Santiago

Thought I might stick another post up while Lucas is uploading the photos from Santiago. Had three nights in the Chilean capital and came away slightly indifferent.

Despite the abundance of churches and monuments, and some incredible sunsets over the Andes through the smog, I got the feeling of being trapped in a smokey box. This is probably due to a) having spent the last month in the pristine air and nature of the patagonian Andes and b) Santiago being the most polluted city in South America. A day trip to the coastal town of Viña del Mar and Valparaiso (known to the locals as Viña and Valpo) and a swim in the freezing ocean was a great break from the city. I think it will take a few days to reaclimatize to city living as we are now in Mendoza (the heart of South American wine) and I'm still distracted by the noise and pollution and craving the laid back life of the little villages we have been through in the past few weeks. Which is next on the itinerary anyway in the form of Salta (Northern Argentina), then across the border again to the town of San Pedro de Atacama - on the northern edge of the Atacama desert (driest place on earth). Apparently all the best sights and experiences of the desert are all within reach for day trips from San Pedro, but we still like the idea of traipsing through a wasteland loaded up with our packs under the blistering sun and setting up camp in the middle of nowhere, who knows. And thats the part of this trip that keeps getting better, the less we plan the more flexible we can be and every path we take is an unknown adventure.

Happy Easter. Farewell Puppy.

Just a quick post to say Happy Easter to everyone, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Also a quick tribute to Puppy, my family's Fox Terrier that has been in the family for over 16 years. He finally decided it was time to shuffle off this mortal coil and took himself for a long walk over the hills behind our olive grove. It also seems he had his long time buddy Pig - the chihuahua - by his side for the final hours.

Goodbye Puppy.

Pucon - Volcan Villarica (photos updated - click here)

I have just returned from one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. A three hour (practically vertical) hike through volcanic rock and ice to reach the top of Volcan Villarica, which over looks the town of Pucon. At a fraction under 3000 metres it is one of the tallest peaks in this stretch of the Andes (although quite modest compared to the heights further North).

Not only was the view from the top of the volcano stunning, but the huge bursts of lava that rocketed skyward from huge swells surging from somewhere within the mountain just stopped us in our tracks, amazed by the unbelievable power of this thing. The intense bright orange of the molten lava won't be done justice by the photos, our breaths were completely taken away - also because of the gases in the air stung our noses and throat.

The trip back to buses at the bottom of the mountain involved a large amount of sliding down on our backsides using the ice picks as the brakes. We finally arrived at the bottom utterly exhausted and ravenous for a thick chorizo (steak), which we will follow up with a laze in the hot springs under the stars this evening.

Pucon is a beautiful little town set on a lake with snow capped volcanoes surrounding, fortunately for Pucon, Volcan Villarica is the only one that is active. Yesterday we hired bikes and rode around, finding a vast field of wild blackberries that we feasted on until our bike time had expired, then went for a swim in the lake (bit nippy) and kicked our football around.

Going back in time another day - San Martin de los Andes was our one night stop over before reaching Pucon. Again, a pretty little town set on a lake surrounded by peaks. We hired a canoe and sped around the lake taking the odd pause to admire the scenery. The most memorable thing about San Martin are the million rose bushes that produce the best smelling roses we have ever smelt in our lives.

Endeavouring to catch a bus to Santiago tomorrow night. This has probably been one of the highlights of the trip so far, am still in disbelief.

(click the title of the post to go to the Chilean photo album - photos should be up very soon. By the way, we also have a fair bit of video footage so far that we will try and upload somehow)

Bariloche

Reading back over my last post I think I was probably feeling a bit hysterical after the long bus ride - what was that joke about the days?? honestly.

After our second day in Bariloche being rained out and today involving the organising of buses, cars, accommodation and planned routes north, we haven't really seen all there is to see in this area. Although I think we are still reeling a bit from the magnificence of the more southern regions of the Andes so this part hasn't really captured our imagination. We get the early bus out tomorrow to San Martin de Los Andes, which is the stepping stone across the Andes to Pucon in Chile, which has a volcano to hike up and some hot springs somewhere. We're both ready for some more outdoor activity again, and are both starting to pine for a warm beach again too, probably another couple of weeks in this stretch (1300km) of the Andes (including the Chandon and malbec producing vineyards of Mendoza) before we get across to Santiago and some Chilean beaches. We can feel winter snapping at our heels which is urging us to keep a brisk northward momentum (as is the promise of some even cheaper and unique experiences in Bolivia).

