The drive to el chalten was really short so we got an extra half day there, and we were staying in another hostel again which is much better than camping.
The town was really small and very windy. There were a few different hikes you could do but we weren't that interested! We had to go and rent hiking boots that protected your ankle for the glacier trek in the morning. We then joined some people at a mini winery because they had drunk dry the microbrewery. I ordered a mulled wine and Dan ordered a stout beer. We ordered steak from the hostel because it was one of the cheapest places to eat in town. The steak that came out was actually rare which was such a surprise and it was also massive. Definitely worth $9.50!!
The next day we were up early for the glacier trek. We had to get a ferry across a massive lake to get to the glacier called the viedma glacier which is receding. Once we arrived we had to do some scrambling over rocks to actually get to the glacier as it the glacier had receded over the last few years and exposed rock. Once we got to the edge of the put on crampons to stop sliding on the ice. We did a little walk on the glacier and saw some lovely views. Some of the ice is blue and that is really strong ice. The crampons could not grip that ice. We hiked to another viewpoint where our guides gave us a bottle of Baileys to share between us. We put glacier ice in the glasses to cool them down.
It was a good day but a bit expensive for what you did. That night it was the Japanese guys birthday off the truck and he wanted steak for dinner. Since ours was so good the night before we recommended the hostel but it turned out to be a massive mistake. The service was terrible. If you didn't grab your food off the waiter on 30 seconds he would bring it back to the kitchen straight away. The steaks were completely overcooked as well this time I just ate my well done steak but another woman on our tour sent hers back twice because they were so overcooked.
The next day we had a lie in and the decided to do the shortest easiest hike to a waterfall which was actually really pretty and on the way we saw some woodpeckers knocking at the trees and went bounding in the undergrowth to try get a photo of them.
Our last night we had the steak dinner once more and ordered one with fries and one with mash and ended up getting one steak with fries and mash. So annoying!