Ascent of Mt Fitzroy by Camera

From Mt Fitzroy

 After a short warm up walk on our first day in El Chalten, we were ready for the big one: the assault on the towering peak of Mount Fitzroy (named after the captain of the HMS Beagle).  The trek started off relatively modestly though woodland and along flattish scrubland areas, for about 12km, with one or two lookout points on the way.  The final stretch was a steep 400m ascent up a rocky slope and moraine scree to reach our goal, the view of Mt Fitzroy and the blue waters of the Laguna des Los Tres at its foot.  A truly impressive sight, with several glaciers tracing down from the peaks to feed into the lagoons below, and the massive peak of Fitzroy in the background. We decided against actually scaling the peak itself, and settled for a photographic assault instead.
After our picnic lunch I descended the short slope to the Laguna to test out the water for myself.  Nice and cool at around 2deg, and very refreshing for my hot feet.  One braver guy even had a swim in it.  Refilled our water bottles with pure glacier water for our return journey.
The walk back down the slope was if anything harder then going up, but we had hired walking poles for the day and that helped enormously.  The route back retraced our outbound path, but it was still interesting seeing the landscape from a different angle.  We finally arrived back at our hotel in El Chalten after a strenuous, but very satisfying, nine hour, 28km round trip.

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El Chalten

From El Chalten

El Chalten is a three hour bus ride north of El Calafate, and is the base for walks to the renowned Mt Fitzroy range.  Just before we pulled into town, our bus driver stopped at a view point so that we could get our first view of the impressive Mt Fitzroy.  On arrival we were given an orientation session by the people in the National Park Visitors Centre.  After checking in at our hotel, we decided to go for one of the shorter walks in the afternoon in preparation for the big one on the following day. Just high enough to get a view back over the town, and in the other direction, towards Lago Viedma.

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Walking on Ice

From Perito Moreno Glacier

 Today's excursion was to the Perito Morena Glacier, which is about 80km from where we are staying in Calafate.  This is one of the few glaciers in the world that is actually growing year by year, unlike the majority that are shrinking due to global warming.  As our bus drew near to the edge of Lake Argentina we were treated to the impressive sight of the towering ice cliffs pushing into the blue water of the lake.  The national park in which the glacier is located is very well organized, and there was an extensive network of walkways to allow visitors to view the glacier close up and form all angles, without disturbing the rest of the environment.   At the closest point, we were only 300m from the face of the glacier, and we were able to see the blue color of the ice that had been under the greatest compression.  We were also lucky enough to be able to see the glacier calving, which entailed a loud bang like an explosion, followed by the crash as a large chunk of ice fell into the lake to create an iceberg and a mini tsunami.
In the afternoon we were taken across the lake by boat to vice the glacier up close from the water, and then land on the opposite shore for the start of our glacier trek.  We trekked up to the side of the glacier where we were all fitted with crampons so that we could walk safely on the ice.  Then we were lead onto the glacier itself to view some of the more interesting features.  If you saw the episode of Frozen Planet that featured the Greenland glaciers, then you will have some idea of what we saw.  Pools of meltwater flowed down channels carved in the ice and then plunged down into the depths though deep holes. Particularly impressive was the electric blue colour of the ice holes and crevasses, almost as if they were being lit up from below by some sort of glacial light show.
Of course, all that ice could not go to waste, so our trek ended with a whiskey toast to us intrepid explorers, poured over ice freshly carved from the glacier by our guides.

