After the glacier from Calafate, we head by coach to El Chaltén, the national capital of trekking in Argentina.
 
El Chaltén is a trekking base competing with its Chilean rival Torres del Paine
El Chaltén is a small town with many hostels full of trekkers and backpackers.
We decide to restrict the time spent here because the landscape is similar to Torres del Paine trek and because we want to save time for Bolivia and its 5-6000m peaks.
We therefore do the Fitz Roy trek, 28km in one day. 2h47 after the start, we reach destination Fitz Roy view point, which is said to be reached in 4 hours.
 
Indeed the view at the end of the trail (Lagos de los Tres) is magic: both the Fitz Roy and the Cerro Torre peaks in the sun, a turquoise lake filled up by the eternal snows and glaciers; real challengers for professional expert climbers.
 
Our feet are fed up and in pain... we are simply knackered so we quickly choose a restaurant and share a 450g beef steak well-deserved... again with a bottle of Malbec ;)
Anecdote: All hostels were booked when we arrived late night in El Chaltén, so we had to go for the dormitory (6 beds). We like testing all accommodation modes ;))
What is the real only big disadvantage of dormitory? Maybe because there are no lockers for your valuables like ipad, mobiles, gopro, etc ; for this you hide your ipad in your sleeping bag, and you go trekking with all the other light items. Maybe because you dont know how clean will be the shared bathroom..; but same applies to a hostel or any other guest house. No, the real big drawback is that you may not sleep because one of the fellows you share your room with is snorring like a Diesel boat engine.. Argggl nervous crisis !!! Panic on board at 3am !!! After trying to fall asleep, whistling and also after performing a "hurlement primaire", the engine was still full power... grrrr.... So Mr Krafft jumped from the upper bed and wakes up the guy by shaking him firmly but kindly... eheh sorry wrong guy woken up... The engine is still on.. Mr Krafft woke up the other guy and bingooo !!! Quick, quick now it is all abouy falling asleep before the engine resumes snorring...
Anecdote: Our next coach departs at 6h50 and we think about collecting the food left in the fridge (serious good jamón crudo and local cheese you dont want to give away).
Bad luck, the kitchen area is closed until 7:00... and no way to miss the coach.. damn why we did not collect everything the evening before?
Good bye El Chaltén.
By the way, the bin bags are still wrapping our mattresses and it still looks miserable. Weronika is still against the kitchen foil option, for ecological reasons... damn ;)
PS: Francois is still complaining about the volume and weight of his bags and still willing to send by post back home useless stuff.. 12 t-shirts/shirts, 4 pairs of trekking socks, gaiters, telescopic extender for the gopro, thermarest pillow, ... OMG
Coach El Chaltén - Bariloche 25hrs, 1384km (suspension broke down causing delay of 2 hrs)
Coach Bariloche - San Martin de los Andes 4hrs, 264km
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