El Chalten

I woke up at 6:30 this morning to catch my bus to El Chalten. It is the youngest Argentinean town, established in 1989.  It's basically a tiny town that was built up as a base to 2 mountains in the area, Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. I had wanted to come to El Chalten on a day trip but I was recommended not to because you need time to spend hiking both mountains.
When I got off the bus, I found out that I wasn't able to take a bus out on Wednesday. The bus only runs on Tuesday's and Thursdays, so now instead I am taking a 30 hour ride back to El Calafate, then up to Bariloche. This should be interesting.   It's kind of funny how off the beaten path this place is. The town has about 5 streets. A lot of people come here and camp in the mountains. I got to the hostel, dropped my stuff off (plus got them to do my laundry for $4!) and headed to the first mountain. To get out of the town was a little confusing, there were just signs with arrows so I had to assume I was going the right way!  This hike was 6 hours roundtrip, through woods and past a river, with snow covered mountains in the background and these awesome trees where some were totally dead next to trees that were fully bloomed and beautiful. At the Laguna Torre, the end point for the hike, all of a sudden the path opened up to a lake with a glacier at the end, chunks of ice floating near the shore.  I sat down to eat lunch (an amazing empanada, I have to find this place again tomorrow!) and met 3 people who were up here camping for a few days.

I was so happy to have someone to talk to, since I hadn't met anyone at the hostel to go with in the 10 seconds I was there to check in. The girl was from Guyana and it was her first time camping. She tried to convince me to come with them, promising the boys would take care of everything, but I don't think I would enjoy camping plus it's really cold here!! One of the guys has been on the road for 18 moths now. I asked him how he's able to do that and he said he volunteers here and there and the camping is super cheap once you have the equipment. If I think it's rough living out of a backpack I cam only imagine living under a tent! I don't understand where he showers or like charges his camera. It seems a lot of people do it though. The most popular hike down here is the Paine Circuit, or W, in the Torres del Paine in Chili. It's a 5-7 day hike, all camping. It's supposed to be amazing but I don't think I'd be able to handle it. Or enjoy it. I mean I know I´m backpacking and all but theres a difference between living out of a backpack and not showering for 5 days. I wandered the 3 streets of town that night, and even though I liked the hiking I kind of wished I had gone up to Bariloche to start to head toward weather that will stop giving me frostbite!

El Chalten, Day 2
I was so unlucky with the weather today. It was freezing when I woke up, and the sky was overcast. The guy at the hostel recommended me waiting another day to climb Fitz Roy since he said I wouldn't be able to see anything from the top, but I have a bus ticket for tomorrow so there was no other option. Finding lunch to bring along on these hikes has been a challenge in itself. All of the breakfasts have been bread and cereal. Because of the gluten deal, I try not to eat too much bread, because I only have about 30 pills with me to last the whole trip. So for lunch everyone brings sandwiches.  I´d be okay bringing a sandwich and eating the middle only, but the only option I'm given is ham and cheese. Since Charlottes Web was my favorite book growing up I have big issues with eating anything coming from a pig, so I won't eat ham. I don't know why they're so big on ham and cheese here. No matter what you order they try to put ham in it. My omelet at breakfast, the empanadas - I´m surprised my alfajores didnt have ham in it! I don't even see where they're getting all these pigs from since they specialize in carne de vaca, the meat of a cow.  But there's no such thing as roast beef or turkey, or even just cheese sandwiches in Patagonia, so I'm out of luck. The fruit isn't in season either so all I had for my 8 hour hike today was my daily alfajore cookie and a yogurt. Not a smart idea.
I set out for the Fitz Roy hike and about an hour in found a British woman to hike with. She somehow was an even faster walker than me and I had to run on the trail to keep up with her. Until she fell off a little bridge and got soaked and covered in reddish brown mud water. And broke her camera. Then we slowed down. At the 3rd hour, we got to the last stop before the 500 meter (1500 foot) vertical ascent up rocks.
There was a sign saying not to go if you weren't an experienced climber, didn't have hiking boots or it was raining or snowing because the rocks get slippery. It had started to snow and was impossible to even see anything because of the fog surrounding the mountain, but she wanted to keep going so I went along. Halfway up, it was so slippery that I actually thought I was going to fall off the mountain. We ran into a few people coming down that said the snow was accumulating fast at top and people couldnt walk! They also said you couldn´t see a thing from the top. At that point I left Allison and joined the group heading back down the mountain. I made it back in one piece, and am treating myself to so many alfajores as a reward! As an added bonus, one of the girls coming down was really nice and wound up being in my hostel, so we got dinner (more empanadas from my favorite bakery!) and passed out early because, well - 14 hours of hiking in 2 days - I've earned it!!! It will be nice to sit tomorrow on the bus and just read and watch some really bad spanish-subtitled movies. I have 30 hours, so if I can read for 15 of them and sleep the rest, that would be amazing! On to Bariloche!