A rest day was needed after tackling the hard climb of day 11. We checked out a couple of craft beer places in town and hung around the hostel not doing very much. For dinner, 1/3 of the late-middle-aged Italian guys who are long-term residents at our hostel decided to make carbonara for everyone for dinner (apparently "all Italians are chefs") and we all sat around drinking wine while I awkwardly tried to comprehend some of their fast Spanish and even faster Italian (not that I could even tell the difference between the two most of the time!).
I'll take the opportunity of this off day to say a few things about El Chaltén. This is a tiny town (it takes a maximum of 20 minutes to walk from one side of town to the other), mostly filled with tourists here for the summer season of hiking. Most of the buildings here are hostels, restaurants, or shops, and even the buildings housing the locals seem to frequently double as camp sites or small kiosks. This is unsurprising, as we are in a national park hundreds of kilometres from the next town. The view from town itself is amazing, with the peaks of several mountains visible from town on a clear day.
View from one of the main streets of the town. The peak of Cerro Fitz Roy rises in the distance
Food here is crazy expensive. The restaurants here (all of which are expensive) all completely fill up around dinner time, when most of the hikers come down from the mountains famished after a hard day of walking. The supermarkets are not cheap either, and a good vegetable is hard to find. The supply trucks seem to arrive late on a Wednesday afternoon, and for the next couple of days, an acceptable range of fruits and vegetables can be found in the supermarkets. After that, all the good stuff has been picked over and you'd be lucky to find even an apple without rot or bruising. The bakeries are reasonably priced, and we lived off spinach empanadas and wine for 3 days until the shops restocked enough vegetables for us to cook our own food. Wine is far more expensive than in Buenos Aires, but we managed to find drinkable Malbec for under $5AUD per bottle regardless.
The best thing about the town (apart from the incredible views) are all the cute doggos that wander the streets! So. Many. Cute. Dogs. I'm literally squealing every time I walk down the street. They all seem to be reasonably fluffy in order to withstand the harsh winds here, from the tiniest sausage dog to the hostel owner's big German shepherd (who has been receiving many many pats from me). The dogs don't seem to be strays, they're just allowed to wander as they wish. They're all pretty calm and friendly, and even the ones who are obviously just after you for your food will happily let you pat them for ages. The overabundance of dogs has been great, as it has made Jeremy really want to get a dog once we finish our travels!
The best thing about the town (apart from the incredible views) are all the cute doggos that wander the streets! So. Many. Cute. Dogs. I'm literally squealing every time I walk down the street. They all seem to be reasonably fluffy in order to withstand the harsh winds here, from the tiniest sausage dog to the hostel owner's big German shepherd (who has been receiving many many pats from me). The dogs don't seem to be strays, they're just allowed to wander as they wish. They're all pretty calm and friendly, and even the ones who are obviously just after you for your food will happily let you pat them for ages. The overabundance of dogs has been great, as it has made Jeremy really want to get a dog once we finish our travels!
This cutie just hangs out right outside the door of the hostel when the owner comes to clean or show new people around. Such a good doggo!
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