Grace and Dunk Adventures

Our South America trip in summary

2008-05-03T11:44:00.007+01:00

The first thought is how did 7 months go so fast and can it really be over already - its scary!!! The next thought is after a I take a few moments to think about my backpack is that yes its over and I'm glad cos I really dont want to have to live out of a pack, organise a trek, sit on a bus/plane for over 10 hours in a row, find a hostel, find our way around a new city (althou Cork is almost like that to me now), do the backpacker chat thing (you know the one - where ya going, where ya been, where you from, etc) for a very long time again! We have had an amazingly diverse and interesting trip, much better then we ever thought it would be (or could have imagined from reading guidebooks), much safer and friendlier and we even managed not to kill each other despite seeing each other basically all the time :)

Highlights
These are the bits of the trip that really stood out for us. They are not necessarily the most scenic or the biggest or the wettest or driest but for us they were a real highlight and something we always want to remember.

Carretera Austral - this was just 5 epic weeks, each day better then the last and just the best scenery you could imagine. Very few tourists, basic tourist services so an adventure travelling and getting around there as well. The hiking is as good as it gets (altho do bring mossie repellant!). This was possibly the best 5 week run of travelling we have ever done. Best bits included

walking in Valdivian rainforest in Park Pumalin & seeing dolphins
continuous unbroken mountain scenery every day
isolation of hiking in Lago Jenemeini and Tamango reserves
around Cerro Castillo hike
glaciers glaciers everywhere including O'Higgins day trip on a boat on Lago O Higgins
PN Quelat day walks to glaciers - unreal
the people experiences, the lovely and friendliest locals of our trip, the complete relaxed feeling and no need to care about being robbed -no locks or keys required
skinny dipping in ice cold lakes and rivers after a hot days walking, camping with not a soul next nor near us for miles (well we think anyways!)
walking 25kms across the border to Argentina, then hitchhiking with the border police on their high speed boat, followed by a lift on a dump truck into El Chalten

Rainforest experience in Los Piedras - fantastic 2 weeks immersed deep in the jungle, miles and miles and days from civilisation (depending on what ya call civilisation and the power of your outboard motor) surrounded by huge trees, monkeys, birds of all kinds, frogs, all the creepy crawlies you ever dreamt (or nightmared) about and just great fun and adventure.
Bariloche/El Bolson hiking - very well setup and organised huts and tracks, stunning scenery and forest, surrounded by mountains and also good for meeting Argentian people (as opposed to tourists). Refugio Otto Meiling was spectacular especially for ice walking and condors. Nahuel Huapi was beautiful and the walking near El Bolson was superb especially all the forest and potential for heaps more up here.
Hiking over John Gardner Pass to see Glacier Grey in front of the southern icecap plus day hike up Valle Frances on the Torres del Paine grand circuit were absolutely amazing days. This absolutely blew us away despite the overcrowding on the rest of the track. Its worth doing the hike just for these 2 days. The rest of the hike has some other highlights such as walking alongside Glacier Grey for 10kms, watching the ice fall off the front of it, of course the Torres themselves and the view from Lake Pehoe of the Cuernos (a very famous view in Torres del Paine).
At Fitz Roy in Los Glaciers NP, watching sunrise on Cerro Torre was stunning. Walking the section from Laguna Torre (Campomento de Agostini) to Campomento Poincenot (front of Mt Fitz Roy) was beautiful thru forest, alongside lakes and incredible views as Mt Fitz Roy came into view. The 3 hr return walk to Laguna Los Trece with spectacular views of Mt Fitz Roy, the glacier underneath its towering cliffs and looking down onto Lake Sucia was breathtaking and unforgettable. From Valle Electrico (super base for day walks and further if you have ice experience) we hiked upto (well almost) Cerro Electrico which rewarded us with a 360 degree panoramic view of the southern icecap, and surrounding mountains, valleys and glaciers. Unbeleivable and probably the best day walk of the trip, if ever that we have done.
Salta and surrounds. Fantastic, lunar, desert, forest, high altitude, vicunas, traditional lifestyles and art crafts, historic villages, great places to stay, vineyards, good food (empanadas especially - prolly the winner of all the trip), amazing colours and landscapes, canyons, mountains and valleys. Seeing is beleiving how many different landscapes we drove thru each day.
Salar de Uyuni - high altitude, volcanic landscape - gobsmacking. Volcanoes, flamingoes, dali -esque landscapes, lakes of sulfur, arsenic, etc, geysers, history - a must do of any South American trip.
Machu Pichu and the Inca Trail. We expected tourist nightmare and tho it was packed it was still incredible. What a place and what a setting. Unforgettable. The mountains and cloudforest probably made the trip for us.
Iguazu Falls - as big and spectacular as waterfalls get

What we would do differently or not do at all
Hindsight - if only we'd known some of the things we know now but sure maybe if we did then we wouldn't have had some of the experiences we did have. Saying that there is a few things we could have done to help make our own travels easier so here's are a few things we learnt (or in some cases rediscovered) along the way that we want to keep in mind for the next time (if ever) we do something like this.

Spanish - we should have started before we left and also maybe applied ourselves a bit more on the trip but with the basics we had it made our trip much easier, good to be able to have a few words with the locals and more fun in general
Music - how could we forget to bring music. Our biggest mistake
Earplugs and sleeping tablets - a sanity saver for long bus journeys
Be more aware of the seasonal variations

do Torres del Paine and Fitzroy in March (altho some of the huts are closed on the Torres del Paine circuit) as the numbers of people are way lower. Saying that if your in the region and the weather is good go for it!
in Bolivia we were too late for Amboro NP as it was wet wet wet.
in Peru we missed Ausangate due to rain (altho annoyingly it cleared up after we left) which is another point dont check what ya missed out on :)
Bariloche is great from March to May and probably from Oct to Dec (for low altitude hikes) as well altho I think in Jan/Feb is possibly very busy plus loads of horseflies and mossies.

In Bolivia, have very flexible travel plans!
Places we found overrated - just because someplace is on a tourist checklist doesn't mean its the best.

The hiking around Bariloche for us was the equal of Torres del Paine and Fitzroy even if the scenery wasn't so dramatic, the hiking for hiking's sake was much more interesting in a more beautiful setting with way less people (altho maybe if we were there in Jan/Feb it would be a bit busier).
Ushuaia - its a bloody long bus trip to/from there and its not that beautiful, very touristy and arse freezing cold most of the time. The hiking is very enjoyable but nothing better then further north.
Colca Canyon - unless your going to hike then dont bother - go and see condors at Refugio Otto Meiling and 101 other places anywhere along the Andes. Just look up and open your eyes (altho watch out for the big birdie poos - 2 litres of crap from a vulture on the head wouldn't be pleasant)
El Chalten - what a dump of a town but the scenery is worth it. Book your accomodation WAY ahead. Try to spend more time out hiking and not in town. Also be prepared for swarms of large Israeli groups dominating all the free campsites (this goes for Torres del Paine as well). Staying at paying campsites helps avoid this problem for some reason ;) El Calafate is similarily drab but better setup town. Its worth the pain for the glaciers but remember there are glaciers elsewhere in Chile and Argentina that dont have the mega hordes of tourists.
Cusco - very touristy but I suppose thats all we expected from it really. Worth a visit.

Bring a stomach of steel!
We dont like touristy, overcrowded places so we should avoid them :)

Places we'd like to see again (or do for the first time)
There are some places we didn't have the time (beleive me even in 7 months we ran out of time), the energy at that time or the budget or else just plain discovered for the first time that we would like to take a look at if we ever get lucky enough to do a trip like this again. Here they are

The southern icecap - if global warming hasnt melted this area then this would be a fantastic region to do an expedition on, possibly from Villa O Higgins or else via El Chalten. This would require reasonable organisation, good weather luck, a good budget and either experience on snow/ice or a reliable guide/expedition company to show you around. Its a stunning area mostly in Chile. There is also a Northern icecap north of Caleta Tortel which runs nearly as far as Cochrane.

Carretera Austral -

hiking some of the more remote and unexplored areas in particular

some of the valleys off of Chacabuco Valley such as Rio Aviles Valley, plus there are more valleys that we dont know the names of. This is all being conserved now under The Patagonian Foundation

Valle Leones

around Park Pumalin

San Lorenzo (best with a hire car and very easy)
Futaleufu

potential for further exploration

more of the archipelagos by boat
south of Cochrane, some amazing photo oppurtunities and campsites if you had your own transport plus old horse routes to explore
scenic flights

Chilean IGM has superb 1:250000 maps which give a great overview of the area. Buy all the maps you need before your trip to save you hassle as these maps are difficult to find on the Carretera Austral itself

Rainforest - either in Bolivia and/or Peru, would be funky to do a trip to/from Puerto Maldonado to Bolivia via a river boat. Manu would be amazing to visit. Potential up the Los Piedras as well.

Bolivia

Hiking in Bolivia - hike from the Yungas down to the rainforest. Need guides

Noel Kempff National Park, also Amboro NP
Bus trip in the dry season in the northern rainforest regions

Peru

Ausangate Circuit, also maybe the Salkantay (buy the topo to see there are multiple interesting possibilities up here)
Huarez region altho needs altitude acclimatisation

Argentina

Bariloche and El Bolson - heaps more fantastic, easy to organise hiking here
Salta - explore more of the region via car especially the cloud forests
Mendoza, Cordoba and San Juan - funky areas to explore if ya had your own transport plus plenty hiking potential

A final splash in Buenos Aires before heading home to Cork

2008-05-03T11:06:00.003+01:00

Reached Buenos Aires after 22 hours on a bus from Salta which was fairly mind numbing. The last 3 hours were particularly slow as there was poor road visibility due to extensive grass fires further north in Argentina. Did I mention that the Retiro bus station is more like an airport then bus station with a huge number of gates and buses. Found out on the way to the apartment that the Boca Juniors game we were supposed to be going to the next day was already on so the STUPID football agency told us the wrong date (I did check and it wasnt me getting backpacker dates fuddled) so didnt get to see the footy after all ... doh.

Spent the next week hanging around Buenos Aires with Nan, Helen and Robyn in a blur of shopping, sightseeing, walking, eating and drinking. Did a little walking tour (by ourselves of course but no need for tents on this one!) out to Palermo and Recoleta and also one with Nan down to the Costanera Sur Wildlife reserve near the port which was actually really good. There was heaps of birds down there altho the air quality is still quite poor. We did a trip out to Boca as well. Its very colourful but a bit tacky tourist with everything geared at taking your tourist dollars. The Museo de Bellas Artes Benito Quinquela Martin which is a muesum set up by the guy who the muesum's namesake was really good tho. Good views of Boca from the top as well and some interesting paintings that he did. For shopping we found loads of funky little design shops and markets (especially at the w/e) around San Telmo so managed to buy what we needed without too much pain (altho any type of shopping that involves clothes is always somewhat painful for me). For eating we stayed pretty much local in San Telmo with a couple of trips back to Petanque (French restaurant ... excellent) and also to Parrillo 1880 which was very good. Other then that we ate in the house as the food markets in San Telmo are great.
We did try a few of the local bars as well and even ventured out to a microbrewery - the Cruzat Beer House - in a different burb one night. It wasn't as good as we expected as the beers really weren't too our liking at all. We did a sampler of their 10 beers on tap (got a little minitature pint glass style glass with a taste of each beer on a round stand) and found them all to be very sweet and heavy. Maybe we're just used to the crisp, cold beers of Aussie but most of the beers made us feel sickly. We did order a pint each of Koala's (a local BA beer) but the head went flat in seconds and it was warm and too sweet. Gave up at that point and headed back for a pub crawl of San Telmo which was good craic.

Flew out of BA on monday evening with Iberia and this time everything went much more smoothly then on the way out. We didn't get bumped or put on standby, put in seats on different rows, the airstaff on the flight were really friendly, the food was palatable (seriously it was ok for air food) altho the entertainment still sucked, the seats are awful and the leg room is ample for hobbits (althou their feet would get stuck under the seats). We only had an hour to spare in Madrid so whilst we managed to catch our flight our luggage got left behind. This suited us perfectly as we could now fly to Cork and not get charged 140 euros more for excess bagagge (always a silver lining in every cloud!). Iberia delivered our luggage by courier to Cork the next night - quite impressive really and so much less hassle for us - would recommend losing luggage ;)

So we're back in Cork about 3 days, haven't done much yet except catch up at home and trying to lose the last stomach bug that South America gave me (thankfully it didn't kick in til we reached Cork) so hoping to catch up with everyone very soon so watch out!!

Its great being home and despite all out stuff being in boxes and all over the house (sorry Mum) its way better then living out that pack!

Salta - transformation from backpackers to poshpackers

2008-04-21T21:44:00.004+01:00

We arrived in Salta mid afternoon on wednesday after the 18 hour bus trip from Mendoza. Had booked into Las Rejas hostel which is very friendly, welcoming and a really good place to relax for a few days. We didn´t do a whole lot in Salta as we were waiting to met up with my aunt´s and their friend on monday so we basically spent 5 days reading, chilling out, drinking coffee and watching the crazy drivers negotiate junctions in Salta. Lots of the junctions have no lights or give way signs and it appears like its all a magic way of tearing thru junctions as fast as possible so as to miss any other traffic and/or pedestrians and/or cyclists. We eventually firgured out that its a flow ´rule´... if the cars on your street are moving then keep driving otherwise you have to stop. Saw some very close escapes.

Salta is a colonial city with some colourful old churches and convents. Its a good place to just stroll around, visit the artesanal markets and shops, walk or take the cable car to the top of a hill near town or just sit in one of the plazas and people watch. There´s not a huge amount else to do but its very cheap there and the local Salta beer is good too. Empanadas, tamales (a corn kind of pattie wrapped in corn husks and steamed), and locro (a stew with corn and meat - quite tasty) are some of the regional foods we tried and it was good to get a change to pasta and parrilla! We also found a little lebanese place which was quite good and very cheap. Saying that I seemed to get at least one hair in every dish we ate - maybe I was just unlucky as there wasn´t that many bald people about but its a bit off putting.

On monday afternoon we transformed from ordinary, tight ass backpackers into POSH packers who rented cars, drank wine all afternoon and stayed in hotels NOT Hostels ;) as we were now going travelling with Nan, Helen and Robyn. There can be many names for our little group of 5 including 2 aussies, 1 canadian and 1 irish or Dunk + 4 broads or Dunk and too many women or 2 aussie + 3 cantillons plus many other ruder varieties - just use your imagination!

We picked up the rental car (a renault Logan for just over 1000 pesos for 4 days, plus an extra 120 as we returned it 3 hours late - very reasonable between 5 of us - from Noroeste car rental) and headed out to the airport to collect Nan, Helen and Robyn who arrived on time - it was great to see them all again and kind of strange too catching up in such a faw out place. The 3 ladies had packed lightly luckily as out packs filled half the boot at least. We headed off towards the hills and Cafayate which is about 180kms drive south west of Salta via Quebrada de los Conchas (aka Quebrada de Cafayate). The drive started off thru low lying farmland planted with maize, sugarcane, tobacco and not sure what else. It was a bit cloudy so we couldn´t see the tops of the mountains but it was very easy going on a nice asphalt road all the way. After about an hour we started to climb thu the Quebrada (canyon) and the scenery changed dramatically from green and flat to dry, dusty and mountainous. The drive for the next hour to Cafayate was stunning as we creeped up the canyon thru spectacular mountains, rock and earth colours, rock formations - its really impossible to describe the wind and water sculpted landscape of amazingly intense colours and variety. We passed thru areas that looked like castles, towers, columns, pinnacles, etc plus there was cacti and tough desert bushes everywhere. We arrived into Cafayate just before sunset tired but elated from the beauty of the scenery. The first place we tried which I thought I had made a reservation for was full - somehow they had managed not to get my email ... altho they had got one and replied to it ... anyways they recommend another hotel - Portal del Santo - which was very new, modern and comfortable and just a block from the town square. The guys running it were incredibly friendly and welcoming to us. Dined at the El Rancho in the town square which was ok altho nothing spectacular.

Cafayate is famous for its Torrentos wineries so the next day we headed out to the Etchart winery and gate crashed a tour (which was in Spanish) and got to sample some of the local wines. Not the best to be honest so we didn´t purchase altho it was cheap. From there we visited the local goat farm which was fascinating. Got a free tour which was really interesting and we were shown some goats, told all about how they feed them (they eat alfalfa, leftover grape skins for fibre (its like a rich purple pulp), some seeds off the local trees and other stuff - we could have done with some of that variety ourselves on some parts of the trip!), the milking parlour (they milk 400 goats once a day - takes 2 hours and each goat produces 1-2 litres of milk) and where they make the cheese plus we got to taste the cheese which is probably the best goats cheese we have every tasted. Bought plenty of it anyways!! Went back to town where we got empanadas for lunch from the ´House of Empanadas´just off the square ... they were great!! Fresh out of the oven and loads of different varieties. We drove back out to the canyon again to see the colours and sand dunes in the full light of day ... so amazing. The hotel has full parrilla facilities so we decided to avail and cook for ourselves that night. Myself, Dunk and Nan went shopping whilst the others took a siesta but the shops didn´t open til 7pm (siesta is serious in this part of the world) so we visited another couple of bodegas and the pub. Got another tour in Bodega La Esteco ( I think - its across from Bodega Nanno where we tasted Tannat wine - very bland - but all the wines we tasted there were pretty low quality) which showed us the grape compressors, bottlers, etc - really interesting and good wine too (or maybe we had numbed our tongues at that stage) so splashed out on a couple of bottles which cost us a massive 30 pesos (6 euros for 2 good wines). Ahhhh its tough being a posh packer. The bbq area in the hotel was fab - full on asado, wood oven and parrilla grill plus all the tools required to cook up a great feed. Was a good fun night (except maybe for Dunk slaving over the stove) - the guy in the hotel was very impressed that we managed to cook everything properly altho he said he had the local pizzeria number ready if anything went awry!!

Next day we headed off towards Cachi over mostly ripio (gravel) roads which turned out to be much more remote, narrow and slower then we expected. It was an incredible drive thou and the scenery was just stunning once again - rock formations, sand hills and amazing colours and scenery all the way. We stopped at Antagasacto (!?) for lunch which is just after Quebrada de Felchas (Canyon of Arrows) which was amazing. From there we passed tiny, remote settlements where everyone seemed to be out in the fields picking peppers and putting them out to dry on the ground. This place has an untouched for centuries feel about it (especially the roads which were not built for 2 way traffic) with the Andes looming tall and dry in the background, green valleys full of crops and pampas grass and irrigation channels running alongside the road. Seeing is beleiving here and even the photos will never do it justice. We stayed in El Cortijo hotel in Cachi which was a funky little boutique hotel - think its my favorite spot of all the hostels and hotels we have stayed in and very welcoming once again. Cachi is a lovely town with an immacutely maintained square. Lots of little artesanal shops for the ladies to browse (and buy in) altho we stayed in the little cafe on the square drinking beer instead ;) there´s also a church with cacti ceiling and confessional box. Really interesting little place and we could easily have spent longer there. Dined at a little restaurant just near the church and tried some of the local goat stew which was very good.

On Thursday we headed back towards Salta thru Valle Encantado but first thru the National Park de los cardones which is a park to protect the 6m tall candelbra cactii. We passed over a 3400m pass and then into the park with its 100s of cactii standing tall.There´s a 14km straight stretch of road which is just amazing to drive along with all the cactii on either side and snow capped mountains in the background. We then drove over an area that was similar to the altiplano of Bolivia and Peru so very flat, dry and high altitude where we saw some vicunas and donkeys. From there the road heads to Piedra de Molino which is an incredible lookout over the Valle Encantado which has steep, velvety, green slopes and deep valley winding all the way down thru Quebrada de Escoipes towards Salta. Its stunning and remarkable in the dramatic difference to what we had seen in the first couple of hours that morning. We headed back thru Salta and then headed north on the Ruta 9 to Jujuy - this was another amazing transitition in scenery as we now drove on a narrow, one lane sealed road that climbed steeply up thru dense cloud forest all the way to Jujuy. The poor brain was having troubles keeping up with all this scenery and environment changes!! We drove thru Jujuy which is surrounded by massive green mountains literally towering above the city in the north. Its like something out of a sci-fi movie really and hard to absorb fully. We headed north for another hour to the famous little town on Purmamarca which has 7 colours of sand in the hills just behind town. We left the cloudforest behind just outside Jujuy and changed back into more high altitude style scenery of the Andes with dry, desert -scape all the way to Purmamarca. Purmamarca is a sweet little place with a great market and artesanal shops - even I was slightly excited by the shopping there - well for about 10 minutes anyways. We stayed in a fantastic hotel - La Comarca - which was built in adobe style with beautiful gardens and blended perfectly into the landscape. The hills are breathtaking with the intense colours and formations.

On friday we allocated the girls an hour for shopping which was reduced to 20 mins as there was some sleeping in done instead. We then headed west towards the Salinas Grandes up and over a 4100m pass which was very beautiful and scenic again. Saw shed loads of vicunas again - seems like they live on very little water as there wasn´t much up there. The salt flats were very impressive and we drove onto one little area where we could watch the locals mining the salt ... what a terrible job shovelling salt all day in that exposed area. Didn´t linger too long as it was very glary and quite high altitude so headed back to Purmamarca for lunch (and some more shopping!) before returning to Salta via Ruta 56 and 34 which were much quicker then Ruta 9. The drivers in Argentina tho are reckless and its just scary watching some of the manouveres. Anyways we got back safely to Salta, got the ladies booked into Hotel Salta (slightly jaded and rustic but perfect location) on the main plaza and had a quick snack before heading to the bus station for the 22 hour bus to Buenos Aires.

We had an amazing 5 days of continously changing scenery, gourmet drink and food (aside from one service station lunch of toasties!), hilarious entertainment from Nan and Robyn singing along merrily (including some fine examples of chicken sounds much to Helens´s delight NOT), gorgeous places to stay, unbeleivable scenery (I know its worth mentioning again) and just happy, fun times. We´re now in Buenos Aires after a less then fun 22 hours on a bus (I nearly cracked on this one - TG its the last one) and relaxing here for the next week til we all head back to Ireland (Nan first on friday, then me and Dunk on monday), Australia (Robyn on saturday) and Canada (Helen next week sometime). We missed going to Boca Juniors on saturday night as the tour agent we booked thru told us the wrong date (MUPPETS) so we might go and see River Plate this weekend instead altho thats the hurling equivalent of going to see Offaly playing instead of seeing Cork play so we might spend the dosh on something else. I even bought a Boca Juniors cheap imitiation jersey but when I tried it on about an hour ago realised it looks just like a Tipp jersey so going to have to flog that before we return to the rebel county.

