Walking in a painting

Like walking in a painting

We’re lucky, the weather is great. Today, early in the morning we’ll leave El Calafate heading to El Chalten. Jos had made sandwiches while I was still in bed, what a great partner she is. The bus leaves at 7:30, so after taking a shower we rushed to the bus station. There were several busses waiting to depart. While waiting, we sat on a corner having breakfast while inhaling the exhaust gasses… why do they have to keep the engines running while standing still… The sandwiches are tasty though..

It’s 3.5 hours drive to El Chalten. On the road map, it just the next town to El Calafate, but this land is so immense and I’m used to the road map of tiny little Holland.

Today a t-shirt and shorts, tomorrow winter clothing.

We made a good choice sitting on the left side of the bus, so all the way we had the nice view of the Andes mountains. Half the way we could already see the peak of the famous mount Fitz Roy. It’s must be really huge cause we still have to drive for more than an hour…

Before the bus entered El Chalten, we stopped at a rangers post and we were instructed by rangers how to behave in the park. Not to urinate near the rivers (The water from the rivers is potable) and to bring our trash back with us. The travelers 50 years ago left the park clean so we can enjoy it now, so we must do the same for the travelers who come after us.  The incredible thing here is that there's no tunder and lighting ever, so they ranger told us, bush fire is always caused by men

From El Chalten, there are several hike routes.

Remains of a giant who once lived here... ;)

We hiked through the steepy hills and after a while we saw the stunning view of Cerro Torres. It looks just like you’re walking in a painting. It’s so beautiful. The park is really clean, I searched for trash, but couldn’t find any. The water is very cold, I never drank water straight from a river before, it tastes very good. The scenery changes from grassland to woodland through bushes and rocky parts. The best hike ever so far, tomorrow we go see the Fitz Roy..

El Chalten is a new town built for travelers. There’s nothing to do here except to sleep and to eat. Try to plan 3 days here. 1 day to do the Fitz Roy route, 1 day to do the Cerro Torres route and another day to do the short routes. When one day the weather is bad, you could do the short routes and do the longer one the next day.