El Chalten, a one horse town

El Chalten, Patagonia

Argentina

We arrived late at night in the tiny town of El Chalten and it was chucking it down. Of course it was, we had both packed our waterproofs at the bottom of our bags! We ran the 150m to our hotel dodging massive puddles in the gravel roads, and trying not to get blown away by the howling wind. A lovely toasty welcome in our hotel though, a double room all to ourselves complete with heater and blankets, worth every extra penny we had spent on it.

Our reason for coming to this tiny town in the middle of nowhere is that it is situated at the base of the Argentinean Andes and has become known as a trekkers mecca. Now you may wonder why we of all people chose to come here. Well, as Mik said we thought we should have a practice with a couple of single day treks before heading to Chile.

The night before we wanted to go trekking the weather closed in again and as the wind howled and the rain lashed down I was secretly hoping it wouldn't change by morning and we would not be able to embark on the 8 hour trek we had planned. When we awoke at the crack of dawn, well 8am, the sun was shining. Damn! So off we set, Mik in his proper traveller zip off trousers and a sarong for a scarf, me with my Top Shop cargo pants and my pashmina (don't scoff it has many uses!) , a packed lunch and a couple of pack-it raincoats.
We passed many people who had the full kit - top to tail in waterproofs, proper hiking boots and even trekking poles. We did think they looked a little foolish as we were going great guns in our Blue Peter, double sided sticky tape mountain trekking outfits.



It was hard work and as neither of us are exactly 'outdoorsy' I think it was a surprise to both of us that the first 3 hours passed with relative ease. That is until we hit the steep climb to the top and the view that was keeping us going. So steep was this climb that half way up I realised there was snow on the ground and a few minutes later it actually started to snow. I was ready to give up but we made it, having trekked through about 2 foot of snow to get to the top of the windiest mountain in the world! Now who was feeling foolish as those with full kit sauntered past us.....! To top it all the mountain we had come to catch a view of was enshrouded in cloud and snow so we could barely even make out it's silhouette. Mount Fitz Roy - where? We were also informed afterwards that there is a lke too - well we didn´t see any sign of that whatsoever. DOH! We took a couple of photos, Mik scoffed a sandwich and then we legged it, or rather slid our way back down to a drier and less windy spot. As one who suffers from vertigo I found it particularly hard and was so very glad to get back down onto flatter ground.

Eight hours of hard trekking, a quick practice of my german with a 73 year old from Cologne, who could walk faster than us, and we were back in our hotel and feeling very pleased with ourselves! Big steak dinner to celebrate and an early night. Well it would have been early had I not spotted something on the floor of our room which turned out to be a scorpion. Only a tiny one luckily but enough to have me stood on the bed and Mik reaching for the camera. In a placky bag and out the window thank you very much. The next morning we both checked inside our boots before putting them on!

The following day we managed another 6 hour trek and this time we were rewarded with great weather and fatastic scenery. A backdrop of snow capped mountians with rivers, forests and wetlands in the foreground. Not to mention the glacier and lakes. The water in the glacial lakes is a wonderful creamy turquoise colour, difficult to describe but beautiful. An absolutely stunning place, you can certainly understand why those with a passion for trekking would come here. Mostly older generations from Germany it would appear.

Dinner was consumed in the hostel that night, cheese and ham sangers once again, as we were unable to walk as far as the nearest restaurant once we had stopped. Luckily the next day we only had a bus to catch back to El Calafate a mere 5 hours drive away.

So while El Chalten is still a one horse town I'm sure it has grown substantially in recent years and will continue to do so. It is the perfect place for novice trekkers like us to start out. So it was with an element of sadness that we left this beautiful place, but also with a feeling that we would be able to cope on the longer treks in Chile. Once our legs started working again that is.

Cara