Bariloche is our final destination in Argentina with the trip now turning west and back into Chile. Due to the issues from Puerto Natales Renee is taking the local bus across the border where she will join us again in Santiago. Our immediate destination first though is Pucon and it's me who volunteers to navigate up front. The dirt road is slow and takes much longer than the Drago crew notes suggest giving us a late arrival in Pucon. It's therefore a mad rush to get to the activity bookers. We have two full days here and need to make the most of the time, especially as the star attraction is a volcano climb that insists on good weather. We book it for the following day. Then it's a mad rush to the supermarket to grab lunch stuff as the tour pickup is at 6am. To add to it all Riki and I can't find the campsite so it's extra late by the time we get to sleep.
Pucon lies at the northern reaches of the Chilean Lake District which is also dotted with a number of volcanoes. The one we are tackling is the active Volcán Villarrica. A 2840m cone rising in solitude from the landscape, banks of snow covering the sides. All kit, including ice axe and crampons, is provided for the obligatory guided hike to the top. There is a transfer to the base 8km south of Pucon and a chairlift which takes care of 400m of scree. This leaves about 1000m straight up, but about thrice that walking the zig-zag over rock and snow. The going is steady and well paced by the guides who do a good job throughout the day. We are simply blessed with a perfect cloudless day giving us amazing near total 360 view of the surrounds including a few other solitary volcanoes, only a small inaccessible section of the crater rim breaking the panorama. It stinks of sulphur of course, but the fumes are acceptable for a decent time at the top. It's a long way down into the crater, but the lava could not be seen as it may have once been, it could on occasion be heard releasing a big bubble. The great feature of this hike is the lack of walking back down! Instead we slide down the snow on our bums for the majority of the way. This is in itself enormous fun. Louise makes great chili beef nachos for supper, during the eating of which Riki's camping stool collapses leaving him sitting on the ground bits of tomato clinging to his bare chest! Riki saw the funny side as we all of course did. Later in the evening we visit some outside thermal pools to relax.
We realise how lucky we were the next day as the Volcano is obscured by cloud. This is ok as I go white water rafting. It's a fun few hours, but not full-on enough for me even though it's supposed to be a grade 4. Next time grade 5. Unlike most of South America so far Pucon does serve up some good pizza mind you. Pucon's suprise is a very nice lakeside beach, black sand from volcanic rock. A pretty easy day all in all.
We spent extra time in Pucon, but this leaves us a 6am start for a12 hour drive to Santiago the next day. Well, Riki has a 12 hour drive, we sleep in the back! I take over from Craig in the front and help Riki get to the hotel. This time it's much smoother arriving at the hotel in good time. It's the last night of this leg, and it's nice to not rush before we head out for a meal. This gives Louise time to hand wash her fleece which turns the water black four times!! The meal is at a fancy seafood restaurant. The food is good, but the service is average and there is a hassle over the bill where we get charged for the supposedly free pickup. Should have seen that one coming. We all have a good night out though hitting a club after and getting back to the hotel at 4am. When Louise makes me wash my fleece, again turning the water black many times! The following day is a quiet one. The city is modern and feels really safe to walk around. We don't have any sights we particularly want to see in Santiago, but one task here is to get a hair cut, so we go in search of a barbers. Happening upon an arcade full of ropey looking joints intermingled with sex shops we move on and get a place in the looks reasonable bracket. As in Naples there is a language barrier, but no Angelo when you need him! The hand gestures not working so well this time. I then get shown a photo book of gents styles, all 'interesting'. It works out fine in the end after a nervous few minutes as he sets about my head with unguarded clippers. I'm not a complex haircut, but I'm not ready for a skinhead just yet!
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Monday, 23 February 2009
Argentine Patagonia
The is no time to relax and it is aching legs back on the truck and back on the road heading for Argentina once more, via the remotest looking border crossing this side of Africa. El Calafate is only a few hundred km past the border. It's a remote tourist town, here to service visitors to the Los Glaciares NP and specifically the Moreno glacier. This is also the source of our interest in being here. A surprisingly good hostel is our base for a couple of nights providing a welcome change from the Thermarest. Not that the Thermarest is uncomfortable, it's just not as comfortable as a good mattress. I'm not sure of the connection, but there is a Rick's Cafe and a Casablanca Bar in town!! We eat eat in neither finding a great Parilla next door.
