Life in El Chalten

Well, it took a while to get here, but we're finally in El Chalten, a small town at the base of the El Chlaten Massif which includes the popular peaks of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. Once our bus arrived in town, there was a little bit of shennanigans, but we are finally settled in what is to be our home for the next three weeks.

Our little house is located in a quiet part of the town. While there are a couple of restaurants around us, the "main drag" with all the food, souvenir and excursion shops are a good 5 minutes walk away. So aside from the dogs occasionally barking at night, things are pretty calm. The tiny home is two floors and tucked away at the back of the property. The first floor, being the main floor, has our small dining table for 2, a teeny-tiny kitchen, fridge, couch and bathroom. The upstairs is sort of a loft and is the bedroom. The coolest part about the cabin is that all our windows look directly out onto Fitz Roy peeking out between two hills. A couple of days ago, we took a lazy afternoon and spent an hour reading upstairs. I would glance up from my book every few minutes and look out the window, and have to pinch myself. I mean, I'm in Patagonia, in my home for the next three weeks, casually looking out the window at Fitz Roy! Does it getting cooler than that? Our fridge is finally stocked up with all kinds of goodies - the sweetest of sweet nectarines, cherries (not as good as ours), empanadas, mystery meat (which we thought was beef, but are now thinking is mutton), olives and home made hummus. As far as empanadas go, there may be a good fifteen or twenty shops that sell them. Brett and I are slowly working our way through them to discover exactly who has the tastiest ones. Today we

found a pretty darn good one at the very end of town. Right after we walked out, we ate them, and then had to walk back in and get some more. Hot and delicious meat and olive empanada has been our winner so far. We have also discovered the secret bakeries that make fresh paniers and flaky pastries sprinkled with sugar on top.

Shopping for groceries has been pretty interesting. El Chalten has about four or five different grocery stores. What you can find in each one is different, and then, depending on the day, you may not find what you had found at a specific one only a few days ago. In fact, people who have been here for longer then us seem to know exactly what days the stores are re-stocked. And then there is a mad dash to get the fresh vegetables, salad dressing and meats. But we're starting to get the hang of things.

The weather has been remarkable to say the least. We have now been in the El Chalten area for over a week and have seen Fitz Roy for at least 90% of the day, EVERY day that we have been here. The buzz around town is that this is highly unusual. It's not uncommon to have 2-3 day good weather windows during summer. But those are often followed by a spell of not-so-nice weather. In fact, one of the ladies working at a guiding shop down here was saying that last year she was here for all of summer, and it rained every single day for two months! So, Brett and I are feeling incredibly lucky that we've had sunny and (relatively) calm weather for our trip so far. The wind hasn't been too bad either. For the most part we have only experienced moderate winds on our longer hikes/climbs. For the days when it never mattered that much, there have been winds up to 40miles an hour. Looking at the forecast to come, we may finally get a better understanding of the local saying "Veinto, Mucho Viento!"

Our time has been spent exploring and really getting to know the area. Lots of hiking, cragging and bouldering have filled our days quite nicely. In fact, we're pretty pooped by the end of most days! Tomorrow we will try some more cragging on routes that are currently ungraded, then go and watch the real studs at a local bouldering competition; and on Sunday we plan to try our hand at some fly fishing!

We're having an absolute blast and will write some more when we get another moment!