Buenos Aires

The past week has been pure bliss, with us taking a pause from travelling and settling down in the huge metropolis of Buenos Aires. It has felt like home thanks to our couchsurfing hosts that let us into their lives for a few days, giving us a place to stay and showing us around town.

We are now waiting for our midnight bus out of here, all of us sad to leave this city. In the past week we've seen a great ska-jazzish band, a drum concert, danced in the streets, played pinball until our muscles were sore, laid on a paradisiac lawn & swam on top of our building for hours on end, saw an amazing tango music show called "Mucha Mierda", met Roberto, a homeless guy with such a passion for life, hung out in parks, partied till sunrise, went to museum (singular) and just wandered around the streets.


I think its the first time we're all actually gonna miss a place, though we've all vowed to come back and live here some day. 18 days till my flight out, and I'm trying not to think about it, but its hard not to. We're moving into December and its the first time that the end has really been in sight. Next is the central town of Cordoba, then its off the the Iguazu falls and into Brazil for the last phase of the trip.

Potatoes

More random photos from our adventures in Puerto Montt and the Chilean lake region.

Loving our newly rented car

Joy riding

Hiking in H-something national park near Pucon.

Climbing the Volcano Villarica

Fisherman boat in Castro- Chiloé.

Back to Reality

We've just spent the last 3 days travelling from the end of the world to the 3rd biggest city in South America- Buenos Aires. The beginning of the trip was very eventful where upon catching our 5am bus out of Ushuaia we found out from a screaming bus driver that our travel agency had sold too many bus tickets, so me and nadja were relegated to a minivan for the first 3 hours.

We were already annoyed about not being told about that when 15 minutes into the ride we had more important things to worry about - our van driver was falling asleep. So the next hour was spent watching his weary eyes close and having my ever-more sweaty hand ready to grab the wheel. We`d told him several times but he kept on insisting he wasn't sleepy, only to slowly drift onto the gravel 5 minutes later... he even put on his sunglasses so we couldnt see his eyes.

A few more repeats of this and we forced him to pull over and told him either he leaves us there or I`d drive the rest of the way, cuz there was no way we'd continue with him. So for the last 60km I drove the minivan, with him sleeping in the passanger seat and 4 relieved Israelis and Nadja in the back. We were laughing the whole way at the ridiculousness of it all, only to be pissed when the manager of the bus company couldn't have cared less.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, with us getting stuck at the Chilean border for 3 hours cuz of a national border guard strike. From Rio Gallegos (still very south) to Puerto Madryn (Penguin Colony) we took the best bus of our lives, with fully reclinable seats and the whole downstairs of the bus just for us 3! We spent an hour jumping around all the seats before we finally settled down to watch the longest sunset of our lives.


In Puerto Madryn it took us forever to find a car to rent, with all the agencies being closed until 5pm. In the end we got ourselves a little shakey Clio and took off to a nondescript brick-housed Welsh colony where we had english tea with custard face tarts. That night we camped in the volunteer fireman's campgrounds with strong winds blowing our tarp off every so often.


The next day we got lost in stupid Trelew on our way to the biggest penguin colony outside Antarctica, with up to 500,000 penguins living there. It was amazing how close we could come to them. We came in the perfect season, when their babies are just being born and we got to see a few little black things waddle around under their mothers' stomachs. Its also weird that they picked this arid place to have their colony, with there being just rolling desert hills with little shrubs under which they make their nests.


There were penguins for as far as the eye could see- some coming close enough for us to touch them, although we resisted our urges. We were so drawn in by them that we forgot to check our watches and we ended up having to run back to our car and race (and I mean race) back the 230km to the town where we had our bus booked for 2pm. But after doing some rally in the dirt roads we made it back with some time to spare, only to find out that our bus was 1 hour late anyways.

21 hours later and we arrived in the HUGE terminal of Buenos Aires, finally reuniting with SM and Monica and spent the afternoon eating Asado (BBQ beef...mmMmm) and walking around parks and shops. We even met a street performer that we had met before in Lima!

Hitchiking to the End of the World

We decided that just going to the end of the world wasn't dramatic enough, so we chose to do it by hitchiking there in 7 different vehicles over 2 days, spending the night in an 18-wheel truck. We also did it cuz there were no buses there for the next 3 days.

We took a bus from Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas, the biggest city in the south of Chile, and from there a nice navy guy took us out of his way past the airport to the middle of nowhere and left us there to die. Apparently we could get rides easily there... and we did. Within 20 minutes of waiting a huge 18-wheeler pulls over and we jump aboard, beginning our trip to the southern most city inthe world- Ushuaia.


Our optitian-turned-truck driver was anything but stereotypical, having decided that routines were not for him he turned to driving trucks 11 years ago and just bought his huge new one 4 months ago. The truck cabin was amazing, with bouncy seats and even 2 beds in the back which we made use of when we got stuck at the ferry crossing for 3 hours, forcing us to spend the night inside. He even gave us our first taste of mate (typical Argentinean tea drink).

