El Chalten - 12-15 March

We arrived in El Chalten and stared getting really sad!!!

The town is on its way up from a tourist point of view but right now its a little sad and akward like a teenager just hitting puberty. When we eventually found our "hostel" we felt even worse, one tiny little room with 2 and a half bunks round the back of a small telephone store manned by a funny looking non english speaking local who looked scared all the time. We spent the day walking up and down Avenada de San Martin (EVERY main road in Arg is Av de San Martin) looking for camping equipment and another place to stay, no luck on either of those.

Later on our luck started to change, we met a really cool guy called Joe from London, had a great meal with a steak as thick as my arm and our room turned out to be well heated and really Ko-zee after all our complaining. Plus a bottle or 2 of vino helped warm us up and restore our spirits (pun intended).

The next day we also managed to find camping equipment and set out on an absolutely magnificent hike! The Fitz Roy mountain range is a truly spectacular thing to see, something that we both feel has been a privelige(sp?) to see. That day after walking through pristine forests we had lunch next to a water fall with the mountain in the background, you couldnt ask for a better setting! That local bought sausage and crackers sure did taste good...mmmm.

after walking thru Lake Capri campsite we headed off to Cerro Fitz Roy camp (4hrs) which was situated deep in the forest at the base of the mountain. We hiked from there to a lookout point and watched the Glacier Blanco for a while (did I mention this park is called Parque de los Glaciers so there are a lot around). This park is just amazingly beautiful with lakes, rivers and mountains and glaciers everywhere you look. You also cant get colder cleaner water out of the freezer as you get from the rivers formed by the melting glaciers. One sad thing is that one of the ladies in town showed us a picture of one of the glaciers we visited and it must have receded about 15m in 2 years! Damn global warming, once again what a privledge to have seen them before they are gone.

The next morning we begrudgling woke up at 6am with headlamps and sniffles on board to climb to the lookout for sunrise. Bloody hell that was cold! The next 2hrs has to be the hardest hike the Mavrix have ever done, steeper than this / and longer than "M's" whiskers the walk was not fun but a good experience that we are both glad we had! Making coffee at the top of the lookout with the glacier almost blowing us and our little stove over was major effort itself! Plus once we had boiled the coffee and put it in the mug it took only a couple sips and a few precious seconds before it was icy cold like my nose. With the sunrise turning out to be average we entertained ourselves by doing jumps and funny photos - good fun that the Mavrix can recommend.

Next we hiked to Cerro Torre and got to see more beautiful forests, lakes and a really wicked glacier in the most barren of settings.

The next morning we woke up like little worms, tighly rolled into our sleeping bags unable to make any moves other than caterpillar like squirms. We headed back to the glacier lake and got to lick a bit of glacier that had broken off... yummy!

Unfortunately the weather was bad and getting worse so we headed off to town wrapped in dustbin bags, what a site we were.

First thing in town we foud a place to shower, the first one in roughly 4 days for the both of us. Vix took full advantage and spent an hour with what she called the best shower of her life! We went for a great pizza dinner and then found the 12h15 *midnight* bus on Ruta 40 to Bariloche.

But that was to prove to be an adventure all of its own...