I made a lot of bad decisions about my travels in Argentina. Staying for 2 days and 2 nights in El Chalten wasn’t one of them.
I had read that the hiking there was wonderful and certainly the two hikes I did were thoroughly enjoyable, even though they were very tiring and I could barely walk by the end of the day.
I arrived in El Chalten early in the morning after the 24 hour bus ride from hell from Bariloche. I’d had less time than normal to research and when it came to this part of the trip I’d made the worst possible choice at every turn. I could have got the normal bus to Bariloche, arrived at a reasonable hour instead of it taking me all day from Puerto Varas. I could have got a direct flight from Bariloche to El Calafate and hired a car for my time in Argentine Patagonia. Or I could have missed Bariloche altogether and got a flight to Punta Arenas, the bus up to El Calafate and hired a car for my time in Argentine Patagonia.
As it was, I got the bus from Bariloche to El Chalten. I had travelled on a long distance bus 7 years ago between Puerto Iguazu and Buenos Aires, which had taken around 18 hours and went through the night. That was actually quite comfortable, almost fully flat reclining seats, a curtain across for privacy, food and wine and we didn’t get kicked off in the middle of the night for the driver to have a break. Other than one stop at around 5am when the Argentine military came on the bus to do a check, there weren’t any disturbances. It wasn’t bad at all.
Fast forward to 2020 and standards had gone down. I can’t remember which bus company I used in 2012, but Marga Taqsa were the company I used this time. Before I even got on the bus, I saw what a mess it was from the outside. And then the first thing I saw when I got on the bus for this 24 hour plus journey was a sign on the toilet door saying “Don’t Work”. No curtains for privacy, the seats didn’t fully recline. The seats were quite wide and I had reserved my seat right at the front of the bus on the upper deck so I had a decent view. That’s the only good thing I can say about it. We were given food twice, both times a sandwich with a slice of an unfortunate dead animal in it which, as a vegetarian, I didn’t touch, a stale mini bread roll and a biscuit which was the only edible thing on the plate. And a half cup of squash.
We made several stops for toilets. All the bus stations we stopped at were grotty with grotty toilets and no loo roll in any of them. No stop through the night for the toilet. I was seriously dehydrated by the end of the journey because I daren’t drink. It was a horrific experience.
This was further compounded when I came to leave El Chalten 2 days later and found I’d missed my bus because the time had changed to 1 hour 20 minutes earlier than on my ticket and I was told it was my responsibility to check the website for time changes, not their responsibility to send me an email to inform me of the changes, like you’d get with any professional business. The other bus company I used in Chile didn’t even change any times and still sent me an email the day before I travelled confirming my reservation and the departure time.
Luckily there was another bus out of El Chalten, even though it was over 4 hours later, which I got my ticket transferred to. I’ve learnt in a lot of Latin American countries, complaining does no good and they don’t care about bad reviews. I was just pleased that this was the last time I’d be using this bus company and hoped that the subsequent, much shorter journeys I’d be taking by bus with a Chilean company were much better, which thankfully they were.
I dropped my luggage off at the bed and breakfast but it was so ridiculously early I knew the room wouldn’t be ready. I was able to stop and have a cup of tea, then I went to the National Park Centre and found out about the hikes. There was a waterfall hike, two short hikes near the centre and then the two main hikes in this part of Los Glaciares National Park, the hike to Mount Fitz Roy and the hike to Laguna Torre. It was a better day weather wise today, so I was advised to go to the viewpoint of Mount Fitz Roy and leave Laguna Torre until the next day because the hike would take all day and I’d still see the glacier. I was told the waterfall hike was the easiest in the park, so to do that one too, plus the two short hikes near the centre. I decided against doing the ones near the centre, but that I would do the waterfall hike that morning before checking into the B&B. Unfortunately my rucksack was really heavy and as it had all my valuables in it I was reluctant to leave it unattended at the B&B.
I walked to the start of the waterfall trail which was about 2km and then decided that I wasn’t going to do another 6km with a heavy rucksack, I was going to abandon that idea and wait until my room was ready at the B&B and hike with a lighter load.
The town of El Chalten was backpacker central. It didn’t have any charm about it at all. You could tell it was a place geared to backpackers because on every corner there was a launderette. I’ve never seen as many launderettes in one town! There were also a lot of hostels charging about £7 a night. I dreaded to think what sort of place you’d get to sleep in for £7 a night. All the restaurants advertised cut price menus and happy hours. As it turned out, I was so exhausted after my hikes that I wasn’t interested in eating a large meal or boozing at the end of them anyway, I just collapsed into bed at night.
My room was ready just after 12, so I checked in, took as much stuff out of my rucksack as possible, got showered and changed to get myself clean after spending 24 hours on the disgusting bus from Bariloche and I was ready to hike.
I went back the 2km through the town, which was a lot bigger and more spread out than you might imagine since it was only supposed to be a small place, and decided I would leave the waterfall for later, now I was going to do the viewpoint to see Mount Fitz Roy which was 4km one way.
