O Little Town of El Chalten

Just arrived in El Bolson at 6 a.m. today after two days on a bus through the desert, driving the legendarily isolated and dusty Ruta 40. It is the quintessential road trip experience for those who prefer to see more alpacas than humans on their road trips, and if you are taking the non-stop bus from El Chalten, it entails not showering for two days and living on either truck-stop food (if you are a normal person) or ultra-mushy cheese and tomato sandwiches (if you are extremely cheap, like me). My camera and memory stick are both having some manner of problem with the computer here at the Refugio Patagonico, so I will have to stick to prose for the time being - a shame since I meant to put up some of my favourite photos of Buenos Aires as well as some from my week of hiking. Oh well, live to fight another day.

El Chalten is possibly my favourite town in Argentina so far. El Calafate is nice and all, but it felt rather like Banff. Practically every store is a chocolate shoppe, gift shoppe, or outdoors gear shoppe, and everything is rather expensive. It is the kind of outdoors town where you don´t actually have to hike to fit in - it sort of caters to rich tourists. So I met a nice British girl my first day in town, did the Perito Moreno glacier the following day (incredible!) and caught the bus north to El Chalten on Monday. I much preferred El Chalten, which is much smaller (pop. only about 200) and has a reputation as a trekking centre, as it is very close to some really excellent hiking. Take any trail out of town and you are just a few hours´ hike from the rarefied air. On clear days, you can look up from the townsite and see Cerro Fitz Roy looming majestically over everything - it is the most arresting mountain I have yet seen. To top off all this wonderfulness, Rasila (my travel buddy for the week) and I stumbled into the Albergue Patagonia, which was full of people travelling alone or in pairs and looking to find a hiking buddy or someone to sit with at dinner. Some of the people we met are going to be in Bariloche this week, so I may see them again. To top it off, the lady who greeted us and showed us the ropes, Cecilia, was ultra-friendly and enthusiastic, and made sure we knew where all the trails were. It was out-and-out fabulous, and if the rest of my trip is anything like as good as that week, I will be a happy camper indeed.