Argentina: El Chalten

It took me quite a while and costed morre than I thought to arrive all the way to El Chalten. I had a bus over night to Rio Gallego, then a bus to El Calafate and finally a bus to El Chalten. I had 5 hours to wait in El Calafate and the first impression is that it's a very touristic city; maybe more even than Bariloche. In the bus from El Calafate to El Chalten I met a french girl (Julie) who told me about her trek in Torres del Paine. She was heading to El Chalten to work in a museum. Lots of French people bellow 30 are taking adventage of the 1 year free visa that allows to work in Argentina. When I arrived, I just tagged along with 2 girls from the bus to go to the same hostel (super cheap, only 80 pesos!).

The next day, the weather was not looking great. I went to the information center and they were expecting lots of wind for 3 days and some rain for 2 days. I went on a small hike to mirador de las Aguilas with a nice view on lago Viedma. On the way up I saw 3 more condors. Then I passed quickly to the hostel and met a German girl (Miriam) with whom I went to another small hike to Chorrillo del Salto (waterfall). Not very impressive but still nice. When back at the hostel I didn't do much and went to sleep early because I wanted to get up erly the next day. One thin that surprised me both in El Calafate and El Chalten is the amount of young people from Israel. Because of it, even the signs are writen in hebreu.

The next day, took a bus at 8am (after going in a taxi thinking it was the transport I had pay for) to go to Hosteria El Pilar (17km away) to start my hike. It was really cloudy and raining as well together with some wind. I was quite alone on the way up. The goal was to arrive to Laguna de los tres which is right bellow the Fitz Roy (very impressive mountain). I ate there and met a swiss guy. The clouds went away and I had a great weather for the rest of the day. On the way down, I went to the glacier Piedras Blancas which was really impressive!!! I loved it and stayed an hour there. On the way back to El Chalten, I was stoppin every 5 min to take a look at the view on the Fitz Roy behind me for 10 minutes. It's really imposing!! In the evening I chatted a bit with some people at the hostel and stayed there.

The next day I went to hike to Laguna torre. The weather was bad. Rain and even snow at the top but the hike was cool, going in the trees and arriving to a lake with a nice view on a glacier. But the cerro Torre was always in the clods and I couldn't see it at all. I spent the evening at the hostel once again and met a french couple and an american girl who gave me some more tips for he other countries I plan to visit.

The next day (december 8th), the weather was really good except some cloids on cerro Torre (I didn't manage to see it for the entire 4 days I was here). I left for a hike to Loma del Plegue Tumbado which is a small mountain with a great view on both cerro Torre and Fitz Roy normally. The hike was really nice. A part in the woods and a steep part in the rocks to arrive to the top. From there, here is a magnificent 360 view point. I stayed more than 1 hour there and met a family whih came all the way there to celebrate the father's 40th birthday! Once back in town I took a quick showe and headed to the bus terminal to head to El Calafate.

Argentina: Puerto Madryn

I arrived the next day at 7am and went to a hostel a guy in El Bolson told me about. There I met a french couple (Pierre and Charlotte) to rent a car with the next 2 daysto go to peninsula valdez and isla escondida and punta tumbo. They told me about a beach (playa dorillo I think) reachable by bike from were it was possible to see whales to which they were planing to go after breakfast. I went there after them and met them at the beach after one hour of biking in a dirt road quite borin and exausting. We saw some whales but quite far away... We hanged location and then saw the whales much closer! It was realy impressive to see them. We stayed there 2 or 3 hours and headed back to the hostel. The next day we met another french couple (Ronan and Tamara) looking to rent a car so at the end we were 5 in the car. We went to puerto piramide were Pierre, Charlotte and I took a boat tour to go see the whales up close. It was a bit expensive but totaly worth it! We saw a femal whale with her baby and they came playing around the boat. The baby came at less than one meter and even went just bellow the boat. It was realy impressive to see those huge animals from so close!! After we went to a place to see pinguins and another place to see sea lions. For both, we had a certain distance with the animals (except a couple of pinguins which came really close. Realy cool as well. We came back wih a great sunset on the pampa. We saw as well during the day some sort of lamas, some sort of austrich, some sort of tatoos and other stuff...

The next day we went still with the car to punta tumbo where there is a huge colony of pinguins. There was a delimited path going through the colony and we could see tones of hem, their nest, the new borns,... And they were actually crossing on the path as well so we were sometimes at less than 1 meter from them. There we met a french couple with 3 kids (3, 6 and 9 yo) who were traveling for one year through south america and asia using buses and hostels; it gave me hope to still be able to travel once I'll have kids :) All of them were realy cool and we spent the rest of the day together. We all went to Isla Escondida (which is not an island but a beach) then where it is possible to walk amng the sea lions and sea elephants (not sure about the english name). For me it was the best part of the day. It was amazing to be so lose to those massive things!! We even could carress some... In the evening we went to a local "restaurant" to have some good meat.