1 week of 7 months travelling left which is a bit of a strange feeling as its gone really fast but by the same token I cant wait to go home and catch up with everyone and not have to look at that bloody backpack for a while again!!

Taking it easy in Mendoza

2008-04-08T18:28:00.002+01:00

Mendoza is in the heart of Argentina´s largest wine growing area. Its incredibly dry around here (200mm rain a year which is the equivalent to a damp Monday mornings worth in Cork) but the vineyards are all irrigated with water from the Andes which are pretty near here.

Its a really well laid out city (population of greater metropolitian are is around 900k) as the whole place was thrashed by an earthquake in 1861 so it was rebuilt with very wide streets, low buildings, plazas, parks and trees everywhere. Every street is lined with trees on both sides and some have an island down the middle as well plus all the plazas have beautiful big old trees and are really well equipped. It seems to keep the whole place feeling nice and cool despite the 30C days we`re having here (once again this is not supposed to be normal this time of year).

We arrived after 18 hours on a bus from San Martin de los Andes which was actually ok and we even got to see Aconocagua in the morning light on the way into town. Staying at a lovely hostel called Alamo which has good breakfasts, lovely spacious rooms, towels and good chill out areas including a garden. Been here 4 days now and haven`t really done anything except wander about the city. We did have good intentions of getting a bike yesterday but we ended up getting up late and having a long, lazy breakfast cos we got chatting to someone about Tassie so ended up just being too lazy to get the hour long bus out to the wineries. We did manage to walk to the central park on sunday (as everything else was closed) and it was hilarious - everyone in the city seems to go there for the day, grannies, families, kids, couples, cool guys hooning and showing off their old, citroens, ford falcons, chevys, fiats etc. It was jammers and there was hardly a spare blade of grass to park our lazy butts. Also the siesta from 1pm to 5pm is strictly observed here ... all people do is lounge or sit in cafes but all the shops close - its great!!

Aside from that we have walked the entire inner section of the city which revolves around Plaza Independencia, drank coffee, eat lots of icecream (in a place called Ferrucio Soppelsa where you can get a cone with 2 flavours of icecream for 5 pesos and its incredible - pecan cream might be the best but so is the choclate rum and raisin), shopping (our clothes are a disgrace and we have to go to the laundry every 3 days as we only have 2 good tshirts each - we now have 3 ;), the rest can wait til BA), surfing for jobs (agggghhhh pain), eating out (indoor market has a lunch deal of half a pizza, 6 empanadas and a bottle of beer for 20 pesos, went to a great parrilla last night (Estancia La Florencia) and a crap pasta place 2 nights ago called 390 (it was crap in all respects)), eating in (altho the supermarkets have food shortages due to farmer strikes here so no meat or milk and the veggies are not great but we did find curry powder and made a half decent chicken curry), blogging and ... wait for this ... DOING NOTHING (this is the longest sentence ever in a blog). We did think it would be easy to DO NOTHING but since we haven`t done this for longer then each of us can remember its actually really hard. Anyways seems to be getting easier as time passes so another week of this and we`ll be complete slobs!

Ok speaking of which time for coffee or icecream or both maybe as we have another 18 hour bus tonight to Salta. Sleeping pills are our friend ;)

The Lakes District

2008-04-06T20:35:00.005+01:00

Just a quick note to say we´ve really been in the Lakes District ever since we reached Puerto Montt by ferry a few weeks back. The lakes district encompasses an area of Chile and Argentina where there is ... well lots of lakes!! Its the northern most section of Patagonia. Bariloche is on the shore of Lago Nahuel Huapi which is massive and has legs, arms, branches and bays leading off into the mountains in all directions.

On April fools day we decided to finally move on from Bariloche after spending the best part of 3 weeks based there. Feeling a little sad to say goodbye to all the good memories but also glad to be heading off for something new we headed off to Villa la Angostura on one of our more delightful bus journeys of 75 minutes. The bus journey heads out briefly into the dry, desolate steppe landscape before heading back along the lake shore and back into the forested landscape. The little town cum village is situated on the north shore on the opposite side of Lago Nahuel Huapi to Bariloche and is where all the rich Argentines go on hols. This can be seen by the large number of cabanas and posh places to stay. We found one of the few hostels to stay -its named after the town itself and is really a sweet little place. The sheets were shiny clean (often in hostels we dont look that closely cos what the eye dont see the body doesn´t want to scratch or squirm thinking about), floor heating, on suite and a great kitchen and lounge area.

On the first afternoon we headed out for a look at Lago Correntoso (which is one of the lakes on the famous 7 lake drive) which we eventually found after walking thru a maze of beautiful houses and roads to nowhere. The lake was stunning and still with reflections of all the mountains around it. From there we wandered back into town along the main (dusty) road along the Lago Nahuel Huapi. The 2 lakes are connected by what must be the world´s shortest river - its flows about 100m from Lago Correntoso into Lago Nahuel Huapi - water as clear as could be too. Probably ended up walking around 12kms all up so had worked up quite a thirst. Tried some of the local brew called Epulafuquen - it was absolute piss especially the dark beer which tasted like the leftovers of burnt spuds water (not that I ever burnt spuds!). Like if I bottled that myself I´d be arrested I reckon. Unfortunately seems like anyone here can stick a label "artesenal" on chocolate, beer, food of all kinds, jewellery, etc and get away with selling it at premium prices no matter what the quality (or lack of). The only good brew we tasted in this area was the El Bolson beer which was really good, the Benroth choclate and Jauja icecream. Everything else I could do better myself.

The next day was clear and beautiful again (if I got paid for everytime we said that in Patagonia we could travel for free for the next 3 months!) so we headed out to the PN Los Arrayanes which are 300 year old, rare trees with cinnamon coloured bark. The walk out is along a narrow peninsula surrounded by the lake. Its 12km each way and meanders along thru lovely forest. You could also bike it but we only have hiking boots and flip flops so decided against that. At the end of the peninsula is where all the arrayanes are and its really incredible sight to behold. There´s a sturdy 2m wide wooden walkway thru the trees (presumably to protect the forest and keep the tourists inside the rails) with good photo chances. There´s also a cafe and a shop selling "artesenals" inside the forest. Wonder how many 300 year old trees made way for those? Its a bit baffling really as they could have put both these structures about 200m away where there was lots less arrayenes. Ah well I´m sure there´s a good and sound ecological reasoning behind it right??? The walk back was lovely but quite dusty at the end and we covered about 30kms so in hindsight a bike would have been an easier option.

From Villa la Angostura we took a bus to San Martin de los Andes via the famous 7 lakes district. The route is mostly via ripio (gravel) which is been worked on to upgrade it to a sealed surface. Its really beautiful and majestic drive all the way and heaps of nice places to stop for photos, camping etc. The only stop we got was to watch Argentine roadworks in action as a group of guys placed a new drain across a road. Amazingly noone got injured or died cos those fellas were lining up for it. They were placing a large 2m wide, 15m long, corrugated steel drainage pipe into a channel dug into the road. One guy was standing in the newly dug drain as this thing dangled from the bucket of a digger (that threatened to be tipped over from the weight of the pipe onto all the fellas standing in the drain below). He was holding this thing with one hand - must be the man with the strongest arm in the world) as it swung from side to side and looked like he´d get his head chopped off. Happily he didn´t and we all moved on after about an hour to see more beautiful lakes and mountains and an incredible view down onto San Martin de los Andes as we reached it. We did also see some more areas of beech changing colour which is very pretty.

San Martin de los Andes is another town for rich tourists but plenty backpackers there as well. There´s tons of parrilla, pizza, pasta restaurants on the main streets and its a pretty setting on the lake. We stayed at the Puma hostel which was once again lovely and great value. As this was our last night in Patagonia we dined out the fancy ´Ku´restaurant which has a really varied menu (altho there was parrilla, pasta but for once no pizza on the menu). Yummo and would highly recommend it.

Next day we left Patagonia on the 19 hour bus to Mendoza. We have had an unbeleivable time of it. In 3 months we have been up and down and all around the Patagonian Andes on both the Argentine and Chilean sides. The weather has been incredible. We had one week of rain at the start of January and hardly a drop since then - its probably been the driest, sunniest summer since records began in Patagonia so in that respect we were so lucky (altho makes me wonder how everything can continue to stay so green and lush if this continues on a longer term basis and where will all the snow for the glaciers come and how fast must they have melted before our eyes this summer?). The highlight was the Carretera Austral and also some of the really unexpected beauty of the hiking around Bariloche. Obviously Fitzroy and Torres del Paine were also incredible but we seemed to get more enjoyment from the first 2 areas I mentioned - its hard to know tho - maybe in 3 months time when we´re sitting back behind a computer, its the drama of the latter walks we will remember and use to stay sane :)

Right time to head north for something different and an easier end to our travels!

Bariloche and part of the Nahuel Huapi Traverse (Circuito Chico)

2008-03-30T15:41:00.006+01:00

After an another day sorting out all our stuff to go hiking - packing, shopping, laundry and food loading including a massive, great value steak at the Map Room - we headed out to Villa Cathedral early on thurs morning. Well early being 10am which is very early in Argentina! Villa Catherdral is a little ski village just outside Bariloche and it must be fantastic for skiing in winter. Loads of lifts, runs, etc .... well compared to NZ/Australian ski fields it looked massive anyways. Got the chairlift upto Refugio Lynch (slightly cheating to start a hike on a chairlift but beats a 3 hour climb up a snowless ski run) which is just above 2000m. Its very strange to be on a ski lift with a backpack and not a snowboard. The legs still did the automatic swing the board out of the lift safety bar way and all like. It was a pretty chilly ride up but very scenic.

The view at the top was tremendous. Could see all the way to Volcan Lanin (which is miles away) and all the mountains in between, including the massive Mount Tronador which looked incredible, and many more volcano and mountain peaks. Really beautiful clear day once again so off we set up and over the ridge from the refugio towards Punta Nevada. The hike leads along above really steep scree slopes over a beautiful valley and under the craggy, ice beaten mountain tops. Some rock scrambling was required but nothing too serious or dangerous (even with my feeble head for heights)We stopped in a sheltered saddle for lunch (about an hour after we started - very cruisy day really) which had good views over the rock spires of Cerro Catherdral (very aptly named). After that we continued just above the scree for about an hour to the Cancho De Futbol ... a sandy kind of depression on a saddle which has lots of really square, tall , funky rock slabs and boulders. Messed about on these for an hour with stunning views to the west over the valley towards Mount Trondor, over to the peaks of Torre Principal and down the valley we were headed to refugio Frey.

Headed down steeply to Laguna Shmoll and then onto Laguna Tonchek where we camped on the western shores. The hike down was steep but fun and even in areas there was still ice from the previous night. Now we could understand why this hike is closed until end of Jan some years. There was still many large patches of snow and ice. The hut (at 1700m) was nestled on the eastern end of the lake and once again very scenic. There´s fantastic climbing in this area and lots of cool photos in the hut of the area in the winter. We got our first frost of the year that night - still managed to stay sitting out in the dark for a few hours watching the night sky which was just beautiful.

Next morning we headed back up to the Cancho de Futbol past the lakes and over some icy rocks and frozen track. Pretty brisk but when we were in the sunshine it was very pleasant. From there we headed down a very steep scree slope into the valley below Brecha Negra. The descent was more like skiing rather then hiking as we slide down metres with each so called step. Had a dusty bum and stone filled boots at the bottom. From here we hiked up the lovely beech filled valley. The trees are just beginning to change into their autumn reds and yellows and it should be spectacular in another couple of weeks. At the head of the valley we followed a ridge that lead us up onto the rocky Paso Brecha Negra. Steep enough just before the top of the pass but the views at the top were incredible. The next valley which has Laguna Jakob at its head is very spectacular. Surrounded by very high, rocky, harsh mountains with a very deep valley and the really deep blue of the lake with Mount Tronador off in the distance it was probably one of the best views we have seen all trip. Perfect blue skies and just a little breeze allowed us to sit around and soak it all in for awhile.

The descent to the hut (Refugio Jakob 1600m) was pretty steep but not so loose as the previous descent. Hard on the knees tho but the scenery was a good distraction. Its a great little hut again (altho think it sleeps upto 100 people in peak season so not that little) just sitting on a rock above the lake. Put up the tent and then headed up onto the massive, glaciated rock slabs behind the hut to Laguna Los Tempanos. This is a dramatic lake surrounded on 3 sides by sheer cliff and rock with a tiny little outlet. We sussed out the route for the next day`s hike and it looked pretty exposed but doable (obviously people do it all the time). Once again we could see why this area is closed until late in Jan as its really high, exposed, steep and harsh. To be honest I wasn`t looking fwd to the clamber up the steep (almost vertical seriously) slope the next day. Dinner was a soupy tuna gnocchi (I am so over eating camping food especially when I stuff up and add too much water) - filling I suppose but enough tuna pasta for awhile.

Woke the next morning to heavy cloud cover. Ohhh nooo .... we could barely make out the lower ridge we had to clamber up to the start of the hike. Packed up and consulted the hut warden about the weather forecast. She reckoned it might clear in an hour or so so we hiked up to another little valley towards Cerro Celia. Was good fun clambering up a rocky waterfall with nice views across the lake to the hut. By the time we got back to the hut it was 12 and the clouds had come down further so we had to pike and not go over the top. The route requires good weather to be navigable (as the maps here are not detailed enough) plus not much point wandering around in cold clouds at the top of exposed mountains half the day. We decided to walk out along the Arroyo Casa de Piedra and end the hike a day early. We could have sat it out at the hut but not really in the form for hanging around plus we didn´t have enough food for an extra day hiking.

The hike out was interesting tho. Its about 18kms (not 13kms which the LP says), starts with a steep descent and massive views of the valley before descending more gently all the way down along the valley thru beech trees and bamboo. Towards the end its a bit monotonous. We then spent 2 hours waiting for the bus which never showed and eventually managed to hitchhike (6 of us by that stage) back towards Villa Catherdral and get the bus back into Bariloche from there.

All in all this was a superb few days out on a really high and exposed walk. It would have been great to do the full traverse but hey the weather has been great to us for the last 3 months so we are content to get one day against us. Not bad going really. Would highly recommend doing this walk at this time of year or even later as the trees are just turning colour. Its a very spectacular hike, the refugios are well managed, the track is well marked and easy to follow and its good and challenging with many steep ascents and descents. The scenery in this area is outstanding and in our view this is the equal of the more famous Torres del Paine and Fitzroy.

We could easily spend another 2-3 weeks walking in the Bariloche area (eg return and finish the traverse above, hike to Pampa Linda via Laguna Negra, return to El Bolson, do some of the lower level but very beautiful hikes to Lago Mascardi amongst a few that just pop to mind). Its absolutely fantastic here for hiking and in a way we wish we were here earlier when we had more enthusiasm and walking beans left. This would be a great 3 week trip from Europe, easy to get to, good food and well organised and many options even if the weather was poor. March and April is prolly the best time as hardly any people, stable weather, autumn colours and no horseflies or mossies.

We´re now 99% sure that this is the last overnight hike of our travels this time around. We´re pretty jaded of packing, shopping and getting organised for hikes. Altho we are now really fast at this its just becoming a tedious pain in the ass and we don`t have enough enthusiasm for it. Once we´re out on the hike its all good but the burden of getting there is now outweighing the buzz of the hikes. Dunk´s boots have also more or less died despite the miracle patching by the guy in Puerto Natales. The holes at the toes of his boots are nearly bigger then the one to put his foot in so we would need to splash out and buy him new boots (and since its mostly Asolo here then this is not an option) so bit late in the travels for such an expense. Our knees and backs are also suffering a little and need to be rested (when the stairs in the backpackers hurts then thats not a good sign) plus another little bonus from wearing hiking boots lots is cracks in my feet that you could fall into. Looks like we might head north to Mendoza and Salta before heading back to Buenos Aires.

Will be sad to leave Patagonia as we have had the best 3 months here but time for a change of scenery and travel style!

El Bolson and la Comarca del Paralelo 42

2008-03-25T18:23:00.002Z

After well and truly hitting the town for Paddy´s day, we took a day off to recover and then headed to El Bolson on wednesday. Its a 2.5 hour drive south of Bariloche thru lovely, forested hills and great views to the mountains in the distance. Pretty winding road all the way so not much chance for reading on this trip.

El Bolson is famous for its micro and home brew beers and for its markets as well as having a pretty setting in the middle of a large valley surrounded by mountains. Its also renowned for its large hippy population hence the markets and beer I suppose. We found an ok looking hostel in town altho the better ones are outside of town but we were being lazy as wanted to be near the supermarket for buying hiking supplies. The Albequrque Valle del Sol where we stayed had the potential to be a really sweet little place to stay but in reality it was a smoky, dirty, badly managed place. At least we only spent 2 short nights there. We did find a great restaurant tho (Vatto) for steak and local beer on tap. Droool for both!! There´s also the famous Jauja icecream chain here. So delicious and so many varieties to choose from. They sell it in quarter, half or litre tubs and its really cheap as well. Tempting to go back again and again and again.

The markets are the typical markets you find anywhere in the world with plenty hippy shirts, jewellery, paintings, woodwork, etc altho there was some original things for sale and I guess if you like shopping it was pretty interesting :) We did find some yummy paprika cheese, brown bread, fantastic raspberry jam and amazing alafajores (which are an argentian speciality like a biscuit sandwich coated in chocolate with some kind of filling like raspberry, choc mousse, etc - droool fest going on here, my mouth is watering at the memory altho eating more then 1 a week per person would probably have you in cardiac arrest within 6 months!).

The Club Andino Pilquitron provided us with really good info and a basic map (would have been better to have a proper topo) and were really friendly and helpful. They also register all hikers and really do keep an eye on you and make sure you always get to your destination. At each hut we had to sign in and also tell them where we were headed next and if we didn´t show up within a certain number of hours they would be out looking for us. The double benefit of this is that obviously if ya get hurt or lost then you know help will turn up at some stage and it also prevents people wild camping (as a lot of the area is privately owned and also very dry and fire hazardous) which keeps the area much better for hiking thru.

Armed with our hippy supplied lunch and full backpacks we headed for the mountains to the west of El Bolson.We got a taxi out to the start which is near a camping area called Hue Nain which we reached after 40 mins hike north along the Rio Azul. The first obstacle was the ´bridge´across the Rio Azul which was a kind of cable bridge about 10m above the ground-river. There was missing and broken wooden slats all the way across it and it swung from side to side ridicously. Now this river wasn`t very deep so if ya fell into it from that height it would hurt alot. After watching Dunk crossing with some very large steps across some of the gaps, I choose the wetter but safer walk across the river (which was only calf deep all the way). From there it was a 3 hour hike straight up a steep ridge followed by about 1 hour along a valley to the Refugio Hielo Azul. In total about 10kms and a 1000m ascent so hard enough on the lungs and legs! It was very pleasant walking tho in the forest the whole way with glimpses of the valley below us all the way and the mountains ahead. The hut is probably one of the best we have ever seen. Really well maintained and managed and we almost were tempted to stay in there but opted for the tent since we had carried it all the way. We tried out a new camping recipe of instant mash with onions, hotdogs, capsicum and sauce - it tasted great - my Irish spud heritage did turn purple at the thought but hunger overcame that little obstacle pretty quickly. I think soon our hiking will come to an end as if this type of food is beginning to be palatable then I worry about how low we can go!

The next day we hiked upto see the glacier in the valley above the hut under Cierro Azul. Quite a strenous climb and scramble over rocks and scree but good views of the glacier and also back down the valley where we had hiked from the previous day. I think we were the only non-Argentians to stay at Hielo Azul as well which was really a novelty for us (and them). Its a very pretty area and whilst the glacier didn´t have the drama and size of the glaciers further south, its still very beautiful and charming. From here we hiked on for about 10kms up and over a ridge to Lago Natacion and then onto Cajon del Azul. This took about 4 hours and it was a steep 30 mins to start with, followed by about 30 mins of flat meandering thru the forest and then a very steep, roughish descent (800m) down to the Refugio Cajon del Azul. The poor ole knees were suffering at the end of that descent but the sight of the beautiful clear, turquoise, blue waters rushing thru the steep canyon made us forget the pain (til the next day anyways). There is a 3 metre `bridge` across the narrowest (and highest) part of the canyon (we couldn´t see the bottom) and I did nearly brown pants it going across cos the logs were just scary bendy and felt like they would snap any time. Once again, the refugio was very well maintained, much better then some of the hostels we stayed in and the camping area was glorious so we called it a day here. They grow all their own veggies, brew beer and slaughter their own sheep or cattle. Decided to splash out and have dinner in the refugio (for about 4.50 euros each). Got a massive feed of salad, bread, dips (really tasty and spicy), rice and milanesa (like a schnitzel). We also tried the home brew but sadly it tasted somewhere in between vinegar and acid so didn´t have too much of that. Mostly all Argentians staying again which was great except for one crowd of yobs that woke us all at around 5am and kept up a racket til about 8am when they finally left (I think they were told to leave).

We hiked up the Rio Rayado thru amazing forest, valley views and thru a good variety of different types of trees. Some really big beech, cypress, etc and just beautiful weather as well to show the mountains and steep valley sides off to their best. We also passed thru a stand of alerce trees which are really amazing, old pine trees that are quite rare (as they are hard wood, very straight and really big) which was the highlight of the day. The hike ended (18kms and 5.5hrs , 800 ascent later) at Refugio Los Laguitos which has an incredible setting at the edge of Lago Lahuan. The hut was more rustic then the others but the guys were friendly altho they had run out of homebrew (or maybe they had for foreigners as all the argentians staying at the place seemed to be drinking beer later - another case of one rule for argentians, one for the foreigners - kind of irritating really). The lake was stunning as its really calm and deep and reflects the surrounding mountains perfectly. The sky was stunning, the mountains all around us covered in forest and jagged rocks and scree at the top and it was another perfect weather day. The nighttime reflection of the mountains lit up by the full moon was indescribably beautiful.

With a large lump of regret that we hadn´t planned for more days out, we headed back to El Bolson the next day. Took us about 4.5 hours to reach the cajon del azul (where we checked in as requested as all the hut wardens tell each other who is going where) where we quite surprised at the number of day trippers. Ah well guess it was Easter sunday and a glorious clear skies day at that so no wonder really. The 12kms hike out was a but tedious as its mostly horse track (for the less enthusiastic hiker you can get a horse all the way to this refugio - would highly recommend it) which was very dusty, and clambered up and down steeply for the entire way down plus the dust was exaberated as we were keeping pace with a group of horse riders but we had to keep going as didn´t want to spend all night getting back to town. Eventually got to Wharton where there was a very, very, very tempting beer garden from where we called a taxi back to town.

