Today hiked to Laguna Torre. This was a bonus as at 8 this morning it didn't look as though we'd be going anywhere. This part of the world is known for it's strong winds- it's in the roaring 40s- and last night a storm brewed up. It had rained pretty much since lunchtime but overnight it went really wild. It sounded like the windows of the cabana were going to blow in! We left it till about 10:30 to leave, thinking we'll just go for it and come back if we have to but it calmed down. It cleared really quickly and the walk was mostly in a sheltered valley. The black cloud hung around the glaciers but you could see enough for them to be spectacular. After 2.5 hours we rounded the last corner to the lake and the close up view of the glaciers and the wind that hit us was phenomenal- almost enough to knock you over. So Wix got to wear the trapper hat she insisted on bringing after all. It was beautiful and we hung around long enough to take about a zillion photos, then retreated from the wind.
We leave here tomorrow for El Calafate which is in the southern part of Parque National Los Glacieres where we have a couple of organised trips set up which we are really looking forward to, particularly on Kerry's birthday. We have absolutely loved El Chalten though, it's ideal for independent hiking and the scenery is spectacular.