El Chalten, Argentina - Day 4
Friday, March 3, 3023
Last day in El Chalten — rainy or not, we’ve got to make the most of our day.
Today’s forecast didn’t look much warmer than yesterday, but at least the rain stopped. Andi and I were determined to do at least one longer hike during our stay in the trekking capital of Argentina. We got the kids dressed and fed, and were out the door by 9:30am. To be honest, none of us particularly felt like hiking on this cold, wet, dreary day, but that’s how travel goes sometimes — gotta make the best of it.
Before hitting the trails, we stopped by Lo de Haydee Bakery to buy some bread and treats for the hike. We already had some meat & cheese in the fridge, so Andi and I thought we’d pick up a few more provisions and have a picnic somewhere on the trail today.
In El Chalten, it’s nice that all the major hiking trails start right from town. We rented a car, but most people don’t and you wouldn’t necessarily need one (though, it sure has been nice to have since it’s been so rainy and cold this week). We decided to hike the Laguna Capri trail — a 8 km (5 mile) trail known for its views of the majestic Fitz Roy Mountain. Of course, we couldn’t actually see Fitz Roy today with all the cloud cover, but we decided to hike this trail anyway (mostly because it was the right trail length for our family). Andi put the trailhead into Google Maps and we were on our way.
Unfortunately, we were stopped in a police control check-point on the way there. This was an unexpected road block! We’ve seen several of these check-points through our travels in Argentina. I’m not exactly sure what the police are checking (drunk driving? license and registration? unpaid parking violations?), but they’ve typically waved us through the line. Today, the police asked Andi to pull our vehicle to the side of the road. I wasn’t worried because we’d done nothing wrong and had nothing to hide. We had a difficult time communicating with the officer in Spanish, but we pieced together that he wanted our vehicle registration and Andi provided it. We waited in our rental car for 15 minutes or so, and then were given the all-clear to move along. We’ve seen more police presence in El Chalten than we have anywhere else in our Argentinian travels. That surprises me given the remoteness of this location, and the small number of people here.
Now Aden said he had to use the restroom, so we stopped at a bakery in town called Chaltenos. I’d read this place has the best alfajores in all of Argentina, so we figured now was as good as any to try them. They were pretty tasty! These chocolate cookies were covered in chocolate and filled with calafate berry jam. Still, my favorite was the one with dulce de leche in the middle.
As soon as Andi saw the packed parking lot at the Laguna Capri trailhead, he decided he didn’t want to hike that trail anymore. The first 4 km of the Laguna Capri trail is also the first 4 km of the popular Laguna de Los Tres trail, and it appeared that everyone in town had the same idea about hiking there today.
Instead, we decided to drive 37 km (22 miles) along Route 41 to the Los Huemules Nature Preserve. This area isn’t part of the national park, so there’s a fee to hike the trails here. We parked at the administration office, registered with the park ranger, and paid $4,000 Argentine pesos per adult ($10 USD on the Blue Dollar exchange). The benefit of driving away from El Chalten’s well-known hikes and paying for admittance into the nature preserve is that it deters crowds of people from hiking here.
This area called Lago del Desierto is located on the Argentina / Chile border, and was a topic of great dispute between the two nations from the 1960’s to 1990’s. It’s one of many conflicts that have occurred between the countries over the years. Today, the land is controlled by Argentina and is a freshwater resource for the region.
After we paid, the park ranger suggested we hike a 8 km (5 mile) loop to Laguna Azul. We set off from the park office walking through what looked like an undeveloped sub-division to the trailhead. I’m glad we brought our puffer coats, rain jackets, hats, and mittens with us on this trip because we needed them today! It was 37 degrees and drizzling rain when we set off on our hike through the forest.
The Laguna Azul trail was well marked and in great condition. We walked through the forest, across a bridge over Rio Electrico, to a rushing waterfall, and finally to the vibrant-blue waters of Laguna Azul. The scenery was gorgeous all around us, and the best part was that we didn’t see another person all afternoon.
Andi and Tory realized a fun fact while we walked along this trail — moss grows on the south side of trees in Argentina. That’s because moss favors the shady side of trees which happens to be the south side in the Southern Hemisphere. Makes sense!
Even our big camera couldn’t capture the rich, gemstone color of the Laguna Azul water. It was magical to stare into as the colors changed from emerald green to sapphire blue.
It sure was windy though! We couldn’t help but laugh as the wind practically blew us off the overlook. Pelts of sleet kept hitting us in the face. Part of me wanted to stand there all day gazing at the beautiful water, but the other part of me wanted to hide my face and hunt for shelter beneath the trees. On a sunny day, I can’t even imagine how wonderful this place would be.
Past the lake, we walked for 20 minutes into the forest and then stopped for lunch. It wasn’t super cold when we were moving along on the trail, but once we stopped walking all four started to shiver. We quickly unpacked meat, cheese, bread, apples, and olives from our backpack and pieced together make-shift sandwiches.
The rest of the trail was all descent which was a bonus considering it had started to rain. Tory was sad when she realized she left the pile of grasses she’d collected back on our picnic rock, but we weren’t turning around for them. We all wanted to get to the car as fast as possible. Right at the very end, Aden slipped on a wet rock and face-planted onto the ground. Boy, did he cry! He fell hard and smacked his knee on the ground. Luckily, his energy rebounds quickly and he was happy again before too long.
We made it back to the car around 4:30pm, just as it started to rain heavy. Well, actually, it started to rain/sleet heavily about 10 minutes before we got to the car. From there, we headed back to our apartment in El Chalten to change and get ready for dinner.
Andi picked a restaurant called La Vineria for dinner tonight. It’s one of the nicest restaurants in town. We arrived at 8:00pm and were seated in a cozy booth by the window. Our service was excellent, and so was the food. The four of us shared steak, pork, chorizo sausage, fries, and a butternut squash salad. Tory and Aden enjoyed vanilla ice cream and chocolate mousse for dessert.
Tomorrow, we’ll say good-bye to El Chalten and the southern region of Patagonia. It’s a three-hour drive back to El Calafate where we’ll fly to Buenos Aires.
