El Chalten

El Chalten is a small mountain town 3 hours north of El Calafate and to my knowledge the only inexpensive popular destination in Patagonia. Not only was accommodation cheap, but the trekking was incredible and totally free. Pretty much all of the treks in the area can be done in about 8 hours or so.

I did 2 days of trekking in El Chalten. On the first day I did some of the Laguna del Torre trek, stopped at a couple of lookouts, but cut the trek short because I was recovering from an illness and I didn’t want to push it in light of the most ambitious trekking of my life soon to come in Chile.

On the second day I climbed Fitz Roy, which was out of this world. Here’s a video and some photos from the trek.

I had a bus to catch that evening back to El Calafate, so I hustled and finished the whole trek in about 6 hours. I met a couple of interesting people that morning and trekked with them on the way up. I forgot to exchange contact details with them and am terrible with names, so my apologies for not including them. One guy was an Australian lawyer who specialized in things like intellectual property and technology and privacy on the internet – I forget exactly but it was interesting. He was also very knowledgeable about nearly every natural phenomenon I wondered aloud about. My other companion was a nurse who married a guy who got hired at Google before it went public. Well played m’lady.

At the top, the base of the Fitz Roy peaks, there were terrific views and a large turquoise melt pool.

This was perhaps the single most beautiful trekking day in Patagonia. And again, it was free.

Next stop: Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia!