Day Seventy Five--El Chalten, Argentina

Day Seventy Five--Tuesday--March 8--El Chalten

the Hostel Patagonia

El Cheltan, Argentina.  Think Mammoth  or Vail some small ski town in maybe the 1950’s.  There are only 500 permanent residents and the season runs from November through March.  Most of the tourist things hotels/hostels and restaurants close either at the end of March or in April. 

I had a great sleep.  I think the tension and the extremely long day allowed me to sleep until 9:30 a.m.  Wow, I haven’t slept this late in a while.  I guess I needed it.  I was a bit worried about staying in a hostel, but so far so good.  I have a private room with my own bathroom and everything was very clean.

They have a separate restaurant where I went for breakfast this morning.

The breakfast choices weren’t so great but I did get my coffee and of course bread and cheese.  Now I was in Argentina and they offered dulce de leche which Argentine’s use to put on their toast.  Dulece de leche is extremely sweet made from condensed milk and sugar.  I can’t handle something that sweet in the morning.

  

All activities are geared for outdoor adventure.  Trekking (hiking), mountain biking, mountain climbing and ice trekking.  I really thought I would be able to go ice trekking here since I missed doing it in Perito Morino.  However, due to the bad weather I doubt I’m going to get the opportunity.  According to weather.com the weather over the next few days is only going to get worse.  Lucky me.  Maybe Thursday it will stop raining.  I’m not holding my breath.

The town entrance

There is one ATM at the bus terminal, no cell service and internet that works as slow as molasses.  I’m glad I don’t need to pay to use the internet because it’s frustrating enough having my own computer.  I haven’t been able to post any blog pages because I don’t have the patience to wait for photos to upload.  I’ll have to wait until I get back to El Calafate. 

Today was not a nice weather day.  I only took a few photos since I didn't want to take the camera out in the rain.


The wind was howling and the rain was off and on most of the day.  It wasn’t  terribly cold but worth wearing several layers, gloves, and a scarf.  I wrapped myself up and  decided to walk to the National Park office so I could get an idea of what trails to hike on.  

outside the park office

The walk to the park office took about 20 minutes.  When I arrived at the park office the rain was coming down so I didn’t really get much hiking in.  I found there was a movie showing in one of the rooms so I sat down to watch it.  The movie was about several hikers climbing the Fitz Roy in the winter.  It was quite amazing to see these men carrying their equipment through the snow and seeing how they created their ice huts to sleep in for the few days they stayed on the mountain.  Their goal was to scaled the towers of the Fitz Roy.  I'm always amazed at these documentaries because someone had to take the camera equipment as well to film.

It was all in Spanish but in this case it didn’t really matter because it was more about the visual.  I really enjoyed watching them carve out the snow/ice to make the huts and drinking their mate after a day of ice trekking.

the sign with all the peaks in the park

After the movie I decided to walk back to the hostel.  

I had a nice walk back through the town and checked out several of the restaurants and stores.  Most of the stores, even the grocery store, close between 1:30 to 5:00 so not much was open.    


So unless you were doing some outdoor activity or eating in a restaurant there wasn’t much to do.

I heard later the stores close so the people can go hiking.  That might be true.

It was about 4 and I found the restaurant Cerveseria open.  It was next door to the hostel.  They make their own beer but today they only had one choice, the light beer.  I had a beer and an empanada.  Both were very good.

When I got back to the hostel I took my computer to the lobby because that was the only place I could get on the internet.  It was also where other people hung out.  I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of ages of the people staying here.  It wasn’t just young people.  There were many people my age as well as young 20 somethings but also 30 and 40 somethings.  Most people were very friendly.  It was difficult to

 write while sitting here because most people wanted to socialize, so I went along with the program and talked with people.

While sitting at one of the tables, I noticed two men sit down and one had a book in hebrew.  
I said, "Shalom" and we entered into a long conversation. 

I talked with them for several hours and I never got their names.  They were older, in their 30’s, not the typical Israeli’s who travel after their army service.  I told them how surprised I was at seeing signs in Hebrew in El Calafate and here in El Chalten.  They explained that the signs told the Israelis where to stay.  Most of them like to stay together and these two men told me that they were at this hostel because they didn’t want to be with all the Israelis.  

Many of the people who were staying here buy their own food and cook.  That’s how they stick to a budget while traveling.  O.k. this was all new to me.  Cooking?  I’ve haven’t cooked in many months.  

I met a couple, probably about my age, from Oregon who only stay in hostels and buy food for both their lunch and dinner.  This has allowed them to travel for a longer period of time.

I didn’t eat much for dinner and went to my room and wrote on my computer then went to sleep.
I'm hoping for better weather tomorrow but everyone is saying it's going to be worse.