You Still Have Our Hearts - El Chalten, Argentina
El Chalten, Argentina
Today was meant to be a bit of a recovery day from our hike yesterday. The weather was forecasted to be rainy, so that left most of the big treks out. We let Jenny sleep in until 10:30 and then woke her for waffles with ice cream at the Waffeleria. While having breakfast, a big group of college age kids came in to the restaurant and sat next to us. We immediately recognized them as speaking hebrew. Yesterday while hiking with Christopher, he mentioned that El Chalten was part of one of the three “Hummus Trails,” a term we had not heard before. Apparently many Israelis have a sort of a set itinerary they follow on trekking tours-one of them bringing them to El Chalten. Interesting as, besides our hitchhikers, we had noticed that there are many Israelis here.
We had dropped off a big load of laundry yesterday and following breakfast we needed to kill time until it was ready. We checked out some of the local stores, almost all of which are outdoor recreation based. I picked up a Christmas souvenir for Jenny-a hand drawn poster of Cerro Torre that she had seen and loved, so that will be a nice Christmas morning surprise from Papa Noel!
Though it was only an hour and a half or so after breakfast, we were all hungry for some lunch (we burned 2600 calories yesterday according to Billy’s watch!). Jenny had noticed a restaurant that was cute from the outside (though really almost all the stores and restaurants are), that she wanted to give a try. We walked up and the outside is lined with backpacks-you gotta love a town where you can leave all your gear outside and not worry about it getting ripped off. We had a fantastic lunch at Mathilda’s of chicken and carrot tacos for Jenny and the same but stuffed into bread for Billy and me.
It was now closing in on 1:30 and still there was no rain. Billy wanted to do some fishing today in the Rio Las Vueltas near Lago Desierto, so Jenny and I decided that we would go hiking while he fished. I had read about and was since told by two separate people that there is a hike up to the Huemule Glacier and Lake that is quite spectacular. The guide books said it was an hour each way so we thought that was perfect.
The road to Lago Desierto is a ripio (gravel, rock, potholed, ponded, washboard, dusty-you get the picture ) road. Maximum speed posted is 40 km/h, maximum speed gained in our Chevy Classic-25 km/h-we never shifted out of 2nd gear. The road is only 25 km long but it takes almost an hour and 45 minutes to get there. I kept praying we wouldn’t take out the oil pan, get a flat tire or lose a side mirror as Billy kept swerving to dodge potholes and rocks. At one point, I decided I would pull in the side mirror because Billy didn’t need it-we were the only crazy people driving this “road.” However, I quickly learned the mirrors do not pull in and I broke the mirror off-to which we all started cracking up-and I mean cracking up. Luckily, Billy was able to snap the mirror back in place and I am hoping the rental car company will not see the small hairline fracture I left in the base of the mirror encasement. We have since decided the Chevy Classic is a very simple car-there is no trunk release latch (to get the keys out that one might lock in), no mirrors inside the sunshades, the windows crank down, the doors don’t lock automatically (which in our case is actually probably a good thing) and the side mirrors do NOT fold in…
The drive was truly spectacular following along the mighty Las Vueltas River valley, passing by waterfalls and streams, lakes and marshes, through dense forests and open meadows. There were signs the whole way to watch out for the endangered Huemule deer-we of course, never saw one. That’s one thing that is interesting that we have noted-there are very few creatures here. Minus the few guanaco we saw on the drive in, here in the national park, we haven’t seen any (except the Patagonia skunk Jenny saw out her bedroom window). Even birds seem scarce, though I did see the majestic Magallenes woodpecker on our hike yesterday.
Three years ago, we had done this drive to Lago Desierto and Billy had fished then as well, so I dropped him off at the same spot where we had caught some fish and told him if we weren’t back in two hours, to come looking for us! Jenny and I continued on the road until we came to the entrance for the trek. The access to the glacier is on a private estancia and they charge a fee of 200 pesos ($12) to enter (the only fee we have had to pay to hike-the national park here is free, even for camping). The owner of the estancia, a gaucho in the truest sense, welcomed us and showed us where to buy the tickets. The gaucho’s wife I presume, explained everything to me about the trek in a form of Spanish that I understand very little of. I just kept nodding my head up and down, saying, “Si,” and “Gracias,” and Jenny and I set off hoping that she hadn’t just told me something like, “Don’t follow the trail left because you will end up in the pasture with our mad, raging bull.” As it turns out the trail was well trodden and well marked with yellow blazes-which then made sense as the only thing I knew she did say was something about “amarillo.”
