December 6, 2025
Lago Desierto to El Chalten
Great night's sleep despite the ground underneath the bivouac being so hard. Woodland here doesn't do soft leaf mulch like in Europe. The native trees don't shed their leaves either, so supposedly that's why.
I was out of the bivouac at 07. A sunny morning, or would be but for being closed in a deep valley, in shade of high screed slopes with rocky tops on either side. But I am not cold as I wear a downjacket from the donation shelve in the hostel in O Higgins. A place where so many cyclists finish their trip and off-load articals they no longer need. I badly needed a warm jacket for going south, so had it.
I set off shortly after 08. The gravel road twists and turns following the winding coarse of the big river I'd camped in the trees by. Ahead, fast moving plumes of cloud swirl up revealing Mount Fitzroy, like a colume of white smoke rising over the peak, then stopping.
The way passes the scene of a gun battle between Carabineros de Chile and Argentine Gendameria on the afternoon of the 6th of November 1966. The Chilean's who had establish a settlement at Lago O Higgins, advanced further south to the valley below Lago Desierto and raised the Chilean flag at a remote estancia. However, they soon met with fierce resistants from Argentine Gendames and a bloody gun battle ensued, fatally injuring officers on both sides before the Chileans were repelled and the Chilean flag taken down.
There is a memorial to those killed and a touching statement saying that today both Chile and Argentina, hermanos (brothers) share this untermost far end of the world.
I have ridden the road south prieviously, but I forget how incredibly scenic it is as it passes a lake and further bridges a glacier river flowing from a snow white icefield in a valley to the right and joining the main big river following the valley enclosed by rugget hills.
I reach the hiking village of Chalten shortly after 11, calling at the campsite El Relinch, where I meet Marc who told me about their, the rest of the O Higgins hostellers, nightmare reaching here yesterday evening. From the hotel were I left them, they called for a bus to collect them, but it took time and they didn't reach town until late last night.
Before checking in I cycle to the Patagonicus cafe, perhaps one of the first restaurants in Chalten established in 1999. Inside the walls are covered in framed black and white photos of its building in 1997 with patrons, two sisters about thirty in front. Also, pictures from the 1950s of the climbers that came to conquer Fitzroy and recieved hosiptality at the estancia here. And by the door is a 1950s portait of the family grandfather, with a caption saying the first inhabitant of Chalten.
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On the way back to El Relinch, I run into Miguel who was having a beer with some Argentinians he'd met and had photo taken together.
Once checked in and the bivouac set up, struggle with slow internet, that regularly stops and starts. Remind myself of the exchange rate and see that the prices aren't as high as intially thought. Camping, coffee and crepe, empanade lunch costing a total of 24 pounds. Later, I return to Patagonicus for a steak dinner and couple of beers for another 20 quid.
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