Argentina 2006 Cross Globe Reisverhalen / Travel stories
EL CHALTEN
Bad weather when we drove from El Calafate to El Chaltén. Most of the road was ripio. We got another warning that you better drive slowly on the ripio: an old car was laying upside down in the river next to the road.
We had a coffee break at La Leona, a very old hostel/bar, halfway El Calafate and El Chaltén. There is no gas station between these 2 towns so you better fill up your tank before your leave town. We didn't see much traffic and we pitied the people who travelled that road by bike: the amount of sand and dust they must have swallowed, and the wind speeds they had to fight against, ... respect!
When we arrived in El Chaltén the sky was really grey and the view of the Fitz Roy was disturbed by clouds hanging around the mountain top. No wonder that the Mapuche Indians thought it was a volcano: it looks as if smoke is coming out of it.
Not one street in El Chaltén is paved, it's all ripio (but this will change soon, road works were ongoing when we were there). Since we didn't have a map it took a while before we found the Bed and Breakfast that we had booked in advance. El Chaltén is one of these places where you have to book a room in advance, unless you want to stay on a campground. It was 4pm when we checked in. The guy in the B&B convinced us that we had time enough to do the walk to Laguna Torre and back. He said it was only a 3-hour walk in total. Although I didn't believe it was only 3 hours (since the Lonely Planet mentioned that it was a 6 hours walk), we started that walk. At a certain place I almost got hysterical by the amount of horse flies that were terrorising us. I was running up and down the path to get rid of these bl**dy stinging animals around my face, while Peter tried to make pictures of the beautiful surroundings. When we arrived at the Cerro Torre viewpoint (45 minutes walk one-way) we realized that the whole trail would take at least 6 hours. Peter didn't feel very well and we decided not to continue into the valley and to save our energy for the big walk that we had planned for the next day.
That evening we had a great meal in a local brewery house: el Bodegón Cervecería, where home-made beer is served.
The next morning, the weather gods were in a good mood: when we drove to the Park Ranger office we got a clear view of the Fitz Roy. We immediately took a picture of it because in a mountainous area you are never sure about the weather conditions: the clouds can appear as fast as they can dissolve. We had read that some people stay for weeks in that area without seeing the top of the mountain! So I guess we were lucky (again).
The ranger in the Park Ranger office gave us a map and detailed information about the possible walks in the Los Glaciares National Park around El Chaltén. Based on the information we got we decided to do a really big walk: 1) from El Chaltén to the Laguna Capri viewpoint, 2) from there to the Poincenot campground 3) then all the way up to Laguna de los Tres and 4) back to El Chaltén via Laguna Madre y Hija. A hike that took us 12,5 hours (of which 1,5 hours of rest). It was a very long but rewarding hike because it was blue sky from the morning until almost at the end of the day and the Fitz Roy was always clear. No clouds! Sunshine and blue sky, imagine … the dream of every tourist that visits El Chaltén.
The first part involved some climbing but with every step the Fitz Roy came closer, the second part was an easy walk through woods, a valley with a river and lots of bushes. Campground Poincenot is a beautiful campground protected from the wind by lots of trees and is located next to a river. No views on the mountain tops from there. From that campground it is a steep climb to Laguna de los Tres. We found it really tiring, at the end we had to rest after every 10th step but the view we got when we arrived at the Laguna was so rewarding that we forgot our tiredness. It's an ideal place to eat your pick-nick (assuming the weather is nice, otherwise it can be freezing cold up there). We walked up to the point where only mountain climbers are allowed to continue. There are people that actually climb the top of Fitz Roy, incredible!
We were proud of ourselves that we had made it to the Laguna de los Tres but after the steep descent all the way back to the Poincenot campground, it was a looooooong way back to El Chaltén. After we had passed the Madre e Hija Lagunas, after we had walked through a beautiful wood and after we had enjoyed the view of the Cerro Torre, we arrived at a crossing with a sign that said "El Chaltén - 2 hours". We couldn't believe it! By that time it was 8pm and we didn't have much energy left. Luckily we still had 2 hours of daylight and had enough food and drinks to get us going. We increased our walking speed and at 9.30pm we arrived at El Chaltén, exhausted but satisfied. Most people do this walk in 2 days, by the way, and stay over at Poincenot campground.
El Chaltén itself is a very laid-back town, we wished we had the time to stay there a lot longer. The setting was beautiful and the food was excellent!
The next day: grey sky, no sign of the Fitz Roy and rain. Time to leave for Bajo Caracoles, a little town in the middle of nowhere. To get there we had to drive a whole day on the famous Ruta 40. We didn’t see many tourist cars, most of the cars that overtook us or met us were 4x4 wheel drive, ideal for such a ripio road. Sometimes we had to slow down till 20km/hour because the stones on the road were piled up too high for our little car.
Luckily we didn't have any trouble on the Ruta 40, no flat tires, no broken windshield, no accidents.
In Bajo Caracoles, we stayed in a hotel that switched off all electricity during the night. That made it a bit tough to find the toilet …. ;)
CUEVA DE LAS MANOS
Bajo Caracoles is a perfect base camp for visiting Cueva de las Manos in the Río de las Pinturas Canyon. It’s a very beautiful canyon where you can easily spend a day if you like walking. The Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the hands) is a must see: there are lots of ancient hand paintings and other, more abstract paintings on the rock walls.
LOS ANTIGUOS
Los Antiguos is a little town, next to the Lago Buenos Aires (2nd biggest lake of South-America), very close to the Chilean border. It is famous for its cherries. When we arrived there, the biggest cherry season was coming to its end. But we were still welcome to visit some of the “chacras” (fruit orchards), to walk among the fruit trees and to try out the tasteful cherries that were still hanging in the trees. We have never eating such good cherries in our lifes. In Europe they are soooooo expensive. So we couldn’t believe how cheap you could get them in Los Antiguos.
ESQUEL - TREVELIN
We liked Esquel. It’s quite a big city but we felt really at ease there.
We arrived there very late but we were lucky: we found cheap accommodation and we were just in time in a travel agency to book the cruise to El Alerzal in Los Alerces National Park.
The next day we enjoyed the lakes, the scenery, the glacier and the huge Alerces trees in the Alerces National Park.
That day ended perfectly with “tea-time” in Trevelin, another Welsh settlement, not so far from Esquel. We were happy to enjoy one more time the sweets of a real Welsh teahouse.
Before we left Esquel, we drove to the train station to get a glimpse of the steam train “La trochita” which is still transporting travelers (mainly tourists) between Esquel and El Maitén. When leaving Esquel, we saw La Trochita making its way through the mountainous landscape, leaving lots of black smoke behind.
A little bit outside of Esquel we visited Museo Leleque, with lots of Mapuche artifacts and things that belonged to the colonists that settled there. A worth wile stopover.
The landscapes between Esquel and El Bolsón and afterwards between El Bolsón and Bariloche reminded us of Switzerland. Lots of mountains, lots of flowers and trees. People sell biological fruit along the road: cranberries, cherries, etc…
If you have the time, I think it’s worth staying a few days in El Bolsón and its surroundings. We didn’t … we had to move on.