El Bolson was heaving with tourists which the taxi driver heaved and sighed and mumbled about all the way back in. Quite amusing really - what did he think we were! We also saw a horse in the back of a ute - seriously it was just stupefying seeing this ute with a horse in the tray and a guy holding his head so he wouldn´t jump out. Nuts!! Pretty tired that night as it turned out we had hiked about 32kms in about 7 hours. In hindsight we should have planned a bit better and spent a couple of more nights out. This whole area is outstandingly beautiful, understated and one of the most fun and interesting hikes we have done. We might even go back (if the legs have the heart to walk back up those hills! ignorance is bliss sometimes) for another few days in April. Once again we got stupendously good, unexpected weather so no complaints there either. Most of the people we met were local argentians, really friendly and obviously this hike is not on any gringo checklists which makes it even more novel and fun. Despite lacking the drama and size of the peaks and glaciers of some of the hikes we did further south, we enjoyed this walk every bit as much if not more then the more famous Torres del Paine and other such walks. Its people busy but well managed, its cheaper, easy to get to, safe and friendly and beautiful forest and shade all the way. It was more like the hiking we did in Australia and NZ rather then some checklist walk where everyone asks ya how far you have hiked, what your pack weighs, etc turning the hike into some mini competition. The whole bariloche/El Bolson area is turning out to be the best area/base for hikes we have been to and its really good fun and easy plus great food and beer near at hand to help the post hike recovery (very important). I´m sure in peak season this area is jammers, there´s probably stacks of mossies and horseflies and its pretty hot as well but it has to beat paying heaps to join the queues around Torres del Paine and Fitzroy (altho these are still class). Ah well there´s me humble opinion now for ya!

We´re now back in Bariloche where we had major hassles finding a place to stay last night as its still the easter rush (staying a nice very cheap, clean, little place called Nomads on Salta st which turned out to be a great find except for the dumb ass, selfish group of israelis who got up at 5am for an early bus and woke everyone in the hostel this morning - did you really have to shout your heads off and annoy everyone - sigh think its time to start heading home as hostel annoyances are beginning to wreck me head!). Think we´re going to do the Nahuel Huapi 4 day traverse next and then ... only 3 weeks til we have to head to Buenos Aires so aggghhh what will we do with the last 3 weeks .... what a dilemma ;)

Bariloche and Pampa Linda

2008-03-16T15:23:00.004Z

The bus trip from Puerto Montt to Bariloche was absolutely beautiful ... we had sunshine and clear skies all the way up and over the Andes and back down into Argentina again. Saying that it was still 7 hours on a bus, some of which was queues for border controls so at least we got to stretch our legs. Bariloche looked great in the sunset and we found a hostel at first attempt so very lucky with that too. In fact I dont think we even realised how lucky as everything here is still very busy with Easter coming up and feels like the end of summer so I presume everyone is out for one last blast. Its good to be back in the land of good food as well ;)

Did a half day trip out to area around Hotel Llao Llao which is one of Argentina´s most exclusive and scenically located hotels. Really beautiful scenery and from there we did a few hours walking around the edge of Lago Nahuel Huapi which is in the national park of the same name. Climbed up onto Cerro Llao Llao for panoramic views of the lake and surrounding mountains. It was a glorious day as well (except for the wasps which seem to be increasing in number as Autumn approaches). The drive out from Bariloche on the local bus is amazing for the scenery but also for the amount of cabanas (cabins), hotels and places for tourists. Unbeleivable really and all catering for the rich too. No skanky hostels out that road!! Maybe when all the tourists leave after Easter we can find some place thats empty and desperate and will let us stay for a cheap price ;)

Since the weather was holding so well we decided to head out on a 4 day hike. Even the shopping for food for the hike is easier in Argentina as we dont have the bland no choice of salami, cheese and dried bread for lunch, oats for brekkie and dinner of eother pasta or rice with some kind of flavouring. We even got tomato paste for this hike since it was going to be a nice short one, plus found a deli where we could choose different types of cheese for lunch ... droool. Sometimes its the small things which add up to make ya tired of travelling!

Headed out to Pampa Linda on the 7.30am bus which we had luckily booked as sometourists were turned away. Its about a 3 hour drive mostly on gravel roads out past lago Mascardi (very beautiful and turquoise), stop for mandatory park entrance fee (the usual charge the foreigners more then locals but in fairness in this case it was only 20 pesos so we didn´t mind), a quick stop at Hotel Tronador (which looked amazing in a fantastic location - if your loaded might be worth a look into staying here), followed by an obligatory stop at some other in the middle of nowhere cafe for the bus driver´s quick top up of caffeine and nicotine and eventually to Pampa Linda.This is a little tiny spot in the heart of Park Nacional Nahuel Huapi and gateway to walks near Monte Tronador. There´s a hosteria, restaurant, cafe, national park inf, camping and horses for hire.

We registered for our hike and headed off in the direction of Monte Tronador. The track is 4wd forthe first 3-4 kms and is well trodden by horses and humans so no need for navigation. You couldn`t stray too far off the trail anyways as there`s massive thickets of bamboo everywhere. We did a side trip for lunch up the valley to see Glacier Costana Overa pouring over the sides of the valley with loads of waterfalls and condors circling the top of the valley. Very spectacular.

From there, we returned to main track, picked up the big packs and headed up the steep, slippery climb to Refugio Otto Meiling. The forest was very beautiful with huge, old trees, bamboo and just lovely to walk thru. The track is a mess tho with shortcuts and erosion everywhere. There´s horses,mules and plenty people up and down here every day and looks like noone takes the same route which is a pity. Once we reached the treeline, the scenery was immense with Monte Tronador and the glaciers from it sweeping out in front and then all around the rest of the view was just mountains as far as the eye could see. The walk along the ridge to where the hut is is quite exposed but easy enough going aside from being up a mountain!

We got to the hut around 4.30 and went to register and find out what the story with camping was (its free, exposed, use the toilets in the hut) and also if we could do some walking on the glacier with the mountain guide. Turns out he was bringing out a group at 5.15pm so we quickly set up our tent in what we hoped was a reasonably sheltered spot, armed our tummies with a packet of biscuits, lots of water and nuts and headed out on the glacier 30 minutes after arriving which was a bit of a shock to the system!

The glacier walk was superb. For 100 pesos each (about 22 euros) we got 3hours on the glacier with a really good informative guide and all equipment provided (well boots, crampons, harness and ice axe). The tour was mostly in Spanish but he translated to English for us when we got stuck. Its really special walking on a glacier and as we learnt to trust our boots and crampons more (its incredible how well they stick to the ice) it just more and more fun. There was also an ice climb which I piked on as my fear of heights came rushing out in all its glory. In my defence the spot he choose was to launch off a crevasse at least 30m deep (altho I couldn´t really see the bottom) and to start at the top so I was just too scared (and had no spare pants to change into if it got stained!!). Dunk was well up for it and loved it. Got about 50 photos of him doing it so we will put a few of them online when we finda machine that doesn´t crap itself when we plug in the camera. Got pretty cold on the glacier tho as the clouds came over so in the end were happy enough to be finished. Also the boots are really stiff and make ya walk like someone who has been horseriding for 12 hours non stop so happy enough to get out of them too!

Quickly cooked up a good hot dinner and watched the stunning sunset over a vista of montains all around. Monte Tronador is actually 3 peaks - Pico Argentina, Pico Chile and Pico Internacional - which the Argentian- Chile border runs down the middle of (I will let you figure out which peak is where from the names!). We could see for miles and miles in all directions and it was just amazing. Slept like logs that night - a glacier hike and excitement after a 4 hour hike upto 2000m does that to ya! Also the hut ie Refugio Otto Meiling is amazing. Its completly concrete walled (no bricks), well insulated, and you can get all the food you need cooked up for ya plus sleep there. Being tight ass backpackers with our own equipment we obviously did it the independent way but would highly recommend a trip up there. The hut and camping site are located at the edge of a finger of rock that creeps up the side of glacier Costana Overa and peers over a cliff onto another glacier (cant remember the name) of the other side. Really incredible site.

The next morning we awoke to a glorious sunset. Took it niceand easy and wandered around the rocks above the shelter. There was an incredible amount of condors taking advantage of the rising winds so we decided to spend an extra night admiring the views and chilling out. After lunch the condors went nuts and it was the equivalent of a condor fest as upto 40 condors soared over, above and alongside the cliff running above the hut. They also landed on the ice on the glacier. We were slightly nervous eating lunch as we saw a condor poo near our tent and to be honest the thought of 2 litres of skanky, green, oozy, big-bird poo landing on a sandwich helped us wolf down lunch rapidly. These birds are massive ... like I know I can exagerate but its like having something the size of a pillow with a 1 metre wing each side and a goddamn ugly turkey head stuck to the front hanging over you. Their not the prettiest bird in the world but we´d have to go along way to see something as spectacular as this again. Also on a side note this is infinitely better then condor watching in Colca Canyon in Peru. After an hour or two or playing in the thermals they all suddenly decided to head off and that was the end of that show.

The winds had been picking up all day and were now blowing a gale. We had a reasonably sheltered spot behind a rock wall and made sure everything was pegged well. Dinner was a gusty, cold affair with ample sprinkles of rock dust and sand and no fear of burning your mouth as the wind cooled everything down quickly. We nearly lost our plates in washup and am sure everyone in the hut was highly amused to see us frantically dashing after them. We avoided the warmth of the hut cos nothing worse then the nice smell of toast and warm room knowing we had to spend the night in the tent! That night we didn´t sleep much. Its pretty difficult with the tent rattling and flapping so loudly we had to shout at each other to be heard. Its also slightly disconcerting to feel your body being lifted up in the tent by the larger gusts. Dunk did a quick mid night prowl to make sure everything was holding ok and it was. In the morning the wind was still roaring despite the rains having started. We found our backpacks and shoes (which were in the tents vestibules) covered (seriously coated) in a layer of dust and earth plus some of the finer stuff had got thru the tent fly so we know have slightly dusty bags, clothes, thermarests etc. Brekkie was in the tent as everything would have blown away or else been soaked. Also managed to pack our bags in the tent. Taking down the tent was a hazardous affair tho but we managed not to loose it or any of the pegs or poles. the 2 main poles on the tent now each have an identical bend which we presume was from the continous onslaught all night. Hope it wont make a big difference to the tent.

Headed off back down the ridge slowly as the wind threatened to send us paragliding with our packs a few times. Having a backpack in wind like that is pretty annoying as it acts like a sail and catches all the gusts. Made it to the treeline and it was like stepping into a different planet - calm, warmish and very pleasant. We did a side trip to a steep mirador of the valley just before Pampa Linda and then hung around for the 5pm bus. We piked a day early as the forecast was awful for sunday altho its not been too bad but we are 40kms from the mountains and it looks a lot gloomier out there.

Did our first dorm bed experience last night as well as there was only 2 beds left in the hostel and we couldn´t be bothered finding another place. The dorm I was in had 2 noisy buggers who took ages to pack up at 6am this morning (they had also woken me at midnight by turning on all the lights and having a loud conversation gggggrrrrrrr)- I was going to get up and help them cos they were making so much noise. Thankfully its back to ole-married-couple style travels tonight and we have our own room again ;)

We´re staying in Bariloche for the next few days to eat chocolate, icecream, good food and celebrate Paddy´s day and from there we will probably head to El Bolson. Running out of travel steam a bit and the novelty of living in a backpack is beginning to wear very old. Still thou all I have to do to recover my enthusiasm is remember those interminable daily morning defect meetings I used to have to go to this time last year and the backpack doesn´t seem so painful after all! I can hear all the pity ye have for us ... hahahaha! Anyways Happy Paddy´s day to everyone - we will drown the shamrock in Bariloche!

Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt on the ferry

2008-03-10T13:01:00.004Z

There is a 4 day (well its really 3 day) ferry trip from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt that runs up and down thru the archipaelago of southern chile. We decided to use this option to head back up north as its quite economical and much better then the 40-50 hour bus journey (I guess we could have flown as well but the ferry sounded much more fun and value for bucks). At this stage we are both allergic to bus journeys altho we haven´t done that many lately its just head wrecking.

Went on board on thurs evening. Had booked the more expensive option of a 4 bed cabin rather then the dorm option which turned out to be great as we had it to ourselves as the ferry was only half full. The dorms looked ok as well but not much privacy plus we got our own bathroom.

The first night we slept on board and the ferry left port at 6am. We woke up early to see the ferry navigate thru the narrowest passage of the journey - its 80m wide (the ferry is probably 40m wide) so not much room for error here. Quite a spectacular sunrise and scenery - we saw some dolphins alongside the boat as well which was a great start to the trip. After an hour or so the weather turned to mush and it was cold, wet and very poor visibility. Good day for relaxing with a book. We did stop at Glacier Skua which would have been amazing if we could have seen more then 50m higher up the glacier. The trip that day was mostly thru narrow passages between islands so very protected from the sea and nice and gentle. We could also wander onto the bridge anytime we felt like it to check out the maps, navigation equipment, chat with the guys running the show, etc so that was pretty interesting.

On the second morning the ship stopped at Puerto Eden where a flotilla of little red and yellow fishing boats came down and ferried us over to the little village of Puerto Eden. Its a tiny settlement (180 inhabitants) who live in the this incredibly remote area miles from the nearest centre of civilisation. Mostly they live off fishing and the ferry is obliged to stop there twice a week to drop in supplies, pick up passengers, etc. There´s the last survivors of the Kaweshkar tribe live here as well. Its all little wooden board walks (similar to Caleta Tortel but on a much smaller scale) and little brightly painted wooden houses with mandatory satellite dish. Must be absolutely miserable there in the winter. From there we headed north thru the English Narrows and then thru Falso Channel out into the open ocean. We saw the Cotopaxi shipwreck which is where is 1968 a Greek capitan decided to make a quick buck from the insurance company. He ran his ship onto an infamous rock spike which is 2m below the surface on a broad channel. Unfortunately, the ship didn´t sink but is just stuck on the rock and the insurance inspectors were able to figure out that his cargo of sugar hadn´t melted as he had tried to claim (he had previously sold the sugar in Uruguay) as where were all the sugar bags. Dumb guy went to jail for 2 years and the ship remained stuck where its now used as a lighthouse and birds like to land there too. The scenery of untouched forested islands and mountains was incredible. We hit the open sea that afternoon and there was a moderate swell. We ended up taking seasickness tablets altho not sure if they worked with a placebo effect or actually did work! Dinner was an interesting experience keeping your plate on the table and trying not to fall off your chair. One bloke landed on top of Dunk after a particularly big dip - luckily it was post dinner so Dunk didn´t end up wearing spaghetti!! It was really good to lie down that night and the seasickness tablets complelty knocked us out so a good snooze was had.

Day 3 started with a lovely sunrise turning into a clear and beautiful sailing up thru the Chacabuco Channel having left the open sea behind. Spent most of the day out on the top deck
enjoying the sun and gentle sailing. Spotted a few whale spouts later in the day but they never got close enough to us to actually see the whales. Saw heaps of seals, some penguins too and lots of large seabirds (probably some kind of albatross). At the end of the day there was a spectacular sunset over the sea and onto the snow capped mountains on the coast as we sailed up towards Chiloe Island and the main land. Really beautiful and tranquil. To top it off a few black and white dolhpins cruised by the ferry for a few minutes doing a few little jumps out of the water to the delight of everyone. After dinner was live entertainment by one of the ships crew - quite funny - followed by the world´s worst disco ... how is it that ferries, cruises etc manage to have such terrible music. Lots of Chilean pop music which is like a bad mix of hip hop, pop, and something traditional thrown in on top .. bloody awful.

Day 4 is really a no day where we just had breakfast and then disembarked at Puerto Montt. We quickly headed to the bus station and booked the first available bus out to Bariloche as we know from previous experience that PM is a pretty dingy place to hang around. In fairness, even in the ship´s briefing they advise you to leave town asap.

All up a very pleasant, scenic and relaxing few days. The food on board was ok - like canteen food really and the usual generous dose of bland, dry chilean bread (god I hate that stuff now). Our room was great and really clean and comfy as were the bathroom facilities, the staff were friendly and helpful (especially the kitchen lady who helped everyone with their dinner tray as the boat rolled from side to side on the open seas - she was amazing) and the people on board were an interesting, lovely mix (aside from the pain in the ass old australian fella who was lucky not to get thrown overboard - he annoyed everyone we met!!) so we spent a lot of time trading stories and chatting. We probably would have cracked up if we had to spend another day on board (we´re definitly not cruise boat material). Also there was a trailer load of sheep and one of horses in the cargo hold which stank more and more as each day passed. I dont know if they fed/watered these animals but didn´t seem to be the most humane conditions plus the smell was rank (and I am used to farm smells) which was non too pleasant especially on the high seas of the open ocean.

Off to Bariloche now to go hiking again. Think the bodies have recovered and will be keen to stretch our legs again now.

El Calafate and the easy part of Los Glaciers NP

2008-03-05T21:32:00.002Z

After a day recovery in Puerto Natales (including clothes washing! and 2 steaks) we headed to El Calafate bracing ourselves for one of Argentina´s most touristy towns. It gets 250,000 plus tourists a year and is only 20,000 locals. There are hostels, hospedajes, hotels, tours, gourmet food shops, artesans, restaurants and anything else a tourist would want everywhere BUT at least it has a little park and is more organised then El Chalten.

We found an ok place to stay (Chiloe) or it was til we discovered the owner and permanent residents there smoked continously in the kitchen, corridors, etc. Gross. Plus it had the worst supplied kitchen ever. 2 forks (seriously), 5 plates, 3 knives, 2 spoons altho ample pots and pans - one big enough to swim in! The best part was the tea towel - I have never seen anything as bad as it - it was a dark, brown, green, dont touch me colour - and I actually saw the owner drying things with it. Needless to say we washed anything we used very well before.

On sunday we splashed out and headed on an upmarket tourist tour to Upsala Glacier. With no other backpacker in sight but plenty richer type tourists aboard off we set on the bus to Puerto Bandera. There a company called Ferdanaz Campbell have a flotilla of catarmans to whisk tourists off on daytrips to all the glaciers. Its serious business and there must have been 1000 people at least headed off. Really good boats tho with good viewing areas altho got a bit frenetic as we neared each glacier despite the fact the captain always hung around for ages so everyone got good photo chances.

We set off down Lago Argentina where we saw our first icebergs. The scenery is very pretty to look at with big steep mountains which are dry at first and then become more forested as we got closer to the glaciers. First stop was at Onelli bay where we walked about 1km to a lovely little lake full (well maybe half) of icebergs. Stayed there for a very peaceful lunch gazing at Onelli glacier plus at least 2 more I cant remember the name of with big mountains and trees everywhere. From there we headed onto Glacier Upsala which is just HUGE (21 kms long 8 kms wide or something like that). It had about 4kms of icebergs in front of it ... and I mean some of these were massive towering over the catarman, all funky shapes and intense blue colours in the sunshine. Really amazing to sail along between them all. We went to within 800m of the glacier but no nearer cos if one of those big chunks peeled off ... well obviously thats a big wave and we wouldn´t want to sink in those cold waters! Its weird tho cos it felt much closer then this. Its really hard to get a perspective on this glacier and in a way it was the icebergs that made it cool rather then the fact that its the biggest, longest widest glacier in the park.

We then headed to Spegizinni glacier which has the highest front (ie the part that mets the lake - not sure if I have my technical terms right here tho) which stole the day. The back drop on the right is a really high craggy mountain (in English the guide said it was called the Devil´s Whore - hard work for him to get up there ;)) with hanging glaciers dripping off to feed into Spegizinni and then on the left is a reddish mountain with snow and glaciers on it as well. You can see all the glacier which is really steep and the front is massive - 80m-120m high. Thats the width-length of a football field. Hard to imagine that much ice really. Even looking back on the photos it doesn´t seem that big but it is. Really really fantastic place and once again the sun smiled on us all day long. Highly recommend this tour cos its worth every cent we paid just remember to bring your own lunch!

Took a break the day after as my tummy has thrown a hissy fit at the variety, (and lack of) quality food thats been dumped on it in the last few months - ah well nothing that a day or 2 of sleep didn´t fix (plus trying to eat normal food - not sure what we will do when we go hiking again).

Perito Mereno was the last glacier we had to see so of course we couldn´t miss the world´s most famous glacier. Spent 3 hours staring at it yesterday willing massive blocks to fall off and saw plenty spectacular and loud smaller chunks but no full top to bottom chunks. Of course one did just as we got on the bus (doh) but thats a glacier for ya!! Its a really great setting tho and you just can spend a morning or afternoon standing around on terraces waiting for action. Very beautiful surrounds and once the mad rush after everyone arrives ends then its also very peaceful. Most people seem to get bored and head back to the cafe and bus after an hour so hardly anyone around either (to the point we thought we´d missed the bus). Well worth the trip also altho I think Spegizzinni has won the accolade of best glacier in the Los Glaciers NP for me.

Took the bus back down to Puerto Natales today and heading on the 4 day ferry tomorrow to Puerto Montt so archipaelagos here we come!!

Torres del Paine - the grand circuit

2008-02-29T15:15:00.006Z

Torres del Paine is one of the world´s most famous hiking areas. For hikers its the equivalent to a trip to Mecca is for muslims (or for staunch GAA fans out there it´d be like a trip to see Cork win another All Ireland in Crokers or for the aussies out there a trip to MCG on boxing day ie its a big deal). For more detailed information have a peek here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torres_del_Paine_National_Park as I am too lazy to fill you in on all the details. In a nutshell it gets 100,000 plus visitors a year mostly in Jan/Feb and is on the checklist for most travellers to South America. The Paine massif is like a big M of mountains so imagine there´s a big cake and take a couple of slices out to make an M shape and you have the main range with its 2 main valleys. Surrounding this is the Southern Ice Cap to the west and north, the steppe to the east and to the south more mountains and lakes. There´s 250kms of trails including the famous W circuit which ventures along the bottom on the M, making side trips into the main valleys and then there´s the grand circuit (which we choose to do) which basically goes around the main range and includes the W as well. Most people choose to do day walks from the main access points or the W circuit which has refugios (huts that provide accomodation and meals) and doesn´t require camping altho you need to book these about 6 months in advance. Jan/Feb is peak season altho its allegedly less numbers at the end of February. This area is also infamous for its awful weather and terrible winds (called katabatic or williwaws which are gusts that blow off the icecap at 100kmph or more).

