Our next destination was El Chaltén, the self claimed hiking capital of Argentina. Its most famous attraction being Mount Fitz Roy. The Tehuelche indigenous people called it El Chaltén, which means smoking mountain. Only late in the 1800’s it became clear that the mountain doesn’t smoke, but that there is most of the time a cloud floating around the top.
El Chaltén was 90 kms off the main road (RN40), but it was a beautiful drive. Driving through the boring steppe/pampas landscape towards the looming mountains and massive glaciers in the distance. El Chaltén isn’t the prettiest place on earth, quite the contrast with its surroundings. It is a very new town, founded in 1984 and only in recent years it has started to boom. There are some really nice buildings, but there is a bit of cohesion missing and the town really seems to be in need of decent city planner or local government that cares, more about that later. Tired from a long drive, we headed to La Cerveceria, the micro brewery and had great food. Julia had a salad which was a bit more sophisticated then the typical lettuce and tomato and I decided to try the Locro, which is a local speciality. It’s a stew with beans, corn and various meats, very tasty. All washed away with some pilsner of course.