The tourist town of El Chalten sits at the northern end of the National Park and has been massively developed in recent years to service the nearby tourist industry as Argentina has created facts on the ground to cement its claim to land in its border dispute with Chile. Dominating the skyline is Mount Fitz Roy, named after the Captain of the Beagle who travelled with Charles Darwin on his expedition around Patagonia and South America as part of his research into his book The Voyage of the Beagle.
On the way in to El Chalten the sky was totally clear and together with the mountains the whole landscape was a collage of light blues. The snow on the mountains reflecting the clear blue skies, making a contrast the blues of the mountains, surrounding lakes and sky.
El Chalten itself is a small town and with the surrounding snow covered mountains as a backdrop is quite attractive. In amongst the many restaurants and hotels servicing the many tourists was a gem of a little vegan restaurant Curcuma, which translates as the spice turmeric, which served some very imaginative and tasty vegan food. We had a pumpkin risotto made with cocoanut milk and a number of different vegetables, coloured with turmeric.
Our first full day the weather in El Chalten was crystal clear with only a few clouds in the blue sky. We walked the 20 km trek up to Lago de los Tres, the corrie lake at the foot of Mount Fitz Roy. The trek passed through a wooded area and a big glacial valley before a big climb of 800 metres up to the foot of the lake. The surrounding countryside was a beautiful combination of greens, reds and yellows as the local vegetation began to turn with the autumn season, while all the time the impressive mountain as a back drop. There were numerous birds and small mammals in the forest. Particularly unusual was the red headed woodpecker on the right with the punkish markings on its feathers.
There were lots of fellow trekkers, despite this being near the end of the season, which in particular made the first part of journey down the mountain quite time consuming as the ground was not only steep but consisted on a lot of loose rock. Once down the big mountainside the journey back to El Chalten was quite gentle all the time with the mountain in the background and looking across the Patagonian lakes and flatlands across Argentina.
Day two in El Chalten was completely different with an almost hurricane force wind driving from West to East and later rain. The mountains demonstrating both their benign and extremely dangerous side over 48 hours. The crevasses on the iceberg to the right indicate yet another danger posed by the mountains.
Date: 24/03/2018 to 26/03/2018