I stopped writing my blog at this point for quite some time. El Chalten is this heavenly place a few hours north of El Calafate. The town didn't really exist until 25 years ago and is ultimately there to service the summer trekkers/climbers that flock to see the stunning Mt Fitzroy and its neighbouring mountains. It was a beautiful small town that is growing rapidly, expensive to be sure, but tranquil, with an abundance of day hikes for all skill levels. It suited Bernard and I tremendously well. We met some wonderful Australians there - whose company we enjoyed so much we will continue to rendezvous with them at other places on our travels. The hiking was great, the views (when the clouds eventually lifted, even for just a few minutes) were just lovely.
The ultimate downside, as many of you know, is that I lost my wallet the first night we arrived there. Whether I lost it, or whether it was stolen, I can't know for sure. I had it at 4pm and when I went to pay for dinner at 10pm, it was gone. Simple as that. Bernard and I spent so many pesos calling the UK/States to cancel bankcards, call for emergency replacements etc. I only lost about 250USD and my cards. In a way it shouldn't be that big a deal, but in real terms it is. Over the past few weeks I have been entirely reliant upon Bernard - the banks have been extremely difficult at supporting me to access my own money - and if I had not been travelling with Bernard I would be in quite a difficult position and no doubt on my way back to the UK or Australia by now.
My lack of access to ATMs has been extremely stressful as everyone seems to want to be paid in cash, and Bernard is struggling to withdraw enough cash from his card each day (the withdrawal limit on foreign cards is very low) to cover both his and my expenses. Fingers and toes in a few weeks time I will have my new cards and we can resume travels as normal. I'm just hoping that this doesn't affect our ability to get into Brazil. We'll only have to wait and see.
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