In 2007, after meeting and liking several Argentinians during my previous travels, I decided the time was right to visit the country. And as a bonus, I would be able to spend a month down in Patagonia. I loved my time there.
Earlier this year I spent about a month in Argentina again, visiting some of my favorite places not in Patagonia. Again, I loved my time there.
My initial plans for this year’s winter escape was to spend a lot of time in Bolivia and Peru, seeing places I didn’t make it to last winter and a few I didn’t get to experience as much as I wanted. However, a couple months ago I realized November to March is the rainy season in much of both of those countries, meaning most of the places I wanted to go, and things I wanted to do, would be impacted in some way, some possibly drastically.
Soooo, one day I am laying on the couch (as I often do) and I start reading an article about Patagonia and realize yes, Argentina again. But this time, back to Patagonia. About a week later I’m laying on the couch (seeing the trend?) when I think about the last time I was in Patagonia and tried to find a cruise to Antarctica. And it hit me, if I’m going to Patagonia I really should be going to Antarctica. It didn’t work out last time so this time I needed to make it happen. And I did. Or that is, I will. This is the first post of this trip and my next post will be about my journey to Antarctica. But I am off on a tangent so back to the story.
Once I booked Antarctica I somehow forgot about Patagonia and started planning for two weeks in Buenos Aires before Antarctica. One week hanging out and one taking Spanish lessons (because after 3 previous attempts at Spanish lessons, this fourth time surely would be the charm). Then about a week before I Ieft on my trip, while laying on the couch (I do my best thinking there) the thought came to me, I must be stupid. I am going to Patagonia to go to Antarctica but I am not going to spend any time there. So, yada yada yada, I switched things up
I now have spent more time in Argentina than almost any other country. And it must show because when I got to immigration upon arrival in Buenos Aires, just after I entered the foreigners line, they redirected some of us to the nationals line. While standing there I saw several people, citizens included, answer several questions and take several minutes, not making the process look smooth. When it was my turn I cruised right through with an hola and bienvenido. They must know me now.
When I arrived at my hostel, one that I stayed three days at in February, the lady at check-in saw me from fifteen feet away and said “you’re back!!”. They definitely know me now.
Buenos Aires is one of my favorite cities in the world, but it is still a city and after three days I was very (very) happy I changed my plans, and flew down to the bottom of South America to Ushuaia, in Patagonia.
From there I worked my way to El Chalten. When I visited El Chalten in 2007 it easily became one of my favorite places, and has remained high on that list ever since. I have wanted to revisit it and that became the only goal of the new plan.
The town is very different now then it was 17 years ago but this isn’t a get off my grass whine, or a things were better back then diatribe, it is what it is and what I expected. When I was there 17 years ago I said it was about to blow up, it was too good of a place and only a matter of time before everyone realized that.
Seventeen years ago we took a bus that ran once a day, maybe three days out of the week. The 5-10 of us got off the bus on a street corner in the 4 block town, to make our way to one of the 4 or 5 hostels. None of the roads, including the one the bus drove thirty miles on to get to town, were paved. The town lies in the shadows of Mt Fitz Roy and several other jagged peaks. You may be familiar with them as they are the inspiration of the Patagonia brand label. Back then it was a mountain climber town. The few people who lived and worked there were there for one reason, mountain climbing.
This week I got off one of the 10 daily buses at the bus terminal and after navigating several paved roads, with sidewalks, found my bed at one of the dozens of hostels or hotels. Very early the next morning I went with some friends I met at the hostel for a hike to see the sunrise near Mt. Fitz Roy. We left the hostel wearing headlamps and I saw more tourists walking the mile through town to the trailhead at 1:30 in the morning, than I saw my whole time in town 17 years ago.
So the town has changed but what hasn’t is everyone is still here to be outdoors. Tourists and locals alike are here to hike (and to a much lesser extent now, climb). People who self admittedly never did such things back home, pushed themselves to their limit to immerse themselves in, and enjoy the grandeur. There is a camaraderie within that. Everyone constantly saying hola, smiling, conversing with, and helping strangers. One extreme example, while talking with an English woman I had met (hola Marieke), someone overheard me talking about 3am and not having a room (more on that later). They were leaving town but still had a room for the night in El Chalten and thinking I would be homeless, offered me theirs. When I was here the first time I felt this was one of the special places on earth, years later it’s much more crowded, expensive, and touristy, but I still feel the same way.
The sunrise hike we did actually was one of the hardest I’ve done in a while. It was 8 miles each direction but the final kilometer had an astounding 1400 feet elevation gain (that’s around 40 degrees avg). After hiking for almost 4 hours we made it to the viewpoint just before sunrise. Unfortunately it was cloudy and we actually couldn’t see the massive mountain that was just in front of us. Later, as we walked down and explored some of the other viewpoints the clouds cleared to give the scenic views we missed earlier. (Side note: we did this hike that morning because all weather forecasts said that day was to be the only sunny day that week, all other days would be cloudy and rainy. That my friends, ended up being the only cloudy, rainy day of the week, which overall, I was happy about. My timing was perfect too as the clouds and cold weather moved back in the day I Ieft.)
While looking at photos from my previous trip to El Chalten, I realized that some of this trip’s dates would correspond to some of the exact days I was here the first time. One picture was taken near the Laguna Torre on November 27th, 2007 so I decided to do that hike again on my second day this time, on November 27th, 2024. While not in the same spot (we were able to hike further, cross a river, and hike and climb on the glacier back then), I had fun recreating the photograph. Unfortunately the biggest difference is not the wrinkles in my face, but the disappearance of the glacier due to global warming.
Getting back to me being homeless. To get back to Ushuaia I had to take 3 buses. First to El Calafate, then Rio Gallegos, and then finally a bus to Ushuaia. Everything was well timed however, my bus from El Chalten was scheduled to arrive in El Calafate at 9pm and my bus leaving El Calafate wasn’t until 3am. Meaning, I had 6 hours in between. I could have gotten a bed for the night but figured by the time I got to the hostel and then made my way back, not to mention getting a taxi in a small town at 2am, it would be better to just wait it out at the bus terminal. Hence the offer from the couple from Toronto. Canadians are so nice. (Sidenote: I ended up spending half my time slow eating tacos at the Mexican restaurant across the street from the bus terminal.)
Once in Ushuaia I chilled with friends (literally, the town is cold, even in summer) and did a few small hikes, waiting for my boat to el fondo del mundo.
Bubbles up!!