Friday 4/3/15 -
We woke up, packed our stuff, and checked out, headed for the next hostel which would be hosting the sedar that night. We paid 170 pesos for our sheetless and breakfast-less stay at Lo De Trivi hostel, and we were about to pay 100 pesos per night at Rancho Aparte Hostel. We were eager to find out the catch, hopefully we would have mattresses and a roof.
Turns out this hostel is what can be considered an “Israeli hostel”. Not because Israelis own it or run it, but because Israelis stay there all the time. Israelis travel very well after they finish the mandatory army service, and a lot of them go to South America, so there is an extensive network of information about every attraction. Yosi is part of this network, and it was really interesting to live this experience with him. The lady at the front desk even spoke conversational Hebrew. We checked in, paid the 100 for the first night, and got our tiny room with 2 bunk beds and 2 outlets (and literally nothing else in the room). Wifi was pretty bad, but that was true throughout the whole city.
They day turned into an errand day pretty quickly. Everyone had to do a lot of preparing for sedar that night, we had decided to go camping the next night so we needed to find out info about renting tents/sleeping bags/etc, and we needed to make sure we had the bus schedule down so we knew when and how we could leave the city. And we had to do laundry. So we took our stuff to the over priced lavaderia, 80 pesos per bin (it was 45 in Buenos Aires), and all met for lunch at the Waffleria, which was highly recommended to us first by the Tennessee couple we met at Refugio Grey on the W. The girls that we met and hung with on the broken down bus were also staying at this Israeli hostel (since they heard about it through Israelis on our bus), and they met us at the Waffleria as well. we were all going to camp together the next night.
After my delicious but not filling raspberry topped waffle, Gabi and I set off to gather information and do a couple short hikes. This was at about 12:30 and I wanted to be back at the hostel by 5 at the latest to help with sedar preparations. We did what we could from 12:30-1, but since El Chalten is such a small town and we were in Argentina, everything closes from 1-4 for time to do who knows what. So we walked the 10 minutes to the end of the town and hiked a short 15 ish more minutes to a tremendous view point over the entire town and background of mountains and river and Fitz Roy. It was stupid windy though so we moved on rather quickly to the second view point about 30 minutes from there. this was an even better view on the opposite side of the land looking over long flat plains, with a lake to the right and mountains off in the far distance. Fitz Roy was still easily in sights on the backside. It was still incredibly windy, but I sat down shielded by a rock and enjoyed the day for a few minutes. We also whipped out a compass and figured out that east was right over the valley, so I told Gabi we were going to get up and watch the sunrise the next morning. It was only a 45 minute walk and the sun rises at 7:30 ish so it really wasn’t a very tough call.
After some fun jumping and panoramic pictures, we headed back into town. Gabi went to the bus station for info since it was closed earlier, and I went back to the hostel to help with sedar. You can seriously walk across the whole El Chalten in less than 20 minutes, very small and awesome mountain town.
The amount of food these Israelis had bought was extremely impressive. There were 8-12 of them (who previously did not know each other) helping each other cut things, boil things, mix things, whatever duty called for. The hardest part though wasn’t the preparation, it was the gathering, which apparently took from 12pm-5pm in the tiny town because no store had everything. They had to go from place to place and attempt to speak Spanish with people when getting recommendations on where to find things like bitter herbs and parsley.
I helped cut some meat and garlic and onion and did whatever else I could even though I am pretty useless in the kitchen. I did the majority of the setting of the table for 16, which I was highly capable of doing. Sure enough the food was ready and we all changed and were ready to sedar at about 7:15. It really was a great feeling being able to do some sort of observing of Passover with a bunch of other Jews, specifically Israelis, who didn’t know each other before the event.
I sat next to Alie, who speaks a little Hebrew, and one of the employees of the hostel (I forgot his name, but it was something like “Falco”), who wanted to sit in and learn. Falco was impressively respectful and curious, and I was more than happy to fill him in on the details of the sedar. He also spoke great English so that helped. It was not a very formal or thorough sedar as there was only one Chagadah and it was passed around and read in Hebrew, but we did manage to get through the make-shift sedar plate, the four questions (read by the traveler with the fewest time traveling – 1.5 weeks), Deyainu, 3 glasses of wine, and more. We kept mentioning to Falco that if we were at home with our families, it would have been taken a lot more seriously, and there wouldn’t have been nearly as many selfies or blurted jokes.
