Coyhaique-El Chalten: From Low Key to Busy Season

We spent a lazy day which turned not-so-lazy as we ran around Coyhaique running errands, such as weather proofing for rain jackets and boots, a new knee brace and so on and so forth. But the weather was nice and Coyhaique is set pleasantly amidst mountains and rolling hills, so everywhere you look there is a scenic view of snow covered mountains or green hills. The wind really picked up, as we hear it can in the southern Patagonias and we battled against it in the streets.

There were no buses out that day, which is the reason we were somewhat relaxing. We managed to get a micro to the town of Puerto Ibanez (about 30 min from where our trek ended, but we had to come back to Coyhaique because we had left baggage in storage) and from there we caught a ferry to the border town of Chile Chico. The ferry ride was only a few hours, and although it was windy, provided another view of the trek we had just completed and more of the surrounding mountains.

We quickly hopped an awaiting micro across the border to Los Antiguos in Argentina and from there found out there was another bus leaving for El Chalten in 45 minutes. We ran around buying groceries, and Chris calling home and hopped onto our 23 hour bus ride from Los Antiguos-Rio Gallegos-El Calafate-El Chalten.

El Chalten is a small boom town with wind whipped dirt roads and lots of touristy restaurants springing up in its sprawling and spread out streets. Horses still graze downtown and uncontrolled growth has allowed a lot of empty lots and hap hazard building styles. None the less the residents are really friendly and are basking in the tourism industry.

The main attraction (and with due reason) is Mnt Fitz Roy and its surrounding satellites. Fitz Roy is a granite spire which was originally covered in softer rock which has erroded over time and now has left several pointy spires pearcing the sky and rising from shards of icy glaciers and mountains below. As if these sharp mollars aren´t enough, behind Fitz Roy is Cerro Torre, a huge spiky digit of red and grey rock reaching out of massive glaciers. It was originally thought to be unclimbable and was first climbed back in the late 50´s although that asscent was questionable. The whole area now attracts world class mountaineering parties and also offers numerous trekking oppurtunities.

We are planning a 4 day, 3 night trek around these mountains. No hitch hiking involved, the trail head was 300m from the campground we stayed at.