14/01/2020 – El Chalten, Argentina

We woke up to open curtains and a beautiful view across the lake to the snow capped mountains. We spotted a lovely black and white rabbit and a big white domestic cat playing outside. What a way to start the day! We went for breakfast at 0800, I am still very happily eating up the crumpets with marmite! We walked back up the hill to our block and got our weatherproof gear and cameras at the ready. We loaded ourselves, and all our stuff into the car and dad drove. We went to the hotels reception and café, to search the gift shop for the specific gaucho belt I have been in search of for the last few weeks. Sadly no luck! We drove on towards El Chalten, which was a good 2.5 hours away. The road cuts through the middle of nowhere – the vastness of space is amazing, Patagonia is unbelievably huge! The barren land is beautiful shades of green and grey, and makes for a photogenic landscape and colour palette. On the drive we saw some gorgeous Andean foxes, lots of sheep and cattle and some guanaco. Guanaco are deer like animals that are closely related to llamas. A silly Andean fox ran out onto the road as we were passing a car, and dad had no other safe choice but to hit it, which made us all feel a bit weird for a while. After debriefing ourselves we continued on with the drive and appreciated the view. We could see the iconic Mount Fitzroy ahead, had the lake to the left, and a glacier in view. It was breathtaking, even with the thick cloud covering the peaks. Dad pulled over onto the side of the road in order to take some photos, it really was a must! We pulled into a few miradors, or view points, along the way for photo opportunities. We dropped into the visitor centre which gave a briefing of the area in English. We drove on and into the bus station in order to use the facilities. A policeman pulled the car over and got dads details, which from what we could tell was just a routine check. We used the bus station facilities, grabbed another map, and set off again. We drove through the quaint but touristy town on El Chalten, full of walkers in their hi-tech gear. We drove or another half an hour alongside the river on a very slow and bumpy trail up to a hotel called El Pilar. We had been recommended by the guy from dinner last night to park at the hotel and to start our walk from there. We parked up and had a fiddle, mum changed her shoes, finished packing our gear and grabbed some snacks. The weather is so unpredictable that we had waterproofs and sunglasses, of equal importance. They say you can experience all four seasons in one day here, and it definitely does seem to be true so far! We set off on the trail, and I took my rain coat on and off again about four times in the first 15 minutes! We walked along the river on a wide path. We walked up and through the Southern Beech forest for about two hours. Dad had mentioned he wanted to see a giant woodpecker, and mum that she wanted to spot some rare Patagonian orchids. Josh was looking down on the ground and I up in the trees. I spotted the giant red headed woodpecker and its smaller black woodpecker mate. They were beautiful and they didn’t even seem to notice us, they gave us a good old display! It was raining quite heavily by this point so mum wrapped herself up head to toe in waterproofs. We continued walking and it wasn’t long until Josh spotted the orchid mum had wanted. Mum took loaaaads of photos of different plants and flowers on the way! We heard, and I saw some calving of the glacier nearby, it made a truly thunderous noise! We got to the viewpoint and could see the Fitzroy which was impressive even though its peaks were covered by the clouds. We got a good view of the Piedras Blancas glacier and its waterfalls and the lagoon beneath it. The water was turquoise and the sun did come out intermittently which made it all very scenic! Lots of photos were taken, and we sat on a log to enjoy the view. We had water and cereal bars and watched as some beautiful grey and mustard coloured little birds came and hovered up our crumbs. Mum got chatting to a group of American botanists who were collecting samples of different plants. We bumped into them on our walk home and they were beaming with happiness as they had just found a little plant that was in their last 10 of plants they were looking for (they have been doing this for years and years and years by the sounds of it!) Mum asked if it had made their hike and the lady replied that it would have made her husbands whole trip! We walked back down for the next couple of hours. Josh found a weird looking beetle that he is still trying to identify. When we got back to the car we downed some water and stuffed a packet of crisps into us. Josh drove this afternoon. We stopped off at a craft shop to look for the belt I am looking for but it was unsuccessful. Josh managed to shuffle us into a bar for a coffee break before he did the drive home. Mum ordered a tea and it seemed to be a bit of a challenge for them to sort out. They wibble wobbled over with a beautiful handmade tea cup and saucer, put it down in front of mum with the tea bag on the side and then left again. The cup was empty which made us all get the giggles! About five minutes later a waiter carried over a huge old fashioned silver kettle, and poured the water in. We got the idea that they had taken down one of the decorative kettles, wash and dried it up before boiling the water for the tea. I don’t think they are used to tea drinkers here but I said to mum that it will have made their day that they served an English person a cup of tea today, it is like a novelty thing that most South American people ask if we do actually drink all the time! We got back in the car and went to the petrol station just out of the town. We had to queue as there was only one pump, and it was in what looked like a little shipping container. Josh drove us the two hours and a bit back to our accommodation, La Estrela. We saw more Andean foxes and all the other animals from this mornings drive, and chatted away for most of the journey. When we got back to the hotel we all ran in to our respective rooms and bathed to warm up. We went to mum and dads room for half an hour and they shared some beer before walking down to the little dining room down the hill. Josh and Dad shared a grilled provolone and sausage starter which was delicious. After having a snacky lunch we all enjoyed the warm hearty food. I had lamb stew which was so nice it reminds me of a warming AGA dish. Dad enjoyed a bottle of Malbec. We went back to mum and dads room and they went through their kitchen development plans which look exciting. Dad played with his photos, and we looked up some of the plants and animals we had seen today.