El Chaltén
Days 27 - 29 5th - 7th February
A long drive lay ahead of us on 5th February that would take us back over the border to Argentina at Don Guillermo and onto the famous Ruta Nacional 40 that we hadn’t really seen through the windows of the bus in the reverse direction.
Once again, Google fails to take in the local road conditions or the fact that there are a load of people at border control that have got nothing better to do than victimise some gringos…very slowly.
We say goodbye to Las Torres del Paine as we head for the border on a good type 1 road. I pull over and pour the contents of the fuel can into the tank whilst rehearsing our movements through the foolproof system. It goes without a hitch and thanks to advice from Seb about what time to arrive in order to avoid the incoming day trippers, it is relatively quick in spite of the Chilean preoccupation with stamping forms. They make no check of the car or our baggage at all and I am slightly disappointed by this as it gives Pauline the chance to say that we should have kept fuel in the jerry can!
The Argentinian side is much more relaxed about stuff and it occurs to me that you could just drive straight through without being impeded. The problem then though would be that without the precious stamp on the car documents, we would not have such an easy ride getting out again. I avoided the temptation of pointing out that the sign in the office that read ‘Las Malvinas son Argentinas’ was wrong and actually still belonged to the British and we were let through.
Elation at reaching RN40 in the hope of more type 1 roads (type 3 for the preceding 45mins) turned quickly to a 70km stretch of despondency as we trundled along on a type 3.5 - 3.8 section of temporary road running alongside the almost finished beautifully smooth concrete surface which had Lots of self satisfied looking construction workers driving along it.
When we did eventually get back onto a good paved surface, we had the option of turning off to cut the corner to avoid the other two sides of the triangle with Esperanza at the corner. This is what it shows on the map above and says that it is still the RN40. The reality is different and when we had gone a few hundred metres of type 3.3 on the RNwhatever, we turned back and took the longer route around. This afforded us the chance to get an exceedingly average empanada at a particularly grubby service station and watch a few minutes of the Man City Vs Spurs game. Blimey, who would have thought that they would get so excited in Argentina about a Harry Kane goal? ‘Goooooooooooaaaaaaaaalllllllllllaaaaaaaaa!!!!!’
With the promise of a fuel station at El Chaltén, we moved on past the road to El Calafate that we had come on the bus and finally made it to the RP23 side road for the last 110km for the day.
Hay mucho viento!
The wind on the steppe to the east side of Los Andes is immensely strong with frequent gusts of even higher intensity. This requires high concentration at all times whilst driving and cranking the steering wheel into the direction of the wind to hold a steady line down the road. There isn’t a great deal of traffic but things get really exciting when you pass a bus or truck coming in the opposite direction and there is an almighty jolt as the bonnet of the car tries to wrench itself free from the barely adequate hinges. You have to then wrench the steering wheel for a fraction of a second into the opposite direction to avoid getting sucked into the vortex.
The maddest thing to do in these conditions after riding a motorbike is to ride a bicycle but there are some people doing it! Crouched down over the handlebars inching along at a snails pace into the gale and exploding into a frenzied dance of trying to stay upright when any vehicle passes them in either direction. Not for me thanks.
We see the next mountain range which is the one depicted on the Patagonia clothing label and push on with the thought of a cold beer bringing us in.
We had seen the fuel tanker coming towards us as we approached the town and as there is no road through over the Andes to Chile here, we were pretty confident that we would be able to fill up the car and can. We didn’t expect the petrol station to look like this though! One pump, two guys and a quickly forming queue. We learn that usually the tanker makes it this far about every three days so we count ourselves lucky to have arrived on a delivery day.
We arrive at Hostería El Puma exhausted after an 8 hour drive and are so pleased that this is the best hotel yet and that we have a three night stay to recoup. We don’t make it any further than the hotel restaurant where we have basic but good meal, a nice beer and then crash.