The trail wound through some of the darkest densest forrest we have been in yet. Every tree had thick green moss growing on the bottom third of it. The ground was covered in the same but had ferns of various sizes and shapes growing from it as well. There was a beautiful rushing stream of that same milky green glacial water cutting through it all-truly a spectacular sight.
The trail started off with a gradual ascent but quickly changed to a steep one-and I mean steep. The ground was moist and the tree’s roots were crisscrossing the trail every which way, making it difficult to travel. The further up we went, the steeper and steeper the trail became until we reached an area where knotted ropes had been tied to trees as a means to help hoist yourself up. This was then followed by an area where tree limbs had been nailed in between trees to act as handrails, and perhaps guardrails as the trail was now on the edge of a slight precipice. I thought back to the gaucho’s wife and wished I had understood what she said, but the yellow blazes were there, leading the way for us, so we pushed on. Jenny and I were both huffing and puffing, me especially as I had my ridiculously heavy backpack on and had failed to lighten the load at all, back at the car. I assured Jenny and myself that the strain was worth it, that by the end of it, we would both have buns of steel and we would be rewarded with a magnificent sight when we arrived. When we finally got above tree line, we could see the brilliant teal green Lago Desierto down in the valley below. The ground quickly turned rocky with more exposure and of glacial flora. We could see Fitz Roy off in the distance, its peak still covered in clouds and the hills above us were covered in a thick snow pack. Apparently the five days previous to our arrival in El Chalten, it had poured every day in town and snowed heavily in the mountains with winds up to 70 km/h. The mountains had much more snow on them then we had remembered in 2013 and the ones above us certainly did now.
As we headed closer and closer to the mountain, the glacier began to come into sight followed by the beautiful turquoise hued Huemule Lake-it was a jaw dropping sight and we were the only ones there! We plopped ourselves on a rock, contemplating our surroundings and the glacier. Jenny wondered if the glacier was growing or shrinking and if you could ski the snow topped mountains above it. I wondered silently what would happen if all those feet and feet of snow decided to let loose.
We enjoyed a snack in the midst of some of the most exquisite scenery ever, and refilled our water bottles from the lake. There really is nothing like ice cold, fresh glacial water, drinking it straight from the source the way nature had intended it. The sun finally popped out while we were sitting there, warming our skin and making the color of the lake shine all the more brilliantly. We stayed for about 45 minutes and then headed back. The trek down was far quicker than the trek up (30 minutes vs 45 minutes) thanks to gravity pulling us down the mountain.
Back in the forrest, Jenny and I enjoyed looking for faces in the moss and bantered back and forth whether they were man made or nature made. Some trees even had multiple faces in them resembling a totem pole.
Back at the estancia, we passed a corral that had freshly cut cow hides tanning on the fence-a sight I told Jenny she would have to get used to if someday she wanted to live on a ranch. Her ranch, she insisted, would be a no kill one.
We hit the road in search of Billy. When I was just getting ready to turn around because I was certain there was no way he had gotten that far and we must have missed him fishing in the river, we found him. He had caught just a few little fish, but he had had fun trying out the various flies, etc.
An hour and a half later, and Jenny still cracking up about the mirror, we hit one of the two paved roads in Chalten and it felt good to put an end to the jarring ride. We dumped our stuff at the cabin and set off on foot in search of some dinner. It was now 9:00 PM on Christmas Eve and few restaurants were open. We finally found one, a pizza place we had had our first meal in when we were here in 2013. The location was apropos as the restaurant is filled with historical photos of climbers from the area, including Maestri and Egger. Jenny and Billy made a bet which man in one of the photographs was Maestri, so I asked the owner and Jenny was right. We enjoyed a bottle of wine and our pizza and watched as Fitz Roy cleared just in time for the sunset-what a nice Christmas Eve gift.
Back at the cabin, and it almost midnight, Jenny climbed into bed with us and she and I scrolled through pictures of possible treks for tomorrow. Midnight hit and I swear it sounded like Armageddon was happening. Our cabin is two doors down from the fire and police departments and they must have set off the sirens on every vehicle they own. We were expecting explosions to follow any minute. Jenny jumped up and watched out the window amazed at all the people still moving about, some just finishing up their treks for the day. El Chalten really is a unique little town. There is a great vibe here-a throw back to days pass, if you will. We love it here now as much as we did before, maybe even more so-El Chalten still has our