Argentina Day 4 - Take me to the Mountains

We drove 213 km north from El Calafate to El Chalten. The weather report for today was sunny and it delivered, and also gave us a fresh coat of snow last night to brighten up the mountains with the contrasting blue sky. Be still my heart, I love the mountains!

As we got closer to Chalten, the prominent point of Fitz Roy was showing off in all of its jagged glory. They don’t get many days this clear, so you know it’s good when your driver is also taking pictures.

We got into town and checked into the hotel around noon, and decided to drop our bags and head out on a hike. Everyone did the same hike today called Chorrillo del Salto, which led to a waterfall. The temps really warmed up from the morning and I was soon peeling layers.

If these pictures don’t make you want to get on a plane and come to Argentina, well, I suggest you clean your screen or eyes .

Tomorrow some of us are off for a 20km hike, and others are doing various distances.

We stopped several times on our way to El Chalten for pictures. As we got closer to town there was a cyclist coming down the road loaded with panniers, which was cool to see. Although he was heading away from the mountains and didn’t get to drink in the view while he was pedaling so hard.

The last pull-off scenic view stop before heading into town was filled with other tourists taking pictures. There was a lady trying to take a jumping picture, but (bless her heart) she was barely getting off of the ground. Her photographer was trying for all of the angles and different spots to jump from, but I’m not sure they were quite getting the look she wanted. So my uncle said “are you going to jump?” I kind-of couldn’t resist, so I handed my phone over to my uncle and had it on “Live Photo.” I jumped off of the rail, and he snapped the pic. The couple came over and in broken English tried to show me on his phone that I needed to take a video to get the best picture. I turned my phone over to show them the picture, and that ended the conversation. We got a good one in one take!