sorry, only google translate
In addition to the Perito Moreno glacier, there is also a small lake landscape (which we leave to the left due to lack of time) and further north of the so-called southern Patagonian ice field to the Los Glaciares National Park. The largest glacier area outside of Antarctica. For this we drive from El Calafate around 250km to El Chalten, which is often seen as the Argentine answer to the Torres del Paine National Park. Here we “finally” find all the tourists we missed all the time. In contrast to the Torres or the Perito Moreno glacier, El Chalten has the “advantage” that its main attraction is not dozens or hundreds of kilometers away, but can be reached in a few minutes on foot. The mountain Fitz Roy, which among other things adorns the logo of the “Patagonia” outdoor brand. The place has developed into a paradise for hikers and mountaineers and attracts them from all over the world. It offers several day and multi-day tours that start directly in town. The most desirable leads to the foot of the Fitz Roy towers.
Since we only arrive around noon, the nice ranger in the visitor center of the park recommends a hike to a glacier lagoon and the associated glacier “Glaciar Grande”, which is a little shorter with only 6-8 hours, not without first following the most important rules of conduct on the trails of the park. Among others (original sound): “Please use the pit toilets, so that we can concentrate the poop in the park to certain areas. If it is an emergency, go 30m away from the river and dig a hole of 30 cms ”. Smile And actually you will find out-of-the-way toilets along the paths at regular intervals, but how to dig a 30cm deep hole with your hands in dry earth remains a mystery for the time being.
The hike itself turns out to be the first endurance test for the wind resistance of our jackets, because the closer we get to the “Laguna Torre”, the stronger and icy the wind blows around the ears with easy 80-90 km / h gusts. When we hike around the lagoon to another lookout point, it blows us almost from the relatively steep slope. But we arrive, but we can only enjoy the view of the mountains and the glacier for a short time, because we have to realize that Tobi has blown the spare battery out of our camera bag somewhere along the way. Even if it seems hopeless, on the way back we look for the gray battery in the gray gravel where we took photos and actually find it at the foot of the lagoon. Tobi happens to be on it …
Back at the car we unfortunately have to make sure that the car battery is empty because we forgot to turn off the light. Ufff … Thanks to a nice Argentinian and the jumper cable from Condor Campers, we are back on the steamer in a few minutes and are looking for a place to sleep. That should be easy, because the nice ranger gave us information about a free parking space. Here we are confronted with the other tourists, because there are 30 other campers. We are so scared that we go unsuccessfully to find other places, but we end up there again. In order to remain fair, one should say that it is the weekend and some Argentinians are also romping around on the pitch. Interestingly, we also see a number of European marks on the campers, including those from the Upper Allgäu. It seems to be quite popular to ship your camper to South America ..
The next day is raining and we are content with doing laundry, a short walk and a long visit to a café to plan our journey a little. We also find a super nice and delicious vegan restaurant for the evening, which we wanted to try out on our camping stove for a change from our usual cooking repertoire. And that in the Steak Mecca Argentina !!!
However, the evening will be a little bit exciting, because we are very hot to find that we are at the start of the section of the route where Danny (our van rental company) advised us to fill up with every possibility because of the sometimes long distances. Actually no problem, but the next three petrol stations only take cash and the only machine in El Chalten has some problem with our credit cards (or is just empty). The nice service in the restaurant increases the bill for a little cash, but that only goes to the next petrol station. This is a bit of a hot needle, but if necessary we have to stay in El Chalten a day longer and hope that the ATM will be refilled on Monday. After we have our laundry again (with an delay of about an hour), we try it at the ATM one last time and the last one now takes at least Kerstin’s card if we select “Savings” instead of “Credit”. Lucky again and we’ll take as much as we can Winking smile
On the last day of our stay in El Chalten the weather should be clear and we dare to climb the foot of the Fitz Roy. Although we start early, there is a lot going on and it takes time until we have made it past the slowest hiking groups, large families and sneaker wearers and can finally run a bit briskly and enjoy the view of the (still) cloud-free Fitz Roy. Then the last part of the climb begins and it has it all again. The total of 10 km to the foot of the mountain is divided into three parts: First it goes moderately uphill, then a long stretch straight and in the last kilometer a little more than 400m upwards. Here we feel like at Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand. Dozens of inexperienced hikers are slipping and stumbling upwards in a caravan step by step. But what to do and it is also worth it, because once again we find a breathtaking sight, even if a small cloud has now formed around the Fitz Roy, which will not resolve in the next one and a half hours of our stay. We still enjoy it and despite the bitterly cold gusts of wind at already negative temperatures anyway. Even if the descent strains our nerves again, we are completely satisfied.
That was the last longer stop in Argentina for the time being, because now we’re going back to Chile, which we take a little bit because of the almost 1000km …