We were up early to catch our 8am bus to El Chalten and were
actually very pleased to get out of El Calafate. The town just seemed like a
tourist trap and didn’t really have a nice feel about it.
On the bus I started ready and yes fell asleep again. After
a while I woke up and we had the most amazing views ahead of us. The bus even
stopped at a viewing point where we could appreciate a view of Fitz Roy and the
peaks around it.
Just before entering the town we stopped at the national
park information centre where they gave us maps of the area and also told us
about some of the trails. As we arrived in El Chalten we all loved it and I was
so happy to be staying here for a week and looking forward to some down time in
this little town (probably my favourite of all I have been to so far).
We made our way to our hostels and arranged to grab some
stuff for lunch and then meet at the beginning of the trail to Laguna Torre. We
met a little later than planned but were on our way with some more amazing
sunny weather and good hiking.
At the laguna we had some lunch (all I could find was bread
at the supermarket). Rowan and Cheryl gave me a few dried apricots which I put
on my bread to make it a little more enjoyable. After lunch we made our way
down to the water’s edge for a swim amongst the ice bergs. The ground was very
slippery and rocky so was difficult to get in and was just delaying the
satisfaction of jumping in and when we finally got in deep enough my camera
decided to say “memory card error” so there is no evidence of our conquest.
When we got out we sat in the sun on the rocks to dry out
and enjoy the warmth they both provided. After drying out we made our way back
to town to shower and have some dinner but as we entered town we found a helado
shop. I had managed to hold out until now but I couldn’t any longer and decided
it was time to try the world famous Argentinean ice-cream and I was not
disappointed! We enjoyed the ice-cream and then a victory beer at the
microbrewery and then made our way back to our hostels to shower.
We tried to communicate and arrange the next day via
whatsapp but the internet kept bombing out so I decided I would do it the old
fashioned way and walked to their hostel only to bump into them in the street
looking for a restaurant.
Cheryl was craving vegetables and we obliged as I haven’t
had good vegetables in ages. We found a vegetarian restaurant where we had
smoothies and healthy food. We then took a walk through town and found La
Vinoria where we had some local artisanal beers before calling it a night.
All
in all we covered about another 20km today which is becoming the norm...only, I
got my first blister!