El Chalten - the start of achy legs

El Chalten was a calling so we gladly obliged. Following another bus journey (there´s a theme emerging here) we arrived in El Chalten in the morning and received a briefing on respecting the national park...yes another one. As we still had the majority of the day we decided to go on two shorter walks even though the weather was forecast as pretty pants. However upon getting to the little town, the weather wasn´t too dire, unfortunately the same can´t be said for our little hostel!

Even though it looked like a pile of poo from the outside, it was actually okay on the inside. So off we set on our shorter walks, getting a great view of our settlement in amongst the mountains.

And Jen was obsessed with getting some kind of fun photo instead of just scenery, apparently a star jump is fun! (this is not true - this is Jen having a quick edit of the post!) This walk only ended up taking about 45 mins so we came back down to the town and set off on walk number 2 from the other side of town.

We crossed some pointy houses on the way which is clearly worth mentioning.

This walk was much flatter and although not as interesting view wise, it did offer a river with the bluest water we had seen so far, especially when the sun bounced of it.

This walk was a bit longer than the first and the end result was this waterfall. Although pretty cool, after coming from Iguasu weeks before, it didn´t really do much for us. So after the standard few photos, we trekked back to our hostel and had a cheeky sleep. Turned out to be a slightly bad idea as our friends from El Calafate (remember Cyrille) had swung by our hostel to meet us. They did leave us a note though so we went and met them at their hostel and went out for a few beers and planned the following day.

This day we went on the most popular trek to get a view of the mountains, namely Mount Fitz Roy. We had had great weather so far so we were bound to get a rubbish day at some point....and although not raining, that rubbish day was today purely because of the ridiculous winds. We had gotten quite far before we felt the full force of it, but it decided to hit at its worst when we were crossing a small platform across wet land. Unfortunately for our mate Mark there, he got it bad and ended up in the wet, his mrs Leila had to get on all 4´s to get through it. Jen went for the duck tactic, whilst Cyrille luckily had the only hand rail.

Having already walked a good 20k, Jen was clearly happy to see that the last kilometre was a steep climb. Doesn´t look so bad here but it was a right struggle, especially with those winds not really helping.

Having got to the top of that steep climb, we had a little break as the rain decided to join the party. I suited up in my amazing 4 quid poncho as I didn´t even bring an actual rain coat which made it even worse as I just turned into a big balloon with the wind catching under it. Having got to a flat area we were forced to turn back as the winds were that bad and we were on a small path high in the mountains...it would have been foolish to carry on. At one point I had to grab Cyrille by his coat and drag him to the floor as he got caught by a gust of wind and was sent a good 2 metres nearer the cliff face. We all literally had to crouch and grab onto rocks to stop ourselves from moving, thats how bad the wind was. So back down we came, via the same steep bit we had just climbed which made it seem even worse that we had put all that effort in to not reach the top. To make it even worse, we found out afterwards that we were only 5 minutes away from the top and the views of mount fitz roy are stunning.....or so it looks on google!

Coming back down we walked a slightly different way past a lake which felt more like the sea purely because of the wind causing a tide. You can see the mist being blown off the surface on the left of the picture,. And Jen`s hair kinda accentuates the wind too!

With that walk behind us we went to a microbrewery and enjoyed an ale and a big fat empanada, then got changed and then went out for a meal......in that order if you were wondering. The restuarant was recommended by the staff at our hostel and they also gave us a 10% off voucher. And was it worth it.......most definately! Was probably the best steak we have had to date and we got chips, salad and a mushroom sauce with it. Spot on. As was the cheap wine which was decent, especially for the price. With our friend Cyrille leaving the next morning, we all had a laugh and saw him off. Me Jen Mark and Leila would stay on for another day though. This turned out to be a good decision....check out the weather.....not a cloud in the sky or the slightest hint of wind.

So off we set on walk number 4 (if you count the 2 on the first day!). We had to be back by 6pm for the bus but this walk was a bit easier and a bit flatter, so we could take our time enjoying the sights in the glorious weather (sorry snow filled Britain!).There were plenty of viewing points where the backdrop could be appreciated and with the sun still coming out to play with his hat off I zipped off my trousers to form some shorts, much to the amusement of Mark and Leila with my pastey legs.

We passed some more stunningly blue water, and stopped to fill up our water bottles.

Again the mountains were spectacular, but our end goal was glacier and lake Torre. Travesing some smaller ridges on the trek we could see the mighty glacier coming down the mountain, very impressive but not quite as awesome as Glacier Moreno in El Calafate.

Getting to lake Torre at the end of the trek, we took in the views, skimmed some stones and stopped for our packed lunch. The lake was pretty cool, kind of settled inbetween two mountains and the glacier at the far end feeding the lake. A few bits of ice had broken off previously and made their way closer to the viewing point shore which added a little something to it.

With our time fast running out we set off to make our bus.