For some reason (money?!) we can't take the truck into the NP, so we have to take a mini bus tour to see the Glacier. It's an impressive site all the same and walkways allow a really close view of the ice face. A 5km wall of ice split between two fronts rising up to 60m directly out of Lago Argentino. A boat trip on the lake provides a closer view still. The 3km north face has a scale that is difficult to grasp, looking smaller than the figures suggest. The patchy cloud creates a shifting light on the face's white and blue tones. The glacier until recently was one of the few in the world still advancing, but is now stable. Chunks fall of at the same rate as the ice advances. The falling ice is spectacular to witness, but somehow the loudest cracks happen out of sight!
A short drive, by our standards, north of el Calafate lies the small town of el Chalten. A small town sitting in a picturesque valley in the same Los Glaciares NP as the Marino glacier. This is the northern access point into the 724000ha park, 40% of which is ice fields. We are camping here for three nights with time to spend walking, ice climbing or chill out. Although the legs are still feeling the Torres aches we get the boots back on for a trek to Laguna de Los Tres for more stunning mountain scenery in the shadow of the Fitzroy Massif. The walk is mostly easy apart from the last hour which is a steep rocky slog exposed to the howling wind. It's an impressive view at the top though and one we see in the nick of time before the weather closes in. On the subject of howling wind it's definitely a feature of our stay in El Chalten. The campsite is exposed to the wind as it rips down the valley. The heavy duty Dragoman dome tents shake and bend in the wind, but stand up to the test. Bill has his own lightweight V tent pitched and tethered, but the wind shows it no mercy, lifting it up and playing it like an accordian. The Drago truck has a big heavy-poled 'cook tent' for windy and rainy conditions, but even this is too unstable to use on the last night. No matter as we dine on fine empanada and chocolate brownie washed down with fine beer from the local microbrewery followed up later with more fine empanada and chips. With this being the only real access to the park there is potential for there to be an overpriced ok-ishness about services here, but the places we went had a homely good quality about them.
In the morning we pack the tents in horizontal rain driving north. Once again leaving the mountains for flat barren landscape. Thankfully we leave the rain behind too before finding a great little estancia with a sheltered camping area complete with kitchen. The tents dry quickly in the warm dry evening.
Our next destination is Bariloche (or San Carlos de Bariloche to give it it's full title), an Argentine ski resort that has gone for a Swiss influence in a big way, even down to the making of chocolate! It's summer, so we're not here for the skiing instead the chance to explore the region of Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi. Many of the group decide to hire bikes to get around, but we go for the less strenuous use of the bus network with the first destination a serene chair lift up to great views of the mountains and lakes. Irritatingly the bus system doesn't work out to well and we don't get to our other intended viewpoint, instead wasting time waiting for buses that don't arrive or just sail past. We reckon the bikes were the best option after all and lucky for those guys they get back just before the rain comes.
For some reason (money?!) we can't take the truck into the NP, so we have to take a mini bus tour to see the Glacier. It's an impressive site all the same and walkways allow a really close view of the ice face. A 5km wall of ice split between two fronts rising up to 60m directly out of Lago Argentino. A boat trip on the lake provides a closer view still. The 3km north face has a scale that is difficult to grasp, looking smaller than the figures suggest. The patchy cloud creates a shifting light on the face's white and blue tones. The glacier until recently was one of the few in the world still advancing, but is now stable. Chunks fall of at the same rate as the ice advances. The falling ice is spectacular to witness, but somehow the loudest cracks happen out of sight!
A short drive, by our standards, north of el Calafate lies the small town of el Chalten. A small town sitting in a picturesque valley in the same Los Glaciares NP as the Marino glacier. This is the northern access point into the 724000ha park, 40% of which is ice fields. We are camping here for three nights with time to spend walking, ice climbing or chill out. Although the legs are still feeling the Torres aches we get the boots back on for a trek to Laguna de Los Tres for more stunning mountain scenery in the shadow of the Fitzroy Massif. The walk is mostly easy apart from the last hour which is a steep rocky slog exposed to the howling wind. It's an impressive view at the top though and one we see in the nick of time before the weather closes in. On the subject of howling wind it's definitely a feature of our stay in El Chalten. The campsite is exposed to the wind as it rips down the valley. The heavy duty Dragoman dome tents shake and bend in the wind, but stand up to the test. Bill has his own lightweight V tent pitched and tethered, but the wind shows it no mercy, lifting it up and playing it like an accordian. The Drago truck has a big heavy-poled 'cook tent' for windy and rainy conditions, but even this is too unstable to use on the last night. No matter as we dine on fine empanada and chocolate brownie washed down with fine beer from the local microbrewery followed up later with more fine empanada and chips. With this being the only real access to the park there is potential for there to be an overpriced ok-ishness about services here, but the places we went had a homely good quality about them.
