El Chalten

El Chaltén is a small mountain village in Argentina located on the riverside of Río de las Vueltas, within the Los Glaciares National Park at the base of the Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy mountains. Another three hour bus ride delivers us to this village, a popular destination among trekkers and climbers, just in time for lunch. “Chaltén” is a Tehuelche word meaning smoking mountain, as they believed it was a volcano for its peak is most of the time covered by clouds. Starting at the Hosteria El Pilar, we make a relatively easy 6 Km hike to the Poincenot campground where we establish a base camp that will serve us for two nights. Having run out of dehydrated food, this evening’s meal is pasta with meat sauce prepared with ingredients obtained in town. I was rather pleased with the outcome and Kyle offered no criticism of the simple but hearty and piping hot meal. Temperatures here are considerably cooler than Chile and we are wearing almost everything we have to fend off the cold.