Day 1 : Laguna Amarga - Campamento Seron (15kms - 3.25 hrs hike)
We set off on the early bus from Puerto Natales at 7.30am (after our landlady had even supplied us with brekkie!) with all the other pilgrims heading to the sacred place. Its a 3 hour drive to the park (along with a stop in a little place called Cerro Castillo which has got nothing but some cafes for the tourists on the way to the park). It was a cloudy enough morning but we still got glimpses of the mountains rising up in the distance. Jumped out of the bus at Laguna Amarga where we paid into the park (US$30 each - ouch). There was tourists and buses everywhere so we decided to get a move on quickly. Our packs were pretty heavy, actually make that VERY heavy so we set off towards Campamento Seron at a slow but steady pace. Its a pretty easy 15km hike across the very gentle rolling grassy plain to the first night´s camp which follows the Rio Paine. Nothing much scenery wise altho from Laguna Amarga you can see the Torres ( the famous towers) altho we couldn´t as there was too much cloud. Met a few people on the way and the campsite itself only had about 20 tents that first night. Much more then we´re used to but not that bad considering. The campsite is set on a lovely meadow so easy for camping and chilling out in the lazy afternoon after the slog with the packs. Unfortunately we both got pretty violent and unbelievably rapid food poisoning on the first night. Spent about an hour heaving our guts up in the middle of a field near the campsite - at least the moon was up, the temps were good and the night sky was pleasant ;) Losing dinner was pretty bad tho as we needed all the energy we could get for the next few days. Figured out the milk powder we had in our hot chocs was the culprit as we had had dinner really early (at least 2 hours prior to hot chocs) - must have been pretty bad as it only took about 15 mins to make us both hurl.

Day 2 : Seron to Lago Dickson (19kms - 5hrs hike)
Set off slowly after a gross breakfast of congealed instant oats. Lesson 1 on instant oats here - dont add hot water as it makes a sticky glup that looks and tastes horrible. Still a bit shaky from the previous night´s pukes and not yet confident that it was the milk powder to blame we set off into the next day. We did weigh our packs at the hut tho and Dunk´s clocked in at 26kgs and mine at 21kgs. Ouch ;) This was another pleasant walk altho the first couple of hours was mostly a slog and nothing too dramatic. After that tho we started to get glimpses of Glacier Dickson that drops into Lago Dickson so that picked our spirits up a bit as well. Nice, fine day for walking too altho still quite cloudy. Reached the lovely campsite and hut about 4pm and called it a day as pretty tired. Cooked up a basic rice dinner (cumin, garlic, half a chorizo, stock cube and chilli flakes) as couldn´t face into pasta again. Also dried mushrooms have been removed from our diet as well as just sick of the taste (and retaste - yuch). Luckily everything went well that day foodwise and all stayed down so sat around chatting with the people we had met along the way and at the previous campsite. The lake is also very beautiful with the glacier dropping into it and surrounded by high mountains and lovely forest (and a few mandatory mossies cos if the wind isn´t blowing there has to be something else to get ya in Patagonia!).

Day 3 : Lago Dickson to Campamento Paso (21kms - 7.5 hrs hike)
Woke in much better spirits and full of energy (now confident that the evil milk powder was the cause of sickness and not any of the rest of our food plus knew we wouldn´t have to go back due to sickness). Decided to double up on sections and go straight thru Campamento Los Perros and on over the most difficult section of the John Gardner pass to Campamento Paso. The section between Lago Dickson and Los Perros hut is beautiful hiking - forest, mountains, streams and glimpses of glaciers on a gentle incline all the way. After about 3 hours (10kms) we reached the moraine from Glacier Los Perros near the hut which has amazing views back down the valley we had come up, up onto Glacier Los Perros (which drops into a little lake) and on up towards the John Gardner pass which was to be our task for the afternoon. Found a sunny spot for lunch and crossed our fingers hoping the weather would hold for the pass crossing. The pass is 1241m and infamous for the gales, snow, rain and cloud which can hit this area at any time without notice. The track up out of the forest is rough and muddy enough, despite being rerouted recently but we managed a good pace up and reached the scree where the going became easier as we could see our goal ahead. The view back down the valley was just immense and we had high mountains with glaciers on both sides as we headed to the pass. Nothing however prepared us for the view at the top. We had read and heard about how amazing it was but being well worn by over expectations (and slightly cynical about everything by now) we didn´t really know what to expect. It was just incredible tho - one of the most amazing sights I have ever hiked into. As we ascended into the pass we began to get glimpses of snow clad mountains in the distance and then as more of this was exposed to us as we continued upwards over the last 100m of the pass, glacier Grey suddenly appeared in all its glory. I cannot stress how big this glacier is. Any glacier I have seen to this point is like comparing a puddle with a lake - its immense and just blew our minds. Its 6kms across at the point we could see and probably we could see 20kms plus of length as it stretches from the ice cap into Lago Grey. We were speechless and ecstatic, the weather held and there was hardly a breeze (seriously this is so lucky - kind of odds like winning the lotto). Stayed there for maybe 20 mins before starting the descent which was also just incredible as more and more of the glacier showed. Mike and Rick (2 aussie blokes who did most of the walk in the same sections as us) were also there and all 4 of us were just hyper about the view. Its a long slog up from Lago Dickson but I dont think I have ever had a reward so fantastic as this on a hike before. The hike down is very steep and slippery altho not quite as awful as we had heard and feard. This pass has a reputation for danger and lots of injuries but Conaf (the chilean national parks admin) have done lots of good work on the clay, steep sections with steps and handrails. It would still be slippery as an eel on a wet day tho so we got lucky there too. Once into the trees, the hike to the camp was only about 45 mins. We did met one Chilean girl walking backwards as her knees were clobbered - it must have taken her (and her friend) 10 hours at least to get over this pass but they still were in good spirits. The campsite has a great view thru the trees over the glacier and we also found a lookout further down on a rock which was great for sunset too. Very small campsite and very relaxed night as everyone there was pretty high from the day plus by now we knew the other groups hiking pretty well. There was one bunch of idiotic young israelis who didnt arrive til 10pm in the dark (5 hours after us) as they didn´t leave the other side of the pass til 4.30pm and were very slow hikers. No wonder there´s people get hurt in Torres del Paine. These idiots were just a disaster waiting to happen (no torches, etc).

Day 4 : Campento Paso - Paine Grande (21 kms - 6 hrs)
Decided to double up on sections again as Paso to Refugio Grey was only 3 hours hiking. Another pleasant, warm day plus the views along the way were stupendously cool. We basically hiked down along the glacier edge (well above it) for 3 hours. The track here was rough enough in places as there were a number of steep, scree gullies but Conaf have put in ladders on the worst bits so its safe and easy going now. The old wooden ladders looked so dodgy! There´s another camping area just at the snout of the glacier where there´s a tremendous view over the glacier and you can see chunks falling off. We made it to Refugio Grey and the lookout back up the lake towards the glacier for lunch. We heard a massive thump from our sheltered lunch spot and rushed out just in time to see a massive 70m iceberg pop back out of the water - unfortunately we missed it falling off the glacier but it was pretty impressive seeing it float back out of the water. We were now in serious ´gumby´(Matt W´s term for people who have never hiked before) territory as this is night 1 on the W circuit. The number of people on the track was suddenly in the 100s (rather then the odd 2 or 3) but the scenery was incredible still as we hiked down towards Lake Pehoe. Didn`t take us long to click that saying "Ola" to everyone was no longer possible (unless we wanted to overtake them; Side rant: sometimes I wish hikers had rear view mirrors - if someone steams up behind you as you struggle up a hill slowly then let them by!! Coughing and further rude noises the longer the blocked path is held usually helps ;) ) Took us about 3 hours to reach that nights campsite next to the turqoise Lake Pehoe which has a great view of Cerro Paine Grande (massive, craggy, angry, black rock mountain range with its own little mini icecap on top) and Cuernos del Paine (the classic granite coloured mountains with black toppings of rock - so beautiful). The lake is stunningly turquoise as well (even if thats not my favourite colour - some people out there remember that with clarity!) Was a bit of a shock to the system to reach this camp as there´s a hotel there, probably 80 plus tents and people everywhere. Mike and Rick had saved us a great campspot next to them so saved us the hassle of trying to find one. Spent a pleasant night there watching the mountains and lake. Did a food swap with the lads too - 1 chorizo for them - 2 tins of tuna for us - bloody awesome for all of us (I have to throw in some aussisms to keep Dunk happy uploading photos as I not patient enough to do this). We now are so tired of eating the same food that tuna pasta was a treat (Dunk even said I cant wait to eat some tuna, I´m sick of eating chorizos). Another lovely day walking.

Day 5: Paine Grande to Campamento Los Cuernos including Valle Frances (29kms - 8.5 hrs)
Started this morning with rain (altho it held off long enough for us to pack without getting our stuff wet) and the first 3 hours to Campamento Italiano was a bit of a trudge thru the rain. From Campemento Italiano dropped our packs in a good potential campsite in case we decided to stay there that night and headed up into Valle Frances which is about 17km return side trip. We could also have camped at the head of the valley but at this stage our knees were beginning to feel the effects of heavy packs, hard long days and many long ascents/descents. As we ascended into the valley the clouds bgan to lift and clear and the most incredible views appeared all around us. Its a hard enough slog up but the sights are more then ample reward. Cerro Paine Grande and Glacier Frances dominates the west side of the valley, the head of the valley has Cordillera Paine with some astoundingly beautiful peaks and the eastern side is a row of peaks belonging to the famous Cuernos del Paine. Each in the their own would be an outstanding draw but all together its just unbeleivable. We hiked all the way up and past the mirador onto the scree and a little pass on the eastern side so the whole valley opened up in front of us. I know I might be repeating myselft here but omigod it was jawdroppingly beautiful (altho the gusts at the top were strong as hell and we kept a very watchful eye for any sudden weather changes). I will leave the photos speak for this section altho they dont really do it justice. Hiked back down and decided to do another 5.5km stretch to the next section as otherwise we would have to stay another night in the park and we were over eating crap food. It was a very peaceful section down into Camping Los Cuernos with very few people as it as after 6pm. Got to camp absoutely wrecked (biscuits and dulce fueled the last few kms!) so made a quick dinner and slept soundly altho our site had a huge slope. Incredible day and the gods of weather were on our side again.

Day 6 : Los Cuernos - Los Torres (the end) plus Torres del Paine sidetrip (31kms - 7.5 hrs)
Woke feeling a little fatigued after the previous day plus the weather was damp. Dunk dragged me thru the hike to Los Torros as it was pretty boring, I was knackered and the spirits were down. There was one hilarious river crossing tho which was the best example of gumby carnage I have ever seen. It was a fairly fast rocky river but only knee height at most yet there was a people blockage and shoes, socks, hikers and people everywhere. We just took off our shoes (golden rule for us is one river then keep the shoes dry, anymore then just get the boots wet), carefully crossed, put back on our packs and off we went. It was funny watching some people tho. One girl took a cigarette break on the island half way across, other people were wading back in for better shots of the ´drama´, the 2 aussies told us they saw one bloke in water upto his chest - all in all quite comical to watch ;) Reached Los Torres camping at 12.30, set up the tent and had some hot soup and 6 day old bread, dulce and biscuits to get us ready for the 19kms (including 1.5km vertical ascent/descent) side trip to see what is the park´s most famous attraction - the towers. The weather cleared and the food picked us up so off we set up the big hill at the start. We reached the first hut on the hike in about 1 hour and then from there to the lookout in another 1.5 hours so not a bad effort altho the last rock scramble was tiring with fatigued legs. The view was very spectacular and despite the crowns of the towers being obscured due to some frantic cloudmaking, we had a great view of the lake, moraine and Monte Almirante Nieto. All in all tho we thought not really comparable in stunning factor to the Valle Frances. Wearlingly hiked back to camp and finished off our hike with a quick dinner and sound night sleep. We did get some ferocious wind gusts that night - the only time we really experienced the infamous winds of torres del paine - which hammered the tent, woke half the campsite but the tent held well so happy days for us. It really made us respect and appreciate the luck we had with the weather thou. Nothing like sitting in the dark in a tent hearing the massive roar of the next gust heading for your tent, not knowing what direction (as it seemed to change all the time) or even if it would hit at all (as sometimes the gusts swept off high above the trees).

The last word
The next day we just relaxed at Camping Los Torres waiting for the bus back to Puerto Natales. Had a massive steak and beers last night with Mike and Rick - all in all well deserved I think. We completed the grand circuit in 6 hard days (traditionally takes 8-10) so altho tired today, very happy and content.

This is an amazing place, truly better then what we expected and despite the crowds its a brilliant hike. We met some great people along the way which also made it good fun to share the tales and pain with and truly enjoyed the experience. The private campsites are managed very well altho some of the free campsites tend to be very crowded and not well managed at all. Some of the loos were awful - some people seem to forget their manners when they go hiking. We could have stretched the hike out over a couple of more days to make it easier going but found that we would have had some very short days if we did this and its not really what we like to do ;) We were also pissed off yesterday when we went to get our park pass extended as they only gave us a 2 day extension so if we want to go back next week (which we had planned) its another US$30 each which is a bit steep. There are a minority of people on the track who are muppets but mostly its a very friendly, sociable walk. The weather was incredible for us - once again we are haunted with good weather luck. The view from Glacier Grey is probably one of the best we will ever experience followed closely by Valle Frances. Its worth doing the walk anticlockwise just for that view over Glacier Grey - hopefully we will never ever forget it as there is no camera in the world can do it justice.

Quick note on our equipment and food
Dunk´s 9 month old Asolo boots are falling apart and he had to use gaffer tape to keep them together. They are now in the boots repair shop where the guy is hopefully working a miracle to glue them back together. We saw lots of people with new Asolos on this hike but funny enough no old asolos. Grace´s scarpas have a bit of sole wear at the heel (probably from scree slides and previous walks in central Australia) but other then that perfect despite being 2 years old. Our exped venus extreme tent rocks - stood upto rain and wind altho it does have condensation problems if we dont make sure its ventialated properly. We saw heaps of people with crap looking tents - dunno how they survived thos gusts but wouldn´t make for a good nights sleep. Our poles are knee savers!!

Our food was good but its very hard to get any variety here in Chile so we usually have rice or pasta with stock cubes, garlic and either cumin or oregano, lots of salt, protein (usually chorizo or tuna), always have plenty nuts, biscuits, soup packets, etc. Our bread held ok for 5 days but was pretty crap on the last day. The private huts especially the one on Lake Pehoe sell reasonably priced food for campers so maybe we should have carried less and restocked there. After 2 months of hikes we´re sick of rice and pasta so might have to move onto instant mash - ah ye gods thats bad!!!! Losing our milk powder (and dinner) on the first night was a beatch - no more hot chocs, black tea altho we did start adding milo to our instant oats and raisins in the mornings which drastically improved the taste (from no taste to milo taste!). Dulce de leche is like super quick energy for the exhausted ;)

Taking a break from hiking for a few days now to restock on protein and energy levels, fix boots and rest tired knees.

Some funny stories
These are some bits I have remembered in the last few days that deserve to be recorded.

Mike and Rick have named a new circuit - its the underscore ;) - its for people who do the `W`but are too tired, lazy, exhausted, sore, whatever to do the side trips to Valle Frances and Torres del Paine which are the 2 best bits of the W. Its a bit like going to the World Cup Final with a ticket but not bothering to go to the match as you just didn´t have enough `whatever`for the last bit. Might as well stay at home, save the cash and walk around the park really.

One guy did the circuit (assuming W) (we never met him but met 2 people yesterday who did) with a 35kg pack that had ALL his stuff as he was afraid to store his extra gear anywhere. This included carrying that same pack on all the side trips - where did he think everyone else left their stuff but in huts, tents, etc. I dont think I have ever heard of theft on Torres del Paine but maybe we´re naive or maybe or clothes just not worth stealing (actually their not - if they last the next 2 months then its staight to the bin for them) or maybe he had gold shirts or something. Nutter!!

Ushuaia to Puerto Natales

2008-02-29T14:56:00.002Z

Left Ushuaia in an early morning or was that a middle of the night daze. The bus picks you up at anytime between 5.15 and 6am so nasty early start. 3 hours later we reached Rio Grande (very little to do or see there) spent another 1.5 hours waiting for the bus to Puerto Natales, then this was followed by a few hours on a rough gravel road thru the dry steppe of northern Isla Grande, the border crossing from Argentina to Chile in the middle of nowhere plus the obligatory 45 min lunch stop in the middle of nowhere also. After this another couple of hours to the ferry where we headed back across the Magellan straits. Saw a few Commersons dolphins (small, black and white) swimming and jumping out of the water near the ferry which was definitely the highlight of the day. From there the bus headed to Punta Arenas (another couple of hours across the interminable steppe) where we had to change bus again and wait for another 2 hours .... SIGH ... we had been told it was a 30 minute wait with no bus change. Eventually got to Puerto Natales at 10pm and thankfully had booked a Hospedaje ahead. Tiny room but very comfy bed, great showers, ample breakfast and very friendly owner so happy days.

Puerto Natales is basically the hub for going to Torres del Paine and is full of over priced camping shops, rental agencies for camping gear, tour agencies etc but you can get good food here. We did think about doing a 3 day kayaking trip to glaciers but at US$200 a day each had to pike on that idea. We could buy a kayak for that much money (altho not sure it would fit in our backpacks)!! Instead we booked the navimag ferry trip from here to Puerto Montt for the middle of march. More on that nearer the time.

Had a quick check of the weather (basically pointless as its impossible to predict the weather here) and decided to do a quick shop and head off on the 8 day Torres del Paine circuit the next day. Getting pretty good at packing/shopping for walks now plus its not like there´s much dietary choice on what ya can buy here - its rice, pasta or instant mash (haven´t resorted to this yet tho - I´m not sure I would be allowed back to Ireland if I eat instant spuds!) but more on that in the walk description in the next post ;)

Ushuaia - treks

2008-02-19T00:03:00.004Z

Ushuaia is a very good base for hiking. There´s plenty here for all levels from nice gentle 3 hour coastal walks to not so gentle scree, bush bashing and route finding kind of stuff. We did a bit of both (intentionally and unintentionally).

The first hike we did was Sierra Valdivieso Circuit as described in the Lonely Planet Trekking Bible. Its described as 4 day hike but one of those days is only 1 hour so we decided to lose that day by adding it into the last day. Also we did the hike clockwise altho the book (and most people) do it anticlockwise. This was to avoid having to cross the biggest river Rio Olivia after rain (which we expected). Got a taxi out to the start of the walk, hiked thru the peat farm (just like a bog at home except they have funny drying/stacking shelves and cut the peat in bigger sections) and then followed a cattle track thru forest for the first 90 mins. Crossed the Rio Olivia after that in bare feet as it was sandy and wanted to keep the boots dry if possible. Went well except the water temperature was literally feet numbing - coldest water of the trip so far. After that it was 3-4 hours up the valley Valle Carbajal as far as the valley that comes down from Paso Valdivieso. Most of this was across moors and bogs of spongy sphagnum moss which is fun and bouncy for awhile then just pretty tiring as the pack weighs down on the body from all that bouncy walking. Also had to circumnavigate big areas of felled trees which is caused by the north american beaver - 64 pairs were left go from a farm in the 60s, have now multiplied and gone forth (a bit like the bible told Adam and Eve - didn´t know beavers were catholic tho) and damaged large areas of valley with their dams and tree felling. These little fellas can seriously chew down some big trees and their dams are really impressive ( I think Cork Corporation should have borrowed some for the building of the tunnel under the Lee cos some of the dams were definitly bigger, longer and stronger). At about 6pm decided to set up camp before the uphill climb to the first pass the next day. The sky was closing in, the wind picked up and we thought that was going to be a very wet night. Instead it blew itself out and we had a pleasant altho disturbing night sleep as we camped on that sphagnum moss and no matter which way we slept always felt like we were sleeping with our heads on the down side of the hill!

Next day we packed up lazily and headed up the hill towards Paso Valdivieso. Got lovely views over Valle Carbajal as we climbed and the vegetation got more alpine and sparse. Passed the Laguna Paso Valdivieso and over the pass where we spent a little time sitting on a big hill admiring the stunning view over many lakes, mountains and forest. There was a couple of glaciers too but not very big ones. Its also pretty cold in this area - mostly cos the wind is just freezing all the time. Lunched at Laguna Capullo before heading up towards Paso Mariposa. Described as a steep pass above a rock and scree filled basin we headed in the direction the map seemed to indicate. It should be noted also that the topo map for this region is farcical - its a satellite image (1:52000) but doesn´t have contours for many areas - hahahaha a topo map with no contours - seriously I do not jest. The LP 1:170000 map with contours was more useful. Anyways after about an hour of up and up and trying to figure out which part of the ridge/mountain ahead was a pass we just went for the most obvious and hey presto we were wrong. It was a cliff with a snow topped edge on the other side. Very impressive views (which we watched for about 30 seconds before the wind got too cold to bear) over a huge area of Tierra Del Fuego. Found a slightly more sheltered area back down the scree slope for a quick map/compass reconsult then headed back over towards the area we had seen another potential pass. We should have lined the pass up with the valley that was perpendicular to it - might have been easier to find! Also had to shout at the 2 Israelis who either were following us or had the same instructions as us to head back. Dunno what they did tho cos think they were also having a little spat. Found a pass which had incredible views altho a pretty steep downward slope. The rocks on the top were amazing as shaped into wafer thin slices from I presume continous snow/frost/wind action all year around. Slithered (and cursed) our way down the steepest part then it was easy going to Laguna Azul after that (which was stunningly beautiful). As we looked back up the valley we figured out we had basically just climbed over the ridge of the mountain and missed the pass completly as there was a much easier pass further south. Ah well thats hindsight for ya. From there we had a rough bash down (and occasionally back up) a steep ridge as far as the Rio Torito where we camped in a lovely sheltered area near the Salta del Azul (waterfall). Loads of beaver handiwork in that area again but really fantastic day of walking over 2 high passes and well above the treeline most of the day. The weather was superb too (well for that region) so once again counting ourselves very lucky.

