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Day
5 (October 24, 2019) El Chalten
Before
We would like to spend our last day in this area to
go to El Chalten, more than 200 Km from El Calafate.
We
go there planning to get a tour o take a bus to there but, if a good
option for renting a car appears, we would take it.
Our
plan once there is to do a short trekking to enjoy the views. Mainly,
the one to the Condors Look out and, if we feel like keep walking, to
the Eagles Look out too.
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After
I’m finally going alone to El Chalten today. I’m picked up
at hotel by 7:45 AM and, after a coupe of stops for picking more
people, the van leaves El Calafate to take the popular route 40. It’s a
2.5 hours trip through these Patagonian landscapes- We only do one stop
in our way at a historical hotel.
 
Soon after that we get our first views of Viedma Lake and,
when we’re already reaching El Chalten, we can see Glacier Viedma from
far, the biggest glacier in the National Park.
  
What we can’t see is the popular Mount Fitz Roy, the icon
of this place. This is confirmed once in the Visitors Center, when
we’re delivered to attend to an explanation about our options for
today. They explain every itinerary for trekking, focusing in the ones
we can do with the time we have today, and mention the mountains are
covered by the clouds today. There are just a few options for the six
hours we have available and I already had in mind what I was going to
do: the lookouts. But I’ll do it later in order to play my options for
having views for Mount Fitz Roy, which is what I came for.
 
I'm exploring the town and choose the place where I’ll have my
lunch but, since it’s too early for that, I make some time making
pictures. I’ve come ready for lower temperatures, but it’s not only not
cold, it’s getting warmer and all my equipment is now a hassle.
 
It’s nearly 12 PM when I get into the restaurant and order
a pizza (620$). There is a good wifi here and I can make time. When the
pizza comes, it resulted to be a big one. I don’t manage to end it and
they prepare the quarter I left to take away.
 
When I leave the place at 1:30 PM we can say it’s hot and we can see Mount Fitz Roy from the street.
 
I’m happy I’m going to be able to get what I wanted, so I
walk to the Visitors Center, where the start of the path to lookouts
is, and manage they keep my coat, so I can climb to the lookouts free
of it.
 
The path to Condor lookout starts flat but soon is
turning into a steep way up. This is basically a climb to the top of
this hill. The view to Mount Fitz Roy is always present in my way and
it is clearer than before.
 
Once I’ve reached Mirador del condor (Condor lookout) I
can enjoy the view of El Chalten town down there with Mount Fits Roy.
From here, the way to the next lookout: Mirador de las Aguilas (Eagles
lookout), is mostly flat since it’s just reaching the other side of the
hill from the top. The sign marks 30 minutes, but it can easily be done
in less than that.
The views from this other side are to a massive valley
with Lake Viedma at the bottom. This is what we could see from the road
when arriving at El Chalten.
When I’m back in the Visitors Center, I take my things
back. It’s less than two hours until the meeting time with the van:
5:30 PM in the bus terminal. As it’s still warm I come back to the
restaurant with a good wifi to make some time with a coke until 5 PM.
Then, I go to the bus terminal and wait for the van.
 
We leave El Chalten at 6 PM as scheduled. The last view to Mount
Fitz Roy from the road is spectacular and is hard to think all that was
covered this morning.
I had planned to write or sleep in this way back to El
Calafate but I don’t finally do any of these. All the rest of people in
the van are Argentinians and they do a mate ad pass it to the others. I
take advantage of this to finally taste it and we get into a funny
conversation, full of laughs, until we arrive.
I reach the hotel a few minutes past 8:30 PM. We leave
everything ready for tomorrow morning, when we’ll leave this place. We
go to bed early after sharing the rest od pizza I brought.
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