Following our adventure on Solo, we returned to our friends at Aylen-Aike preparing an asado for the night! They were happy to see our safe return after watching the weather in the mountains all day. We were very glad to be back in a warm place with their company as well. The time in El Chaltén was coming quickly to a close for all of us, so we spent the next few days together enjoying pizza, wine, and ice cream from our favorite restaurants (of course), taking lots of photos, and hanging out with Seba at the hostel.
We also had some time to go climbing across the river with Mathias and Sofie!
Eline was first to leave, followed by Phillipe and Christina a few days later.
There may have been some tears…it’s really difficult to part with friends after traveling with them for so long and experiencing as much together as we all did! Christina and I exchanged two small items to be returned to each other at our next meeting, when they visit Alaska on a road trip in a few years.
We had two more days to wait for our bus north and back into Chile. We’d watched the crowd in the hostel change from climbers back to normal people and were feeling pretty melancholy about our departure. There aren’t many places in the world like Chaltén. It was a time of friendship, of wind and rain and snow, magic, and new family. We hope to return next winter for a full season, or at least as much time as we can afford! See you soon, El Chaltén.
chilean wanderings 