El Chalten

4 hours on a dust road from El Calafate lies the most recent and probably
smallest village in Argentina, El Chalten.  Created artificially in the '80s to
prevent Chilean incursion on this disputed border and ensure that its natural
beauties - the Fitzroy and Torre mountain ranges - remain firmly on Argentinian
ground, it is not more than a couple of crossroads, lots of little hotels and a
chocolate factory, unfortunately closed for the season. Damn!  Well, never mind, it
was probably not Belgian chocolate anyway. 

The whole village looks more like a spaghetti western movie set than a Patagonian national park.  Horses are replaced by packs of stray dogs, looking suspiciously well fed, probably the major cause of the near extinction of the local deer, the huemule.

It being in Patagonia, the weather is unpredictable.  On a glorious morning,
Django and I set out for a hike to the foot of Mount Fitzroy (see the pictures).
The colors in autumn are magnificently vibrant and our camera - though in the expert
hands of Django, Japanese re-born Dutch - does it barely any justice.  The next day,
we started the hike to Mount Torre.  Only the myth surrounding the famous mountain
kept me going during the 7-hour hike in a pouring rain to reach the glacier and see
nothing of the 3000 meters peak, lost somewhere in the thick fog. Django, as usual,
was strolling as if on a sunny beach.   Still in pursuit of a glimpse of the
climber's defeating hill (a sharp 2 km high vertical wall of diorite constantly
swept by ripping winds and covered in ice), we watched the movie 'Scream of Stone'
from Werner Herzog back at the lodge, offering splendid shots of the Torre in
summer, where surprisingly it is impossible to climb due to the strong winds and
stormy weather.  Not that we ever even considered such folly! Well, perhaps Django
 for a moment, before being clubbed on the head by my walking stick!

Next destination: Bariloche, some 36 hour bus ride away.   I am planning to either tie hyper active Django to his seat and gag him for the duration or put him on a skateboard holding the back of the coach.

See you there!