The 3rd day walked up the Rio Torito to its source to Paso Beban East and West (which were so freezing cold). This was a long hard slog probably 4-5kms uphill to the passes. Its a relatively easy walk tho altho have to avoid more beaver dams plus some very boggy areas. The area approaching the passes is all scree and exposed and the view from the first pass isn´t great. The view at the far side tho over to the Paso Beban West and down the Valle Beban and onto the Three Picos is very good thou. Once again it was freezing at the top with a really sharp wind blowing so we didn´t delay. The descent out of the second pass is down steep chute of shale/slate but tremendous views of mountains, side valleys with glaciers and nothing else. As we descended into the valley and looked back to where we came from the pass itself just looks ridicouosly steep (but its not since I managed to get down without screaming in fearof heights even once). It was much easier to navigate thru these passes as there was only one option! From there we headed back into the main valley where the Rio Beban flows, followed the river flats for awhile (dodging more beaver dams) and found the little refugio Bonete(hut). The walk out from there was easy enough althou the last hour was a slog along a 4wd track. Managed to get a lift back to the edge of town after 2 minutes of hitchhiking and then a bus from there.

All in all a superb walk over high alpine passes, beautiful forest and moor walking and even tho it lacked the tremendous drama of the previous walks the actual route finding, wilderness, lack of people and walking itself was much more enjoyable. Would highly recommend this walk but saying that we were very lucky with the weather and got no rain at all. Would imagine it would be miserable and very hard work in less favourable conditions.

The next trip we did was a day out to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. This is a really pretty area with walks for all levels. We went on a sunday so it was full of daytrippers but still managed to not met that many people on the walks. There´s a camp ground out there too which is nice but pretty packed. Also feeding the wild animals here seems to be the norm - not sure the national parks in Aus or NZ would be so impressed. The first walk we did was to climb Cerro Guanaco (1092m). It started at Lago Roca (sea level) which is shared between Chile and Argentina and meandered along the shoreline for awhile before ascending steeply up a ridge for about 2kms. Just before the edge of the tree line there´s a really nice lookout. We kept going from there out of the trees and from there its about 2kms across a boggy bit and then onto slate scree with a very good track all the way to the top. The views are immense. All the way to Isla del Navarino, the Beagle Channel, back towards Chile and into Ushuaia as well. Itsvery exposed tho and we even got a shower of snow which was so light the wind was blowing the flakes up the mountain. Were tempted to stop for lunch at the top but it was too cold. Going down retraced our steps back into the wind so we were pretty frozen for awhile. Really nice walk which took about 3 hours.

From the bottom we headed back along the Sendero Costera which is along the coast thru lots of forest with lovely views. Meanders up and down a few little hills and is about 8km in length. Met a few very tired people on that part all of who asked us how far more was left to go ;) Lots of birds like steamer ducks, comorants etc as well.

The only down side of the trip to the national park is the cost. Its 35 pesos (about 8eur - you would get a good meal out for this) per person on the bus plus 30 pesos (7eur) into the park for foreigners. Its only 7 pesos for argentians - imagine if we did that in Europe or Australia! Lets charge the Argentians 20 euros for a pint of Guinness the next time they come to bet us in rugby - see if they like that!!. Its not like there´s any facilities aside from a few tracks and a good clean toilet block. A night camping probably makes the expense better value. The bus is a complete rip off as well as the park is only 12kms outside of town. Our bus company never turned up for the return trip so we ended up sitting in the cold for about 70 minutes until another bus company took pity on us and brought us back. We should have hitched!! We did attempt to get a taxi out there in the morning but they wanted to charge us 250 pesos - hahahaha!! He kept saying "Its only 80 US" - obviously lots of rich tourists come here, pay for everything in dollars and think this is a bargain.

There´s plenty other day walks and over night walks as well from here. Plus you can make the trip to Puerto Williams which is very near (but stupidly expensive US$110 each way per person). We should have done a bit more but combination of sleeping in, hassles with flight changes back to europe (I hate Iberia now) and laziness held us up a bit. Would defo recommend this area tho and probably enough to keep ya going for 10-14days and thats just on hiking.

Ushuaia - the end of the world (almost)

2008-02-18T15:42:00.004Z

So we have reached Ushuaia - the end of the world - as its sold here by all the tour companies, except its not the last town in the world as there´s a little one across the water on Isla Del Navarino (in Chile) which is further south ;) Still tho makes for good selling of tours so everything here has that label - plus we are in Argentina so as far as Argentians are concerned Chile doesn´t exist anyways!!

Its a pretty decent town with lots of shops, cafes, bars, etc with one entire street dedicated to tourists but everything else is pretty much ordinary so we can actually go to a decent supermarket! Its really cold here - highs in the summer reach 15C during the day and at night somewhere much lower. There´s constant heating and in fairness all buildings (except in some of the outer poorer suburbs) seem well insulated and heated. Its a nice setting as well with views over the Beagle Channel onto Isla del Navarino and on the northern side mountains with little patches of snow on top.

Getting here from Rio Gallegos was a painful 12 hour bus ride with one section of ripio (gravel)that seemed to be pure mud and go on for hours. Also involved 4 border crossings ie Argentina-Chile and then back to Argentina which is always time consuming. The scenery for most of the trip was flat (except for the odd sheep, guanaco or rhea breaking the skyline), grey, dreary and very uninspiring. The ferry crossing the Magellan strait onto this Isla Grande (where Ushauia is) broke the monotony and we saw heaps of penguins and a brief glimpse of a small black and white dolphin which I cant remember the name of. The last couple of hours was more interesting as well altho very foggy but at least there was trees and hills.

Stayed in a really super B&B the first night but then had to leave as they were fully booked but found a good hostal (called ABRA) which is cosy, reasonable (the price of accomodation here is a bit mad as its high season) and a good kitchen so we can actually cook our own food - wahooo such a novelty!! Been here now for over a week except for one 2 night walk we did (which I will blog in a different post). Have spent a lot of time hiking (Sierra Valdivieso for 3 days, Tierra del Fuego for 1 day), and lots of painful time trying to figure out where to go next. Originally had planned to go to Puerto Williams on Isla del Navarino to do the Dientes circuit there (4-5 nights) and then continue on the ferry to Punta Arenas (36 hours and sounds pretty cool). Unfortunately we couldn´t get ferry tickets and also after completing the Sierra Valdivieso circuit here (which was really good) decided to save ourselves nearly US$500 and not go as the scenery doesn´t look hugely different from here. Also suffering a bit of travel-trekking lethargy now - think its cos we had such a buzz going for the last 6 weeks we just had to crash sometime and its happened.

Went to the maritime muesum as well which is well worth a visit. On friday night turned into a session, we bumped into an Aussie guy called Darren (well he recognised Dunk from uni and is good mates with Brett) who is crewing on a yacht (more like a cruise ship I think) for some really rich people who just fly in to places like this, do a cool cruise then jet out again (on their private jet of course) to leave the crew move the boat to the next fab location. Unfortunately port security was too tight for us to go onboard so instead we stayed in the pub for a very long night (and a consequently very quiet saturday) discussing the merits of crew life versus backpacker life (not sure what the conclusion was). We also tried to do a glacier/ice course here but that also fell thru about 3 times as they are short of guides. Today (monday) we have finally managed to make a plan and we are heading to Puerto Natales on wedneday morning at 5am on a 15 hour bus journey - bring it on NOT!

Did the quick 4 hour tour on the Beagle Channel. Turns out the 4 hour trip is even quicker then that and is only 2.5 hours and there was no hiking on some island as advertised (false advertising seems to go a long way here) and yes it was a tourist trap but hey when in Ushuaia gotta go see the Beagle channel! So for 135 pesos (about 40 euros) each we got a good view of the beagle channel on a calm day. The wind still nearly cut us in 2 thou but we got to see loads of albatross (not sure what kind but pretty big ones), comorants, some penguins, seal lions and lots of other nesting birds at very close quarters on some of the little islands in the channels. Not sure what the birds thought - made me think back to what its like in work in the ´Big Pong´ last year - always some one rushing up for a close view of your personal quarters, squaking away at ya like I knew what was going on (only messing bigpongers - I loved the daily harassment hahahaha)! Got super views of the mountains too as the clouds cleared slightly - altho not off the Chilean ones in the west. Dont think its ever cleared in the west in the last week.

So one more day left at the end of the world and then we´re heading to Puerto Natales, Chile on a 15 hour bus trip to start planning our trip to Torres del Paine. Looking fwd to moving on again now and maybe some slighter warmer weather (it snowed on a mountain on us yesterday!) .

Los Glaciers NP - around Mt Fitzroy

2008-02-09T18:39:00.001Z

Woke up with minor hangovers (how can we have a 3 beer hangover - disgrace - am blaming the stuffy house we stayed in, someone will surely die of carbon monoxide poisoning there) but the sun was shining and Mount Fitzroy was towering above El Chalten (btw this town is built with the sole purpose of servicing tourists who come and see the mountains -they should have a shrine and say morning prayers of thanks to all the money it attracts there).

We decided to try and do a very quick turn around and start trekking that afternoon so we managed to buy food for 4 days trekking before the afternoon siesta, get our stinky clothes washed, eat lots of food (ahhhh fresh fruit, empanadas, pastries, yoghurt, drooooooollll) and book bus tickets to Rio Gallegos for friday morning. We made a brief attempt to check email and weather but failed as the connection was crap beyond belief.

Headed off around 4pm towards Laguna Torre and Campomento Agostini. There was some brief cloud around Mt Fitzroy but it cleared as we got nearer to the campground. The walk itself is medium uphill for an hour before reaching a stunning mirador of Mt Torre (which is like an obelisk of granite -very impressive), surrounded by more massive mountains ... and guess what more glaciers. Walked along the valley and reached the campground after about 3 hours, a little tired as the previous days 25kms with full packs had taken a bit of a toll. The campground is actually pretty nice considering how many people camp there. There was a stack of people (day walkers) walking out against us which was a shock again after the isolation of the previous 5 weeks hiking but all in all very beautiful and pleasant walking. Sat around for awhile above Laguna Torre (which is just above the campsite) after the sun set behind the mountains but was too cold to sit for long. The Israeli guys also joined us in getting out of town asap and all decided to rise for sunshine early the next day.

Sunrise is at 7am but we got up (stupidly) at 6.30am so had to wait until nearly 7.45 for the famous red fire effect to happen on Mt Torre. It was very spectacular once it happened tho and worth the wait and frozen fingers. The view and reflection across the lake was outstanding. Once again we´re in mind blowing scenery and its almost difficult to take it all in. The previous day we had been sad to think we were leaving the Carretera Austral and all that faboulous scenery but now once again we were in an area thats just stunning.

Headed off across the pass towards Campomento Poincenot once we had brekkie and packed up everything. Its about 10kms to the next camp site and very pleasant walking past 2 lakes which then becomes (once again) stunning scenery as Mt Fitzroy pops (as if something that big and spectacular deserves such a pathetic word) into view. Its just unbeleivable. Like we would walk 10 metres and want to stop and take a photo. Just unreal. Got to the campground which was packed and full of people (why as it was a beautiful day -they should have been up a mountain or something) and signs (toilet paper and poo everywhere plus loud, obnoxious ghouls) that muppets inhabited the region. We even saw a girl pee in the river despite signs everywhere not to pollute the waterways as they are good to drink and free from guardia etc. I seriously wanted to strangle her but its not my country (or my spanish isn´t proficient enough to ask "do you always pee in other people´s drinking water) so I restrained myself. We were well careful about where we got our water from there.

We threw off the packs and headed up to Laguna Los Trece. This is a steep climb above the campground which took us about an hour but the vista that unfolds as you walk is (ok I´m getting repitive) fantastic. This is just about as good as scenery can get. The lake is below the glaciers that form below MtFitzroy and surrounded by mountains on 3 sides and an open view of the valleys towards El Chalten on the other side. You can see for miles and its just so impressive. We lunched there as Mt Fitzroy and its slightly less high companion mountains towered above us. On the south side you can see down to Lake Sucia which is a deep blue and has waterfalls cascading into it from the glaciers down steep rock walls. We even had a few condors glide over and check it all out. There was lots of people but heaps of space for everyone.

From there, we headed back down to the campground and headed on (just not a pleasant atmosphere there. Seems like lots of (mainly Israelis) camp there for a few days and just seem to sit around being noisy. The wind picked up a lot ie into a gale so it was a hard enough walk to the next campsite (outside of the national park) at Piedra Del Frail. We followed the Rio Blanco down to the end of the valley over a rough enough river track which was a pain as the wind kept unbalancing us. From there headed up the valley Electrico along the Rio Electrico on a very easy slightly uphill track. Got into camp around 6.30 after about 26kms and about 7 hours walking so pretty tired.

Piedra Del Frail is a good sheltered campsite (altho way overpriced at 25 pesos per person even if there is a hot shower) which is necessary as the wind howls down that valley most days of the year. Some of the trees have no growth on one side! The next day we headed upto Cerro Electrico which is an 8kms, 1500m ascent/descent. This is probably one of the best day walks we have ever done. As we climbed (its damn steep), the mountains and southern ice cap just started to show more and more. The first highlight was reaching the glacier under FitzRoy (opposite side to the day before). Awesome and I just cant describe how amazing it was to be there. From there, we had to walk up scree for the second half of the walk. This was quite difficult, slow going as it was steep and a bit unstable but we got most of the way up under the wedge shape of the top of Cerro Electrico (or what we think is Cerro Electrico) for lunch. We could see Fitzroy, the southern ice cap, glacier marconi, all the way back up to Chile and the valley with Lago del Desierto, lakes, forest, down to the campsite (which was very very small). Got that tremendous buzz from being in such a fantastic place. After lunch, I sat around for awhile gathering my scattered brain thoughts (it wasn´t the best place to be if your afraid of heights) as Dunk carried on up the last 500m of scree. He got to the ridge on the top under the wedge but could go no further as it was glacier on the other side but we dont have crampons etc. All the dulce de leche (sweet, carmel spread with loads of sugar) got to my head so I ploughed (or whatever it is you do when going up scree) on for another bit and joined Dunk about 200m from the top on his way down. That extra bit made such a difference and I will never forget the feeling of almost like flying but so surreal of the view that spread in front of us.

From there it was downhill all the way, which was much easier and faster then going up - lots easier to jump out of unstable scree when going down then up. The poor ole knees weren´t happy at the bottom but we were but high from such an incredible day. Even writing this up and thinking back on the day is giving me a buzz (wow thats how cheap is that!!). Met a few climbers on the way down and wow I just cant even think about how incredible they must feel after climbing Fitzroy etc.

On the last day, we got up early ish -noone else in camp was up at 8am yet we often saw people hiking in or out of camp late in the evening. Darkness kicks in here at 11pm so the day is so different then from our trips in Australia. Walked up to see Laguna Electrico and then got curious so had to walk around the corner, up and over the boulders to look at the Rio Pollone - another stunning view up the side valley and also over towards Glacier Marconi. Took us 90 mins and didn´t have enough time to do more but would have been great to spend an extra day hanging around exploring that area. Headed back to camp around 11 where everyone was finally getting up. Headed back the way we walked in towards Campomento Poincenot. Stopped at Glacier Piedra Blanca and the lake at the bottom for lunch (Dunk had looked down on this glacier the day before from the ridge at the top). From there headed back to town via Laguna Capri which has probably the best views over Mount Fitzroy and the glaciers etc. Really beautiful. Could have stayed there for the night as it had a ovely camp spot and would have been fab for sunrise but had a bus to catch. Slogged it back into town for about 7km after another 25kms day. Stayed in the same hole as too lazy to move as we had to be up at 4am for the bus anyways. Got more steak and beers and loads of empanadas too so happy out.

Los Glaciers NP is incredible. Just when we thought our travels couldn´t get better, then once again they did. Despite the large number of people and the expense of El Chalten (make sure ya bring plenty Argentine pesos, euros or US dollars not Chile pesos as no way to get cash) its well worth going there. We have been truly haunted (for the aussies, in Cork lingo this means `your bloody lucky mate`) by the weather. We have had no rainy days since basically the start of January now in an area of the world which is renowned for rain, wind, awful summers and where your lucky if you get a glimpse of Mt Fitzroy. Instead we got sun, few clouds, a little wind and mostly perfect walking conditions. Our heads are overloaded with stunning images, great walking and very happy days for the last 6 weeks so we´re taking a break for a few days to take it all in.

For that we´re in Rio Gallegos (where there is nothing to see or do except eat fantastically cheap, tasty food) and heading to Ushuiua in Tierra Del Fuego tomorrow to the end of the world!! The weather there is rainy and cold ;) so we´re in for a shock.

Border crossing Villa O Higgins (Chile) to El Chalten (Argentina)

2008-02-09T18:03:00.000Z

This border crossing is pretty unique as you have to get the ferry from Villa O Higgins (VOH), then walk (or get a horse) 25kms across the border to Lago del Desierto from where you walk or get another ferry to the road on the southern end of that lake. There´s no roads or any kind of mechanised transport plus the scenery is pretty awesome.

Once the ferry dropped us we decided to camp at Candelaria Mancilla for the night altho the 2 Israelis (Roy and Edan) were tempting us to continue and do a side trip the next day. It was 5pm tho and being old married folk we had had enough excitement for one day. The campsite is really nice and grassy overlooking Lago O Higgins and surrounding mountains plus the added bonus of being sheltered from the wind. The lady that runs the little hospedaje there is very sweet so we didn´t steal any of her delicious looking raspberries altho we were so tempted. 2 German cyclists started up a fire which kept the cold at bay and spent a very pleasant evening chilling out there.

Next day we decided to rise early and try and walk the whole way to the end of Lago del Desierto and avoid the expense of the ferry. Headed off at 8am, got our passports stamp for exiting Chile at 8.05am and headed onto Argentina. The first hour (5-6kms) of the walk was a medium grade uphill which we tore into as was a perfect, fresh day for walking. The chilean side is pretty destroyed and eroded as they have burnt all the trees to allow "farming". Dunno what kind of farm animals eat rocks and stones tho cos we just saw a few horses and nothing much else. From there we walked and hit the border crossing around 11.30 - its basically a sign from each country saying "welcome to my country". There is a really good horse track all the way on the chilean side and apart from one part where there is a bridge down (to avoid this retrace your steps to the previous bridge and just dont cross that but follow the river til the track joins again)over a fastish river is was fast and easy going.

The argentian side is much prettier walking (altho terrible if your pushing a bike) as its single track thru lovely forest and past a nice lake. Got to the Argentian passport control and north end of Lago del Desierto at 1pm Chilean time which was 2pm Argentian time. Decided that we would not continue walking as we had only 4 hours to walk 15kms around the lake so as to get the bus to El Chalten on the other end. At that stage we were starving as well as had walked about 23kms in 5 hours with full packs. Met the 2 Israeli guys and hung around with them waiting for the 6pm ferry. Sometime around 4pm the police from the passport station decided to head off on their boat. The Israeli boys sniffed (as professional hitchhikers) that there was a chance of free lift down the lake so legged it down and asked if we could go on the police boat ... and sure enough they said yes. Wahooo 40 pesos each saved (which is bloody loads if you dont have very many pesos and there are no ATMs or money exchange in El Chalten). We piled onto the boat, were warned by the senior policeman to sit down and that we would get wet. The main ferry down the lake takes 1 hour. We took 10 minutes and it was so much fun -massive power in the police boat and just absolutely incredible scenery again as glaciers and mountains on both side of the narrow lake.

From there we had to get a bus but the bus driver told us there was only 3 seats left but there was 4 of us. Time for some more hitch hiking but first a cup of tea was brewed. As we drank tea, a dump truck (the ones that carry sand, gravel, earth, etc) drove in with a load of people in the cab and 3 backpackers in the back. The Israeli boys just looked at each other and smiled and said there´s our lift to town!! And sure enough after some polite asking the truck driver was happy enough for us to go in the back into town. He (along with dodgy mustache, best day out pink shirt unbuttoned to belly button with a hairy chest godzilla would be proud of on display -he looked like a cross between George Best and Freddy Mercury)was out with his wife and 5 daughters (all sitting the cab - lots of flesh on display here too) for a trip to the lake for the day.

Up we piled into the back and honestly if I was back again I would sit waiting by the lake for the next empty dump truck to appear. What an incredible view all the 37kms into town. The valleys, forest, mountains and glaciers (ya ya I know more glaciers and still cant get enough of them!!) were just outstandingly beautiful in the evening light. There wasn´t even that much dust on the road.

Mount Fitzroy showed later that evening when we got to town. El Chalten itself was a shock to us all after the Carretas Austral. There´s a free campground on the edge of town where there must have been 100 tents (we hadn´t seen that many in total in the previous 5 weeks), people and restaurants everywhere. Took ages to find a place to stay and was beginning to consider the free campground when we got directed to a tiny Hospadeja Naveta - its was 35 pesos each for a bunk bed, extra for sheets and the rooms were so small we had to take turns standing in the room. Anyways we got a shower, cleaned up and went for a couple of beers to the microbrewwery (awesome beer and empanadas) and then went for steak ... ohhhh droool ... real food. No insult to anyone who feed us in Chile cos we got some very good food (especially the hostal in Cochrane was exceptionally good) but the steak and empanadas and fries were just sooooo tasty. Its like the difference between eating a quick home cooked dinner after a long day in work on a tuesday night (altho we usually do better then lots of what we had in Chile where everything is super processed) and eating in a fine dining restaurant on a saturday night. Different grades.

So in summary this has to be the most interesting (and one of the more scenic) border crossings we will ever do. What a day of hard, fast walking followed by power police boat trip and 360C panormic dump truck views wrapped up by simply great food.

On the down side, El Chalten was a shock to the system - expensive and crowded but sure thats what we get for being in the sticks for so long ;)

Lago and Glacier O Higgins ferry trip

2008-02-09T17:45:00.001Z

On Saturday, we headed off on the ferry trip around Lago O Higgins. We decided to do the full day trip as its 33k pesos (about 50 euros) for the full trip and 20k pesos for the basic trip which lasts a couple of hours and drops you at Candelaria Mancilla so pretty much better value for the full day. There was some drama with the minibus to the ferry (I think this happens every time the ferry runs) as there was too many tourists to fit in the bus so the guy had to do 2 trips. Not very difficult or you would imagine complicated but the guy with the minibus and the travel agent who books the ferry tickets dont coordinate this so ends up being this hilarious saga - presume they just do it to create some drama as there´s not much else to do in VOH.