Soon enough the main meal was served and there was an incomprehensible amount of food. A whole pan of rice, massive pots of salad, potatoes, charoset, and more, a ton of steak meat, and I am probably forgetting about half of it. And this does not include the plates of rice and vegetables and potatoes that were left in the kitchen, uncooked. Needless to say, we were all painfully full afterwards, and we could not finish the numerous boxes of wine purchased for our enjoyment. Plenty of jokes were made toward the end of the meal about how much food was made and how much food I was able to consume (sorry).
Since I didn’t do much cooking, I took it upon myself to help as much as possible with the cleaning. So I manned the kitchen and helped clean things, throw things away, and save left overs for a while. And I cleaned the counters and attempted to clean the nasty sinks until it was just too overwhelming. I did miss the guitar playing and sing-a-longs going on while the cleaning happened, but that’s probably for everyone’s benefit. Soon after, I passed out and we agreed as a room (Gabi, Yosi, Alie, and I) to get up at 6:30 for the sunrise. The fun American girls in the room down the hall also agreed to get up with us, even though it was 1am and no one had gone to sleep yet. I was excited to see who would actually join Gabi and me.
We woke up, packed our stuff, and checked out, headed for the next hostel which would be hosting the sedar that night. We paid 170 pesos for our sheetless and breakfast-less stay at Lo De Trivi hostel, and we were about to pay 100 pesos per night at Rancho Aparte Hostel. We were eager to find out the catch, hopefully we would have mattresses and a roof.
Turns out this hostel is what can be considered an “Israeli hostel”. Not because Israelis own it or run it, but because Israelis stay there all the time. Israelis travel very well after they finish the mandatory army service, and a lot of them go to South America, so there is an extensive network of information about every attraction. Yosi is part of this network, and it was really interesting to live this experience with him. The lady at the front desk even spoke conversational Hebrew. We checked in, paid the 100 for the first night, and got our tiny room with 2 bunk beds and 2 outlets (and literally nothing else in the room). Wifi was pretty bad, but that was true throughout the whole city.
They day turned into an errand day pretty quickly. Everyone had to do a lot of preparing for sedar that night, we had decided to go camping the next night so we needed to find out info about renting tents/sleeping bags/etc, and we needed to make sure we had the bus schedule down so we knew when and how we could leave the city. And we had to do laundry. So we took our stuff to the over priced lavaderia, 80 pesos per bin (it was 45 in Buenos Aires), and all met for lunch at the Waffleria, which was highly recommended to us first by the Tennessee couple we met at Refugio Grey on the W. The girls that we met and hung with on the broken down bus were also staying at this Israeli hostel (since they heard about it through Israelis on our bus), and they met us at the Waffleria as well. we were all going to camp together the next night.
After my delicious but not filling raspberry topped waffle, Gabi and I set off to gather information and do a couple short hikes. This was at about 12:30 and I wanted to be back at the hostel by 5 at the latest to help with sedar preparations. We did what we could from 12:30-1, but since El Chalten is such a small town and we were in Argentina, everything closes from 1-4 for time to do who knows what. So we walked the 10 minutes to the end of the town and hiked a short 15 ish more minutes to a tremendous view point over the entire town and background of mountains and river and Fitz Roy. It was stupid windy though so we moved on rather quickly to the second view point about 30 minutes from there. this was an even better view on the opposite side of the land looking over long flat plains, with a lake to the right and mountains off in the far distance. Fitz Roy was still easily in sights on the backside. It was still incredibly windy, but I sat down shielded by a rock and enjoyed the day for a few minutes. We also whipped out a compass and figured out that east was right over the valley, so I told Gabi we were going to get up and watch the sunrise the next morning. It was only a 45 minute walk and the sun rises at 7:30 ish so it really wasn’t a very tough call.
After some fun jumping and panoramic pictures, we headed back into town. Gabi went to the bus station for info since it was closed earlier, and I went back to the hostel to help with sedar. You can seriously walk across the whole El Chalten in less than 20 minutes, very small and awesome mountain town.
