Photo Tour: El Chaltén

When in Patagonia a few weeks ago, we lugged a large box filled with produce, beans, pasta and other food staples to El Chaltén. Fellow travelers warned us that it was nearly impossible to get reasonably priced food in the small village, so we entered town fully stocked. As these things go, the warnings about no food in El Chaltén were a bit of hyperbole.

But it's no exaggeration to say that El Chaltén is one of the tiniest towns I've ever been to. (This coming from a woman who lived in a town of 900 back in the day.) It's also brand new; the town wasn't even created until the 1980s. It's definitely developing now, though. It seemed that there was new construction going on in every street.

Tiny little village between the mountains

The town itself is quaint and quiet, but the real draw is the scenery around it. The Fitz Roy range is one of the most iconic mountain ranges in Patagonia. As we drove into town (on yes, another bus), we stared out the window in awe. The mountains just kept getting bigger and more impressive.

The Fitz Roy range

 A turquoise river marks one of the town's boundaries

The great part about hiking the Fitz Roy range is that the mountains are just a quick step outside of town. Unlike the hike at Torres del Paine, we didn't need to take a bus to another bus to a ferry to get to the great hikes. All we had to do was grab a map and just start walking to enjoy the views.

We met this little guy at our campsite. He has nothing to do with hiking, but isn't he sweet?

This guy too. 

View of a glacier in the mountains

 -R

Food on the Road: Asado

One of the best parts of our travels is meeting new people. Some are headed in the direction in which we came and others are travelling the same route. By far, my favorite experience with new friends has been the traditional Argentine asado. Asado is both a method of grilling and a social event, and since we've stayed at many campgrounds, we've had access to many grills... and some of the best meat I've ever had.

Here are some pictures of us grilling in El Chalten, Argentina, our second asado experience (the first was in a campground in El Bolsón with a group of Canadians).

Rachel, showing the men how a fire is lit

We had the fortune of meeting a French chef on holiday

Look at that lamb...

10 lbs of lamb (a whole rib), 2 blood sausages, 2 chicken sausages, and some veggies

And to give you an idea of how cold it was that night in the campground... here is a picture of our frosted tent at 9 o'clock the next morning.

Luckily, we learned from our last experience and went into town to rent sleeping bags. Real sleeping bags. We stuffed our own bags into the new ones and slept very comfortably, no need for an emergency blanket this time. And since our bellies were still stuffed with asado in the morning, there was no reason to go very far. After a quick look at the frost we retreated back into the tent and our warm sleeping bags, closed the flap, and slept peacefully for a few more hours.

Cheers,
Tom