El Chalten pronounced El Chal-ten
The weather here is very fickle. A 2.5 hour bus ride on a very comfortable big bus with beautiful weather most of the way to find the mountains behind El Chalten caked in clouds. Dropped my bag at the Airbnb, chatted with my very lovely host and then went wandering. It’s cold but it’s also exceptionally windy which of course, makes it even colder and then the rain started. Trying to walk towards the mountains was ridiculously hard but at least coming back was easy.
It’s a weird little town with a population of around 2000 people and just as many dogs. It was established as a town in 1985 to secure the area for Argentina but it serves purely as a tourist town for hikers.
My accommodation is a tiny/mini house and it’s exactly that…tiny. While it’s lovely, there is nowhere for suitcases that’s not in a cupboard standing up. It’s very comfortable although some of the wind gusts shook the place so much I hoped it would stay in place but the bed is comfy and even though I woke several times I still slept well.
The weather was looking good for my first day out and I decided to walk to Mirador Torre (mirador is view point) which is the first few kms of a much longer hike that I wouldn’t even attempt as the ending is a steep uphill scramble.
The walk starts with a charming uphill section….oh joy. My stance on inclines of any degree has not changed since I did the camino. I was a little perturbed to find a small incline section with a chain attached to the rocks to assist in getting over the rocks. Getting up would be ok but coming down would be another matter entirely. A couple of long downhill sections followed by its counterpart….the uphill sections and after about 2kms my right knee was starting to hurt even though I’d strapped it.
When I faced another long downhill and its uphill mate to get to the view point I disappointingly had to make the decision whether to continue or turn back as I really didn’t want to be carried off the mountain due to a dodgy knee. I was at a spot where I had a good view of the mountains so I hung around there for a while waiting/hoping for the cloud to lift. I managed to get a couple of good shots with next to no cloud so started the walk back with a lot of rock hopping. Thankfully my host had lent me a pair of walking poles which saved me from hiring them and I don’t think I would have made it either up or down without them.
It was on the walk back that I heard a couple of tapping sounds close by so started scanning the nearest tree for a woodpecker and while I didn’t get a great view of it, I could definitely make it out. So excited. I think it was the female as I could see the occasional flash of red near the beak whereas the males head is fully red. Toucans, hummingbirds and now a woodpecker. My bird bucket list is almost complete, somehow I think a puffin is out of the question. I knew from Ushuaia that there are woodpeckers in Patagonia and know they are trying to get to a bug that infects the lenga trees.
While I didn’t get quite to where I wanted to go, I saw the mountains and a woodpecker so it was a good day and I still had to get off the mountain and walk another 1.5kms back to my accommodation. Headed to the main street for a pasta lunch which I knew I’d bring half back for dinner. What I only realised when I got back to my room/house was that I have a fabulous view of the mountains from my bed and I could have stayed there all day instead but as they’d been in cloud when I left, I hadn’t seen them until I returned.
Day 2 was supposed to be promising on the weather the front but was anything but with a very drizzly morning and the mountains caked in cloud. Around lunchtime the weather cleared but it was still exceptionally windy. I decided to walk across the bridge which was a feat in itself due to the wind and walked alongside the hill and river. walking to the confluence of the Rio Fitz Roy and Rio de las Vueltas (rio being river). The latter runs past my house. It was a nice flat walk, a few boggy patches but good to get out of the room and there was barely any wind on that side of the river.
The wind had picked on the return bridge crossing and it nearly blew me over. So much that when I would take a step it would push my right leg into my left. Seriously unsafe for young children they would get blown away. It was a very windy night and I woke up many times to feel the house shuddering. The owners house was transported to the block next to my house only last week and given the wind direction I’m guessing it’s acting as a bit of buffer so I can’t imagine how bad it would have been without it there.
Day 3 is a shitty day in El Chalten. It’s cold and wet and there will be no respite until tomorrow, when I leave on the morning bus. So it’s a good day to walk to the lavendaria to put in my washing (no self service laundries here) and pick it up this afternoon and catch up on some blogging and reading. The isn’t much to do in El Chalten when the weather is not conducive to hiking, just in a cafe or in your room and watch the weather.
It was late in the afternoon when I sent my host a message to let her know I was leaving on the morning bus and she came over for a chat and we were talking about condors and I said I hadn’t seen any and next thing there are about 10 of them flying overhead. The bird whisperer….I live in hope for a wayward puffin yet.
I was really unhappy when my host sent me a video on WhatsApp the following afternoon of it snowing and I missed it.