Torres del Paine....

Hi again everyone!

Just arrived in San Carlos de Bariloche (just on the Argentinian side of the Andes - about half way up Argentina) after a 33.5 hour bus ride. The journey was made extra long because we had to go South East (back to Rio Gallegos!!) before we could head the 1500 odd km North again, but we must be getting used to the long hauls because we both zoned out and before we knew were in the final couple of hours leading into Bariloche.

Anyhoo. The last week or so was spent in the Torres del Paine national park (a designated `biosphere' - however that differs from a protected national park). The hiking actually took us a lot less time than we anticipated due a combination of fast walking, closed trails and running out of food.

DAY ONE

As you'd expect we commenced the hiking on Day One. On arrival at the first bus stop we noticed a sign saying 'for your own safety and comfort the maximum pack weight should be no more than 20% of your bodyweight'. A few calculations later we realised we were carrying close to half our bodyweight each (all that damned tinned food!!). But nothing could be done now so we set off walking on a dirt road towards the bottom of the first set of peaks. We arrived at the bottom of the first main trail after almost two hours of getting whipped by dust storms and we had developed a fair idea that we would most likely perish half way up the mountain in these winds and with that weight on our back, so a tin of tuna later and we were on our way up the hill. After another two hours of steep ascent and almost being blown off the side of the mountain I decided I had discovered the true meaning of pain when we eventually arrived at the first camping site. A attempt to put the tent up nearly saw the tent pole and the two of us get snapped in the ferocious winds, so we gave up our dreams of being rugged mountain adventurers and were forced to stay the night in the cabin.

DAY TWO

We awoke the next morning and found not only were we in Day Two of the hike but that the wind had vanished and clouds dropped (or should that be the other way round?). We took our lighter day packs and hightailed up the rest of the mountain to see the Three Towers for an early morning tea. A three and half hour round trip and we were ready to set off on the '4 hour' hike to the bottom of the second valley. The jist of this hike was that I discovered the remnants of my quads from the day before during the first hour, and then realised that I had only really discovered the meaning of a 'slight twinge' the previous day, as the day wore on I was sure I had finally crossed the boundary from Pain into some other emotion not yet defined by mankind. The hike actually took 5 hours in fairly clement weather and we got the tent up that night and wolfed down big dose of tinned veges, tinned beans and spam (with a tomato soup mix thrown in for added flavour) before passing out in the tent.

DAY THREE

The next day conformed with the chronology of our numeric system and confirmed itself as Day Three (I could continue this joke for.....infinity). We woke up to a chilly morning with rain pattering on the tent, so we went back to sleep until midday - when the rain stopped. The extra sleep must have done us good as we powered through to the bottom of Valle Frances and had the tent set up in under two hours. We then set off with our day packs to the Mirador at the top of Valle Frances. Probably one of the best views of the park from here. 360 degree veiws of the peaks and the turquoise lake down the bottom, all the while being surrounded by thousands of perfectly formed natural bonsais.