In the morning we pack the tents in horizontal rain driving north. Once again leaving the mountains for flat barren landscape. Thankfully we leave the rain behind too before finding a great little estancia with a sheltered camping area complete with kitchen. The tents dry quickly in the warm dry evening.
Our next destination is Bariloche (or San Carlos de Bariloche to give it it's full title), an Argentine ski resort that has gone for a Swiss influence in a big way, even down to the making of chocolate! It's summer, so we're not here for the skiing instead the chance to explore the region of Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi. Many of the group decide to hire bikes to get around, but we go for the less strenuous use of the bus network with the first destination a serene chair lift up to great views of the mountains and lakes. Irritatingly the bus system doesn't work out to well and we don't get to our other intended viewpoint, instead wasting time waiting for buses that don't arrive or just sail past. We reckon the bikes were the best option after all and lucky for those guys they get back just before the rain comes.
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Torres del Paine
The Torres N.P. has been on our minds for the last couple of weeks as we decide what walking we want to do. Well, the treks are an easy choice, going for the main events, but it's the options that required the thought. Day walks or the W trail, camping or Refugios (a mountain hostel), take all food or buy along the way? Louise (and most others) opts for the day hikes and I go for the W trail taking all kit and food with me. We arrive at Puerto Natales to prepare ourselves for the walks, a town that seems to exist solely for this purpose.
We arrive during the typically long siesta and the town is dead. Even finding somewhere open for a late lunch is a search. This however is the lull before the storm as it all gets a bit hectic after that. The five people doing the W need to shop for food and hire equipment, but first get roped into helping our cook groups shop for meals even though we wont be there to make or eat it. This takes ages. During this time Renee gets questioned by the Chile police! Her papers say guide, but to them this means she is working illegally in the country. They take her passport and she must visit the police station in the morning. By the time we get to the hire stores they are all out of one man tents. Riki and I had initially slightly different plans for the W, but team up to rent a super lightweight two man. The Drago tents are too heavy to carry any distance. It's late, but the guy is good and keeps the shop open for us even though tiredness and a lack of spanish is making us look like a couple of numpties. We have to fetch Louise for the credit card deposit and just about wreck his roller blinds on the way out! It's into the small hours before the bag is packed and we're asleep. Not the evening you need before a four day hike.
In the morning Renee still has no passport back, but is allowed to go into the Torres NP. However she will not be allowed to travel with the truck while in Chile. We are due to re-enter Argentina after Torres, but we are not sure what will happen when the tour comes back into Chile. It's possible Riki will have to lead the tour to Bolivia himself. Right now though we are in the NP and ready to start the walking. The W is thus called because the route is roughly the shape of the letter W, featuring three valleys as the main attractions. One to the Torres (towers) viewpoint, one through French valley and the other to the viewpoint overlooking glacier Grey. The day walkers do the same valleys, but just using two campsites as bases. Riki and I sharing the two man tent works well in the end as we are well matched on pace and gain motivation. We stay in basic campementos twice and Refugio campsites twice which is a happy compromise to both our original plans. Suprisingly good food is available at the Refugios which we have the two times we are there. We push on to a campemento near the Torres viewpoint for the first nights camp. The idea is for an early start giving us the chance of sunrise light on the Torres. Except it's cloudy! As it unfortunately is for all the groups on their visits. We wait and the cloud lifts enough for a more than pleasing glimpse before it's time to push on. Next day we meet Louise in the French Valley. She has been walking it alone as the second day walk, the rest of the group too tired after the first day... The wimps!! It's their loss as the valley is the most consistently stunning of the three. Small glaciers hug the steep mountain sides, the frequent ice falls, followed by the loud crack and rumble, adding to the spectacle. There's more though, as the valley's bowl end delivers a near 360 panorama of mountain peak vista.