The amount of food these Israelis had bought was extremely impressive. There were 8-12 of them (who previously did not know each other) helping each other cut things, boil things, mix things, whatever duty called for. The hardest part though wasn’t the preparation, it was the gathering, which apparently took from 12pm-5pm in the tiny town because no store had everything. They had to go from place to place and attempt to speak Spanish with people when getting recommendations on where to find things like bitter herbs and parsley.
I helped cut some meat and garlic and onion and did whatever else I could even though I am pretty useless in the kitchen. I did the majority of the setting of the table for 16, which I was highly capable of doing. Sure enough the food was ready and we all changed and were ready to sedar at about 7:15. It really was a great feeling being able to do some sort of observing of Passover with a bunch of other Jews, specifically Israelis, who didn’t know each other before the event.
I sat next to Alie, who speaks a little Hebrew, and one of the employees of the hostel (I forgot his name, but it was something like “Falco”), who wanted to sit in and learn. Falco was impressively respectful and curious, and I was more than happy to fill him in on the details of the sedar. He also spoke great English so that helped. It was not a very formal or thorough sedar as there was only one Chagadah and it was passed around and read in Hebrew, but we did manage to get through the make-shift sedar plate, the four questions (read by the traveler with the fewest time traveling – 1.5 weeks), Deyainu, 3 glasses of wine, and more. We kept mentioning to Falco that if we were at home with our families, it would have been taken a lot more seriously, and there wouldn’t have been nearly as many selfies or blurted jokes.
Soon enough the main meal was served and there was an incomprehensible amount of food. A whole pan of rice, massive pots of salad, potatoes, charoset, and more, a ton of steak meat, and I am probably forgetting about half of it. And this does not include the plates of rice and vegetables and potatoes that were left in the kitchen, uncooked. Needless to say, we were all painfully full afterwards, and we could not finish the numerous boxes of wine purchased for our enjoyment. Plenty of jokes were made toward the end of the meal about how much food was made and how much food I was able to consume (sorry).
Since I didn’t do much cooking, I took it upon myself to help as much as possible with the cleaning. So I manned the kitchen and helped clean things, throw things away, and save left overs for a while. And I cleaned the counters and attempted to clean the nasty sinks until it was just too overwhelming. I did miss the guitar playing and sing-a-longs going on while the cleaning happened, but that’s probably for everyone’s benefit. Soon after, I passed out and we agreed as a room (Gabi, Yosi, Alie, and I) to get up at 6:30 for the sunrise. The fun American girls in the room down the hall also agreed to get up with us, even though it was 1am and no one had gone to sleep yet. I was excited to see who would actually join Gabi and me.
Saturday 4/4 -
Our alarms went off at 6:20, and Gabi and I hopped out of bed and got ready to go. I shook Yosi and asked if he was coming to which he mumbled “I’m too tired man”. Alie said she was out too. She wasn’t feeling well the day before so that wasn’t surprising. She also mumbled to count her out for camping, which meant we didn’t need to pick up an extra tent and sleeping bag on our way back from the sunrise.
Gabi and I were ready in our warm clothes with our flashlights and come 6:40 there was no sign of the girls joining either, so we took off. We agreed that it was one of those things where if you weren’t 100% set on going the night before, you were going to bail when your alarm went off. Probably the case for the girls. The walk was super easy to the look out point, we got there by 7:30, and to our pleasant surprise it wasn’t windy at all. As the sunlight had begun to show, I pulled out my phone to find that it had died. It did that sometimes. In the cold weather it would die with 50 or 60 % battery left. It was the worst timing though. So I hooked it into my portable charger/flashlight and waited for it to re-juice. In the meantime I used Gabi’s iphone since he also had a better camera. I brought my computer to play some music, so I set that up and sat down to enjoy the show.
The views and colors did not disappoint as we could see the clouds in front of us and above us, the lake the mountains far off to the right, and the glacier topped mountains (including Fitz Roy) behind us as well. All of these things turned different shades of red throughout the sunrise. We thoroughly enjoyed the hour plus we spent up there and agreed that everyone else missed out.
At about 8:45 we headed back to the town to rent the camping gear and get back to the hostel so that we could get to hiking. We rented 2 sleeping bags and 3 pads (Gabi already had a sleeping bag), and were planning to squeeze three guys into Yosi’s 3 person tent, which he had already offered and said would be fine. After a few other stops for food and such, we got back to the hostel, packed our bags for the overnight, got some last minute items, and were on the hiking path by 12:30ish. The hiking path was simply at the end of the town. You just walk down the main street and then you’re on the path. Quite convenient and free.