The next day (3rd of december) nothing special; we gave the car back and then I waited for my bus to El chalten. Very cool 3 days with everyone but I feel like it's been a while I didn't speak much spanish so it's good that I go again by myself so that I meet more spanish speakers. But I'm sure I'll meet again some of them as we are all heading south with only few days of interval...

Argentina: El Bolson

I arrived in El Bolson after 10:30pm without an idea of where to sleep. Once there, I asked to some people in the street and found a hostel. Didn't do much for the rest of the evening, just talked a bit with 2 french.

The next day, I went for a 2 days hike. Left El Bolson at 10am; after walking along the rio azul for quite a bit (the color of the water is realy incredible and I wanted to just jump in it all the time!) I went in direction of refugio hielo azul (realy steep part of th hike and quite exausting!) through different types of woods and some great views on the mountains every once in a while. Once I arrived to refuio azul they told me there was too much snow to actually go all the way to the glacier (it was the reason I went to this place but I knew the chances were high not to be able to reach it...) so instead I contined a bit more to refugio natacion. H, one thing I didn't say is that El Bolson is a realy hippie town. The atmospher is realy different from Bariloche for exemple. And the people I met at the refugio natacion were realy realy relax. There were 2 guys working for the refugio and 3 women from El Bolson who just came here for a couple of days in the mountain. I went a bit higher to have a nice view on the mountains then went back to the refugio where I went on the lake in front with a kayak (too cold to swim...) and then spent some time drinking matte with every one. At night we went outside and did a fire where we spent a couple of hours Drinki their home made beer. They were all quite young (less than 35) and it was a bit difficult to understand them because they used lots of slang words and as well I was quite tired from the hike (25km in the day). The sentance of the night was "buena onda" which translates in "good vibes" I guess. I should have counted how many times they said it!!

The next day I went to a spot above the refugio that one of the guy indicated to me and had the most impressive view on the mountains in front. I then went down in direction of refugio cajon azul were there is a big canyon with the rio azul in it; realy beautiful!! I went to swim a couple of ties in it even if it was quite cold!! Then I continued all the way to watson where I hitch hikked with a grandma and her 2 grandsons (drank matte with them again) all the way to El Bolson. During those 2 days I met almost no one n the hikes (it's a bit early in the season). I spent the evening with a group of 6 argentinians in the hostel, playing cards and drinkig local beer until 1am; realy nice.

The next day was rainy so I stayed i the hostel, started my blog and tried to decide if I should go or not to Puerto Madryn. 

The following day I did a hike on cerro pitri (the mountain just above El Bolson). Almost at the to, there is a place called bosque tallado where scultors came to sculpt dead trees. It's quite fun to see this in the middle of nowhere. Then I continued up to arrive in between two peaks with a great view on both sides of the mountain. Once again, almost no one on the hike. I came back to take a shower at the hostel and left in the evening by bus to Puerto Madryn.

Argentina: Bariloche

So, after a long bus ride, I arrived in Bariloche in the evening. I went directly to a familie's home (couchsurfers). The husband (Adrian) is reasercher in ecology, the wife (Tisha) is psycologist and the sonis 12yo. Super welcoming family and Adrian has lots of tips about what to do (and not only for Bariloche but for all patagonia and a big part of south america too).
The first day I hikked to cerro otto and all the way top piedra de habsburgo (great view on one of the lake).
The day after I hike to refugio Frey and spend the night there. There is a small lake in front of the refugio which is located in a very beautiful place. I went a bit further up in the snow but walking in the snow without equipment is super ddifficult especially if you bury yourself up to above the knee at each steps!! Met a German couple in the refugio; they told me about the places they did durin there 4 month of traveling. Next day climbed up to a view point (really nice) and then went down all the way to playa munoz where I jumped quickly in the water (freaking cold!!!).
Next day: horse riding close to cerro campano (not sure of the name). It was nice to ride a horse again (didn't do it for probably 15 years at least...) even if we didn't really go fast because some kids were in the group... I'll definitly try to do some more horse riding while in South America! In the evening great discussions with Adrian around a good bottle of Argentinian wine :)
Next day I rented a bike to go around the regional park. It's a circuit that goes through the hotel llao llao and which has a couple of very nice views. On the way I passed by colonia suiza which is a village with a swiss atmospher. I did the begining with a german girl traveling on her own in South America.
Next day was rainy so I took a bit of time to organize my trip a bit further. I left he couchsurfing family and went to a hostel with an incredible view on the lake and mountains (panthouse 1004 if anyone wants to go).
Last day I did a boat excursion to Puerto Blez from which I walked to lago Fria (amazing water color) and then to another lake which I don't remember the name. This last one was my favourite! I then took a bus to El Bolson.