The four days walking in the park has been really enjoyable. There is a good vibe too, saying Hola to almost everyone and seeing the same faces day to day, in various states of fitness. The good weather certainly helped the enjoyment. Cloudy and not great for photography, but it didn't rain. It's been tough on occasion too, carrying heavy packs, as this is not something we are used to, but we somehow manage enough energy to march confidently to the finish Refugio to wait for the other W walkers and the boat which takes us over the lake to rejoin the others after the Torres day walk, a whole lamb being barbequed for the celebratory meal.
We arrive during the typically long siesta and the town is dead. Even finding somewhere open for a late lunch is a search. This however is the lull before the storm as it all gets a bit hectic after that. The five people doing the W need to shop for food and hire equipment, but first get roped into helping our cook groups shop for meals even though we wont be there to make or eat it. This takes ages. During this time Renee gets questioned by the Chile police! Her papers say guide, but to them this means she is working illegally in the country. They take her passport and she must visit the police station in the morning. By the time we get to the hire stores they are all out of one man tents. Riki and I had initially slightly different plans for the W, but team up to rent a super lightweight two man. The Drago tents are too heavy to carry any distance. It's late, but the guy is good and keeps the shop open for us even though tiredness and a lack of spanish is making us look like a couple of numpties. We have to fetch Louise for the credit card deposit and just about wreck his roller blinds on the way out! It's into the small hours before the bag is packed and we're asleep. Not the evening you need before a four day hike.
In the morning Renee still has no passport back, but is allowed to go into the Torres NP. However she will not be allowed to travel with the truck while in Chile. We are due to re-enter Argentina after Torres, but we are not sure what will happen when the tour comes back into Chile. It's possible Riki will have to lead the tour to Bolivia himself. Right now though we are in the NP and ready to start the walking. The W is thus called because the route is roughly the shape of the letter W, featuring three valleys as the main attractions. One to the Torres (towers) viewpoint, one through French valley and the other to the viewpoint overlooking glacier Grey. The day walkers do the same valleys, but just using two campsites as bases. Riki and I sharing the two man tent works well in the end as we are well matched on pace and gain motivation. We stay in basic campementos twice and Refugio campsites twice which is a happy compromise to both our original plans. Suprisingly good food is available at the Refugios which we have the two times we are there. We push on to a campemento near the Torres viewpoint for the first nights camp. The idea is for an early start giving us the chance of sunrise light on the Torres. Except it's cloudy! As it unfortunately is for all the groups on their visits. We wait and the cloud lifts enough for a more than pleasing glimpse before it's time to push on. Next day we meet Louise in the French Valley. She has been walking it alone as the second day walk, the rest of the group too tired after the first day... The wimps!! It's their loss as the valley is the most consistently stunning of the three. Small glaciers hug the steep mountain sides, the frequent ice falls, followed by the loud crack and rumble, adding to the spectacle. There's more though, as the valley's bowl end delivers a near 360 panorama of mountain peak vista.
The four days walking in the park has been really enjoyable. There is a good vibe too, saying Hola to almost everyone and seeing the same faces day to day, in various states of fitness. The good weather certainly helped the enjoyment. Cloudy and not great for photography, but it didn't rain. It's been tough on occasion too, carrying heavy packs, as this is not something we are used to, but we somehow manage enough energy to march confidently to the finish Refugio to wait for the other W walkers and the boat which takes us over the lake to rejoin the others after the Torres day walk, a whole lamb being barbequed for the celebratory meal.
Tierra del Fuego
After the bush camp we make our way to the Chilean border. Our destination of Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego is in Argentina, but the island is roughly halved between Chile also. To get there we must enter Chile, take the ferry to the island, drive a bad gravel road, leave Chile, enter Argentina and complete the journey on a proper road. The initial approach is flat and featureless, but as we approach Ushuaia the landscape rises up into mountain scenery. Much to the delight of everyone. It also starts to hammer down with rain! We pull up outside the hotel the new starts are staying in so Renee can go in and leave a note. The rest of us stare longingly at the hotel out the truck window. Someone likes us though as literally minutes before we have to pitch camp it stops raining. There is no camp cooking either as it's Renee's birthday so we all head into town for a slap-up meal. Louise and I have excellent squid and fillet steak with chips and peppercorn sauce. It's possibly the best steak we've had in Argentina!
