My Name is Juan, Seeing the Patagonia Logo IRL, & A Big Glacier
My second-last week in Argentina
As I’m writing this, I’m just a few days from coming back to the UK.
Whilst I’ve had some amazing experiences in Argentina, I’m also very excited to be coming home and seeing people!
This update is a little late (that’s never happened before!) and covers my second week of holiday, which I spent mainly in a place called El Chalten.
Apparently, my name is now Juan
On my first day in El Chalten, having just finished the 5 day W Trek, hiking was kind of the last thing I wanted do.
This was a little bit of an issue as El Chalten is literally the official ‘Hiking Capital of Argentina’.
After the front desk at my hostel got over their surprise at my question for a recommendation for anything other than hiking, they suggested there was a horse riding tour on a nearby estancia that they had heard good things about.
Having done a little bit of horse riding now in Argentina (and somewhat got over my abject fear) I jumped at the opportunity for a non-walking activity.
Fast forward to the next morning, I was saddling up on a horse, wrapped up like the Michelin man as the sun still hadn’t risen over the mountains that surround El Chalten.
We went for a 2 hour horse ride through an estancia called Bonanza which is huge, got some lovely photos and had a nice coffee break midway. Below is some photographic evidence of me on my steed. (Also take note of the little pointy mountains in the background, we’ll come back to them later!)
Now at this point you may be exasperatedly exhaling that I’ve falsely clickbaited you into reading this section due to something around being called Juan. Well you will not be disappointed.
At the beginning of the session, we were introducing ourselves to our guide and she was asking our names. As usual, when I asked I said my name was ‘Ed’ and assumed that would be the end of it. However, my Argentinian guide really struggled with the name Ed (asking multiple times in front of the group) so instead decided to call me Juan for the whole morning. And off we went
So there you go - I now have an equine-riding, gaucho Argentinian alter-ego called Juan.
When Did Hiking Become an Upper-Body Workout??
I want to first make it clear, before any pernicious rumours start spreading on the interwebs, that I did not start hiking on all fours over the last few weeks so as to maximise upper-body gains. That would be impressive, but dumb. Sort of thing a friend called Cam would do.
Instead, this has arisen due to a new bit of (rented) gear in my hiking repertoire.
Hiking Poles!!
Now before anyone calls me a grandpa (no slight intended to any grandparents reading this), I want to be clear why I am 100% a hiking pole convert.
I used them on the W trek and hiking in El Chalten and they are amazing. They enable you to go quicker uphill, as you’re able to use your arms and shoulders to help push on steps, you’re so much quicker over loose and unsteady rocks & when going downhill it takes so much off the load off your knees - it was noticeable that of the friends I made on the W trek all those who didn’t use poles complained at the end around knee pain whereas those who used poles didn’t. If that isn’t incontrovertible scientific research in action, THEN I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS.
As a result, if you bump into me on a hiking trail at some point in the future, there’s a reasonable chance I’ll look something like this.
(also do you notice that pointy mountain again in the background - there may be a pattern emerging).
I saw the Patagonia Logo! (sort of).
Whilst in El Chalten, I did do two day hikes.
The first was pretty easy, quite cloudy on the day, so not much to write home about.
But the second, called the Laguna de Los Tres Hike, was a different story. It’s the most popular and famous hike in El Chalten.
First, it was a tiring hike. It was 22km long, and across the day had around 900m of ascent. However, this was not spread evenly throughout the day, with the largest chunk right at the end before you get to the destination. Below I’ve tried to give a visualisation of this using my map and drawing skills. It was only through anger and blasting Swedish House Mafia through my earphones that enabled me to get to the top.
But once we made it up there, we were treated to absolutely amazing views of the surrounding area.
The lake and mountains were also stunning. If you’ve been paying attention, you may notice the three jagged mountains in the middle from earlier photos - Mount Fitz Roy or Cerro Chalten (which means smoky mountain as often clouded in smoke) is the largest one in the middle. This vista of the lake, mountains and surrounding areas was almost hypnotic in its beauty, and I spent a good hour up here relaxing and taking in the sights.
Mount Fitz Roy is famous for a number of reasons, notably for its jagged shape and being extremely hard to climb (the first successful ascent was only in 1952), but also as its on the Patagonia logo. If you squint hard.
Here is a lovely photo of me (I think its one of my best angles) trying to line them up for your benefit.
The reality is the logo is now heavily stylised, but this graphic I found online shows how it fits.
Either way, it was an amazing and stunning hike, with the added bonus of a cool bit of trivia on what mountain range is behind the Patagonia logo!
Glaciers are cool.
The last night of my week off I spent in a place called El Calafate. Its where the nearest airport is and its a town that’s sprung up over the past 20 years mainly to service the tourist boom. As a result, there’s not much else interesting to talk about.
BUT the one super interesting thing is that there is a large glacier called Perito Moreno that is easily accessible just an hour away. With my cunning organisation and planning skills (which my mum still doesn’t believe exist) I’d arranged to go and see the glacier just before I flew up to Salta.
Perito Moreno was very cool. It’s the third largest reserve of fresh water in the world, is 3 miles wide and rises 78m about Lago Argentino. In other words, it was big and blue.
I’ve been lucky to be able to see a glacier once before. But I’d forgotten how loud they are. Cracks, groans, shudders. It felt like every 30 seconds there was some new thunder or fissure. As a result, I spent nearly an hour just sitting, watching and listening, taking in both the beauty and the sounds as they echoed around us.
The glacier is named after Argentinian explore Francisco Moreno (who’s nickname was Perito) who played an important role in the border dispute between Argentina and Chile in the 19th century. Most importantly, he had great moustache game.
ANYWAY, that’s it for this week. Next week will be my last Ed Gets Lost from Argentina in the Andean North-West so hope you’re looking forward to that!
Cheers
Ed
(Chief Patagonia & Hiking Poles Brand Ambassador).
PS - when renting my hiking poles in El Chalten, I had to give my driving license again. If you remember my Puerto Madryn post, you’d know the rental car owner there was convinced that my ID was of my son and not myself. When I mentioned this to the guy, he agreed and said I looked 12. 😢 This was their reaction as they were laughing at my ID haha. I still don’t understand how I’ve been getting into clubs with that ID all these years.
