Photo Album: Hiking in El Chalten
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After a restful night and reading through the information about the hiking options, we decided to do a medium difficulty day walk, the Laguna de los Tres hike, up the glacial lake, Lago de los Tres at 1300m, which offers a fantastic view of two towering granite peaks, the Fitzroy and Torre. The starting point of our walk would be from the car park of Hotel El Pilar at an altitude of nearly 500m.
Allowing for a long walk, we arrived that trail head car park at just after 9:30, 17 Km from our hotel on the same road to Lago Desierto.
Soon after we started, we ran into a Latino looking "trekker", on his way out to the car park, carrying a couple of back packs. My fleeting thought was, how come he comes out so early, an overnight camper? We nodded head.
Until we reached Poincenot camping ground, very close to Rio Blanco.
We passed through the camping ground, and went to cross Rio Blanco.
Whilst stopping by the waterside, to top the water bottle, suddenly I caught eye of the same Latino "trekker", this time with a different backpack walking on the other side of the river. And I waved, he waved back. It did not register much at this point, until what happened to luggage on the following day.....
At this point, we had assented about 400m over a 5 or 6 Km trek, but now, we can see the tip of Mt Fitzroy appearing behind the hills.
To get a clear view, we had to go up another 500 on a steep trek. After a small rest, we commenced our final assault.
Instead of peeping through bushes, we began to enjoy a panoramic view of the surrounding area, it makes the panting rests that much more bearable.
Another 2 hours ensued, with a lot of rest stops, heaving and panting, and here they are, the majestic peaks were there waiting for us. And without the Patagonia wind, the earlier unstable sky had given to a blue one, no mist.
And more walking around the mirador area, besides Lago de los Tres, only smiling faces, though tire.
As the sky was starting to change, it was also time to head back, along the same route.
One last peep though the bush. The hike was nearly 8 hours, 20 Km hike with an ascent of 900m, an exhilarating but very rewarding one.
When we got back to the hotel, we found the street was suddenly full of returning hikers, quite busy. A bit like peak hour traffics at the end of an office day. Even the internet suddenly slowed down to almost useless, until after 9 pm. A funny observation of this hikers' paradise.
We had a slow recovery morning the next day, did little but to get some foods and snacks for the trip ahead. After lunch, I decided to go exploring by doing a short and level hike, the Piedora de Fraile hike, promising a view of the back of Mt Fitzroy.
I set out on RP23 again in the same direction as the day before, but left the car a km further on, before a bridge crossing. There was only one other car there, no one was in sight. Looks like the hike wasn't a popular one, considering it was already early afternoon.
My idea was to do as much as my body can handle, not wishing to push too hard, just to enjoy the scenery. It was an easy hike, through some bushes, along side the river,
But no spectacular mountains peaks to be seen so far, may be my expectation was set too high by the walk up Mt Fitzroy the day before.
Finally reaching Piedora de Fraile,
I had no desire to continue to Glacier Pollone, after all I had covered 8 Km, and the scenery was not exactly inviting in the cloudy and drizzling weather. So I doubled back to the car.
After 4 hours and 16 Km, I was tired, and just simply got into the car and headed back to the hotel.
Other hikers were returning too.
At the hotel I decided to pull out the other piece of luggage which was left in the boot, so to repack a few things as no more serious hiking were in the plan ahead.
Ah ha, how come it was empty, I did not remember taking it in after arrival two days ago. And where are those supermarket bags we left in the rear seat after the morning's shopping ???
Upon checking the room, sure, those things were not there ???
Then it dawned on us, that they were stolen, most probably at the trail head where I left the car before the bridge today. As the shopping were only left in the car this morning.
The hotel manager directed us to the police station across the road. We waited for half an hour, as some other tourists, from Italy, were also reporting theft from their car, along the same stretch of road this afternoon.
With broken English, the police filed our report, and after two hours, we finished the process. And they intimated that these type of theft are quite regular here, taking advantage of the hikers, with properties in their back pack and cars.
Who would have thought, at such a remote and pristine area, that such thefts are happening, and nothing has been done or warning distributed. Perhaps the police were in the game too, dare I say ?
It was really disappointing, a big blight on the good people of Argentina, and a big black mark for such a hiker popular location.
We lost one of our laptops, a backup disk drive with all our photos for the trip so far, fortunately, the other backup drive was still in our possession in another piece of luggage in the room. And many other electronics, clothing and other accessories were gone. One the lucky thing was, we had left our USD cashes in different parts of the car, and one particular pile was in the glove box. None was missing.
The next morning, we collected the police report and continued our trip northwards.
We were determined not to let this mishap destroy our otherwise fantastic trip so far.
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