El Chaltén is a small tourist village founded in 1985 in Los Glaciates Nacional Parque in Argentina’s Santa Cruz. The name is derived from the indigenous Tehuelche dialect meaning ‘Blue Mountain’ which I think it’s a lot better than the alternative name: ‘Fitz Roy’ given to it by that busy body Perito Moreno when he ‘discovered’ the mountain that still bears that name in 1877. It was voted second best place to visit anywhere on the Earth by Lonely Planet in 2014 when the resident population was still under 2000 people. It’s probably not as exclusive now but still has a real low key charm about it and is definitely our favourite place in Argentina so far.
It is a hikers paradise in the summer months and makes for an excellent ski resort in the winter (apparently). Whilst it is clearly geared to tourism, it isn’t yet spoilt with large commercial outfits drowning out local businesses. Encouragingly, the best restaurant in town called Mafia, which has been here from the start, is stubbornly intent on keeping to its original size with only 20 covers (including 2 outside). They have fully immersed themselves into the ethos of Small Giants by Bo Burlington where delivering consistent high quality produce at a manageable scale wins all day long over expansion and loss of control. Management, staff and customers are all in it together and all happy plus, there is always a queue of eager to be pleased people down the street. We manage to get a booking for our third and last night in town and are not disappointed.
On our first full day here, we are still pretty tired after the lengthy drive from Las Torres so only take on the short walk in light blue on the map ( you have to add on the distance to the start of the walk from our lodgings which doubles the length their and back. It was a steep climb up a hillock but the views were commanding in all directions.
When you climb to the top of the mountain
Look out over the sea
Think about the places, perhaps, where a young man could be
Then you jump back down to the rooftops
Look out over the town
Think about all of the strange things circulating 'round
It ain't easy, it ain't easy
It ain't easy to get to heaven when you're going down
I think that David Bowie was probably talking about drugs in his song from Ziggy Stardust rather than aching knees but it felt like the right tune for the setting and if you believed in heaven, it might look like this place.
I guess that you shouldn’t judge a meal by its cover plate charge, but we are learning that in South America, the quality of the bread entrée is a pretty good indicator of what is in store for your stomach. The best so far was at our hotel meal of Guanaco steak in the hotel at El Calafate where we were served a beautiful selection of home cooked breads including a cheesy little loaf of deliciousness. A meal in itself. And this is the other thing that we have learnt; it is dead easy to over order as generally the portion size is huge!
Back in El Chaltén, we have dinner in the evening at the second best restaurant in town and share a wonderful steak accompanied by sweet potato chips and a luscious dish of roasted mushrooms and peppers in a creamy sauce that was made for mopping up with the really nice crusty loaf that was served up with the entrée The wine was, of course, a Malbec from Mendoza. Wonderful!
The next day we each take different walks, Pauline on the easy route to the waterfall (yellow on the map) whilst I go to Laguna Torre (orange route). The way is very well marked and popular so there is no danger of getting lost here and, helpfully, there are kilometre markers letting you know how far there is to go. My path gets quite narrow in places and you have to stand by to give way or pass waiting walkers. The camaraderie evident in Torres del Paine is not so readily available here perhaps because the trail is not so difficult and I quickly get annoyed with people not being polite and have to remind myself to go slow and stay calm. ‘De nada’ I would cheerfully say as I let people past whilst they grunted at best and looked at their shoes.
Old man’s beard
Beautiful ancient Lenga forest
Watch out for muddy rock slides!
At the end of the hike it was back to Middle Earth:
Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day,
To seek the pale enchanted gold.
Now then, where is that little wretch Gollum…
Back in town, we met back up and shared the stories of our different walks and then freshened up for dinner at the unlikely looking venue for the best restaurant in town (it’s the bit on the right of the photo. What an amazing business to be so popular and carry such a great reputation without having to boast or advertise in any way). Mafia met expectations and it is little wonder it so popular when the albóndigas is that good!
We feel as though we have really settled into our road trip now and were looking forward to seeing what was waiting for us around the next corner even if it meant leaving our favourite place.