Turkey Day in the Mountains

After our ice hike in El Calafate, we stayed in town for one more day, said our goodbyes to Stef who had to go back to the ´real world´ and then headed off to El Chalten. El Chalten is home to Mt. Fitz Roy. In total, the hike was about 7 hrs to the base of Fitz Roy. We didn´t climb that part as it is reserved for expert climbers. The granite face is quite treacherous and often the weather makes it impossible to climb. We lucked out beause the people in town kept saying it was the third day of good weather and so we had unobscured views. According to Wikipedia, while a hundred people may summit Mt Everest in a single day, Fitz Roy may only be successfully ascended once a year.

The town of El Chalten was created in the mid 80´s for tourism purposes so it´s pretty basic. They are planning on building a paved road and building it up so it was nice to see it before all that happens. It was a beautiful hike but we were definitely missing all our friends and family back home. As we hiked, we were naming off all the delicious things we would be eating! We realized it was the first time we´ve actually burned calories on Thanksgiving.

Entrance to the Los Glaciares Park.


The town of El Chalten. Not much to it.


While you were feasting I was
drinking lake water! No worries it
was safe even for us gringas.
Mt. Fitz Roy is in the background.



Yet another nice view.

That night we sat at the hostel bar and had some Quilmes, veggie soup and apple pie. Chatted with a nice English guy and exchanged slang. We traded ´housed´for ´skint´. He ´housed´his burger. And I will definitely be coming home ´skint´ (broke)! It wasn´t our typical Thanksgiving but we had a great time. We headed back to El Calafate to take a bus to Rio Gallegos and back to Buenos Aires. We had originally planned to go to Chile but wanted to hit the beach so we headed North to Brazil. A 44 hour bus ride in total!!


On the eternal bus ride. Looking a little rough!

So, I guess there have to be some bumps along the way, because on the way to Florianopolis from Sao Paolo my camera was stolen out of my day pack on the bus. I had my feet on it but it must have happened while I was asleep. Luckily, I have backed up most of my photos but I had just spent the weekend with my cousin Natalie in Sao Paolo and gone to Iguazu Falls so I lost those. Once I track some down from Jules and other friends I will post them. I spent most of the day today running around Ilha de Santa Catarina (where I currently am) obtaining a police report in a country where I don´t speak any portugeuse so I can claim it. I´m bummed but it could be worse. Just goes to show you can never let your guard down, especially here in Brazil.