The 3 hour hike up to the campsite was a good one, not to easy, not too hard, and some good views along the way. I wore short sleeves because going up I always sweat so much, so at times I was chilly, but overall I was very comfortable. At the campsite, we found the girls’ bags and set up our tent next to their spot. At about 4:30, we headed to the top of Fitz Roy, supposedly an hour trek and very steep/challenging. We ran into the girls on the ice covered steps up the mountain, they had to come back down because Stephanie was leaving that night and had to catch a bus.
The hike up to the top of Fitz Roy was very challenging. We were literally climbing a mountain. There were steps created by rocks, but it was tricky with the ice and snow and incline. We witnessed people taking it very slow on the way down and even some slipping, but we made it to the top snowy part in a little over an hour, and then a 10 minute hike through the snow later, we were at the bottom of Fitz Roy. All three of us were beyond amazed at the glistening freshwater lake below the impressive rock mountain tops. the whole area had 3 feet of snow so we really had to be careful where we walked when we took many fun pictures. The scene was absolutely top tier. Then we walked around the lake a little to a second lake about 200 feet down and another incredible view point. Many pictures and sighs later, we walked up to the top of the snowy hill to get a full picture view of the lake and Fitz Roy, and (maybe more impressive) the valley and mountain range on the other side. We were at the top of a mountain and the weather was clear so we could see as far as the eye would let us. Mountains and plains and beauty if every direction. We didn’t want to leave, but the sun was already starting to set and we had an hour long, icy walk down, so we made some yellow snow and set off. We also encountered a brave soul who was camping at the top of the mountain, in the snow.
On the way down we had a contest to see who could fall the least because it was very slippery and required a lot of caution. It was actually thrilling and a lot of fun. No one got hurt, but Gabi lost the contest by falling 6 times compared to Yosi and my count of 1 each. Gabi had one bad, face-down, feet first spill, but only suffered minor scrapes and bruises. It took us an hour and 20 minutes to get down to the campsite, where it was dark and cold and Molly and Leah were finishing cooking their dinner. We used their gas unit after they were done to make our spaghetti, and all 5 of us hung out for a bit before heading to our respective tents. Sleeping 3 guys in Yosi’s 2 person tent actually was not that bad, we all slept pretty decently. But in the morning, the humidity from our bodies had made most of the items in the tent wet. It wasn’t a major inconvenience, but Gabi and I were once again very glad we chose to stay in refugios and not camp during Torres Del Paine.
Our alarms went off at 6:20, and Gabi and I hopped out of bed and got ready to go. I shook Yosi and asked if he was coming to which he mumbled “I’m too tired man”. Alie said she was out too. She wasn’t feeling well the day before so that wasn’t surprising. She also mumbled to count her out for camping, which meant we didn’t need to pick up an extra tent and sleeping bag on our way back from the sunrise.
Gabi and I were ready in our warm clothes with our flashlights and come 6:40 there was no sign of the girls joining either, so we took off. We agreed that it was one of those things where if you weren’t 100% set on going the night before, you were going to bail when your alarm went off. Probably the case for the girls. The walk was super easy to the look out point, we got there by 7:30, and to our pleasant surprise it wasn’t windy at all. As the sunlight had begun to show, I pulled out my phone to find that it had died. It did that sometimes. In the cold weather it would die with 50 or 60 % battery left. It was the worst timing though. So I hooked it into my portable charger/flashlight and waited for it to re-juice. In the meantime I used Gabi’s iphone since he also had a better camera. I brought my computer to play some music, so I set that up and sat down to enjoy the show.
The views and colors did not disappoint as we could see the clouds in front of us and above us, the lake the mountains far off to the right, and the glacier topped mountains (including Fitz Roy) behind us as well. All of these things turned different shades of red throughout the sunrise. We thoroughly enjoyed the hour plus we spent up there and agreed that everyone else missed out.
