We managed to stay in bed a bit longer than usual, I would say lie in but that infers sleeping, something that is difficult with doors banging and cleaners using vacuum cleaners. It was windy during the night but the morning was calm. We were told yesterday that the glacier trip we did was cancelled for today as they were expecting 100mph winds. We thought about how mifted we would be if we were affected by the cancellation especially when it was probally the best day we have see down here so far.

Today we travel up to El Chalten a meer 5 hours on the bus. The bus didn't leave until 1pm giving us some time to walk to the lake to watch the flamingoes. It seems that the flamingoes are not daft they stay close to the sides early morning and move further out during the day when dogs and people are about. I still managed to improve on the pink dots on a lake type shots I had previously.

It is amazing how fast time goes, we didn't hang about but still only just made it in time to catch the bus. Our first pee stop was by a scenic glacial river, perhaps the weather forcast was right - I almost took off when I stepped out of the bus.

The five hours flew by despite stopping for a while to help out a bus that had broken down in the middle of no where. Some passengers had given up waiting they were trying to hitch.

The bus didn't go directly to El Chalten it first stopped at the national park visitor center where we were encouraged to go inside for a talk on the national park. Safety and looking after the park was the gist. Being Patagonia they had some tips on dealing with the wind, or to be more precise stopping the stones flying into your eyes. They had some amazing pictures of what we probally won't see (going by our past record with the weather).

Anyway we got into El Chalten and immediately tried to book the bus out. This was due to El Chalten being full and overloaded rather than a reflection on the village itself. The wind scuppered things, the electricity was out for half the village including the ticket computer.

We decided to try later so headed off to the lodge we previously booked. The wind was that bad I had to hold onto Liz to stop her flying. I imagined El Chalten to be a more exclusive version of El Calafate due to it's reputation for being expensive. It dosn't take long to figure out what makes this place tick, everyone and everything is geared up to the great outdoors - this village has a purpose. It's purpose is to pay homage to it's sentinels, the dark brooding vertical spires of granite looming down on the village. I have to say that not much impresses me these days but the sight of these even at this distance filled me with awe. Mt Fitzroy however was surrounded by cloud. In fact it creates it's own cloud plume, 'Chalten' means smoking mountain.

The place we booked was a brand new upmarket lodge. They had set a introductary rate that placed it at the cheap end of the market, but more importantly it had some space availiable. It certainly was an interesting architectural building with lots of glass, steel and stone.

No kitchen meant eating out, our search gravitated to this German micro bewerly place that also was really cosy and appeared cheap enough. The two rounds of beer cost as much as the meal but it was sheer bliss drinking ale again after so long. With money running out we had no option but head back - but hey it was a nice place.