El Chaltén

By 11am we are at the local Los Glaciares National Park ranger station being briefed on the various trails in the park.  According to the presenter the hikes range from 45 minutes to seven hours each way.  We will need to be on the bus at 5:45pm for our return trip. Before then we want to catch a quick breakfast, hike a little and have a good lunch.  We opt for the approximately one hour (3km) one way hike to the waterfall.

After a slowly served quick breakfast we walk the 1.3 km through town to the trail head.  The first part of the trail seems to be along the gravel road, and yet there is a warning not to hike on the road.  We can't see another trail and are joined by other hikers, so we press on.  About 1km down the road we find a path for the waterfall that crosses the road.  Yeah!  There are birds and landscape as well as fellow hikers to view along the way.

The weather seems to change every 15 minutes, from sunny with little wind to cloudy and 18 mph winds.  With an air temperature of 10C (50F) this causes us to literally go from hot to cold, unzipping or taking off jackets to hastily putting them back on.  It is manageable but not optimum.  Thinking positively I consider that Mother Nature has been kind to us - the forecast was for 10C, cloudy, and 23mph winds.  We are told by people in town that the last two days Mount Fitz Roy was not visible at all due to clouds.

Shortly before we reach 2km into the trail we have been walking for about an hour.  Yet we know that we still have a third of the distance to go. Oy! William declares he is never going to hike to a waterfall again - they sucker him in, are always a longer walk than he expects and rarely are worth the effort.  (William acknowledges that walking much less hiking is one of his least favorite activities).

We continue on.  The trail is relatively flat and in the distance we can hear the sound of rushing water.  Eventually we arrive at a parking lot then walk another 0.5km to find the waterfall.  It's 40-50 foot tall with a good rush of water.  Pleasant, but not awesome.

We return to the town by basically the same route and quickly find a restaurant for the needed bathroom break and replenishment with food and drink.  We have good meals - Milanese for William, trout-stuffed sorrentino's for me washed down with craft beer and Patagonian wine at Don Guerra.

We observe the people walking through El Chaltén, which we're told is the newest town in Argentina.  It was established after a 1985 border dispute with Chile.  Since the main thing to do is to hike, climb and camp it definitely attracts a younger more athletic group of visitors.  There are also some folks like us who come here for photography and perhaps short hikes.  Tourism and all of it's supporting businesses is the only industry in town, and it is known as Argentina's trekking capital.  Only approximately 350 people live here year-round.

There's still an hour and twenty minutes until we need to catch the return bus.  William opts for a coffee and internet access at a local cafe and I choose to tackle a bit of the trail Mirrador de los Cóndores.  I am not sure that condors are visible from the end of the trail, but I can say that the trail seems to go up to an altitude where you might be eye level with the birds.  I made it about half way and the turned around to catch my breath and the return bus.  The hike was worth it - the clouds have moved from Cerro Fitzroy as well as Cerro Torre and there is a great view.

We board the bus and the driver stops outside of El Chaltan for some last photos then he puts the pedal to the metal all the way back to El Calafate.  With no stops he makes it in 2 hours 30 minutes.  We are tired.  According to my walking app William walked ~8.5km (5.3miles) with 15,000 steps and I did ~12.5km and 17,500 steps. Not bad for two couch potatoes.  We agree we are very happy to have made the journey and that tomorrow we will take it easy.