Lago O Higgins is a pretty big lake (I´m sure I could find out exactly how big but couldn´t be bothered) with 5 arms out from the center. We headed down the first arm of Lago O Higgins and it was very pleasant, altho cold. Lovely views and good for photos. We rounded the corner into the center of the lake and got hit by a massive blast of wind. Half the people up top got drenched and everyone made for the covered in seating area downstairs where we all stayed til we reached Candelaria Mancilla (CM) and dropped the first installment of people who were heading for Argentina (see the next post for more info on this). The little harbour is beautiful and very well sheltered. From there we headed back out into the lake and more winds altho the boat was heading into the wind now rather then being hit from the side so we could go back above board.

After about 30 mins we got our first glimpse of Glacier O Higgins and also Glacier Chico which is less spectacular as covered in volcano dust. Its a very spectacular cruise upto the glacier as chunks of ice float past and glaciers from the edge of the southern ice cap tip over the side of the mountains. Very beautiful plus good fun too as we got blasted by the wind heading upto the glacier. The glacier is something like 60m high and about 1km long and stretches back 18kms into the southern ice cap. Little chunks were falling off and making thunderous noise. A chunk of ice about the size of a football made a sound like a gunshot when it hit the water in the lake. We also got to sample some ´whiskey´and ice from the glacier (I dunno what brand the whiskey was but it tasted pretty bad) which is allegedly 1000 years old. Cruised around in front of the glacier for a couple of hours then headed back to CM where we got dropped off. A really great day and despite being quite expensive, worth the effort since we had never seen a glacier so big before.

The end of the Carretera Austral

2008-02-09T16:38:00.001Z

We left Cochrane on Tuesday after a very chilled out monday recovering from the previous week. We flukily managed to get the last 2 seats on the minibus to Caleta Tortel. The bus driver sat us up the front of the hiace so we had the best views and honestly he was more like a tour guide then minibus driver. Chatted away to us at a million miles an hour so we caught lots of information (and missed a stack more), put names on all the mountains, lakes and glaciers that have names, stopped at the scenic spots for us to take photos (we were the only gringos so I´m not sure what the other locals thought of us!) and regaled us with stories of what its like to drive this section of the Carretera Austral. He does the return trip 4 times a week all year round no matter what the weather. This is snow chains territory for 3 months of the year and there is no road-snow clearing done - probably as there´s only about one car/van/bus a day. His "best" story was getting stuck in 2 metres of snow for 16 hours before somehow being rescued (our spanish didn´t get that part).

We past some fantastic scenery -huge snow capped mountains, glaciers, forest, many lakes and of course the massive Rio Baker which is just a very HUGE river, the mouth of which is just at Caleta Tortel. I cant remember how much water flows out there but its enough to change the colour of the water in the sound near Caleta Tortel to a kind of pale greeny blue.

Caleta Tortel is famous for its 5kms of cedar wooden walkways. Its situated about 20kms off the main road between Cochrane and Villa O Higgins. There´s no roads just a little carpark above the town (which has only been built in the last couple of years -before then you had to walk 2.5kms from the airstrip via a wooden walkway) and from there the only access is via boat or on the wooden walkways. Its very strange but novel and very cute for us tourists but it must be so much hassle living there as its freezing cold or wet most of the year there. When we were there they had the best summer they have ever had so it was very pleasant walking around. Saying that its like a continous session of up and down steps. Maybe thats why they have no gym there ;) altho we did see many very untoned, large butts around so not sure what happened them. Maybe they never leave home?

Aside from walkways, the main attraction is boat trips to either Ventisquero (glacier) Jorge Montt or Steffan. We tried in vain to find someone to take us out but there wasn´t enough other tourists around so we failed as the only way was to pay $US400 for a boat just for us. A tad out of our price range. Instead we spent the time strolling about and (enforced cos nothing else to do) chilling out. Walked all around and on the tourist track above town which has lovely views. Stayed in Hostal Costanera where the lady who runs it is very sweet. She made divine jam - gooseberry one morning and rhubarb the next (not as good as my mum´s tho!!) and her bread was good too. She also gave us some raspberry pie as we charmed her with our praise of her jam and the pie was even better!!

Eating in Tortel is an adventure in itself. The 2 minimarkets are ridiciously overpriced. I know they have to carry everything in but wow labour isn´t that expensive in this part of the world. We ate out twice. There´s no menu just whatever is being cooked that day or night. The first meal was a great feed of spuds and boiled beef and the second place was just hilarious. Its obviously new (think its called El Mirador) and has a stunning view over the harbour (altho it didn´t occur to the owners to open the blind until after everyone had finished eating). They ran out of beer as the German invasion had happened (more on this later) -we were not very impressed!! The food was good (well for this part of the world), altho the salmon had been fried to the point where there was hardly any pink colour left at all!! We also found a great place for empanadas which was just some woman´s house - the apple ones were really good. Aside from that we stuck to what was by now our staple fall back in Chile - bread (dry and tasteless after about 4 hours out of the oven), ham (well salami or mortadello or whatever was in the roll in that particular shop) and cheese (2 varieties, first sliced and tasteless, the second comes in a squeezy tube and is like easy singles but kind of creamier - hunger the great palate leveller!).

After 2 nights in Tortel (including an aborted attempt to get the bus back to Cochrane which was full so we couldn´t) we decided to get the hell out of there as there´s only so much chilling and bread one can stomach. On Thursday, there was a minibus south to Yungay which is about one third of the way to Villa O Higgins and we knew there was a bus to Villa O Higgins (from here on VOH) leaving from Cochrane at 2.30pm so we decided to risk it and hope the bus wasn´t full. The drive south was stunning again -amazing forest. I think its some kind of special area as its really wet so lots of stuff grows there. Also supposed to be able to see huemul (rare deer) but we didn´t see any possibly cos the creaking suspension in the minibus had scared the crap out of everything for miles around. Incredible scenery all the way. From Yungay to Rio Bravo there is a free ferry (no road built there yet and probably wont be for a long time) 3 times a day. Very scenic also. We met 2 Israeli guys we had chatted to about hitching the day before - they had got 20kms the day before so weren´t too happy. Anyways our minibus driver continued on for about 30kms south of the ferry to a little farm in the middle of nowhere where he collected the farmer and returned to Tortel. Beautiful setting - in other countries this place would sell for millions. Isolated but surrounded by mountains and a glacier at one end of the valley. We ended up sitting there for 8 hours. 3 cars passed us ALL day. We knew the bus was due around 7.30pm as the last ferry was in at 7pm. It finally arrived as the rain started to drip and we were well and truly blasted after 8 hours in the wind (nothing is good enough to stop the wind in Patagonia). The driver got out and said the worst words ´no asientos´(or something like this which translates to NO SEATS) hahahaaha very funny except we werent laughing as the prospect of spending another 2 days waiting for the next bus was suddenly very real. We did have enough food it this happened but not sure about enough mental strength. Anyways turns out there is little seats down the aisle of the bus and we could sit on them if we wanted. Of &%$ing course we wanted them. Did he really think we´d prefer to sit in the middle of nowhere in the wind and rain for 2 days rather then 2 hours on a slightly squashy seat????? Am still baffled by this question. I would have strapped us to the roof if we had to!!

So on we went to VOH much happier and relieved. Got in around 10pm after another stunning drive albeit in low cloud we still got superb glimpses of mountains, glaciers etc. In VOH, there was a slight accomodation crisis as the German invasion had happened there too. We stayed in a little Hospedaje Cascadas next to where the bus stopped and got fed there. Turns out half the bus ended up there. The rooms were tiny tho -literally space for 2 single beds in each and that was it plus you could hear everything from the toilet (and other rooms) next to us. Not the best alarm clock in the world.

In the morning (friday) we got up early to try and book the ferry to Candelaria Mancilla (more on this below) which we knew was going to be hard to get tickets for as the Germans were on the boat already. We should have known better - at noon we finally managed to get tickets after wandering about aimlessly in VOH for the morning. The travel agent didn´t bother to open til 11.30am. It was frustrating as we wanted to do a hike up to Glacier El Mosco but didn´t have time then. We still walked to the refugio (hut) below the glacier which was a very pleasant stroll (well about 4 hours) thru nice forest with good views of the glacier. That night we ate at the Cafe Patagonia (or some name like this) on the way into town. It was a really nice wooden building and good food too -we even had a choice of beef or chicken on the asado (basically a bbq) plus by now even tinned fruit was tasting good! VOH is a surprisingly nice little town altho some of the houses just look like they must be freezing in the winter (or anytime of year) as they are skinny, no insulation or wind protection of any kind, and very small. We could have probably spend another day wandering about there but the ferry was leaving the next morning so headed on.

So thats the end of the Carretera Austral for us for now. We´re hoping to make a brief return maybe in March but this depends on funds at that time. Its been an incredible 5 weeks of scenery, trekking and travelling with every day bringing some new WOW factor. The people are very friendly but the tourist infrastructure is still very limited which is great in some respects as we were the only gringos for miles in some places but not so great when we needed to get transport. It would have been much better to have had our own transport in the southern part of the trip (so we didn´t get stranded so much and could stop and camp and take photos whereever we wanted) but saying that it added to the adventure by not having one ;) The hiking was superb and we have plenty more ideas about more we could do if and when we come back. The food is basic but sufficient and the incredible scenery just blows your mind all day long everyday.

And finally to explain the German invasion. A group of 14 retired Germans (I think we talked to them all at some stage) planned a trip down the Carretera Austral for 2 weeks and left a trail of full towns, no beer and no space left for the rest of the tourists behind them. They were lovely people and truly well organised (well except for the horses over the border disaster for them explained in the next blog entry) but since the tourist infrastructure is so limited they used up all the resources around!! Seriously we met people who kept saying things like ´we couldn´t do X, Y, Z cos of the Germans´eg they drank all the beer in Tortel for us ;), they booked all the ferry/horses/cabins/restaurants/etc in other places so became quite infamous with the rest of the tourists. I dont think they were even aware of the chaos that they caused. Hehehe anyways that just shows how few people this area expects or can cope with.

Good bye for now Carretera Austral - its been the highlight of our travels so far and would HIGHLY recommend to anyone as its very safe, relatively easy altho time consuming, and just beautiful.

Partial Circuit of Cerro Castillo

2008-02-09T16:25:00.000Z

This is a 4 day walk partway around Cerro Castillo. It offers spectacular mountain scenery including virgin forest, hanging glaciers and lakes, is easily accessable, and navigation is simple (track all the way).

Access

To get to the start of the walk, catch a bus from Coyhaique heading south, and ask to be let off (see Route Description) - the bus driver will probably know the place, and it is marked with a sign showing a walker. It should take about 3 hours to get there (but our bus broke down, so I don´t really know...). Don Carlos busses run every day except Sunday - other companies may run on Sundays.

From the end of the walk at Villa Cerra Castillo, busses head north every day except Sunday, and south every day. We hitched as we didn´t want to wait until the middle of the next day for a bus, and Villa Cerra Castillo isn´t very exciting. Rio Tranquillo is a couple of hours drive south, and a much nicer place to spend the night.

Maps

If you are not a novice walker, you could complete this walk using the map in the Lonely Planet.

Conaf publishes a 1:90000 topographic map with the walking route marked. This map includes sufficient detail to complete the walk. You should be able to get this at the CONAF office at Laguna Chiguay (6km from the start of the walk described in the Lonely Planet). We got ours at the new refugio CONAF are building, from the guy who was doing the building...

The following IGM maps cover the route and provide more detail than the CONAF map. Its worth while getting "Villa Cerro Castillo" in my opinion

Lago Elizalde (Section I, No 132)

Balmaceda (Section I, No 133)

Villa Cerra Castillo (Section J, No 10)

Route Description

As provided in the Lonely Planet.

This route is very well trodden, and not at all hard to follow.

When we did the walk (January 2008), CONAF were building a hut at the entrance to the Reserva Nacional Cerra Castillo (LOnely Planet map shows reserve boundaries), not far from the Rio Turbio.

CONAF have constructed 3 camp sites on the route which have toilets, picnic tables and fireplaces. The first of these is a few hundred metres up the track from where it enters the Rio Turbio valley. The second is near the confluence of the Eastern and Western branches of the Estero del Bosque, and the third is at Campamento Neozelandes. All sites are located in the bush rather than in the open.

On the descent from the pass above Laguna Cerro Castillo, there should be no need to descend all the way to the Estero Prada before climbing to Campamento Neozelandes. You will pass a cairn and rock painted with 2 arrows (one pointing straight ahead, the other to the right). There is a high route to the right which from what I hear follows a line of cairns above the forest to the camp (this is shown on the CONAF map). The route straight ahead (shown on the CONAF map and in the Lonely Planet) is a rough and shitty scramble along the edge of a narrow valley until you reach the main track up the valley to the campamento.

Laguna Duff, near Campanento Neozelandes, is well worth seeing. To get here, skirt the forest along the swampy clearing above the campamento until near its end, then pick a creek heading up to your right (there are a few), follow this and then climb the rocky slope to and obvious valley. There are a few cairns on the rocky slope, which are more helpful on the way down.

A short version of this walk could start from Villa Cerro Castillo, head up the horse track to Laguna Cerro Castillo and down to Campamento Neozelandes, and then back to town the next day. This route gives a good taste of the scenery the 4 day route has to offer.

Walking in Chile and Argentina

2008-02-09T16:09:00.000Z

This is the first in a series of entries I´m writing to describe the walks we´ve done in Chile and Argentina. I´m going to try and provide information that would be helpful for anyone planning a walking trip here, as we didn´t succeed in finding much information online before we came...

Sources of information

"Trekking in the Patagonian Andes", Lonely Planet, 3rd Edition. This includes route desriptions for many of the walks we´ve done.

"Chile & Argentina", The Bradt Trekking Guide, 5th Edition. This includes some route descriptions, and much insipiration and information that is of use for planning walks.

The Chilean IGM. Buy topographic maps online, or from their shop in Santiago. They deliver overseas, and within chile using Lan Courier - it is possible to have maps delivered to a Lan Courier office for pickup (this is how we bought most of ours). Lan Courier office addresses are available on their website. Delivery within Chile seems to take around a week.

Condor Explorer. This is an excellent outdoor shop in Coyhaique that stocks and sells IGM maps for popular walking regions along the Carretas Austral and a very useful selection of hiking and climbing gear. They speak excellent english and are will order in IGM maps on request.

Some general points

The Chilean IGM are the only publisher of topographic maps for most areas of Chile. It is almost impossible to find shops that stock their maps, although I have noted the shops I´ve found that do stock them above.

Topographic maps by other publishers are available for popular walking areas (eg. Mt Fitz Roy). The Zagier and Urrity map we have of Mt Fitz Roy is unsuitable for serious navigation.

Walk descriptions

Partial Circuit of Cerra Castillo

Lago Jeinmeni to Cochrane via Paso Leones and Reserva Tomango

A week of hiking linking Reserve Nacional Lago Jeinimeni and Tamango

2008-01-28T22:13:00.000Z

Spent a couple of hours on sunday night squeezing everything (8 days food, all our stuff including about 8 books, Spanish notes, tent, sleeping bags, etc) into our packs - part of me thinks this was more tiring then some of the hikes to follow.

On monday morning, woke our landalady at the ridicously unsociable hour of 8am so we could get organised that day and get hiking asap as didn´t have anything to do in Chile Chico. Walked into town at 9am to try and find Ferdinando Giorgia at Expeditions Patagonia. Waited around for his office to open at 10 (nothing happens in Chile before 10) and managed to buy white spirits for the stove so didn´t have to resort to petrol (wahoo as petrol stinks for cooking). When his office did open and we managed to explain to the girl working there she gave us the card for her boss (whose office we are sitting in) with his mobile number and told us to ring him. Baffled as to why she couldn´t seeing as we´re in his office, off we trudged and Dunk managed to get the message across on the phone (its amazing how much we rely on gesticulation to get our pigeon spanish messages across). Met the guy in the office an hour later and he showed us some good shots and google earth images of where we were headed. For the princely sum of 70k pesos (US$140) he drove us out in his very antique land rover (alternative was to hitch - I think we would still be waiting).

We left at 2pm slightly later then we wanted but sure the days are very long here so no worries. The drive out was quite scenic, very dry patagonian steppe as we followed the argy-chile border (literally driving on the border where there is no controls or anything but dust really). Ferdinando dropped us to the campsite right at the western end of Lago Jeinimeni which was great as it was a damn hot day and our packs were massive so 10km 4wd track bash saved was very nice surprise. The lake itself is quite pretty and once we got over the initial shock of being bombarded by bucket loads of mossies and horse flies we found a sweet campsite next to a stream at the top of the lake. There was enough wind to keep away the hordes of biting insects and only had to carry our packs abput 1km which was enough as Dunk´s was about 26+kgs and mine not far off that.

On tuesday, we hiked up the Estero La Gloria river valley, over the White Horse Pass (Paso Caballo Blanco), past Lago Verde (good trail over the pass past the lake) which is a stunning green colour and reflections of snow capped mountains make it extra special, continued up the huge, wide flat valley and then up the Ventisquero Valley to the top to Lago La Gloria which is a kind of pale green colour, fed by a glacier and had the huge Cerro La Gloria over head. Very pretty. From there returned the way we had come - about 26kms all up so a pretty full on day mostly in the sun as well so tiring as it was very hot again.

On wednesday took it easier as were tired from the previous day. Climbed about a third of the way up La Gloria ridge for lovely views over both Lago Jeinimeni and Verde. Lunched next to the Lago Verde in the shade of a tree and hardly any biting insects. After that bashed upto some cascades which were lovely altho ended up with heaps of scratches as forgot our gaitors. In hindsight, we should have based ourselves at Lago Verde as the horse flies and mossies seemed less ferocious there.

On Thursday, it was down with the tent and on with the big packs to start the first day over Paso Leones. Another hot day beckoned so we set off before 9am only to be greeted by HORDES of mossies and horseflies for the first 2 hours. It was crap to be honest and the track crisscrossed the river heaps so slow going which meant the horseflies had loads of time to land. The first 5-6kms was heavy going with the packs as we climbed over lots of scree and slopes of dead trees from avalanches and rock falls. By much we were pretty tired (which is always depressing) but the valley started to open, lunch was good, the insects went on siesta and about 20 minutes later the scenery dramatically improved. Lots of dramatic mountains, forested sides, little lakes and grassy valleys made the easier going altho it was probably heading for 30C again. We camped just north of El Coironal Lake with great views all around.

Next day was downhill most of way. The first 6kms was easy as there was a great horse and cattle track to follow (ironic that when we left the national park track conditions were much easier and prettier) then the whole valley opened up into very dry grass lands (some of which probably had been cleared years ago by fires which damaged so much of Chilean Patagonia). We skirted high and found the occasional patch of trees to get some respite from the heat. By the time we got down into the Valle Chacabuco we were well covered in dust and sweat (such a lovely combination). Stood by the river pondering how to get on the road on the other side where we saw a 4WD slow to stare at us and thought "a bugga there goes our only chance of a lift". The next 30kms was a road bash along a very infrequently travelled road so we expected to have to walk it. Crossed the river at a wide spot and it was ok altho a strong current. Trudged on for about 6kms when just as we were about to stop at a shady tree to decide what to do, we nearly got trundled over by a truck. We were walking into a very strong head wind and couldn´t hear it. I think all our luck was with us that day as the guys were heading to Estancia Valle Chacabuco which was our dream ... wahooo no more road bashing. The drive in was lovely (especially cos we were knackered) altho the poor driver had my very smelly armpit hovering near his face as I tried not to fall onto him - he was very polite and never complained. The vally is all transitional steppe and full of guanacos which are slightly smaller then llamas and mostly light brown colours. They allowed us to camp for free at the estancia. Turns out that Douglas Tompkins (same guy who set up Park Pumalin) has bought the estancia out to link the 2 reserves so it will become one of the largest national parks in Chile and pretty important as the only area of transitional steppe that is protected. One of the guys from the truck was lovely and showed us the house and work they are doing there. Its going to very special place in a couple of years. Its amazing too cos never rains but only snows and all of it in winter yet theres plenty fresh water from the mountain snows.

Next day headed to Tamango Reserve. Met some of the volunteers who told us the previos 4 days were exceptionally hot for the area (as everyone in Cochrane keeps telling us too). Great hiking conditions not. Anyways set off and eventually reached the saddle between Cerro Tamango and Tamaguito (after some brief confusion about where the hell we were) in time for lunch. Incredible views and many bemused guanacos wheenying (that thing horses do but guanacos do it like they are either being squeezed very tightly or smoked too much pot) watching us sit on their territory. One was even perched on top of Cerro Tamanguito checking us out.

Climbed up Tamanquito after lunch for incredible views in all directions. Could see the northern ice cap, Reserve Tamango and all its lakes, Valle Chacabuco and all the mountains and ranges north of there, San Lorenzo massif (very spectacular high 3700m mountain on argy-chile border). Bashed our way down to Lago Elefantita after that which was really good going as the forest is quite open underneath and very pretty with nice green, floor and beeches. Collapsed in a tired heap at Lago Elefantita and camped with views of San Lorenzo and the lake. Very cool campsite and not so many insects either.

Next day did a morning stroll up to see Lago Tamango (about 4kms return) without packs, then walked around Lago Elefantita to the eastern side following a track which turned out was leading was down to Lago Cochrane so bashed our way back upto the top of the ridge overlooking Lago Elefantita (southern side). Slow enough going as was hot and loads of hidden knolls and knobs to drag those stupid packs over. By lunch completed the circuit of Lago Elefantita but decided not to do the range over Lago Tamango but to find the track we had already done that morning (scaring the crap out of the same ducks and geese again). We actually met another hiker later that afternoon .... wow think they are rarer then the huemel (rare patagonian deer). The track was like a freeway (altho very dusty) after Lago Tamango and people obviously use this part a bit more often. Also its a very steep descent into Cochrane but pretty cool views all the way.

A killer on the knees which brings me to the point that we know each own a walking pole. Shudder ya we joined the europeans whic our little ski pole and have to say its great for uphill, downhill, saves the knees, good for crossing rivers, testing mud depth and keeping husband in control ;) even if it does concede that we`re not so young anymore.

Staying in the Res Sur Austral where they gave us a welcome like we were rich fat tourists rather then being the exhausted, dusty, sweaty, bedraggled pair we really were. Only problem we had was that the water in Cochrane stopped for the whole town last night. I got lucky and managed to shower (another cold shower - noone seems to have the hot shower thing figured out down here but god I felt-smelt so much better after) but poor Dunk had to wait a couple of hours. Had a huge great dinner at the place and she feed us so well.

Chilled out in the heat again today. All in all a brilliant week. In hindsight we should have left stuff in Cochrane then went to Chile Chico and done the loop with lighter packs. Bringing mossie repellant would have been genius. Other then that everything was really fantastic and we had such a cool week. The areas we walked in are remote but easy and safe enough to navigate and walk thru yet noone seems to go there. The insects are a nuisance (I look like someone who had a fight with a pin cushion) but the scenery is just indescribably outstanding.

