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!

¿Its a what?

Nadja the apple smuggler got arrested while we were crossing the border back to Chile. What ensued was lots of laughing, lots of waiting, and some eyebrow furling.

It happened like this:

2:58 pm - Nadja X-rays her appleful bag at the Chilean border crossing
2:59 pm - a dog discoveres a half eated grilled cheese sandwich on our neighbor, and nobody cares
3:01 pm - The apples (2) in question are found in Nadja the apple thief's bag.
3:03 pm - The perpetrators (2 apples) get photographed and weighed (0.35 kg)
3:05 pm - We bid farewell to Nadja the terrorist as she is escorted to the interrogation room
3:33 pm - We laugh about the ridiculousness of the situation over and over again
3:35 pm - we laugh some more
3:46 pm - we stop laughing
3:52 pm- Nadja Bin Laden is released with a 25 Euro fine and lots of paperwork

We dont want apples entering Chile because there might be fruitflies in them which can close markets, lose millions of pesos and cause mass unemployment. I wish I was making this stuff up, but the large poster at the border did it for me.

The Next Post

I have never been so tired as the 2 days after Valparaíso. We finally reached Mendoza -Argentina's wine country - at 4:30 am after crossing the moon-soaked Andes that night. We actually slept until 6 or so on a bench at the bus terminal along with a bunch of homeless people with their hands in their pants (don't ask).

Since we had lugged our camping gear with us we had the bright idea to go camping in this city of 1 million people and started finding out how to do it. We finally took 2 taxis to the middle of nowhere- completely out of town, and, logically had them drop us off in the middle of the middle of nowhere, where we then had to walk 20 min to the campsite that was closed for the season making us walk another 20 min to another campsite which 60 schoolkids had rented out for the whole month. Tired, dejected, and pissed at ourselves we took a bus back to town which we couldn´t pay for cuz NOBODY IN THIS COUNTRY HAS CHANGE. So the bus driver told us to get off (in the middle of nowhere, of course), so we panicked and foraged together a few coins for our ticket.

We had no idea where the bus was taking us or where we needed to be, so we just picked a random moment to get off, and were never so happy to find a hostel at our feet. That's what happens when you get less than 4 hours of sleep for 2 consecutive days. We then slept and slept and did the park tour of European Mendoza that afternoon. People here are even more white than in Chile and there are basically no indigenous people left. That and everybody's last name seems to be Lombardi, di Tommaso, or Abruzzi.

Well, the next day could only be better. And it was. We rented bikes in Maipu (pronounced my-poo for those who are interested) and did a tour of this winemaking territory which resembled exactly that of Toscana or southern France. We visited wineries and degustated some good Argentinean wine as well as olive oil and chocolate liquor (Mmmmm).

Upon our return the superflously nice bike people invited us for a glass of wine and some laughter with their pet parrot. To end the day we watched a Maná tribute band play great covers at a Mexcian restaurant before tiredly settling into our beds.

Valparaíso

Valparaíso is not Viña del Mar, which also isn't Reñaca or Zappallar. Except that Viña del Mar is practically Valparaíso which then makes you assume that so is Reñaca when in fact it isnt.

This coagulation of names is THE Chilean seaside city where everyone comes to relax on the beach or party at night. I followed the group's directions and arrived in the crappiest looking plaza in the world on top of a distant hill full of burnt taxis (ok, so it was just one burt taxi). I then started to worry that my friends were [more] deranged [than they already are] and that had sent me to my death.

Well... no. It turns out they found a great little apartment with terrace, kitchen and all on this random hill between the two cities. So the days we spent here were even lazier than Santiago, waking up no earlier than noon and spending the next few hours watching TV and eating breakfast on the porch. Then at around 3 or so we'd walk around town, or go visit Monica's relatives´swimming pool in Reñaca, or the port.

The last night we made chicken and partied our hearts out in an empty club till early morning. That probably wasnt the smartest thing to do when we had to leave early the next morning, and our bodies made us suffer for it.

The next day we leisurlyly (my conjugation mechanism's off) woke up and took the bus to Santiago where we spent the day walking up Cerro San Cristobal for breathtaking views of the city while waiting for our 10pm bus to Mendoza, Argentina which reached at 4:30 am and started a catastrophic chain of events leading to us feeling stupid and losing $4. But I'll leave that for the next post.