Patagonia - Here We Come!

Monday January 27, 2020

Buenos Aires, Argentina to El Calafate to El Chalten, Argentina

An early start for us today.  We caught taxis to the airport at 6am and landed in El Calafate by about noon. We had booked a private van to transport us to the hiking mecca of El Chalten.  What a change from Buenos Aires!  The temperature is about 20C cooler than BA. I think we’ll see it as a nice relief from the heat. The landscape is barren and rather stark-looking. In the El Calafate area there are definitely hills, but nothing visible that I would call a mountain. The lakes that we did see are a beautiful turquoise colour. As we approached El Chalten we started to see some of the famous mountains in the background although the clouds obscured the biggest ones.  We saw quite a few guanacos in the fields as we approached El Chalten.  These animals are closely related to the llama.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera handy.

We had a bit of a misunderstanding at the hostel. We thought we had booked a private room, but turns out we just have dorm beds in several different rooms. Oh well.....

El Chalten itself is most definitely a tourist town. Wikipedia says there are only about 350 permanent residents here. Hostels and restaurants galore, with a few hotels thrown in. I guess the area is renowned for its bitter weather so the buildings are pretty basic. We have wifi at the hostel but it’s sketchy. El Chalten is famous for its hiking opportunities into Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, so hopefully the weather will cooperate enough for us to get out a few times.  The forecast for tomorrow looks pretty good so we’ll try for a long hike to Fitz Roy.

Some info from a Lonely Planet book..........  "The vast Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is Argentina's greatest single tract of wilderness.  The park owes its pristine conditions to geography; it straddles the Hielo Sur, the largest icecap outside the earth's polar regions.  The Fitz Roy Range, with its rugged wilderness and shark-tooth summits, is easily the de facto mountaineering mecca of Patagonia.  Cerro Torre (3102m) and Monte Fitz Roy (3405m) provide epic ascents for world-class climbers.  This sector occupying the northern half of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares offers numerous, well-marked trails for trekking and jaw-dropping scenery - that is, when the clouds clear."

Fitz Roy

Tuesday January 28, 2020

El Chalten, Argentina

We’re here for 4 hiking days and today looked like our best bet weather-wise.  So - we took on the big one. Laguna de Los Tres, and did all the side trips along the way.

There was some cloud all day around the tallest towers but we did have pretty good views for most of the day.  Given the stark landscape that we saw coming into town yesterday it was somewhat surprising that so much of today’s hike was in the forest.

We had lovely views up the valley that El Chalten is in.

And - we had a surprising number of views up towards the Fitz Roy massif throughout the hike.

We checked out Laguna Capri on the way up.

 And hiked the extra 4K round trip to the Piedras Blancas Glacier viewpoint on the way back.

All in, we probably did about 25+ km and 700+ m elevation. Not bad for the first hike of the year.

The final approach to the closest point to Fitz Roy is a bit of a grunt. About 400m elevation gain over the last km. So totally worth it though. The Fitz Roy glacier comes right down into Laguna de Los Tres.

And - by going just a bit further you can also see Laguna Sucia - a beautiful blue glacial lake.

I put on all my layers for our leisurely lunch stop at the top.

Sad to go, but time to head down. Some of our best views of Fitz Roy were actually on the way down as the clouds cleared a bit more.  Also - views over to Lake Viedma (first pic).

What a treat the day was!  Hopefully we’ll get some more good weather before we go - although the forecast is not all that promising.

Last Day in Buenos Aires

Sunday January 26, 2020

Buenos Aires, Argentina

With the late night last night we had a bit of a later start today. I travelled with Joan all day and we put on some miles!  First up was the Sunday market in San Telmo. I don’t know what I was expecting, but oh my - hundreds of craft vendors. We took our time looking at all of them. The stuff all looked to be of good quality and once again everyone was friendly and helpful. I may have bought a few small things which I deemed worthy of hauling around in my backpack for the next 5 weeks.  It was a busy place; thousands of people were spending their Sunday there. We stopped a few times for drinks, coffee, and BBQ (where we were treated to a local band playing). It was stinkin’ hot out again today but thankfully we were able to find quite a bit of shade.

Some pics on the way to San Telmo..............

And at the market................

After the market we headed over to Avenida Corrientes, the “Broadway” of BA someone told us yesterday.

Then further still to an amazing bookshop located in an old theatre.

 

 

We finally wound our way home, arriving some time after 6. We passsed Teatro Colon on the way but sadly didn't get a chance on this visit to take a look inside.  It is said to be one of the ten best opera houses in the world and acoustically to be among the top five concert venues. 

Dinner on the rooftop, repacking of bags, to bed early as we have to catch an early flight in the morning.

Back to Buenos Aires

Saturday January 25, 2020

Puerto Iguazu, Argentina to Buenos Aires, Argentina

We originally had thought that we might try to get to the Brazil side of the falls before our flight today but we realized we didn’t have time for that. Besides, we had such a good day yesterday that I think we covered it pretty well. So - a lazy start to the day.  We were all pretty happy with the hostel that we stayed at. They had lots of healthy choices for breakfast and the folks who ran it were so friendly and helpful.

Another hot day in Iguazu, so most of us went out for short walks but lazed about the hostel for a bit as well.  Here's a mural I spied on the side of a building........

We had a 2:35 flight back to BA. The roadblock was not there today so everything went smoothly.  We seemed to follow a river (Parana ?) for most of the fllight and had a great view of some of the developing suburbs as we came close to BA. There sure are a lot of big homes out there and lots of backyard swimming pools. With the hot temperatures today we could see lots of people in the parks and public pools in town. Interesting to get an overview from the air after spending a few days getting to know the city.

In the evening four of us went to a tango show (but I left my camera at home; here's a picture from Jill). We were picked up at the hostel, delivered to the theatre, and driven home after the show. What a show it was!  The dancing was amazing, as was the music and singing. I’m thinking that might be it for cultural enlightenment during the trip. A late night for us old ladies. It was about 1am by the time we got home.