It's here in Ushuaia (The worlds most southerly town, staging point for trips to Antarctica and 7173km travelled since Rio.) that we say hello to the new passengers for the next leg to Santiago. The new group is 16 strong, but it's the combination of both that take a afternoon tour of Terra del Fuego national park. It's nice to see some mountains, but we get the impression that the best is yet to come. Dave is having a bad day. He really wanted to take a boat trip on the Beagle channel and due to the the lack of time here only had this morning to do it. Unfortunately there is a one day port strike on. He has also picked up the wrong disposable camera and has no film to take pictures of the N.P. Other Stuart decides to make some nasty comments about a conversation piece of Dave's. Now, Dave has his peculiarities, but as least he's not a total gobshite unlike other stuart who has the worst case of verbal diarrhoea possible. Not exactly the sharpest tool either (making his attack even more irritating), but still finds the gall to talk it up. A friend back home has a saying for people like stuart and jane: if you have been to Tenerife they have been to elevenerife! I could go on, but unlike them I wont.
In the evening there is a hello/goodbye Argentine BBQ featuring enormous steaks. Leaving are John, stuart and jane. Joining are: Bec, Craig, Karen, Neville, Rob, Rosanna, Sarah from England; Dave and Aissa from Canada; Ulrike from Germany; Bill from America.
There are three Dragoman trucks at the campsite in Ushuaia. One has no passengers and is waiting for instructions. The other leaves the morning before us, but breaks down 50km over the Chilean border! The spare truck is robbed of the part required and we deliver it to them on our way. The Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego is savagely remote and the other Drago truck has been stuck here for a day by the time we reach them. Incredibly they broke down next to the only thing around for miles and miles, a quarry and an old bus converted into a kitchen and dining area. It looked like some quirky retro diner and provided a welcome break from the truck. The 15 minute, never going to happen, fix didn't happen so we used the bus diner for our food and stuck with the stranded truck amusing ourselves with frizby and a game of football. The football was the other trucks, but somehow left on our truck after bush camping there that night!! The other truck was finally fixed at 5am! We head away towards Torres del Paine N.P. and the other truck towards Rio.
It's here in Ushuaia (The worlds most southerly town, staging point for trips to Antarctica and 7173km travelled since Rio.) that we say hello to the new passengers for the next leg to Santiago. The new group is 16 strong, but it's the combination of both that take a afternoon tour of Terra del Fuego national park. It's nice to see some mountains, but we get the impression that the best is yet to come. Dave is having a bad day. He really wanted to take a boat trip on the Beagle channel and due to the the lack of time here only had this morning to do it. Unfortunately there is a one day port strike on. He has also picked up the wrong disposable camera and has no film to take pictures of the N.P. Other Stuart decides to make some nasty comments about a conversation piece of Dave's. Now, Dave has his peculiarities, but as least he's not a total gobshite unlike other stuart who has the worst case of verbal diarrhoea possible. Not exactly the sharpest tool either (making his attack even more irritating), but still finds the gall to talk it up. A friend back home has a saying for people like stuart and jane: if you have been to Tenerife they have been to elevenerife! I could go on, but unlike them I wont.
In the evening there is a hello/goodbye Argentine BBQ featuring enormous steaks. Leaving are John, stuart and jane. Joining are: Bec, Craig, Karen, Neville, Rob, Rosanna, Sarah from England; Dave and Aissa from Canada; Ulrike from Germany; Bill from America.
There are three Dragoman trucks at the campsite in Ushuaia. One has no passengers and is waiting for instructions. The other leaves the morning before us, but breaks down 50km over the Chilean border! The spare truck is robbed of the part required and we deliver it to them on our way. The Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego is savagely remote and the other Drago truck has been stuck here for a day by the time we reach them. Incredibly they broke down next to the only thing around for miles and miles, a quarry and an old bus converted into a kitchen and dining area. It looked like some quirky retro diner and provided a welcome break from the truck. The 15 minute, never going to happen, fix didn't happen so we used the bus diner for our food and stuck with the stranded truck amusing ourselves with frizby and a game of football. The football was the other trucks, but somehow left on our truck after bush camping there that night!! The other truck was finally fixed at 5am! We head away towards Torres del Paine N.P. and the other truck towards Rio.
Saturday, 14 February 2009
Just to let you know...
...we are still travelling around South America. The blog will continue. It's just more difficult to find the time / ability. We do spend a fair amount of time on the truck, but unlike the trains in Europe I don't find this a good environment to do the blog. So it takes more time. Sleeping on the truck is much easier for some reason!! I'll post the story in chunks as they are written and I have a signal and you can work out when it all happened!!
See ya.
See ya.
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