He let us off again in the middle of nowhere, and we got a ride with a scientist guy who analyzes gas in labs for 7 days and then gets 7 days off... lucky bastard. Again let off somewhere between 2 grass fields that extended until infinity with no signs of human presence we managed to flag down another 18-wheeler, this time transporting TV parts, complete with a tattoed and mulleted driver.


Apparently they deliver electronic parts all the way to the south of the country, assmble them there, and then truck them back up, cuz Tierra Del Fuego is a tax free zone... still seems like a waste to me though. Since Tierra Del Fuego isn't physically connected to the rest of Argentina everyone has to cross through Chile twice to get there, making them very angry, specially when Chile takes away all your apples. Grr.


After eating and relaxing at the border we found a meat-carrying truck driver with fuzzy blue seats to take us to Rio Grande, closer yet to our destination. From there a teacher took us even closer to the little village of Tolhous or something, which had an amazing bakery and chocolate shop, and then we stowed away on a muddy bus for the last 2 hours, finally reaching our destination of Ushuaia at 11pm, and for $7 instead of $60... Woohoo!

Torres del Paine

I've never done a multi-day hike before, so I didn't really know what to expect, nor did I have much time to expect anything. This national park is a hiker's dream, with trails passing between towering peaks and bright turquoise lakes, leading to glaciers and through wind-swept plains.

I've never seen so many different landscapes so close together, and this hike was really, I dunno... unreal.

We did the ´W´ hike, which is the one that everyone else does, with the first day hiking up to the Torres, these 4 needle point peaks and the trademark of the park, and camping in a little dirt site below. We were prepared, with our little gas cooker and nothing but pasta and soup meals for 4 days straight. Yum.

The next day we walked down along a blue lake and to the French valley, sitting between two mountains of jagged peaks, where we camped again near a river. We set off again after our morning oatmeal to the Gray lake and glacier, which, tho not as impressive as the Moreno one was still very cool. We ended up sleeping on a beach next to huge floating icebergs that night and the next morning was a race against the clock (and the rain) to catch our bus out of there at 6pm.

Well, we made it with plenty of time to spare, with lots of help from the wind that was pushing our backs the whole time. We even invented a new sport called savannah-trashbag-fly-kiting... we just have to work on the name some.

We returned to Puerto Natales, exhausted but happy, taking the next mornings bus (and a shower!) to Punta Arenas.

Patagonia

We have officially entered Patagonia. I'm not sure what attracts me so much to this word (meaning big feet, named after its natives' huge feet), but for me its a mystical place that I've dreamed of coming to since forever.

This 2000 km bus ride took us through the heart of it, leaving the mountains and lakes behind for flat shrublands that extend as far as the eye can see. The bus gods must be smiling on us because we got the best seats in the world, at the top front, with a great 180º view of the road stretching out before us.

The views went from this:

to 2000 km of this:

31 hours and 20 empanadas later we got off the bus at El Calafate, a small über touristy town near the impressive Moreno Glarier. This glacier is one of the only few advancing ones on earth, with its 60 meter high glacial wall moving 2 meters forward every day and regularly breaking off huge chunks of ice into the surrounding lake waters. We found a campsite where we got barked at all night by a neighbours dog, and waking up in the rain the next morning we weren't too enthusiastic about visiting this Glacier.

We decided to rent a car anyways, and as soon as we were on our way the sun came out and all was good again. We stared at the craggy glacier for 5 hours, being the last to leave after sunset and seeing various imposing blocks of ice crashing into the water, making huge waves. (Photos will be up soon...)

We then decided to do some wild camping in the park, and finding a hidden site we spent the night in below-freezing temperatures and died. But it was worth it, cuz the next morning we jumped into the car and drove back to the glacier for breakfast and some more oohing and aahing.

Finally returning the car that aftenoon, we decided to try our luck with hitchiking into Chile. We got lots of smiles and waves, but apparently everyone that drives in this town just goes round in circles all day. The bus arrived in Puerto Natales, Chile, that night and we found ourselves a cozy hostel (and showers!) to spend the night and prepare for our upcoming 5 day hike in Torres del Paine national park.

A little late

So I haven't uploaded my photos of the southern end of the world, but I will post some old photos that I haven't yet.


The trio posing in Bolivia's salt flats

Apparently we like jumping photos.

Flamingos in a 4000 meter high desert

The red lagoon in Bolivia

Hot springs at 6 am where our swimsuits froze solid

La Virgen in Santiago's Cerro San Cristobal

Bariloche

We love Argentina. Mostly because on this side of the Andes it doesn't rain all day every day.

After an eternity in Chile we crossed the Andes once more to the similar landscape of Bariloche- Argentina's lake region. The bus ride in was great, as usual, and at one point we had arid desert one one side of the bus and pine-treed lake surrounding mountains on the other. We liked the view so much that we did the bus trip twice- once to get to Bariloche and the 2nd to go hiking in the small town of Villa la Angostura, which some ways back towards Chile.