The full hike of Laguna de Los Tres to the glacial lake at the foot of Mount Fitz Roy is about 10km each way, but it was apparently quite a difficult hike, especially the last kilometre or so. I passed some people who had done the full hike and said it wasn’t easy. I had set off far too late to do a 20km hike today, even with the extended daylight hours of the Patagonian summer, so I just hiked 4km to the viewpoint to see Mount Fitz Roy.
The hike wasn’t a particularly difficult one. It was a long, continuous, uphill climb to start with, but it was just a case of keeping going until I got to the top. I got a bit out of breath as anyone would with a long, uphill slog. However, it wasn’t too bad and I was reasonably fresh after resting and not doing very much for the last few days, travelling to and from Bariloche and spending time in the city. I kept looking up to see how much further it was to the top. I made it up there eventually.
The hike got easier after the climb. The trail flattened out and after that it wasn’t much further to walk to Mirador del Fitz Roy.
The views from Mirador del Fitz Roy were wonderful. The mountain was obscured a bit by cloud, but you could still see it. A friendly, young Argentinian couple took some photos for me with the mountain in the background and they turned out quite well. I stayed for a while chatting to the couple and enjoying the view. I have a tendency to do a long hike, stay for a couple of minutes to see the view and then set off back. Today I was going to stay and enjoy the location for a while.
By now it was too late in the day to have continued further to get all the way to Laguna de Los Tres even if I’d wanted to. However, there was a campsite nearby, next to a lake and I would be able to get another view of the mountain from here. It wasn’t far to walk at all and the cloud had cleared by this point so I got a good view of Mount Fitz Roy behind me, although the man who I asked to take some photos for me was a pretty useless photographer, so the pictures with me in them certainly could have been better.
It wasn’t a bad hike down either. Sometimes when I’m going downhill, it’s a bit precarious and takes a long time, but this trail was okay. In some spots there were some big steps down and I had to take care, but it wasn’t particularly steep and these days I never go on any long hikes without my poles, which generally make it easier.
There was still plenty of daylight left when I finished the trail, so I decided that I would go and see Chorrillo Waterfall that I’d missed earlier in the day.
If anyone reading this is tempted, don’t bother. If you have a car and only have to hike a couple of hundred metres from the car park to see it, go and have a look. If you have to do the 6km round trip from El Chalten, it’s not worth the effort. I’ve seen far better waterfalls. The walk mostly takes you along the side of the road to get to the car park too, so it’s not even an interesting walk to get there. And when I got back to the trail head I still had the 2km left to walk to get back to my accommodation. My step counter might have slightly over exaggerated how far I’d walked, but according to it, my 47,500 steps translated into almost 24 miles. I could barely put one foot in front of the other.
Next day I was feeling tired. I hadn’t slept very well, mainly because of the infamous Patagonian howling wind that had been raging all night. I’d been told not to leave the windows open without hooking them because the winds were so strong they could slam the windows shut and break the glass. After listening to those winds all night and expecting the ceiling to cave in, I could well believe that.
I was debating whether to do the hike to Laguna Torre today. The strong winds had really put me off. But what else was I going to do all day in El Chalten? I should at least go and see this viewpoint of the glacier, although I had been informed by the ranger yesterday that the hike to the glacial lake was not difficult.
At half past eleven in the morning, bundled up in two coats, a hat and ski gloves, I set off to do the trail.
The wind was starting to die down and I was immediately far too hot. The hat and gloves came off almost straight away, as did one of the coats.
The first 3km of the hike which was to the viewpoint was quite tough. It was all uphill.
After the first kilometre or so there were some fabulous views of the valley below and I took a break to take a few photos and enjoy the scenery.
The next couple of kilometres were a further ascent and there were some pretty steep sections where you had to clamber up some high boulders to progress on the trail which was quite an effort. However, it was going to be a lot more difficult when I was going downhill. I put that out of my mind for the moment.
One very handy thing on this hike though, was the signposts. You actually knew how far you had walked and how far you had to go. This was a 9km hike and at every kilometre there was a signpost 1km of 9km, 2km of 9km. You get the idea. So you could track your progress.
After 3km I reached the Mirador del Torre. The views of the distant glacier and surrounding mountains were amazing. As I sat resting at the viewpoint I started chatting to an English bloke who lived in Canada who said he had done the whole 9km hike to the glacier. He said it was fairly easy until you got to the moraine and even then that was clearly marked. He said that he had done it in about 2 hours.
It was after 2 o’clock by now. So I had to decide, did I push on, give myself a time when I had to turn around and then extend it as much as I dared so I wasn’t hiking in the dark to do this full hike or did I head back to El Chalten. Back to El Chalten to do what? I decided to try and get to the glacial lake and do the full hike.
The first 3km of the hike up to Mirador del Torre were by far the most difficult. The next 6km was fairly flat for the most part and I actually completed it in less than 2 hours.
