From Puerto Natales we took an early morning bus back to El Calafate in order to get an onward connection to El Chalten. We spent the intervening 4 hours in our favourate of places La Tablita and again had huge portions of steak all washed down with copious amounts of wine .... cannot think of a better way to wait for a bus! We got into El chalten after a 5 hour bus ride across unmade roads and were greeted by the twinkling of fairy lights which made the place look very much like a Swiss ski resort. Stayed in a great place that had just added an extension and it looked like we were the first to stay in the room. El Chalten really is a frontier town (not suprising given the fact that it was only estqablished in 1985 in order to stop Chile claiming the territory). There are no banks, no supermarkets and the local shop only stocks rotten vegetables and rotten fruit (I kid you not) but despite this it has a really great feel and I think that the town is going to look very different 5 years from now. The whole Fitzroy area around here is quite simply stunning ...... probably the most beautiful mountain ranges we have ever seen. Needless to say we spent the next few days walking our socks off, returning to base exhausted and hungry but very very happy. This state was further helped by the fact that El Chalten probably has the smallest micro brewery in the world. It does not sell its beer anywhere else and the brewery has a seating capacity of around 20 people .... beer was delicious.
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