El Chalten was founded way back in 1985, the gateway to the newly created Parque Nacional los Glaciares. Sort of a West Yellowstone, sort of, only West Yellowstone compares poorly on the restaurant scene. FWIW, Lonely Planet rated El Chalten #2 on its 2014 list of cities you need to know. Anyhow, we will have spent 6 nights in El Chalten, crashing, resting, hiking, repeating. The most striking thing about the place, apart from the occasional spectacular world-class alpine views, is the unceasing gale force wind. Well, it does cease now and then in order to rain.
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| El Chalten, on a glacial out-wash in the national park |
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Our nice, relatively new Hosteria El Paraiso; of course,
everything in El Chalten is relatively new, just not so nice |
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| After a long day and a night on the bus |
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| The bidet is pretty standard issue in Argentina |
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| Part of commons area |
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| View from our window; these are side-bar mountains |
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A helpful model lights up some of the most popular hiking
routes; they all go up |
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| Where we are |
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What you come here to see, Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre and
neighbors |
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It rained most of our first two days, providing for a much-
needed break--but then it cleared for two marvelous days;
here is Fitz Roy just coming out |
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| This from main street in town |
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| Local RV |
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| Lots of sculpture for such a young, small town |
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| Entrepreneurial spirit |
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| Ditto; we also saw kids erecting their tents on vacant lots |
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| Someone's end of hike |
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| Well-behaved if feral pooches |
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| Backapackas everywhere (note tents in vacant lot) |
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| Tiny houses very much in fashion |
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| No lack of RVs |
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| Wind-skateboarding |
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Lots of construction in progress, not all of it progressing all
that quickly |
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| No lack of curiosities |
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