Well, instead of hiking a forested peninsula we spent 4 hours walking around a pond, climbing trees and whittling wood. SM intelligently decided to climb a tree lined with sap bubbles, popping all of them on her way up and ending up with sappy hair and jungle-woman fingers.

The next day we went to a beautiful lookout point on Cerro Campanero. We took a seggiovia up and spent the next windy few hours taking billions of photos of the scenery. Ironically I have none of them to upload on my blog... yesh...

On the last night we partied with our overly nice hostel people (they were either on drugs or Argentineans are just very cool), with tonnes of pizza and good wine we stayed up till early morning, something very smart when you have to get up early the next morning to travel 3000 km.

Well, we managed. That morning our group split for the first time, with SM and Monica yearning for big cities they left us for Buenos Aires, and Charles, Nadja and I trudged on to the southern end of the world.

More Photos

Us enjoying our brunch on the terrace in Valparaiso

Our car and our Cabaña in Chiloé. Our first bed after 6 days of camping. I've never appreaciated a bed so much in my life.

The Fjords of Chiloé

Nadja and SM tentfighting

The glorious pickup ride on one of the only sunny days we'd seen in the lake region.

For EVEN MORE photos go here: http://alexpio11.spaces.live.com/photos/

Photo Update

Sunset in Valparaiso, Chile

Sunset jumping

Nadja loving the volcano climb

Tractor in Chile's lake region, which is a mirror image of Switzerland or northern Europe

Nadja and Monica in her uncle's apartment overlooking the sea

Chiloé

A ferry ride away and lots of rain later we arrived to the Island of Chiloé, where blue sky doesn't exist. We exchanged our little Yaris for a huge pickup truck and we rumbled around the island to Ancud, a sleepy little fisherman village in the north. There we found our dream Cabañas, and after 6 days of sleeping in tents we were in heaven.




It felt just like home to me with chalet-style walls and cozy rooms. We spent 2 luxurious nights there (for $6 each!!) sleeping late, having tea and honey for brunch and leaving the house at 3pm to do some exploring.

The first day we visited a penguin colony with some fishermen just off the shore of the mainland. There were maybe 20 penguins in total, both the numerous Magellenic ones and the endangered Humbolt penguins. We had gruffy fishermen enthusiastically explaining the penguins to us in the driving rain. We then dried off with fresh seafood empanadas and an exquisit seafood soup next door.



We bumped the pickup through the backroads of this mythical island to the capital of Castro, where they have a completely wooden church and some picturesque stilt houses. We did this trip 2 more times in our 4 day stay on the island, for reasons unknown to me. The second time was passing through it to go to the Chiloé national park, where we walked through mossy fern-infested trees and drove onto a deserted beach with huge crashing waves.



The previous night we did some wild camping nestled between the dirt road and a placid lake under a rare canopy of stars and spinning satellites. After spending one last night in the paradise of our cabañas, waking up to a pancake breakfast we headed back to the mainland, a bit sad for not being able to do the Carretera Austral (cuz it would have cost us $240 in ferry money), but happy to have some days to laze around.




The following days we wondered around the Chilean lake region, stopping at an closed (its off season) campsite next to a national park, and we set up our tents next to a riverbed and a great rock throwing beach. The day after we continued south after a promenade in the national park and then back north to Puerto Varas and to the foot of the Volcano Osorno- in an embarkment called Petrohue. There we found another closed campsite that we had all to ourselves -the best one yet!- with an amazing view of the secluded lake and snow-capped mountains in the background.



The next day we saw the whole of the imposing volcano for the first time in 10 days, and returned riding on the back of the pickup to Puerto Montt. Half an hour later we were on the bus to Bariloche, Argentina, crossing between the snowy andes and its naked moss-draped trees to our destination.

Road Trip!!

So we rented a car in Puerto Montt, the rainiest place on earth and we've just spent 3 days camping in the lake region, mostly in the rain, walking through national parks and up snowy volcanoes. We're tired, cold, wet, stinky, hungry, and sunburnt, but loving it!


We finally did some wild camping without getting killed in the beautiful Chilean lake region, which is a photocopy of the rolling hills and lakes of Switzerland, complete with chalets and kuchen toot. There are more Germans here than in Germany and more cows than Germans.


We stopped in the wooden town of Pucon to walk through a national park and the next day we decided to climb up the active Volcano Villarica. It was the first time I've climbed up a snow-covered volcano, and so much fun!

We rushed up to the fog-covered crater with ice picks and all to get there before the storm. I've never seen so many shades (and smells from the smoking volcano) of white. After a few photos we ran back down the mountain, sliding down half of it on diaper-slidey butt things (according to Nadja). It was fun, sweaty, exhilirating, cold, exhausting, and completely worth it.

We spent last night wandering around trying to find someone's garden to sleep in and we finally found a kind Chilean who let us camp on his field. He even made us breakfast this morning! And even though it rained most of the night and we were 5 in a 4 person tent and we smell like old fish we are happy! Really, we are!