The terrain was generally fine for walking, although there were some parts where I was walking through fairly dense brush. However, there was a visible, if narrow, path which sometimes forked, but the paths always merged back into one again, so you couldn’t get lost. You were never too far from the river either, which made it fairly easy to navigate. The views were amazing, I was walking past mountains and glacial rivers; it was a thoroughly enjoyable walk.
I chatted to a lone female American hiker who was camping close to the lake overnight. She took some photos of me. She was walking faster than me and wanted to get to the campsite before it got dark, so she could put her tent up in the daylight, so she left after a few minutes, but I stayed and enjoyed the view a bit longer. I got some beautiful photos that looked like they were in black and white, even though they weren’t. The glacier and mountains in the distance were white and grey, the sky and clouds were white and grey and even the trees and shrubs were mostly a silvery colour. There was just a hint of dark green ground cover vegetation, but it was very subtle.
At this point I had hiked about 7km and was still making excellent time, so there was plenty of time to push on to Laguna Torre. The next part of the hike took me further through the valley right to the moraine. The moraine was the last obstacle before I got to the glacial lake, it was just a case of climbing it to reach the lagoon beach.
The walk across the moraine was actually quite easy and I found the path of least resistance, which I always follow, and probably meant that I ended up doing a slightly longer distance than the one advertised. However, after a relatively straightforward climb over these large rocks, I was down at the glacial lake.
I loved the lake. It had icebergs floating in it that had calved off the glacier and there was a beautiful view of Glacier Torre and Glacier Grande. The weather was closing in now, there was a lot more cloud cover than there had been earlier. You could still see the glacier and the mountains but they were shrouded in cloud. I rather liked that.
I had made it here in under 2 hours, which meant I didn’t have to worry about running out of daylight, so I was able to spend a good bit of time at the lake. There were a few people there, but there was enough space for me to find my own spot on the beach and then I set up my phone with my gorilla grip for some photos. If people were looking at me, I really didn’t care. My photos with the gorilla grip usually turned out better than the ones people took for me. It always amazes me how bad most people are at taking photos. I did get a few good photos with the gorilla grip.
Then it was that time. That time when you have to turn round and walk back. This was not a circular route. I had to go back the same 9km route I’d just walked.
At first I quite enjoyed it. It was that fairly flat and easy terrain to get back to Mirador del Torre and the return journey took about the same amount of time it had taken me to walk there. I made a quick stop at the viewpoint which was much quieter now and took a few more photos, although with the increased cloud the view wasn’t as clear.
Then it was the last 3 kilometres. Going up had been reasonably difficult. Going down was much harder. Even with my poles I struggled. When I tried to speed up if I was getting a bit fed up of walking so slowly I’d end up stepping on a loose stone and almost losing my footing or digging my poles in to keep my balance. I couldn’t go down on loose and uneven rock quickly. I simply didn’t trust myself. I had to be careful. I didn’t want to end up with a broken ankle or a broken neck.
Of course, it’s always worse when you’re tired. And when I finally got to the end of the hike, I still had a steep hill to go down to get me back to the road into the town. It was very loose dirt on that hill and I nearly went flying a couple of times. It was ridiculous. I’d survived the hike to the glacial lake and back. I couldn’t fall on my way down the hill into the town!
It had been another long and tiring walk, but it had also been immensely enjoyable. I was pleased that I had made the decision to go on the walk despite the howling winds earlier in the day. The first 3km of the trail to get up to the viewpoint were pretty hard going for me, especially on the return journey. I have to admit I didn’t enjoy walking down from the viewpoint. But the 6km from the viewpoint to the glacial lake were fantastic. It was a quiet trail; I enjoyed the scenery and the solitude.
The B&B was much further away than I remembered after I got to the bottom of the hill into El Chalten. When I finally got back to my room I was completely exhausted. However, I’d done another 20 miles today which made me more confident that I could manage to do the W Trek in Chilean Patagonia after all, when I’d had serious doubts up to now. This had been very good preparation for hiking the long distance trail in Torres del Paine next week.
I travelled to Los Glaciares National Park in January 2020.
Hiking in this part of Los Glaciares National Park is free of charge. For information about the hikes from El Chalten, the excellent tourist information centre across the bridge from the town has lots of useful information.
I did 3 hikes in Los Glaciares National Park, Laguna Torre which is 18km return, Laguna de los Tres as far as the viewpoint of Mount Fitz Roy, approximately 8km return and Chorrillo del Salto to the Chorrillo waterfall which is 6km return.
I stayed at Patagonicus Bed and Breakfast in El Chalten. An ensuite room with breakfast included was £75 per night.
I travelled to El Chalten by bus from Bariloche. The journey takes 24 hours and it cost me £100. I used Marga Taqsa bus company, but I would not use them again and would not recommend them. £100 is very expensive for an uncomfortable bus with a broken toilet and inedible food.
There are direct flights from Bariloche to El Calafate with Aerolineas Argentinas for around £130 and you can rent a car in El Calafate to drive to El Chalten, which would be my recommendation.
I did complete the W Trek in Torres del Paine. Read the three part series about my experience.
The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2