Bus journey and first evening in El Chalten

The bus was a very modern double decker coach with reclining seats. There were only a few passengers so we could spread out and have double seats each. The view was quite monotonous, the road straight and we wondered how on earth the driver stayed awake. Martin and I both had a snooze.

It was an hour into the 3 hour journey before we saw a house. There were some wild rheas and many llamas. Either side of the road was a fence to keep the wildlife off the road. It consisted of 6 horizontal strands of wire. Unfortunately every now and again there was a skeleton or the remains of a llama and on one occasion, a rhea which had become entangled in the fence.

The view in front became more and more amazing as the Fitzroy massif came in to view. On our left was a lake with a glacier above and icebergs floating.

As we approached the town the bus driver pulled off the road into the car park of the National Park office and tooted the horn. A ranger came on board and asked us all to step inside for a 5 minute talk after which the bus would continue to the bus terminal 1 minute away.  Inside we went left for the talk in English, Spanish speakers went right and a ranger explained the treks we could do and gave us a map. She then went through the rules e.g. about taking rubbish away, not feeding the wildlife etc. She also said that there were lots of dogs running around town - oh great. She asked us not to let dogs follow us on the treks.

After disembarking we walked the short distance through the very small town centre to our hostel.

Get this;

The description on booking.com stated "24 hour front desk".

That will be the owner's house then.

"Each room has its own patio"

Okaay

"Each room has a stovetop"

No that's a kettle.

However the inside is great - lovely comfy double bed and new bathroom. We also get given cakes! (Very sweet - Juan gave us a magnet of El Chalten very nicely wrapped.) So all good. We decided there and then to sacrifice a night in El Calafate and stay 1 extra night here. This meant changing our bus tickets so we went back to the bus terminal. All done with a smile and a "no problem" and no admin fee for changing the date - how refreshing.

It was by now 6.15 but it was a beautiful warm evening so we did two of the short hikes up for a view. Martin managed to get a picture of the red breasted bird.

As we returned along the path this chap walked towards us then turned to eat something he had killed in the bushes.

Then my highlight so far - this chap was happily munching away then crossed our path seemingly oblivious to us.

One of our in jokes for this trip has been me pointing to any large birds in the sky and saying "condor". Well we've now actually seen them.

What an amazing evening walk.