El Chaltén and El Calafate - Or: Tourists about tourists

After our exhausting hike and search for a room the day before, we're doing one thing today: NOTHING. A bit of a shame, because the weather couldn't be better: warm, sunny, clear and windless. A combination that is very rare here. But hiking is simply out of the question today! So we explore the (actually very small apart from tourists) place and indulge ourselves in the delicious cafes and restaurants. There is so much choice here that you don't know where or what to eat first. It was different on the Carretera Austral, there were only very few nice restaurants and we cooked for ourselves almost every evening. So now we treat ourselves to some eating out again. There is even a vegan restaurant here! And in Argentina! And it's delicious :) We also visit the restaurant 'Maffia' twice, which serves homemade, among other things, stuffed pasta, and has been recommended to us several times by other travelers. The first time already by English people in El Bolson! We also meet the Belgian cyclists here again briefly and spend an evening with Greg. And we find out why the water was out on the first evening (and also for a few hours on the following days): the tap water comes from the surrounding melting glaciers. However, on warm days, when a lot of meltwater comes down from the mountains, the pressure on the water pipes is too high, they burst under the strong pressure and have to be repaired again. So too much water leads to a water shortage in that case. There are reserve tanks, but they are quickly depleted due to the many tourists, hotels, and restaurants. And so it can happen that many households are without water for some time. You can also clearly see the effects of tourism. The prices in the stores, restaurants, etc. are sometimes higher than in Germany. The quality of the food is good, but the portions are much too small for the prices. We also notice that locals pay less in the small supermarkets here than tourists. Otherwise, no Argentine could survive here! However, this leaves a slightly strange aftertaste and you feel a bit exploited. In addition, much can only be paid in cash, but at the only 2 ATMs you can withdraw a maximum of 100€ per transaction and of course pay high fees each time. So the banks also make a lot of money with the tourists. Besides that, the money is sometimes out, as too much is withdrawn. Fortunately, it works for us every time, but you can tell that this small town can't keep up with the growing tourism.

But on the 4 days we spend in El Chaltén, we will of course hike again! First, due to the weather, 'only' to a nearby Mirador (lookout mountain) where we almost blow off the summit! Now we can understand why many of the cycling tourists take the bus to the next town (El Calafate). Cycling is too dangerous in these wind speeds! But the next day we are very lucky: it is almost cloudless and the sun is shining. The perfect day for the highlight hike: the total of 20km to the lagoon at Fitz Roy and back. Fortunately, the corresponding Los Glaciares National Park is (still?) free, in contrast to its Chilean counterpart, the Torres del Paine, with crazy admission prices. Maybe these two parks shouldn't be compared, but it's much more sympathetic to us not to pay a fortune just to see nature. After all, it's for everyone, isn't it? On the way to Fitzi, as we lovingly call it, a few clouds still hang in its peaks, but when we arrive at the lagoon, it's clear and we have the best view! Except for the last 1-2km, the hike is very easy, only the last section is steep and many hikers gather here. That's not quite to our taste, but what can you do. When we arrive at the lagoon, we have our bread with (the first, really tasty) cheese and learn something while watching people posing on a particular stone and having themselves photographed. When a couple places their Go-Pro on the stone to make a time-lapse video, they are politely asked to place it elsewhere, because this stone is THE 'Instagram stone' !! 'EVERYONE takes a photo on this stone and then posts it on Instagram' is explained to them. We just look at each other and almost choke on the bread. There is an 'Instagram stone'?! Well, let's leave that uncommented.

We take a few more photos of tourists posing and make our way back. The clouds are already moving in and Fitzi disappears behind them!

The next day, we hike to the lagoon at Cerro Torre, also a very beautiful mountain with glaciers. Only the color of the lagoon is not as beautiful as the day before.

The following morning, we want to move on to El Calafate. Since this is the route for most travelers, we try our luck hitchhiking (together with too many others). But it seems that we left our lucky streak at the border crossing in Chile, so after almost 3 hours, we give up and take the overpriced bus, which only has tourists on board.

After almost 3 hours, we arrive in El Calafate. Much bigger than El Chaltén, still very touristy, but the prices are slightly lower. The main attraction here is the 70km away Perito Moreno Glacier, which can be visited with an overpriced bus ride & high admission fees. We are still undecided whether we will visit it, since it looks very similar to the O'Higgins Glacier, which we took the boat to at the border crossing. Not that it would be boring to see two of these gigantic glaciers, but the prices and mass tourism scare us off a bit. In any case, we are not quite sure how to continue our journey. We have to be in Punta Arenas on January 30th and take the ferry to Puerto Williams, the southernmost place in the world, the next day! Before that, we actually wanted to go to Puerto Natales to visit the Torres del Paine National Park. But since the campsites for multi-day hikes were fully booked here months ago (and we also sent back our sleeping bags as a result), only day hikes are an option for us. However, we have now been told several times that the very expensive bus from Puerto Natales takes 2-3 hours, you only arrive in the park late, have to pay a high entrance fee, need a shuttle in the park, which of course costs money, and for a hike in the back area, you need to take an overpriced boat just to get there. That's why we are becoming more and more unsure whether we actually want to 'put up with' all of this. Even if the park itself is undoubtedly fantastic.

We plan back and forth and can't quite come up with a good solution on how to make good use of the 'remaining' time before continuing to Punta Arenas. There are airports here too, and we're already considering maybe flying somewhere else. On the second day in El Calafate, Steve arrives again and we spend two lovely evenings together, with him and Greg. During the day, we help Greg collect boxes because he has to take his bike on board (like many others here) and needs a box for it. He actually had one reserved, but - as could be expected - the store owner simply sold it to someone else and can no longer get any. There is great demand here, but apparently nobody cares that the cycling tourists have a real problem if they can't get a box. So most people build their own box out of individual cardboard boxes and meters of tape.

Greg and Steve fly to Buenos Aires next (even on the same day). And so the - slightly crazy - idea emerges to fly to BAires again (we were a bit tired of the city during the last visit and didn't do much), to stay in the house of Jan's friend's mother, and meet up with the others again. At first, it seems a bit strange after working our way down here for months, but on the other hand: why not? Get some warmth again, relax, enjoy the house, and maybe even go swimming. A little 'vacation from the vacation' so to speak. We already have bus tickets for the next day to Río Gallegos, but flights are cheaper from there anyway. We do some research and ultimately book the tickets! Buenos Aires - here we come! :-)

So from January 19th to 29th, we will explore the capital again, skip the Torres del Paine National Park and continue our Patagonia journey on January 30th in Punta Arenas.

Until the flight, we still have 2 full days, so we take a closer look at the city of Río Gallegos with its 80,000 inhabitants. Finally, we are the almost only tourists again and when you look at the city, you can understand why. Everything is a bit uglier and not as pristine as the tourist spots. But that's also nice :) We go shopping for jeans for Lisa (since her old one got a very fashionable tear at the knee) and discover the beautiful 'beach' on the river that flows into the sea. We have time to read, cook our own dinner again, and sort out things that we can keep at the hotel and not take to BAires. We clarify everything for our renewed stay in the house and are already looking forward to getting on the plane tomorrow morning and flying to BAires, which is only a 3-hour flight away! Who would have thought that we would come back here again! :-)