Arrived El Chalten, Logo del Desierto and Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (Fitz Roy) mid-day with time to hike a little (Aleve is good) and ride up to the lake.
For me the gold standard for beautiful mountains is the tahoe region of the Sierra Nevada Range - this place is equally spectacular with the addition of massive glaciers and amazing cloud formations. The little town at the base of it all is charming and hospitable.
This afternoon I ran into a kid on a DR650 with a trashed rear wheel bearing and steered him to a shop in Rio Galleros - 450 km away - but there is nothing here and very little in between - he will probably try to truck the bike to El Califate and then take a bus to Rio G to try to find a part. He was coming south on exactly the route I plan on using so it was nice to hear his experiences (having a huge limb break off a tree and shearing off one of his side bags, followed by a nasty blow out in the middle of nowhere on the same day (after traveling for months without incident.) Asi la vida.
This evening about 10:30 as I was going to get a bite to eat I drove by the little bus station just after one had arrived - it was funny to watch about 40 loaded backpackers scramble to be somewhere, anywhere warm, some hostel, anywhere out of the wind.
Like Torres del Paine, there is no cell service here so when this posts - who knows...
Tomorrow is many miles of dirt on Rt 40 heading north east towards la frontera with Chile.
Nick
via BlackBerry