At about 8:45 we headed back to the town to rent the camping gear and get back to the hostel so that we could get to hiking. We rented 2 sleeping bags and 3 pads (Gabi already had a sleeping bag), and were planning to squeeze three guys into Yosi’s 3 person tent, which he had already offered and said would be fine. After a few other stops for food and such, we got back to the hostel, packed our bags for the overnight, got some last minute items, and were on the hiking path by 12:30ish. The hiking path was simply at the end of the town. You just walk down the main street and then you’re on the path. Quite convenient and free.
The 3 hour hike up to the campsite was a good one, not to easy, not too hard, and some good views along the way. I wore short sleeves because going up I always sweat so much, so at times I was chilly, but overall I was very comfortable. At the campsite, we found the girls’ bags and set up our tent next to their spot. At about 4:30, we headed to the top of Fitz Roy, supposedly an hour trek and very steep/challenging. We ran into the girls on the ice covered steps up the mountain, they had to come back down because Stephanie was leaving that night and had to catch a bus.
The hike up to the top of Fitz Roy was very challenging. We were literally climbing a mountain. There were steps created by rocks, but it was tricky with the ice and snow and incline. We witnessed people taking it very slow on the way down and even some slipping, but we made it to the top snowy part in a little over an hour, and then a 10 minute hike through the snow later, we were at the bottom of Fitz Roy. All three of us were beyond amazed at the glistening freshwater lake below the impressive rock mountain tops. the whole area had 3 feet of snow so we really had to be careful where we walked when we took many fun pictures. The scene was absolutely top tier. Then we walked around the lake a little to a second lake about 200 feet down and another incredible view point. Many pictures and sighs later, we walked up to the top of the snowy hill to get a full picture view of the lake and Fitz Roy, and (maybe more impressive) the valley and mountain range on the other side. We were at the top of a mountain and the weather was clear so we could see as far as the eye would let us. Mountains and plains and beauty if every direction. We didn’t want to leave, but the sun was already starting to set and we had an hour long, icy walk down, so we made some yellow snow and set off. We also encountered a brave soul who was camping at the top of the mountain, in the snow.
On the way down we had a contest to see who could fall the least because it was very slippery and required a lot of caution. It was actually thrilling and a lot of fun. No one got hurt, but Gabi lost the contest by falling 6 times compared to Yosi and my count of 1 each. Gabi had one bad, face-down, feet first spill, but only suffered minor scrapes and bruises. It took us an hour and 20 minutes to get down to the campsite, where it was dark and cold and Molly and Leah were finishing cooking their dinner. We used their gas unit after they were done to make our spaghetti, and all 5 of us hung out for a bit before heading to our respective tents. Sleeping 3 guys in Yosi’s 2 person tent actually was not that bad, we all slept pretty decently. But in the morning, the humidity from our bodies had made most of the items in the tent wet. It wasn’t a major inconvenience, but Gabi and I were once again very glad we chose to stay in refugios and not camp during Torres Del Paine.
Sunday 4/3 -
We woke up at 8ish and spent about 2 hours fighting the cold, making/eating breakfast (oatmeal/crackers and salami), cleaning up camp, and actually leaving. We all shedded layers pretty quickly as it was gorgeous weather and there were some great views. We hiked for about 3.5 hours, mostly downhill, to intersect the route to the Torre Mirador. Then we put down our large packs and only brought small day packs for the 2 hour hike up. At this point it was about 1:30, and we were on track to get back to El Chalten at around 7:30 (according to the times on the map), but we went for it anyway. We had heard good things about the mirrador and we didn’t want to hike all this way and not see the best sights.
In about 1.5 hours, we arrived at the top and saw the tremendous view of the lake in front of the rocky mountain presentation with a glacier mixed in. We enjoyed a few minutes looking around and then decided to walk the extra 45 minutes to the closer mirrador. The walk way was extremely rocky, but it was pretty, and eventually we encountered the snowy/icy part, maybe a little less dangerous than the Fitz Roy walk up. We walked up as far as we could, but at one point we decided it wasn’t worth the slippery risk for a view that probably wasn’t much better, so we parked for a little, had a legitimate snowball fight, took some pictures, and headed back down to the original view point.
