"No Calafate, No Chocolate Salami." - El Chalten, Patagonia, Argentina

Patagonia Stop #3 - El Chalten

Just take a look at that view! WHEEEW! That's basically the downtown area of El Chalten, but the rest of it isn't that much bigger. We arrived on a 3 hour bus from El Calafate to see the famous Mt. FITZ ROY, but looking at the skies as we approached the city, it seemed like we were out of luck. Major rain and snow falling, plus windy winds made the idea of the 9 hour hike (with the last hour being a MAJOR incline) less of a viable option for Bri and I. We crewed it up with Lachlan from Australia who we met in El Calafate, as well as Bettina and Sol from Switzerland and the Faroe Islands, respectively. It became apparent that we were completely unprepared for these "easy" hikes (as described by the tourism office), since we were in jeans, sneakers and very little warm clothes. In fact, I had been wearing the same clothes day in day out for 6 days of vigorous activities with no washing and maybe one shower or two. Still, we made the trip and went for the dream 6 hour hike (or so we THOUGHT...) to Lagoa del Torre.

Not only were our clothes not of the right style, but we were some slow mofo's out there. The rest of the hiking group had been doing 5-6 day hikes (such as the W Trail in Torres Del Paine) while me and Brian had been up to Mission Peak. We were getting dusted by the rest of the group, and it wasn't because we were taking our time to enjoy the landscapes. We felt like we were power walking the entire time and still about 1 km back from the rest of the group the entire day.

A waterfall that feeds snow runoff to El Chalten River

The trees were color bursting live in the flesh

The Chalten Crew (Izquierda a Derecho): Bri, Lachlan, Bettina, Sol

Bri, Lachlan and the Boots

Another of my favorite waters in life - straight from the spring to your mouth.

Watch out REI, I'm coming to own you.

The trail came to an end at Lagoa de Torre, supposedly with a great view of Cerro Torre. Here's what it looks like:

However, due to the weather, this is what we got:

Still had a beautiful view of the glacier as well as its interesting ice bergs.

Check out that bottom right corner to see who owns this place.

What was even cooler was that the smaller pieces of ice had even floated all the way to the shore and washed up.

This guy's 30 years old.

and I'm 28. Having a great time throwing ice into water. Life is tough here.

Instead of settling for the fun times throwing ice, Lachlan suggested that we move on and try to get in the bonus hour long hike (each way) to get a closer view of the glacier. And if you know anything about my style, I'm always down with the group (DWTG) and I didn't want to disappoint my fans.

The trail up to the glacier looked like a big pile of stones. Literally just rocks and rocks loosely piled on one another. Since we were just in sneakers, it took us about 3x as long per step to make sure we didn't twist or tweak anything, and we finished the thing with terrible knee feelings and weird sore muscles all over.

This had to be in my top natural color scenes in life: to the left walking up the ridge, the frozen glacier with the blue lagoon and falling snow - to the right, a forest blazing with reds/oranges/yellows.

It was cool, to say the very least.

Mah Bad, Mr. Nature.

And within an hour and a half, we had walked the 1km Tortoise-style to the glacier. Lo and Behold!

We sat on this rock pretty casually, but it was sitting along a steep cliff. Not the safest move, but no better time to show off my warrior 2 pose. OHHH!

As much as we wanted to revel in our accomplishment and enjoy the view of the glacier fully, the sun was disappearing over the valley, so we had to "high tail" it outta there and push even harder to make it back to camp without busting out the headlamps. We still had about 3.5 hours to go and about 2.5 hours of sunlight. AWOO!

As we closed in on the last 2 hours, we were definitely fighting the time game and darkness was winning. Not good when you're already exhausted and hungry and on your 6th hour of the hike.

But like the pro trekkers we are, we pushed through and saw the lights of the town coming up as the sun had taken a break for the night. WHEW!

After the hike, I literally collapsed into bed from exhaustion. This was the aftermath of one day of hiking and barf-bag status:

We showered, rested and recouped with a big steak dinner at a Parilla (Grill/Steakhouse) down the street with Lachlan, Bettina and Sol. This is a 500g Ojo de Bife (Rib Eye) that helped my muscles rebuild themselves. Not pictured - 2 fried eggs aka A Caballo ("on a horse", as in the eggs ride the steak as though it were a horse. My favorite Spanish phrase).

I'm not sure if you've met Lachlan before, but the dude can eat. Like, a lot of food can go into his body. He ate the lamb equivalent of this steak, a portion of Sol's lamb, a third of Brian's steak, a liter of beer, a dessert, and helped finish off everyone else's dessert. He's also like 9 feet tall and hikes 3x as fast as Brian. I was jealous of his stomach. 

Also, one of my favorite lines from the trip came from the waiter. As we were ordering dessert, he told us: "Sorry, no calafate, no 'chocolate salami'". Apparently those were the two most popular desserts of the night. 

Following dinner, Bri and I went for the cold move of the year, strapping on the headlamps and DSLRs and going back into the freezing windy air toward the trailhead to see los estrellas de El Chalten.

This place left me speechless at times. Moreover, we listened to Stellar, Echo, Dig, and Wish You Were Here. Since we were in the middle of nowhere in a tiny town, it really helped to see the infinite stars of the sky without the city's light pollution and no moon. It was just incredible to stop for an hour or two and remind myself how small and insignificant some of my stresses and worries can be, and how amazing God's creations are. It's also cool to think that at any given time, any place you may be, there are just as many stars out there, even if you can't see them. Freakin' cray.


Even though we were freezing and had been frozen since we stepped off the bus that morning, we stayed out on that hill for hours staring in amazement, talking about life, family, faith, and being appreciative for the amazing things we are able to do, the amazing people we have in our lives, and hoping for continued blessings as we move along in life. Truly, another reminder that this trip was worth every sacrifice to make happen.

The next day, we had planned on taking another hike out to see Mt. Fitz Roy, but again, the weather decided to make our decision easier: Major rain and wind and snow in the mountains. Since it was past Easter, most of the stores and restaurants were closed for the Winter and it meant we were "stuck inside, sucker!" Just hung around the hostel with no internet and directTV until our bus was ready to take us back to El Calafate in the evening. We did make it out to the tourist office for some passport stamps, but that was about the highlight of the day. That and the burning pain in my legs and shoulders and feet. PATAGONIA!!!