We were booked on the 8am Caltur bus from El Calafate to El Chaltén, but thanks to the close proximity of the hospedaje to the bus station we didn't need to get up particularly early. There weren't assigned seats on the bus and it was already quite full when we got there so we ended up being seated separately.

It was a short ride compared to some of the marathon journeys we have made. The landscape was pretty flat and boring at the start, but it changed to snow capped mountains as we approached El Chaltén. We even had a view of Glaciar Viedma, one of the largest glaciers in Argentina, from the bus.

After about 3 hours the bus stopped at the National Park Information Centre. El Chaltén is actually inside the National Park boundary making it unique within Argentina. The entire bus was given a short talk by a ranger, who spoke very good English, advising us of the rules within the park and letting us know about the trails and the walks we could take.

With the talk over, we were back on the bus for only another couple of minutes as we were taken to the bus station. Before leaving we booked an airport transfer back to El Calafate for Friday. Las Lengas Transport did a door to door service for 250 pesos per person, which was less than a bus to El Calafate alone, never mind the transfer from there to the airport.

We put our bags on our backs and walked a couple of blocks to our hotel, Chaltén Suites. It was still a bit early for check in, but we only had to wait a few minutes for the room to be ready.

The only room left at the time of booking was a Superior Double that admittedly was on the expensive side, but not unaffordable if we wanted to treat ourselves. We were given a ground floor room which had nice views, from the window, of the Fitz Roy mountains. It was a big room too with an equally big bathroom that included a large spa bath.

The sun had been shining since we arrived so we decided to at least get a short walk in, in the afternoon. We took the trail on the southern side of town up to Mirador de Condór and Mirador Aguila. They were only a few kilometres long and took only about 90 minutes return. Short as it was, it still gave us some awesome views of town, the mountains including the Fitz Roy tower although no condors. On the Aguila side we could see Lake Viedma, but unfortunately not the glacier. As we were finishing our walk, we could see a condor soaring past the mirador we had been at not long before, unfortunate timing but we had seen many condors up close at Colca Canyon in Peru.

We walked back through town and after a quick pit stop at our hotel we continued to Chorillo del Salto, a waterfall 4km north of the town. Again, it was a short walk by our standards and only took 90 minutes return. Half of the time was spent walking on the dusty, gravel road which wasn't so pleasant especially when cars went past. The waterfall itself was quite nice though and we sat on the rocks, in the sun, for a while until a large crowd descended ruining the peace and tranquility.

After a quick freshen up and a change of clothes back at the hotel, we set out in search of somewhere for dinner. There wasn't a whole load of choice in El Chaltén and we decided on pizza at Patagonicus. We ended up sharing a half and half Patagonian Lamb and Pepperoni, which was absolutely delicious. Not only was the meat good, but the mozzarella was thick and tasty too.

Back at the hotel we asked about the cost of paying by credit card and were advised that the advertised US$ price would be converted to pesos at a rate of 12 to 1 (which is the illegal blue rate). This conversion would increase the cost of room by about 40% to an unjustifiable NZ$ 235 per night. David refused to accept that the price can be increased like this and emailed Booking.com. We'll wait to hear back from them.

On the brighter side, the bed we have is massive and really comfy so after a bit of in-room television we'll look forward to a good night's sleep.