Patagonia Part 2: El Calafate & El Chalten
We stayed two nights in El Calafate, and spent one full day at the Perito Moreno Glacier. The drive to the glacier from El Calafate was about 1.5 hours, and a bus was going to cost us over $100 NZD return. We opted for hitchhiking which was easy heading out, but harder coming back. We got picked up by two travelling German friends (Tobi and Carola) within a couple minutes. They were easy to get along with which made for a fun drive.
The Perito Moreno Glacier was amazing. We got a stunning day for it, which made it look like 50 shades of blue.
It was harder getting a lift back to El Calafate, waiting possibly over an hour with no luck. We eventually got picked up by a Brazilian couple (and their young kid). We took over the poor kids backseat, though he didn’t seem to mind. They didn’t speak English or Spanish so it made conversing quite hard.
Tobi and Corola ended up messaging us that evening asking if we wanted a lift to El Chalten as they were heading there the next day. We got a refund on our bus for that day and instead took up the free lift with them, getting to know them even better. We tried a couple times to meet up with them in El Chalten for a beer but it never worked out with all our busy schedules. Grateful for their kindness and company though.
We got to El Chalten on the 30th December, but because we wanted to celebrate New Year’s Eve with people at the hostel it meant we had some free time before going tramping in the national park on New Year’s Day. We ended up going for a morning walk up the hill (cliff) above the township, and sorting admin for our 3-day hike.
New Year’s Eve was spent in style!! There was a group of us (1 Aussie, 1 French, and 2 Americans) who went and bought a bottle of wine each and we sat and drank that before heading to the bar for new years and a boogie. We caught up with Sophie and some of her Australian friends that evening also.
New Year’s Day we were feeling pretty hungover but managed to drag ourselves out for day 1 out of our 3 day hike in the national park. We walked about 9km to the campsite at Laguna Torre where we stayed the night (and recovered).
Day 2 and 3 of the hike felt a lot easier once the hangover had disappeared. On day 2 we hiked to Poincenot campsite located at the base of the hike up to the Mt Fitzroy viewpoint. On the hike we walked past Laguna Madre which looked perfect for a swim spot, in fact, we walked past 4 hikers skinning dipping right next to the track. We went and set up our tent and walked back to the lake where we found a more secluded place to swim further from the track, conveniently forgetting our togs also.
On day 3 we started walking at 3am to get to the Mt Fitzroy viewpoint for sunrise. We got there with about an hour to spare but at least we were prepared. We had warm clothes, though nothing could’ve prepared us for how cold that wait in the dark was. We stayed up there for a couple hours all up, taking in all the different stages of the sun on Mt Fitzroy. We also got to share the moment with Sophie who was also up there for sunrise. We left her up there as she went and found a patch of grass for a quick nap.
We spent our final day in El Chalten recovering from the tramp, and looking into our next stages of the trip. We ended up booking a 24-hour bus to Bariloche for the next day, wrapping up our time in Patagonia!
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