Pajcha - Museo de Arte Ethnico Americano de Salta

From Salta

ing more than a random entry in Lonely Planet, we decided to visit this tiny private museum, which was situated in the same road as our hotel.  An interesting choice as it turned out.  On arriving in front of the museum premises you are confronted with a closed door and an intercom.  Pressing the buzzer and a disembodied voice said "hold on my friend, I will be with you shortly".  Eventually the door was opened and we were greeted enthusiastically by Diego, the deputy director of the museum, who welcomed us into his domain.
We soon realized that we we the only visitors to this establishment that day (and possibly that week), and after a fairly manic introduction to the collection, we opted for the guided tour option @ $40 pesos.  (I think we would have ended up with this anyway, whether or not we had opted for it, as Diego was too enthusiastic to keep anything to himself for very long). For the next two hours he proceed to guide us though the eclectic collection of South American pre-Colombian artifacts.  Diego's particular speciality appeared to be the subject of paintings of angels with firearms.  No, that is not a mistyping. Diego and the museum's founder and director had spent many years traveling to churches in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Chile to undertake research on this subject. They had collected a mass of photographic evidence to illustrate this strange school of painting, which involved the depiction of angels (distinguished by their wings), but dressed in 16th century European dress, and carrying firearms.  And apparently no one knows how this started, and why the style became so widespread across the Inca region.
The rest of the museum contained a bizarre mix of ancient artifacts from the region, and tried to show the link between these old crafts and those still in use in modern times.  All in all, a very informative and entertaining collection, and well worth the visit.   Highly recommended if you happen to have a couple of hours to spare in Salta.

Llamas All The Way

From Humahuaca

 We had a couple of hours to wait in Purmamarca until we were due to join the rest of our excursion heading along the Humahuaca Gorge from Salta.  This gave us enough time to grab some shots of the Seven Coloured Mountain in the morning sun.  A spectacular sight, making it worth my efforts in scaling the ridge opposite the village to get the definitive shot.  Anyway, judge for yourselves.

After Meeting up with our guide for the day, we progressed up the gorge to Ticara, where we had the chance to look round the ruins of the ancient pre-Inca settlement that was discovered there.  We learned, amongst other fascinating facts, that llamas were a valuable resource for the inhabitants of this area, proving food, transport, leather, wool, and apparently even used as a hot water bottle substitute on cold winter nights!  

The Humahuaca Gorge is one of the many World Heritage Sites in Argentina, in part because of the regions cultural history, but also because of the amazing geology.  Basically what we were seeing was a cross section of what was once the seabed, turned on its side so as to expose its various strata going back over hundreds of millions of years.  This gives rise to the wide variety of rock formations and colours that were on view as we drove along the valley.

Then on to the town of Humahuaca for lunch, which inevitably involved llama casserole (so that's llama three days in a row then), before heading back along the gorge to Salta, via San Sebastian, the capital of the Jujuy region.

 

Train to the Clouds

From Las salinas grandes

 The title of this entry is rather misleading.  We actually went on a car excursion that for the first part at least, followed the route of the famed Train to the Clouds, which starts in Salta and ends up in the Andes close to the Chilean border.  The construction of the rail line was clearly a significant engineering feat with many obstacles to be overcome on its route.  As with the previous trip to the Andes, we were treated to some breathtaking scenery as the road wound along the river gorge and then up into the Andean mountains.  We turned off the rail route at the small mining town of St Antonio de Los Cobres, and headed out over the Alti Plano on a dirt track road that seemed to be in constant danger of being washed away by the occasional heavy rains that come at this time of year. Not much to see in this virtualy deserted plain other than a few wandering llamas and vicunias.  Eventually we reached our ultimate destination for the day, the salt lake of Grandes Salinas.  This is a truly spectacular sight, with an almost endless expanse of glistening white salt stretching out in all directions.  I wish that I was better able to capture the scene photographically.
In the evening we ended up in the village of Purmamaca, in a charming boutique hotel nestling at the base of the Seven Coloured Mountain for which the village is famous, and, to my mind at least, resembling a Hobbit house.  As with the previous evening, we were treated to a peña performance at a local restaurant, with, inevitably, llama steak on the menu.

Salta

From Salta

We were particularly keen to visit the Museum of Mountain Archeology, which holds the mummified remains of three Inca children who were sacrificed to the Inca gods, and  subsequently unearthed from their graves on the summit of a peak in the Andes. The museum also contained a collection of artifacts that were buried with the children, and a helpful explanation to put the discoveries into a historical context.  It was eerie to see the extremely well preserved mummy of a six year old boy, looking as if he was just sleeping.  Well worth the visit.
The highlight of the evening was a visit to one of the local pena shows , which feature musicians playing traditional Gaucho folk music, accompanied in this case by a troupe of dancing Gauchos and chicas. It sounds as if it should be a bit cheesy, but it turned out to be great entertainment. Luckily I managed to avoid being dragged out onto the dance floor to demonstrate my dancing prowess!