There, we ate a snack, met up with Scott again (who ironically happened to be there at the same time), and headed down to El Chalten. We ended up walking much faster than the map projected, so we were down in the town by 6:15, which was great because we had our sights set on happy hour that ended at 7. First, Gabi and I stopped by the bus station to book our seats for the 10:50pm bus that night to El Bolson, and we ended up getting the last 2 seats on the bus. Pretty lucky. Gabi was short on cash though and the ATM wasn’t working (typical), so I spotted him what I had and he was only able to pay for a bus ticket to the stop previous to El Bolson. Same bus, but he would have to get off a stop earlier.
I got to Don Guerra’s (happy hour place) at about 6:45 and was able to enjoy a good amount of happy hour. In South America, “happy hour” almost always means 2 for 1 beers, not necessarily special prices or appetizer discounts or anything. So, I was able to enjoy 2 beers rather quickly and order a third before happy hour ended, therefore getting 4 beers for the price of 2. We ended up having a solidly fun dinner including Scott, Gabi, Yosi, Leah, and Molly. Gabi and I would have loved to continue the night of fun, but we had to catch our 10:50 bus, and actually ended up jogging up at 10:49, pretty nervous. Of course, the bus was late and didn’t leave until 11:15, but nonetheless, we were on our way to El Bolson, supposed to arrive at 7:15pm the next day – a 20 hour ride. And we mentally prepared accordingly because we had semi-camas (they didn’t offer camas, wasn’t happy about that), the bus was going to be completely packed, and there were bound to be many stops. It wasn’t going to be a fun bus ride, but we didn’t realize exactly how far from fun it was going to be.
We woke up at 8ish and spent about 2 hours fighting the cold, making/eating breakfast (oatmeal/crackers and salami), cleaning up camp, and actually leaving. We all shedded layers pretty quickly as it was gorgeous weather and there were some great views. We hiked for about 3.5 hours, mostly downhill, to intersect the route to the Torre Mirador. Then we put down our large packs and only brought small day packs for the 2 hour hike up. At this point it was about 1:30, and we were on track to get back to El Chalten at around 7:30 (according to the times on the map), but we went for it anyway. We had heard good things about the mirrador and we didn’t want to hike all this way and not see the best sights.
In about 1.5 hours, we arrived at the top and saw the tremendous view of the lake in front of the rocky mountain presentation with a glacier mixed in. We enjoyed a few minutes looking around and then decided to walk the extra 45 minutes to the closer mirrador. The walk way was extremely rocky, but it was pretty, and eventually we encountered the snowy/icy part, maybe a little less dangerous than the Fitz Roy walk up. We walked up as far as we could, but at one point we decided it wasn’t worth the slippery risk for a view that probably wasn’t much better, so we parked for a little, had a legitimate snowball fight, took some pictures, and headed back down to the original view point.
There, we ate a snack, met up with Scott again (who ironically happened to be there at the same time), and headed down to El Chalten. We ended up walking much faster than the map projected, so we were down in the town by 6:15, which was great because we had our sights set on happy hour that ended at 7. First, Gabi and I stopped by the bus station to book our seats for the 10:50pm bus that night to El Bolson, and we ended up getting the last 2 seats on the bus. Pretty lucky. Gabi was short on cash though and the ATM wasn’t working (typical), so I spotted him what I had and he was only able to pay for a bus ticket to the stop previous to El Bolson. Same bus, but he would have to get off a stop earlier.
I got to Don Guerra’s (happy hour place) at about 6:45 and was able to enjoy a good amount of happy hour. In South America, “happy hour” almost always means 2 for 1 beers, not necessarily special prices or appetizer discounts or anything. So, I was able to enjoy 2 beers rather quickly and order a third before happy hour ended, therefore getting 4 beers for the price of 2. We ended up having a solidly fun dinner including Scott, Gabi, Yosi, Leah, and Molly. Gabi and I would have loved to continue the night of fun, but we had to catch our 10:50 bus, and actually ended up jogging up at 10:49, pretty nervous. Of course, the bus was late and didn’t leave until 11:15, but nonetheless, we were on our way to El Bolson, supposed to arrive at 7:15pm the next day – a 20 hour ride. And we mentally prepared accordingly because we had semi-camas (they didn’t offer camas, wasn’t happy about that), the bus was going to be completely packed, and there were bound to be many stops. It wasn’t going to be a fun bus ride, but we didn’t realize exactly how far from fun it was going to be.