Day Seventy Six--El Chalten

Day Seventy Six--Wednesday--March 9--El Chalten, Argentina

Oh yeah it’s really raining and the wind is howling.  A perfect day to stay inside.  But do I really want to sit in the lobby all day?

After all these bad days of rain I’ve finally figured out how to use the hood on Emily’s jacket.  

It’s been a while since I’ve had bad weather and I was getting used to having the sun out.  I hope tomorrow I’ll get to see the Fitz Roy but it doesn’t look good.
Just as was predicted the weather was horrible today but at the same time deceiving.  If you looked in one direction you can barely see the sky but in the opposite direction the sun was out.

After breakfast I sat in the lobby talking to several people who were also hanging out not wanting to go out in the difficult weather.  When I saw a glimmer of sun I thought “here’s my chance to take a walk”.  

I put on several layers of clothes and headed for the National Park to go to a lookout point of the city that some other people told me they had gone to the day before.

Oy.  It was raining and blowing the moment I stepped outside.  Trying to have the positive attitude I said to myself, “oh just go it can’t be so bad.”  Right.

I am a fair weather person but have learned to deal with some bad conditions.

I started walking through the town and over the bridge before the rain drops came falling down on me.  They weren’t too bad but I decided to stop inside the Park building for a break.  The worse was yet to come.

I attempted to talk with a park ranger-who spoke to me in total Spanish, to ask about the trails and the weather.  Basically what I understood was the shortest hike was about 1 hour one way and the weather was going to be bad all day.


He was recommending I walk to the waterfall and I joked that the sky was making a waterfall with the rain.

It was difficult to know if I went to the waterfall would the sky open up on me and did I really want to be out here?  I want to enjoy nature but this was not enjoyable.

I choose to go back to town thinking I would have lunch at the vegetarian restaurant.  Breakfast wasn’t so great.  I had some cereal with yogurt and coffee @ 8:00 and it was nearly 12 so I was hungry.

My decision not to go to the waterfall was a good one.  When I walked out of the park building it was raining a little. As I started to walk toward town the sky opened up with water and wind.  Walking against the howling wind mixed with water was quite the challenge.  I guess this is the wind people had talked about that I should have experienced in Punta Arenas.  Wow, it’s powerful.  I can’t imagine living with this day in and day out.  

I was dressed appropriately with headband over my ears, three layers on top and two layers on my legs but it was a struggle to walk against the wind.  I stopped for a brief respite under the overhang at the bus terminal.  I stood there and watched many backpackers walking with their very large backpacks to the bus terminal.  

I was glad it was them and not me.  I don’t know what I would be classified as, maybe traveler, but I am not a backpacker.

As I start walking again the thought struck me that maybe the vegetarian restaurant was closed for lunch and I was correct.

There is something about my timing being off.  I can’t seem to figure it out but I feel as though either I make the wrong decisions or I just have bad timing.  It’s hard to explain but I feel off.

The only good part was that the vegetarian restaurant was near the hostel and several other restaurants.  I’d had the opportunity yesterday to walk the “hood” to see what was around.  The location of the hostel was very good.  It was surrounded by what I think are the best restaurants in the town. 

I continued past the hostel two blocks to La Wafleria and loved seeing the OPEN sign.

outside the Walferia

I'd thought about having someone take a photo of me but when I got into the restaurant all I wanted to do was take my soggy jacket off and try to feel some dryness.

When I entered the restaurant all disheveled, the waitress looked at me with an understanding look of empathy for my wet situation.

“Muy malo”, very bad, I said.

I took all my accessories off and had to sit for a minute to catch my breath.  I was walking very fast in the rain trying to get out of it.

I ordered an omelette with vegetables.  It had been a while since I'd had eggs so I was glad to eat the omelette.  I also had some Calafate tea.  I’ll need to buy some of this.  I want to open a Calafate store in Santa Barbara.  I love the stuff.

The weather dictates everything here because the only reason people come here is to hike.  

I went back to the hostel and decided I would try to clean up my blog and photos.  It took me hours to correct the mistakes I had made in numbering the days.  I had to create a day to day itinerary and match it with the blog and then with my photos.  I still have work to do but I think I’ve got it now.  I’m glad I had the time to do this now because I know I wouldn’t do it later.

After several hours in my room I went to the lobby.  It's nice to have people to talk to especially in this weather. But I also  need to go to the lobby to get internet and I was waiting on an answer for an apartment in Buenos Aires.  I’m looking forward to being a bit settled in Buenos Aires for a few weeks and not chasing a place to stay.  I’ve decided to take 2 weeks of Spanish class while in Buenos Aires.

I like staying in this hostel because I’ve met lots of nice people from all over.  I didn’t think I would like staying in a hostel because it would be filled with only young people but I was wrong.  There are people of all ages.  I see what a princess I really am and how many creature comforts I need.  Many of the people cook their own food to help keep their travel budgets in line.  

