demanding).

To achieve this, we wasted no time. Right after we checked-in into Hosteria Los Nires and had a simple lunch, we headed out for  Senda A Laguna Torre trail.  The weather did change rather quickly from sunny to gloomy to drizzling, the typical unpredictable mountain weather.  

The trail length is 24km and 4 hours (one way).  The last part of the trail (10-15 minutes) on the path winding through the rocky moraine to Laguna Torre was a bit challenging due to the windy and raining weather conditions. The clouds were ominous and covered most of Cerro Torre mountain.

The strong wind and rain even deterred us from taking good pictures and from longer snacking time before heading down..  A bit disappointed, but no regret.  

We hiked hard, but we "ate" hard too. :) 

We had a great dinner at La Tapera. Can't remember what we ordered, but definitely loved what we had. That was the norm for our entire trip.  After a long day, we would frequent one of the famous local restaurants to reward ourselves.

The next day. 

After a good night rest, we headed for another trail, Laguna de Los Tres (5 hrs one way), as early as 7am. The weather was much coorperative for the entire hike. A super blue clear sky. Sunny and calm. Comfortable temperature. The first 1-hour track uphill hike in the wood was demanding, but the last track of 1.5km steep uphill on gravel/rocks/sand path was much worse. Seriously, the steep slope really seemed to have no end.  Luckily, the encouragement and satisfied facial expressions of those coming down from the summit somehow strengthened our determination to press on.  After overcoming the first 1km steep slope, the second one, much shorter but seem harder, is a precipitous slog over bouldered terrain in order to reach the famous beautiful turquoise colored lake surrounded by towering peaks. The view of peaks was unobstructive, clear and shine before our very eyes.  Stunningly magnificant.  We rested and snacked for about 30 minutes before heading down.  I found that the going down the trail is no easier nor quicker than going up.   I slipped and sat on my bottom twice when going down the steep slopes.   

We reached El Chalten around 3:30pm.  Again we stopped by a nice restaurant for early dinner before picking up our luggage and catching our bus back to El Calafate. We were so exhausted and yet so thrilled that we nailed both trails within 31 hours.

Tips:

1) If you could afford to spend one more day, do so. Our schedule was indeed a bit too hectic.

2) Get a decent hiking boat.  I didn't and that caused my hike a bit more slippery than it ought to.

3) Prepared for all possibilities of weather.  Layer up.

4) Bring a plastic bag with you to bring back your trash.

5) Bring a ziplock/plastic bag for your camera, in case it rains.

6) Definitely bring enough snack as it is a rather long hike.  You can drink out of rivers/lakes/streams.

7) Pace yourself.  The last 1.5km can be a test to your physical endurance and determination.

Happy Hiking...