DAY FOUR

After discovering that the back trails of the park were closed due to fires we had revised the duration of the hike down to 6 nights. A stocktake of our remaining food supplies suggested that five nights would be the limit, so we set off across to the bottom of the third valley of 'The W' that characterises the park with the intention of spending two nights camping at the top near Glacier Grey before heading back down for a morning Catamaran out of the park. With slightly lighter packs from all the food we'd eaten (and slightly heavier due to some waterlogged and sweatlogged garments) we made the dash to across to the bottom of the third valley and decided to leave our big packs there and strap the tent, sleeping bags and remaining food to our day packs. A plan that seemed foolproof until we arrived at Glacier Grey and discovered that we had forgotten some of the vital elements of our eating plan (ie. something other than trail mix and apples). Having done the hike up to Glacier in about 2.5 hours (suggested duration of 4 hours) we realised that we could make it back down to where we dropped our big packs before nightfall and camp there the night. A couple of things to note at this stage is that there were some large clouds looming on the horizon, and the last catamaran leaves the park at 6:30pm. We left Glacier Grey just after 4:00pm without ever really entertaining the idea that we could make it to the catamaran in time, especially given the bruised and blistered state of our feet. Either way it was a race against the clock before nightfall and we set off at a brisk pace. About halfway back the rain started to fall, just heavily enough to gently soak into your clothes and hair, this actually started to give me flashbacks of childhood runs in Indonesia, through the gentle rain in the dying light with cool air of being at a little altitude. This enveloped my thoughts and after I while I was feeling like the BFG as every time I looked up away from the track (having to concentrate the whole time on not rolling my ankle again) I had passed by valleys and great lakes on either side. As we finally rounded the corner of this main valley we noticed the catamaran was starting up its engines to leave for the end of the day, still not thinking we could make it we laughed off the idea of getting home before the storms set in for the night. But as we got closer the boat still hadn't left, so lucas took my pack and went to where we had left our big packs while I dashed the last few hundred metres towards the jetty as the crew were untying the last of the catamarans ropes, at first they waved me away when I got their attention, but one of them (must have been the captain) noticed our sodden appearance and took, waving us on. So I belted pack up the path and grabbed my pack from lucas and we hightailed it again down to the boat and flung ourselves aboard in a frenzy of cold saturated ecstasy, a perfect crescendo to finish an amazing few days.

ps. I don't think I spent anytime describing the varied and astounding scenery of the park, our fairly poor cameramanship (if thats a word) doesn't do justice to the amazing shapes, colours, reflections, condors, avalanches, rock slides, sunsets, mists, stars, sparkles and everything else that you see in Torres del Paine.

Bariloche is more an alpine area, reminds me of Kosciosko a bit. Am looking forward to some more outdoor adventures here (less strenous here though I imagine - only day trails to the highest peaks of about 2400m).

Photos - Argentina -> Patagonia -> Puerto Madryn

Okay one last post...

Valdes Peninsula off Puerto Madryn - one of my highlights so far.

Swimming across a small channel to get a little island covered in penguins and a sleeping elephant seal, getting within a foot of the giant then having to swim back against the current as another elephant seal in the water slowly approaches and one of the americans almost gets swept away.

Photos - http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/Puerto-Madryn

From Buenos Aires to Puerto Madryn

This could possibly be my last chance for some time to get onto the internet so I'll give a quick run down of whats been going on....

The last two days in BA were supposed to be restful in preparation for the long haul down to Patagonia (which makes 'patagonia' sound like a specific place but is actually pretty much the bottom half of Argentina - which is a massive country). I think Australians always get told how big Australia is and we don't think about the other countries in the world with equally vast empty spaces. For example, I am currently about a similar latitude to Hobart (which is now the southernmost I've been in my life) and still have nearly 2000km to travel due south.

Anyway I went off on a tangent there. The last couple of days in BA involved some more partying with Pablo before we left, in anticipation that we could sleep for 21 hours on the bus to Puerto Madryn. Lucas managed to sleep during the night-time stint while I lay awake fighting the desire to throw up and pass out on a toilet. A sleeping pill after our breakfast stop sorted me out and I slept for the remainder of the trip and then the rest of the night when we arrived at a hostel in Puerto Madryn.

The vast majority of the landscape down to this little town was a huge flat expanse of scrubby ground cover, not a single tree in god knows how many million square kilometres. The town itself just appeared out of nowhere with no apparent reason for it's existence apart from the nearby Valdes penisula with a wide range of wildlife - which we will visit tomorrow.

Down to the glaciers and mountains of southern Patagonia in a couple of days for some camping and hiking before working our way slowly north. Internet cafe's might be few and far between so I'm not sure when the next update and email chance will be. I hope everyone is going well and enjoying themselves. Actually since Lucas has been doing all the deep and meaningful thoughts I might leave you with a thought I've got...

You don't need to travel to the other side of the world and stare at ancient churches or overwhelming glaciers in order to discover something about yourself.