El Chalten

El Chalten is a small town conveniently located inside Argentina's Glaciers National Park. It's built around the seasonal influx of hikers and backpackers, so it's chockfull of hostels, restaurants, and little markets selling easy-to-carry sandwiches. The trails start right where the town ends, making it very easy to get out and enjoy the world-class views.

Mount Fitzroy:

Our first hike took us towards the iconic Mt Fitzroy, which appears right on the Welcome to Chalten sign and is visible from most of the town.

Welcome to Chalten

About 20 minutes of hiking took us up the side of a small ridge and out of the town- giving us an excellent view of the rest of the valley. An hour more and we reached the official Mt Fitzroy Viewpoint.

The view of the valley at the start of the Mount Fitzroy trail

During the hike, Maya practiced rolling her "r's" with admirable dedication.  We tried having her repeat sounds that got her to touch her tongue to the roof of her mouth repeatedly, like "duh-duh-duh," "boo-di-dee-toe" etc.  No luck today, but we considered it substantial practice- by the end of the trip we got a true rolled "r" out of her twice!

After another 1.5 hours of hiking, we reached the first Mount Fitzroy lookout.  The mountain is tall enough that it generates clouds, so it always looks it is juuuust about to clear. In reality we probably did get pretty lucky that the view was this clear.

The first Mount Fitzroy Lookout Point- a big victory for Karen!

A distant glacier nestled in the mountains

Maya and Matt continued hiking another few hours, down into an adjacent valley, and then up a steep incline. During the ascent a tall, athletic man passed them quickly, without looking back.  A few seconds later, a couple small kids (7ish years old?) scrambled up the mountain-side behind him.  They weren't even dressed for hiking, but were passing everyone in sight!

On the other side of the climb, they had an excellent view of the base of Mt Fitzroy and the mountain lakes that surround it.

Matt hiking up the steepest stretch of trail.

The water looked incredibly blue from a distance, but up close it was completely transparent.

Karen liked this moss growing on a tree- they remind her of Dr. Seuss 

The Laguna Torre Trail:

Another major day hike takes you all the way to  Laguna Torre but we only went as far as the viewpoint. We had less luck with the weather on this one: once we got there it began to rain. We waited for a while hoping the fog would clear, but it only got thicker.

We could see this mountain-top glacier shrouded in mist from the viewpoint.

Mirador los Condores:

Maya got up early on our last day to watch the sun rise from a lookout point just outside the town. On her advice, Matt and Karen went to check out the meadow that leads to the lookout- apparently the view from the meadow is just as good as the view from the top! Just a few steps out of town made a huge difference- by walking around a small hill we had a panoramic view of all the iconic peaks of El Chalten.

Maya's sunrise climb

A view of the town of Chalten

The Torre Peak was almost constantly shrouded in clouds. Karen kept stepping outside to see it. When it cleared, she went inside and sent Matt out, but by the time he got there, it was cloudy again! Matt stood outside for a full 15  minutes and finally caught a glimpse when it cleared for about 20 seconds.

Food:

On Brian and Blake's recommendation, we got a beer at La Cerveceria.  They also had pretty tasty empanadas!

We ate a LOT of lamb (when in Patagonia)

We had an excellent wine- and revolutionized Maya's opinions on wine!

For dessert, we indulged in Dulce de Leche-themed treats, like this "Margotita."  When Maya went to order her's she asked for a "Margarita."  The staff got exactly what she wanted and didn't even blink twice- they're pretty used to tourists.

A chocolate-covered, dulce de leche mountain.

Later, Maya ordered a salad that turned out to be mostly fried cheese and very few vegetables. Karen jokingly called it a trap- but we don't think the waiter was very amused. He became a little defensive and assured us that in Argentina what we ordered was definitely a "salad".