Off to Caleta Tortel next and then Villa O Higgins.

Around Cerro Castillo and onto Chile Chico

2008-01-20T20:04:00.000Z

We set off as planned on monday morning at 9.30am on the bus heading south to Cochrane giving instructions to the bus driver to let us off about 30kms before Villa Cerro Castillo so we could start our 4 day hike in the Reserve Nacional Cerro Castillo. Bit of a cloudy day but clear enough to give good vistas of the rolling hills and mountains on the horizon. Stopped after about 2 hours driving (at 30kms per hour) in a tiny little place where we were told the bus was broken down so we had to wait for a replacement. Groan - we only had gone 60kms at the very most so sat on the side of a very windy road waiting for about 90 mins. Eventually the replacement arrived and set off at a rapid (40kms) speed so we got dropped at our stop about 30 mins later around 1.30pm slightly frustrated at the delay but hey its a lovely day and its bright til after 10 so all is good.

Day 1 of the walk was up a rough ish 4wd track along a lovely valley which opened up at the end to a stunning view of Cerro Castillo and the glaciers and snow hanging off it. Was a tough enough day as we had pretty massive packs - all our stuff, including books, food for 5 days etc as we didn´t want to waste time leaving gear stored anywhere. Eventually settled in a great little campsite and managed to set up before the rain hit us. Was damn cold that night but being pretty knackered we slept well!

Next day was stunning, clear skies all the way once some fog cleared off the heights. Hiked up to Glacier Penon (about 2 hours sidetrip) which was pretty amazing altho has clearly receded quite a bit from its original size. Had condors (or maybe king vultures) soaring the thermals above us and stunning views. Walked up and over a cold pass at about 1400m, about 500m of snow to slide over on the top of the pass along with some steep scree (Grace not happy with this) which we negotiated carefully. HAd lunch sitting under (well a bit away from) another glacier at the head of a beautiful valley with glaciers everywhere, stunning views of the bald, basalt, mountains and tree lined valley. After a few hours hiking down over some more boulders and scree, back into the trees, over a few rivers and then back up another valley where we pitched our tent in little hollow over which the Castillo Chico towered with another hanging glacier and beautiful cascade. Climbed the moraine at the side for a wonderful 360 view, then slide back down for a another sound sleep.

Day 3 was once again clear blue skies all the way. First we climed up above the valley we camped, over the beautiful turqoise lake (cant remember the name) with another overhanging glacier (yip their not extinct in Chile yet!) onto yet another pass (1600m) which was freezing on top once again with more snow. The other side was steep scree which descending was a bit like a snow plough all the way to the bottom (probably for about 45 mins, ouch burning legs with massive pack). After that there was 1.5km of the crappiest track along the river (just badly placed, rough, easy to get hurt and generally stupid place to put a track) then 3.5kms back up another valley thru beautiful lenga forest to the New Zealanders camp. Glorious place with a beautiful open grassy area at the head of the valley. Altho pretty tired did 2 hours scramble upto Laguna Duff which is surrounded by steep moraine, mountain sides and just a stunning turqoise blue colour with ice floes at one end. We did briefly contemplate a swim and got as far as stripping off, into the water as far as knees at which point I realised my toes had gone numb and were beginning to hurt (this is after 5 seconds) so made a hasty retreat out of there!!

Day 4 was an easy down hill back out to the valley and stroll into Villa Cerro Castillo with the mountains and glaciers fading out of sight.

Got to Villa Cerro Castillo around 2 so decided to try and hitch on as its literally got nothing there. Did see a few gauchos stroll into town on their horses with best ironed shirts on. Pretty cool to see. Just as we had given up, packs back on and started to walk into town to look for a place to stay, 2 Israeli guys in a 4WD picked us up. We were delighted to get the lift but on hindsight it was bad luck as these guys drove like lunatics. The scenery for the next 90 mins was incredible but we had WAY too many close misses, ignorant, careless, stupid, 23 yr old selfish driving moments to be able to appreciate it properly. Nice guys but jaysus respect for others please. Maybe I was that stupid too 10 years ago. Got to Rio Tranquilo which a lovely little village situated at the side of Lago General Carrera. Found a nice hosteria to stay in, showered and ordered dinner. In the meantime the 2 Israelis had been kicked out for what the hotel owners said was rude behaviour and for the 2 boys said was asking to use the kitchen. I dunno what really happened but was too tired and hungry to care. Dinner was a massive lump of delicious beef and rice and a cold beer ... ahhh a great way to finish off 4 brilliant days.

Next day we hitched out of town (avoiuding the boys as I´d prefer to walk 100kms and be alive then dead or brown pants) in 2 stages as far as Puerto Guadal. First with a lovely local couple who dropped us at the Leones Valley (which looked stunning and we were going to walk there eventually but decided we couldn´t find transport there -- hahaha ironic), then a few hours later with a truck driver. Poor Dunk was in the back for that rough road - ouch - whilst I sat up front amusing the truck driver with terrrible spanish and drinking free coke! After 3 hours on hardly any traffic resigned ourselves to spending the njght in Puerto Guadal. Found a great little cabana which we had all to ourselves with the best shower ever, kitchen etc. Much better then camping as we had originally planned but gave up as couldnt find the campsite.

Next morning got a ride with a local fella and his 3 boys in their ute - he said he was going to Mallin Grande (about 35kms nearer to Chile Chico) so we said sure its a bit closer so why not. Anyways he dropped us 8kms short so we had to hike it into town as there was NO traffic on the road. Did find a shop for lunch there tho (phew) otherwise it would have been biscuits and rice (delicious NOT). After another 4 hours and about 4 cars we were getting pretty depressed about having to find a place to camp when a bus from Chalten travel turned up. I could have kissed the guy. Dunk did ask how much but to be honest he could have charged me anything at that point!!
And so we arrived into Chile Chico at 7.30pm last night. The drive here has been stunning, hardly anyone does it but its just out of this world beautiful with stunning views over the lake (2nd largest in South America and kicks the ass off Lake Titicaca), out to the snow and ice capped mountains to the west and getting drier as we headed east. Not much in Chile Chico but staying at a cheap, very welcoming hostel, have managed to wash our minging clothes, shop for the next week and all sorted for the next adventure.

Speaking of which the plan is to head to Lago Jeinemini (if we can get a lift the 60kms to there), spend 2-3 days camped there and do day walks, then hike 3 days over a valley and pass to the south side into Valle Chacabuco and then road bash for 2 days into Cochrane. Not sure if the plan will go exactly like that as we may not be able to get there to start the plan in the first place!! Here´s hoping and chat to ye from Cochrane next week!!

Carretas Austral - Coyhaique to Caleta Gonzalo and back

2008-01-13T15:14:00.001Z

We managed to get organised really quickly in Coyhaique. Rented a car which we got at 6pm on the friday evening less then 24 hours since we had arrived in Coyhaique. So much for things taking time on the Carretas Austral. We got lucky and got a free upgrade as well from a small 3 door little thing to a larger 4 door with boot car as the car we were supposed to have hadn´t been returned. This was great really as we managed to explode the contents of our backpacks to fill the car and most of the time the car doubled as transport cum moving laundrette as we tried to keep our gear modestly dry.

Headed off north towards Villa Amengual via the very scenic drive past Rios Simpson Reserve. Both pretty nervous as we have´nt driven on the RHS very much and it was a brand new car. The road was sealed for about 100km and then we hit the gravel. It was awful ... big river rocks and scree greeted us once we left the sealed road. After about 20kms of the bottom of the car getting the crap kicked out of it, we pulled over and camped for the night in a scenic little spot between the hills past Villa Amengual.

Next morning we headed off into the clouds and dull cold weather pretty nervous about whether we should be driving this car on this road at all but checked all the paper work etc and didn´t see anything saying we couldnt (as if we have enough Spanish to figure this out). Anyways about 2kms into the drive the road improved dramatically and the gravel was much smaller less damaging grade so we relaxed a bit. Found a fab camp spot at Lagos Todos Santos where we should have stayed altho it was very exposed as we stopped for a 10 minute picnic on the way back and nearly got blown away. Headed straight thru Quelat NP as the clouds were down on us and we figured we´d do it on the way back. Eventually got to La Junta around 2pm and the weather changed dramatically and out came the sun. Up to this point we only had tantalising glimpses of the beauty behind the clouds but now all the glaciers, snow capped mountains, green and torquise rivers and lakes, beautiful Valdivian forest was apparent. We drove all day (for the 150th time questioning why and how we could have forgotten to bring tunes with us on the entire trip, probably our biggest mistake of the trip) and got to the south end of Park Pumalin. We camped at the Ventisquero camping area just south of Chaiten. Its an absolutely stunning setting with 5 camping areas to choose from in the 5kms plus length of valley. We choose the first camping area as you could see the massive glacier in one direction, and incredible snow capped mountains in the other direction. There was one other couple (cyclists) camped at the farthest camp area and other then that we had it all to ourselves. Unreal.

On the sunday, the morning was lovely and we walked out to a crater walk which climbed steeply to the top of the crater and wound down to the inside of this very extinct crater thru lovely forest. At the bottom there was a little pond with loads of nosy hummingbirds flying up to check us out. Really cool. After that we continued on and walked out to the massive valley with the glacier at the end. The guys from the previous day told us the river was very dangerous to cross but think they crossed in the wrong place as we made it across easily. Unfortunately the weather changed and it started to rain so we didn´t risk getting caught on the wrong side of the glacial river with no proper gear or food with us (sensible us eh). Drove north to Chaiten (a very basic, small, dreary port town) , stocked up on basic provisions and continued north. Stopped briefly at Santa Barbara beach which is all black lava sand, very beautiful, a good spot for wild camping andwe also saw some seals and dolphins again. Decided to head on as it was pretty exposed to the weather from the sea. Camped at El Volcan where we based ourselves for the next 3 nights. Another fab campsite with glacier and snow capped mountains views (which we briefly saw each day between the torrential rain).

We camped at the communal camp site which we shared with one other bloke and had the shelter to ourselves as he seemed to be happy out by hinself in his tiny tent. We also had cold showers every evening and I mean COLD - bloody artic temps but better then stinking our sleeping bags this early in the trip. Its more of a splash and dash for each body part except when I nearly got hypothermia rinsing my hair (long hair sucks for camping).

On monday, the weather was awful - cold, torrential rain, gales. We pitied the cyclists we saw out there. The forecast was awful for the week so we just headed out and did some short day walks that day. Spectacular walk at Cascadas Escondidas which winds up thru amazing forest of beech, alerce (really old trees ie 1000 years plus which have nearly been logged out - ah humans are so forward thinking), lenga etc plus mosses and lichens frowing on every tree, rock and ground surface available. The waterfalls were pretty impressive too. Did the alerce trail too but at that stage we were soaked right thru, bloody freezing so gave up and went for coffee. There´s a cafe at Caleta Gonzalo which is the end of the road and will be for a long time to come as the mountains just rise straight out of the fjord and go straight up so pretty difficult to get around that. For some reason they didn´t like wet (altho we had changed clothes by then), bedraggled walkers orcyclists in the cafe. Even tho we paid and drank the most expensive nescafe (Chileans dont do real coffee) and ate overly sweet chocolate cake (everything here has way too much sugar or dulce de leche (which is a sweet carmelly thing like super condensed milk but sweeter cos they probably add sugar)), we left after 30 minutes. There was 3 other cyclists there (amongst the drier, richer folks who obviously weren´t camping but staying in expensive cabins or lodges) who were doing an epic bike trip around south america and they managed to dry their clothes on the fire by sharing one coffee and cake between them and avoiding all subtle hints by the staff to leave. Very funny to watch.

On Tuesday, we decided to give the Senderos El Volcan (24km out and back to a glacier) a lash even tho the weather was once again awful. It was a stunning walk thru incredible forest covered in moss, ferns, huge trees, hummingbirds, owls, little wrens and other birds we dont know and climbing gently up over 12kms where you suddenly get to the end of the forest and onto glacier moraine. At that point we were drenched from walking thru ferns and wet drippy forest but the clouds rose high enough for 20 mins to allow us to see the glacier. So unreal and close (and it was so cold too) and what a great view for a quick lunch. Took us about 7 hours all up, probably quicker as it was so cold so the recommended 10-12 hours is a bit exagerated we think.

On Wednesday, headed back south in the lashing rain again to Park Quelat where we camped in a lovely little place with views of the famous Ventisquero Colgante (which means hanging glacier) surrounded by steep mountains. That night was very cold and it snowed on the mountain tops (not that far above us). The next day we walked up to the viewing point of the glacier above the valley which is truly spectacular. The glacier just hangs over a massive cliff in the mountains with a couple of waterfalls emptying out of it. Will post photos as words fail me here. Also tried to do another walk but Conaf (the Chilean national parks admin guys) hadn´t bothered to clear the trail for a long time so couldn´t get past the bamboo.

On friday, packed up early to head south and back to Coyhaique. Stopped at another walk (which was closed for maintenance but we jumped the sign as noone around). The walk headed up throu a narrow forested valley and then out on an open area which terminated in a glacial lake surrounded on 3 sides by steep rocky walls which were topped by snow and glaciers (which we briefly glimpsed thru the rain and clouds). Truly spectacular sight. The lake was filled with huge ice chunks from the glacier and also frozen over as temps were probably just above 0C so must have frozen the night before.

From there headed back to Coyhaique, where we (eventually) decided to stay in a really nice place called Hotel Austral (about 35 eur per night) which has continous hot water, ensuite, brekkie, loads of space for drying damp (wet) boots, clothes, sleeping bags and tent. Very welcoming place after a week in the cold and wet. In summary, Park Pumalin, to a lesser degree Quelat NP and the 420km drive each way is amazing despite the normally wet, cold weather and tough road conditions. Its peak tourist season here but yet it felt as if we had the place to ourselves. An incredible week of scenery, beautiful campsites and day walks. Highly recommended.

Puerto Montt to Coyhaiqhue

2008-01-04T13:16:00.000Z

Well we are now in the middle of the Carretas Austral (which means Southern Route) in Chile. Its absolutely gorgeous here altho pretty chilly (hahahaha!) temps hovering around 10C with a cutting cold wind but its sunny.

The ferry trip was incredible. Flat as a pancake all the way, our 4 bed bunk room was lovely, we had a private toilet, 1 other fella sharing with us, loads of room, comfy beds, towels, showers, fresh linen and best of all the rooms are all above deck so happy days (memories of a trip to Estonia from Stockholm are still fresh!). We were so lucky with the weather, no winds so we made it in 4 hours before schedule which allowed us to get to Coyhaique last night. We saw a pod of dolphins (dunno what kind but they were bigger then any dolphins we have seen before), 2 whales (dunno what kind), seals, penguins (wow they literally fly thru the water so fast!), amazing scenery on the way on the ferry so pretty happy with that. The dolphins were incredible and swam under the bow of the ship for awhile.

Got into Puerto Chacubaco at 7pm last night and managed to get the 2 required buses to Coyhaique. The drive (about 80kms) was unbeleivably pretty and scenic. High, snow capped rocky mountains, lush forest to the tree line, lovely grassy valley with tasty looking cows (all that good beef in Argentina has me beef obsessed too).

Arrived into Coyhaique and eventually found the hostel (Hostel Baquranda) we had booked (since we are so organised and its high season). There was no sign so we slightly worried about it being the right place. The guy showed us the room but said there was a problem cause the Chileans like to party over New Year so we thought ok maybe the place is a little thrashed. Turned out he had kept us a room next to a room that was being built but wasn´t completed yet as the builders were too hungover. That was fine - what wasn´t so fine was the ´bed´ situation. He wanted 17 euros for a single bed that looked like it was going to fall apart and single air mattress on the floor for one of us ... hardly bloody matrimonial. SO we told him nicely no way. He got a bit huffed about that - seriously - and said we´d never find another place now. At that stage I would have preferred the park bench then pay the cheeky bugger anything. Anyways its bright here til nearly 10.30pm so we walked around and found another great (Hostal Licrayen 20k pesos) place with the best brekkie and lovely woman running the show.

In the midst of car hiring now so better go and do that (or help Dunk do something more productive then me blogging!).

PS went for sunny afternoon beers in Puerto Varas with Andy and Mary before the ferry trip which was great fun

PPS the ferry is the Navimag one and its 48k pesos per person. They only serve lunch (3k pesos pp) and free brekkie so bring your own food!! Great trip thou.

PPPS some travellers baffle me ... one guy sat in the canteen watching movies and working on his laptop for the entire ferry trip. Be cheaper to stay at home and get the local bus around in circles.

Buenos Aires to Puerto Varas, Chile

2008-01-02T14:14:00.000Z

First of all Happy New Year to you all and that ye all had a good Xmas break.

We spent Xmas day in Buenos Aires in my Aunty Helen´s beautiful colonial apartment (photos will appear at some stage) with Helen and her friends from Vancouver Mary and Andy where we dined on the traditional Argentian parilla (a kind of meat fest bbq). Dunk had the honour of standing on the roof deck backing in the heat of the sun and hot tiled floor to bbq us a perfect feast. Andy was his able assistance who made sure everything was cooked perfectly (and that Dunk was well watered and beered). We did have loads of gorgeous salads which probably is a mortal sin in Argentina (to waste belly space with silly vegtables), lots of fab vino, chocolate and a dessert (cant remember the name) which is quince tart and just divine. So thanks Helen for putting on such a splash and feeding us up so well during our stay in BA!! I think we both gained at least a stone of weight!!

Spent another couple of days in BA which was mostly sorting out our packs and trying to reduce our weight and create some more space for food which we will now have to carry as we will be camping down the Carretas Austral. Went to a fab french restaurant on our last night called Bouchon. I had the best dessert ever - a chocolate thing with really blackcurrant sauce and on the inside a beautiful berry sauce. Divine!!

On the 28th we headed to Bariloche via 17 hours on a bus in cama ejectivo which basically means large plush seats and loads of leg room plus blankets and pillow and agreable enough food. The best thing was thou that they didn´t play hours of bad movies at top volume so we could sleep!! Arrived in Bariloche on a cold blustery morning. Stayed at La Barraca hostel which was very welcoming, had great facilities and good views too. ç

Bariloche was surprisngly ok considering we had heard it was a nightmare of tourists and school groups at this time of the year. Ok there is lots of them but its a big town and seems to handle all the tourists reasonably well. The weather was pretty cold 15C with a gale force wind off the mountains over the lake but its a very pretty setting. Wasn´t too impressed by the chocolate thou - maybe cos Andy and Mary had given us a bar of swiss for Xmas and that was just as good as it gets (have I mentioned chocolate a lot - seems like I have, well you would too after 3 months choc deprivation and then suddenly its everywhere!!).

On the 30th we had an early 7.30 bus to Puerto Montt in Chile. At 6am was woken up by a taxi beeping incessantly outside our hostel. Had a mini panic and went oh crap we have slept in, but checked our watches and it was only 6 for definite so relaxed but the beeping continued. Eventually the guy came to the door of the hostel and Dunk went down to be told the clocks had changed and it was in fact 7am .. well now about 7.05am - AGGGGHH panic pack in 3 minutes, no time for toilet stop even, jump into the taxi and off we went to the bus station in a very bedraggled state. Arrived in time jumped on the bus and off we went. Phew. 2 things about this story are the taxi guy was lovely and didn´t overcharge us for having to wait AND WHAT THE F(/& are the clocks doing changing on Dec 30th????????? Bizarre. Whats even more bizarre is that Chile is now an hour behind Argentina even tho its further west.

Anyways the bus journey was crap, rained all the way, 2 one hour stops at Chilean and Argentian borders standing in the cold and then we arrived in Puerto Montt (starving by this stage cos we couldn´t eat the sugar infused lunch pack we got on the bus which consisted of either sweet or very sweet things). We had heard bad things about Puerto Montt being a dour port town and if ever a town lived up to its reputation this one did. We briefly considered heading to Puerto Varas but weren´t too sure how far it was and being tired, hungry and very sick of buses we made the bad decision to stay in Puerto Montt in the rain and cold. We stayed in a hospedaje that a little lady touted us at the station. Now it was nice enough place, clean but very small and probably would have been fine except Dunk was allergic to the blankets, it was on a hill with the main bus-truck road directly out front (even tho it was a narrow street and didn´t look like it would be bsuy at all), and we had Chilean guests from hell next door who shrieked for ages at 3am in the morning. I wish I had packed my hurley sometimes. Anyways since the Swedish couple next room thought it was us (speaking rapid loud Spanish???) and started banging on our walls, we started banging on their walls and eventually the noisy culprits calmed a bit.

We ate lunch a local kind of bar where all the locals were tucking into MASSIVE mounds of what seems to be the local equivalent of laksa in Sydney - gourmet dining at its best NOT. This mound of stuff which is called picada is basically french fries, olives, lumps of cheese, lump, s of hot dog, some sausage and in the real fancy version maybe some strips of meat and a couple of fried eggs thrown on top. What a bizarre combination. We settled for the steak sambos instead which were good. That night we visited the local recommended seafood restaurants down at the end at fishing port of Angelmo. Look its kind of cute with rows of little restaurants sitting up above the water and all well set up and clean but jaysus the food was basic for the price. Like I could do better on the camp stove with my eyes closed. I had a seafood soup and it was more like sand stew as none of the mussels were washed out. Dunk had salmon and it was basically slapped onto a plate - I´d present better to the dogs at home like.

Ok enough Puerto Montt rant - my advice NEVER stay there EVER.

We booked tickets on the ferry to Coyhaique for wednesday and then legged it on the bus to Puerto Varas (which is a mere 20 minutes) but world´s apart. Its a small cute touristy place on a beautiful lake overlooking a couple of volcanos (altho we still haven´t seen the top of them with the clouds!) and just so different we couldn´t beleive it. Stayed in a nice, friendly hospedaje (like a B&B without the breakfast) near the town centre and just wandered around revelling in the cleanliness and lack of falling down, unkempt buildings and miserably sad looking people.

On New Years Eve we got wine and nibblies and sat on the lake shore watching the sun set (between the rain drops and showers ;) ), then found the only bar in town for horrendously expensive beer (3 euros each for 330ml) and then joined the locals on the lake front to see the fireworks which was hilarious. All the town families and people were out with champers and drenched everyone and even the fireworks weren´t so bad.