I received an e-mail response from one of the apartment services in Buenos Aires in Spanish and asked Vanina, the girl at the reception to help translate for me.  She told me even the Spanish was bad.  She told me what it said but wasn’t sure herself what he was saying.  I thought, well maybe I don’t want to deal with him if she can’t understand his Spanish.  Oh well, she sent a message back to him trying to get clarification for me. 

Vanina making her dinner

I continued working on my itinerary and cleaning up my computer when I met a nice young couple from Brazil.  Camilla was working on putting together a travel scrap book with the brochures of the places they had visited.  I told them I was trying to do the same on my computer.  I ended up talking with them for several hours.

  

Camilla and Joao are in their late 20’s and from Puerto Allegre in the south of Brazil.  

I wanted to try the vegetarian restaurant and they told me they’d already eaten there and had a good meal.  


I felt like it was very late but it was only a little after 7:00 p.m.  Time goes slowly when you are inside all day.

I took my computer back to my room and walked across the street to the restaurant.  

inside Prana the vegie restaurant

I was the first one to arrive.  They were barely open but the woman at the door said I could come in.  The smell was so wonderful and the room very warm.  I asked what the smell was and she told me a mix of cloves, cinnamon and cardamom.  These were being used for one of the special dishes of the evening, Tangeen.  

a view of the kitchen

The kitchen was very small and I could see that everything was being made by hand and with fresh ingredients.

Anna is the owner and Cecila was the cook.  Both spoke English very well so it was easy to talk with them.

typical matte with Anna and Cecila in the background

I got to talking with Anna about how she started the restaurant.  She told me it was only her second season to have the restaurant and it was very difficult to keep going.   She told me it was hard to be supported by the locals because they don’t believe they can be filled up by a meal only of vegetables.  After all, Argentina is extremely meat oriented.  I told her I really appreciated that she had the restaurant and encouraged her to continue.  She was not sure how much longer she would keep the restaurant open for this season.  She told me about all the many ideas she has of things to do here in El Chalten.  


I asked if she grew her own vegetables. She said she couldn’t because she wasn’t able to own land in El Chalten because it is all part of the National Park and therefore no one can own land.  She wants to try and make a deal with a farmer not too far away to start an organic garden.  At the present time all her fruits and vegetables come once a week on a truck from Mendoza in the north.
  

She only comes to El Chalten in the summer and the rest of the year she spends in Europe.   

Funny, people here talk about things in seasons not years.

My meal was great.  I had the all inclusive meal for 65 pesos (about $16).  This included soup, a main entree and dessert.  Anna was very cute when explaining the menu to me and said that I could take the dessert “to go” if I didn’t want to eat it after the meal. 

The soup I had was a clear broth with onions, pumpkin, carrots and yams.  I’m not sure what the spices were but it was yummy and perfect for a day like today.  Then I ordered the vegetables (being cooked with those wonderful spices) that came with bulgar wheat.  I also ordered a locally made beer, Gulmen Roja which I enjoyed a lot.

First Anna brought me a basket of bread with some vegetable spread that was quite delicious.  I asked what the spread was made from and the chef told me it was carrots, eggplant cooked and then mashed together with spices.  

I asked the chef how she learned to cook.  She said she’d been interested in cooking for a long time and was attending cooking school in Mendoza.  She finished her first term and still needed to complete another year before she would be certified.  She told me there was so much to learn besides the actual cooking of food.  She was learning marketing and how to use alternative ingredients for people who were wheat intolerant or had diabetes.

I not only enjoyed the food but also learning about the restaurant.

After I had my soup a young 30 something Australian couple sat next to me.  We got to talking right away because I told them how good the soup and the beer was.

Dani and Joel are only a week or so into a year’s journey around the world.  They had come to El Chalten with a tour group but the group went to a steak restaurant and they were seeking healthy food so choose to eat here.  We had a nice conversation about places I have been because many of them are places they are going to.  It was nice to talk to them and we exchanged blogs.  


When I told them that I teach people how to use their digital cameras, they told me they bought a Canon d-7 before leaving on this trip.   I gave them a few tips on how to use it. 

My dessert was a bit disappointing compared to the rest of the meal.  I ordered the banana bread filled with dulce de leche.  The banana bread was a bit dry but the flavor was good.  Overall it was an excellent meal and if you want to come to El Chalten during the season I highly recommend having a meal here.  You are too late for this season so you’ll have to try next year.

I walked back to the hostel and got my computer and went to the lobby to get on the internet for a while.  The internet is so slow it’s painful.  I haven’t been able to post any of my blog because uploading photos would take too long and I don't know how to go back to add photos.