The capital of Treking in the Argentinian Andes

Well I´m happy to be able to get to a computer again that will accept my photo uploads since I think that makes these blog entries so much more entertaining.

On my last day in Calafate I enjoyed some amazing wine, lamb stew and a sunset for the record books. Here is your chance to live vicariously...

El Chalten, which is 3 hours north of El Calafate was a terrific mix of small town feel, GREAT eats and stunning hiking. It is not called the capital of trecking in Argentina for nothing. I continue to adore the colourful homes and have photographed too many I´m sure but the deleting of photos is for when I get back home.

The first hike that Roxy and I did was an easy 6 hour round trip trek to see Fitz Roy mountain. A must if you are in the area. It was the hottest day I have experienced in the Andes so far so drinking from the streams fed by the surrounding glaciers became a requirement and the locals were right. No stomach issues. Hurray!

 As you can see the town has a ton of character and it was hard to balance taking photos of the insane scenery with mountains, rivers, glaciers etc when there was such an abundance of art and interesting architecture.                          I feel like I should appologise for the insane formatting of this blog. With each town comes a new computer from 1982 and I have to try to make it work the way I want it to while guessing at how my desired output can be achieved using spanish hints on the keyboard... hence the random spacing and often incorrect punctuation. It is just a win if the keys have writing on them but sometimes when they do they still don´t produce the character it promises to.

Okay so back to the story of my days in Patagonia... It did turn out to be a bit of a struggle with each passing day spent hiking to leave and return to our hostel becasue of the insanely high steps they built leading up to the building. Roxy and I had to muster the strength and burn through the lactic acid in our legs to do it each day.

I worked on finding inner peace at one stop becasue I couldn´t imagine a better setting. This one is for you B. Reminds me of Jamaica yoga mornings.

 

I thought I was also paying good attention to the vegetation and could identify what bushes and shrubs the original peoples would have used for bedding since it looked so soft... with one soft touch I was schooled in how very wrong I was... jaysus the spikes were like daggers!

 Our last hike was 8 hours and was comprised of 4 hours going up hill to rise from 400m to 1400m for a 360 degree view of the entire area and then of course a 4 hour grueling decent. My calves hated me on the way up and my knee caps wanted to be removed on the way down but I did enjoy the 15mins we spent at the top trying not to be pushed off the summit but the gale force winds!

As Roxy and I found ourselves sharing our last dinner together before we once again went our separate ways we found enjoyment in the menu...  and I quote... 300g MEATS for who eat less.. (and then lower down) 500g MEATS for those who don´t want to stay with desire)... sorry what are you saying

or you can have an ALCOHOLIC DINKS to finish.... riiiight. Thanks Jhonny Wlaker.

Just as an aside, I of course had the lamb.... delish!

and in closing this is a sticker from the hostel video library. There is just no way the creator of this sticker was not aware of what they were doing. Dump trucks... seriously.