On New Years day we got the local bus to Petrohue (after a slow sore heads start to the day) which is an hour from Puerto Varas and set on the Lago Todos Los Santos. Its very beautiful, heaps of places to stay and camp on the way out there, and very Germanic looking with lots of wooden gernam style houses serving lunch and afternoon tea. The only downside was the horseflies which are massive, lots of them and very persistent and impossible to kill altho they dont really sting so thats not so bad. Did a lovely walk along the lake shore which is lava sand and with stunning views of some volcanoes (once again the tops in the clouds) and mountains nearby. The west side of the Andes is much greener and more lush then east side but also rains more. We really are impressed tho. Could probably have spent more time here if we had known it was that easy to get out to the campsites etc.

Last night we met Mary and Andy by arrangement but mostly unexpectedly cos they didn`t expect us to stay in Puerto Montt and we didn´t know if they would either as they only got in that evening. Their first impressions on Puerto Montt were equal to ours! We found one of the only restaurants open (everything was shut yesterday) and had a surprisingly good meal overlooking the waters - even Puerto Montt began to look ok (hmm maybe that was the wine goggles).

Tonight we´re off on the 24 hour ferry to Coyhaique which is on the Carretas Austral, the road that winds south of here. The plan is to hire a car (or hook up with some other backpackers who have a car) and spend a week camping an exploring the area north of Coyhaique, including Park Pumalin (3 days), PN Quelat, and anything else we can find of interest. Will be camping all the way so hoping the weather clears up a little bit for us but the climate here is like west coast Ireland and New Zealand so chances are we´re going to get wet. Heaps of great looking day walks too so looking forward to that. After that going to use Coyhaique as base for some longer treks but more on that before it happens.

Photos of December are up

2007-12-22T20:50:00.001Z

http://picasaweb.google.com/grace.cantillon

2007 - the best bits

2007-12-22T20:08:00.000Z

Its been a really hectic but fun year so just going to make a quick note of all the best bits before we forget what we did.

Hiking
Did some fantastic hikes this year. Here´s some of the best.

Road trip from Brisbane to Sydney after Xmas. Visited, camped and did lots of day walks in Border Ranges NP, Girraween NP, Bald Rock NP, Washpool NP and Gibraltar Range NP despite finding the only rain and cold weather in all of Australia which was in the grip of drought.
Kosciusko 3 day hike with Matt on Australia day weekend. Fantastic loop walk starting at the power station near Charlotte´s pass, camped near Jagungal, climbed it next day, camped near Valentine Falls (it was freezing there) and then also bagged another 2 mountains over 2000m but cant remember which ones
Corang Peak, Budawangs 2 day hike with us, Matt, Laura and Bridget in February. Camped in a cave, beautiful walk with some lovely creek swimming, views and a little bit of bashing (think Laura and Bridget´s opinion is slightly different on this walk)
Mt Anne Circuit, South West Tasmania with Matt. 3 day turned into 4 day hike (start of April, easter). Very heavy rain and mist on the first day, heavy rain on 2nd day but intermittent clear spells allowed us see some fantastic views. 3rd day over the ridge towards Mt Anne was also cloudy, very cold and one of the hardest days I have ever done with plenty treacherous edges, boulder hopping and clambering. Made it to the hut before dark so saved the last 2 hours back to the car for the next day. Dinner on vegimite, tea and limited stake bread. Delightful ;) end but what a walk.
Walls of Jereusaleum, Tasmania. Super 5 day hike with Matt. Easy going, fab views, cold at night tho, the eastern spotted quolls stoll the show.
Cradle Mountain day walk with Matt. Not a cloud in the sky, perfect day after a brilliant week in Tasmania.
3 peaks in 48 hours, Kanangra-Boyd NP in June with Matt. About 80-90kms, 5kms of ascents and descents up and down Cloudmaker, Paralyser (very apt name) and Guouogang, 3 hours sleep on the 1st night, 10 on the 2nd night, many mental and physical highs and lows. Highly recommended. Still managed to play football on the sunday, the day after we finished.
Central Australia (August) with Matt, Ian and Debbie. Lots of day walks including around Ayers Rock, the Olgas, Kings Canyon (awesome), Mount Sonder, Ormiston Gorge (stunning) plus lots of other canyon
Inca Trail. See the october blog for that one.

Sport

Had a fantastic season playing and training (and drinking) with Waverly Old Boys and winning the league and cup double with the SW1s. Wahooo.
Rogaining (with Matt). Did a 24 hour in April in the Turon Gold Rush. Did pretty well and came 5th in our category. Very hilly course with lots of knee pain afterwards (and during). Matt had to encourage me lots on the last hill of the day as I refused to beleive or want to walk up another bloody hill. Also did a 24 hour in Central Australia in the Eastern McDonnell Ranges which was the Australian Championships. Think we came 20th overall (out of 100+ teams), but stuffed up somewhere during the night so didn´t do as well as we wanted. Was an amazing course tho with fab scenery, canyons, desert, wildlife etc.
Mountain biking - did some good rides around Sydney
Horse riding - Dunk learnt how not to take corners ;)

Other bits

finishing work for 6 months in august
Mik and Shannon´s wedding
Tara and Colins wedding (and gate crashing their honeymoon)
trip to Ireland in Sept (and catching everyone there)
lots of trips with Dunk´s family (to Canberra, Brisbane, Maleny, Tassie, etc)
did I mention not working since August
leaving Sydney (this was very sad for us thou saying good bye to all our buddies there)
obviously all our travels in South America

Buenos Aires

2007-12-20T20:47:00.001Z

After another long 17 hour bus journey, arrived into BA at 5.30am about 2 hours before schedule. Decided to find a cafe to hang out for a couple of hours before waking me auntie up a more respectable 8 or 9am! Its a strange first impression of a city when you arrive just before everyone wakes up and nothing is open but once we eventually found coffee and fresh croissants we were much happier.

Phoned Helen at a decent hour an turns out she´d been awake all morning anyways as her visitors had an early flight to catch - doh! She has a fantastic (seriously its cool!) 2 bed colonial apt in San Telmo right in the heart of the city. The apt is really fab, high ceilings, huge rooms, plenty room and really feels like we´re living a couple of centuries ago (except for the tv, nice kitchen!). Spent the last 2 days sorting out things for heading to Patagonia after xmas so been a bit stressed (I can feel waves of sympathy from ya here) altho its helped that we been eating like royalty. The food here is by far and away the best so far .. anything we have eaten in the trip so far doesn´t even register compared to here. The meat is incredible (melt in the mouth), coffee (caffeine high and associated Grace shakes and hyperness here for the next 7 days - poor Dunk!), chocolate - REAL chocolate (I´m fattening like mad - its great, I can leave the belt off now), fresh food (ahhh I love salads and fruit!), and alcohol. Ok wine is so cheap its stupid. We got a decent bottle for 3 euros last night. Beer is 80 cents (euros) per litre ... its cheaper then bottled water.

Also the city is lovely, people are sooo friendly, welcoming and delighted to see tourists, great parks and architecture, if you liked shopping you´d be in heaven so think we´re going to be very happy for xmas!! The next week promises to be just food glorious food and beer and wine and coffee and of course chocolate!! We´re staying til the 28th and then off to Bariloche for a night before crossing to Puerto Montt in Chile. Plan is 6 weeks hiking and bussing down the Carretas Austral, then back into Argentian Patagonia.

Hope you all have a wonderful festive season. Email me if you want a number to catch us on over the hols!

Iguazu Falls

2007-12-20T20:35:00.000Z

From Miranda we headed to Foz Do Iguazu and the straight across the border to the Argentian town of Puerto Iguazu. After the 24 hour trip from Miranda to Foz Do Iguazu we ran out of steam so didn´t see the falls from the Brazilian side. Had no problems with passports either - I dont think the brazilians looked at Dunk´s visa once!

Stayed in Puerto Iguazu which is a nice little town full of good places to eat. First impressions of Argentina were that its slightly poorer then Brazil, but very friendly, courteous and helpful and also (important for us) WAY cheaper. Stayed at Colonial Hostel for 70 pesos (18 euros) for air con, ensuite room and a proper brekkie! Dunk sampled a legendery argentian steak and morcillo (blolod sausage like blacl pudding) that night and it was goooood - way better then Brazil where the beef is tough (from the type of cattle they have there are indian cross), always very salty and very well cooked (almost crisped). I tried the pasta (my poor tummy is still recovering from some dodgy food) and it was fresh and sooo tasty. Already liking Argentina a LOT!

Next day we spent the entire day at Iguazu Falls. I´m not even going to try and explain how good the falls are cos its impossible to do justice to a place thats so naturally beautiful, huge, powerful and overwhelming. It is just as good as ya read and the photos dont do the place a tad of justice! Bring lots of water tho, they charge extorionate prices for liquids of any kind which is a bit crazy really as the heat this time of year is dangerous. We were just drenched in sweat all day long! Was definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far and would highly recommend everyone to go out of your way to go there!

Next stop ... Buenos Aires.

The Pantanal, Brazil

2007-12-20T19:59:00.000Z

The Pantanal is a massive swamp area that covers about 220, 000 square kms, mostly in Brazil but also in Bolivia and Paraguay. Orginally we wanted to do a trip in Bolivia as its more unexplored and less exploited then in Brazil (and LOADS cheaper) but we couldn´t find a tour operator except for one but they couldn´t bring us as they couldn´t source enough petrol for a 3 day trip! This part of Bolivia is well cut off from the rest of the country altho there is a new road being built which should help open up the region.

Instead we decided to go with Explore Pantanal tour group based in Miranda which is run by Marcello (a Brazilian with 16 years guiding experience) and his wife Mirjam (Swiss) who is the organiser. We paid more then the usual backpacker odds (660 reais ie about 350 eur each), for a 5 day trip as the backpacker tours tend to be much shorter and bigger groups. Bit of a price shock to the wallet after 3 weeks in Bolivia but we reckon it was worth it. Mirjam was really helpful with info in getting there, local things to do and also booking our bus onto Foz De Iguazu after the tour ended.

So off we set on a melting monday morning .. dunno what the temps were but probably mid 30s at least. Its the rainy season so the weather tends to be either very hot, sunny and dry or else very hot, humid and lashing rain. The roads are mostly MUD, large holes of either mud, water or something in between or else dry and bumpy as hell if its stayed dry for a few days.

On the first morning we saw a giant anteater ... for me this was the best creature we saw of the entire trip. They have crazy long hairy tails, big long snouts (all the better for eating ants) and kind of lope along in a cartoon-ish fashion. We also saw LOTS of caiman (alligators) and I mean LOTS. One place we stopped at had at least 200 of all sizes, and this was typical of what we saw over the trip. At this time of year they congrugate in the remaining water holes and eat the last of the fish, smaller caiman and anything else they can catch. We also saw heaps of birds including the massive jabiru stork. The pantanal is flat as a pancake ... actually its flatter so most of it is grass or swamp land punctuated by little islands called capones which have bigger trees and are the only places that dont get flooded in the wet season even tho they´re only about 1-5metres higher then the surrounding land.

We saw lots of cattle being herded by real live and kicking cowboys. This place is seriosuly wild west territory!! The cattle get moved out this time of year to drier plains so its busy times for the cowboys. They ride mules mostly as they have more stamina then horses and ride saddles that are mostly sheepskins with a bit of leather on top. Also they curvy long horns (made from cow horns) to call the cattle, lassoos and drink mate (herbal tea drank cold or hot which is hugely popular in southern brazil, paraguay and all of argentina) like it was going out of fashion.

The first 2 nights we stayed in a very basic fazenda (cattle ranch) which dorm bunk beds, basic facilities which leaked like crazy in the downpour on the second day and eat reasonably basic food (some of it was pretty hard going like dried beef in rice which tasted worse then it smelt and looked - will be giving that a miss in future). Did some walks where we say loads of hyacinth macaws (very cool blue, 1m long macaw), capybaras, deer, loads of birds and a LOT of cattle). On the 3rd day we headed to another fazenda which was much better quality in all respects and run really well. We stayed in hammocks on the 3rd night and it was such a cool way to sleep in the heat. The drive to the 2nd fazenda was a bit more adventurous then we all wanted as we spent 2 hours bogged in a deep waterhole in the track. Thankfully Dunk had some experience (or just a brain) to help get the 4wd out and would have helped it the tour guides had brought a shovel and some better implements (which we would have thought obvious since its the wet season). Digging with sticks SUCKS.

We went piranha fishing on the 3rd afternoon (nice and peaceful after the early bogging) and we all caught some. The caimans were a bit scary thou as they lurked very near us and occasionaly approached us if we had caught a fish. The piranhas were very plentiful, easy to catch and have vicisous teeth so had to be careful taking out the hook not to loose a finger! Very tasty also (or maybe it was relative to the basic food of the prior day or 2).

On the 4th day, the cowboys on the fazenda were doing a cattle muster and we were invited. It was brilliant, spent 7 hours out on horseback watching them working (very skillful and they work so hard under the savage heat of the sun), plodding along on our well trained (bored of tourists) horses, staying well out of the way of bulls and caimans of which there was plenty.

On the last night, the tour guides decided we should go camping (which is fine as that was what we had booked) and it was a beautiful night except for one thing - plagues of mosquitos - the worst I have EVER seen. It was unrelenting and made the whole camping affair pretty awful really (and thats compared to a lot of camping nights we have had). We basically sat in the fire smoke (and sweated buckets), made the occasional dash around to try and lose the mossies and eventually just got in the tent. The tent was melting tho and surrounded by the whine of mossies made it a slow night to sleep. Next morning was just as bad even at 5am (altho at least it was cooler) as we headed back early with another 4wd from the fazenda (so as if we got bogged again we´d have more help).

All in all we had a fantastic trip. In hindsight, we shouldnt have gone camping (sleeping in hammocks under mossie nets is cheap and better fun at this time of year) and the tour guides should have known better altho in fairness they are just still testing the waters with what kind of trips they can do at this time of year. I´d highly recommend the 2nd fazenda we stayed at (Rio Vermelho I think) as the food was fantastic and the people who run the show were brilliant ... really genuine, friendly, helpful. We´d still go with the same tour again altho would hope they could do a few things a bit better (like bring a bloody shovel!, maybe better food on some of the days and less of the husband-wife fighting on the last day would have been good as well). It sounds like the backpacker tours in general are very badly run, we saw some of them and they all stay in a boat on a river in the same place, are brought around in large groups and allegedly feed awfully so considering that I think we picked well.

Would highly recommend a trip to the pantanal, probably to a fazenda. The wildlife is just incrredible. Like every day we say 100s of caimans, birds, lizards, etc and also the lifestyle there is worth a look at too.

Slow train to the brazil-bolivian border

2007-12-17T13:13:00.000Z

SO last time we wrote we were waiting for the train in Santa Cruz which was delayed by 10 hours. Finally it left at around 10.30pm, 10.5 hours later then the schedule. WE had ¨first¨ class seats so didn¨t have to queue to get a seat or anything altho we did cos everyone else was so we thought we better as well. The train is pretty grubby but good leg room and the seats were ok. ALso could open the windows all the way so was great for sticking your head out and looking around. Managed to get some sleep in between ticket and drug checks which happened every couple of hours or just when we had always managed to fall into a deep sleep!

There was quite a few Mennonites on the train as they have population centres around San Jose De CHiquitos and places like that. Quite strange seeing them all dressed up identically in their nice smart overalls and shirts and hats and dresses for the women. THink they found us strange too as they stared at us a bit and there wasn{t that many backpackers on the train maybe 4 of us all up.

The train stopped at EVERY little place for the 600kms between Santa Cruz and the border. AT every stop, hoards of local kids and women got on the train to sell lemonade which was really good and a variety of empanadas, bbq meat, and other various dishes. GOod entertainment!

THe highlight of the trip was passing by the area of Chocis which has got an area of sandstone plateaus that look really cool. WOuld love to check that area out for walking sometime. Reminded me of a cross between KIngs Canyon and the Budawangs in Australia but really green since its the wet season. Very beautiful tho and will post photos at some stage. THis was the bonus of having a late train otherwise we would have passed this area at night time!

EVentually got to Puerto Quijarro around 8pm on the friday night after a long hot day sweltering on the train. WE stank and were pretty exhausted. FOund an ok place to stay and some dodgy food to eat and slept like logs. Puerto Quijarro is a hole - typical dodgy border town with plenty dodgy characters and just not a nice place to be. IT was dusty as hell when we arrived and an hour later got a huge storm so everything turned into rivers of mud.

THe next morning we headed to the border early. WAs stinking hot ... probably mid 30s at 8am and we got covered in mud walking across the border. HEaded to COrumba which is in BRazil and experienced a kind of time warp sensation as Brazil and COrumba is clean, dry, well off, nice cars, paved streets, no mud, happy well dressed people and just about as far from BOlivia and Puerto Quijarro as you could imagine. Was really strange feeling. Of course the prices jumped about 600percent once we crossed the border as well!

GOt our brazilian passport stamps at the bus station after having to walk about 2kms wityh out backpacks as the taxi prices were outrageous. Arrived drenched in sweat and stinking. THey stamped my australian passport, didn-t even look at DUnks visa and off we went.

Booked a bus to Miranda where our pantanal tour started on monday. MAnaged to miss the bus as I had gone to town looking to an ATM as we had no reais. We forgot that BRazil is an hour ahead!! anyways the very sweet and amused ticket seller changed our tickets no hassles! COst us 15 euros each for a ticket which is about 10 times more expensive then BOlivia BUT when we saw the bus we knew why. I have never been on a better bus anywhere in the world. IT was amazing! Air-con that was properly cold, beautifully clean and loads of space with the most comfy seats ever.

HAd a great view of the pantanal from the bus, managed to see caiman, jabiru storks, spoonbills, deer, etc and we hadnt even started the tour. In Miranda, the tour guys picked us and we stayed with them for sat and sunday. THey cooked us some great traditional food and it was good to chill out after the epic journey from Santa Cruz. WAs ridicously hot on the sunday gain ... probably getting near to 40C and humid too. I was melted!!

OK next post will tell ya all about the Pantanal!

BTW we did a tour with Explore Pantanal.

Still in Santa Cruz waiting for the train ... SIGH

2007-12-06T19:56:00.000Z

Ah here´s a little rant to show that it its not all fun and games on our travels. Been in Santa Cruz for 5 days now and beginning to get a little tired of ´wasting time´trying to get to Brazil.

Firstly we had to wait for 3 days for Dunk´s visa for Brazil as Aussies have to get a visa for entry there. Presumably cos the Aussies dish out the same treatment to Brazialians. Going to chance me switching from using my aussie passport (in married name and Bolivian entry stamps) to my Irish passport (in maiden name and no south american stamps at all) all in the name of saving 35 US dollars ... well every buck counts and anyways its the principal. Hopefully I wont have to go back to Bolivia and wait for another 2 days in Puerto Suarez for another visa. Maybe bribery or tantrums will be used!

Next delay was yesterday when we went to get the train. Couldn´t get a ticket without a passport so all the trains were booked up yesterday so got a ticket for today. Back to the hostel (stayed at Hotel Magdelna which has a pool, tv, huge rooms, hot water! for about 90 bobs ie 9 euros!) which was slightly embarassing as I´d had a little hissy fit when they returned our laundry SOPPING wet yesterday (ya ya I know its raining but if you couldn´t get our laundry dry why did ya bloody wash it in the first place - wet stuf tends to ferment nastily in backpacks especially when stashed for 24 hours!).

Turned up this morning and saw this omnious sign saying train to Quijarro departs at 22:00 (obviously in Spanish so am beginning to hope my Spanish is more crap then I think) when we´re supposed to depart at 12:00. Ohhhh nnooo we thinking lots of bad words now. SO we go the info booth and ask what time the train departs and the girl looks at us like we´re from outer space (ya ya my Spanish is bad and my accent is worse) and then after about 1 minute staring as us says the train leaves at 10 tonight and when I ask why she gives an even worse your a f%%%ing alien stare and blabs off 4 words in Spanish that gave us no clue. SO we asked a nice policeman what was going on (in the same pigeon Spanish since I didn´t have time to relearn my accent in the 30 seconds from the previous encounter) and he miracously understood me perfectly, explained what was going on ie train is delayed for 10 hours cos of the rainy weather. BUGGA.

So we´re now in an internet cafe burning up time as its cheaper then drinking beer or sitting in a cafe eating chocolate cake (which is what I really want to do!!). Am really hoping the train goes tonight as we want to get to Corumba, Brazil for saturday night so we can see the locals party (we´re too much of 2 pot screamers these days), then do a 5 day tour of the pantanal and then Iguazu Falls before heading to Buenos Aires. Pretty frustrating sitting here waiting but not much else to do. Other options are the road which takes MANY days this time of year or a flight for 500US (I dont think so!!).

Anyways I can imagine you all have stacks of sympathy for us sitting here on our asses with very little worries aside from how long will the train take IF and when it does go! Dont worry too much about us tho cos we have eaten our little asses fat in the last 5 days. There´s a great cuban just off the main plaza), bakery (behind the cathedral on the main plaza), german restaurant (called Casona - yummo food), Tia Lia brazilian lunch place (all ya can eat for 2.5euros and the best chorizos ever), vegie place (Su Salad) I dont think we ever eat so much vegtables in one sitting! The irish pub is pure cac tho ... full of wanna be posers drinking cocktails altho the location is nice looking out over the square.

Also Santa Cruz is famous cos of its beautiful women - the most in Bolivia ... this is a bit strange cos their not that beautiful (maybe its just cos I´m used to hanging out with such beautiful people all the time - compliment to you my friends!) or maybe its relative to the girls in the rest of the country who wear that horrible traditional dress. At first its a novelty, but then as you observe, smell, sit near, behind, get brushed closely, very closely on buses by ´ladies´in this attire you learn that this costume is a costume that masks a 1000 bad smells (llama, sheep, baby, BO, food, etc I wont get too uncharitable) and inner fat layers and that girls just tend to grow out to fill into this costume. Anyways suffice to say the dress sense here is WAY better then anywhere else we been so far.

Ok been in here now for 3 hours looking at bus timetables and trying (failing) to get cheap flights anywhere so going to console ourselves with chocolate, coffee, beer, and anything else tasty we can fit into the next 3 hours before the train leaves (fingers crossed).

Also the weather has lashed on us for the last 2 days so pretty glad we piked out on Amboro (altho mostly we did this cos of time reasons). Will have to come back in the dry season for that one!

La Paz to Cochobamba to Santa Cruz

2007-12-04T16:04:00.000Z

Spent 7 hours on the bus from La Paz to Santa Cruz, as per usual just turned up at the bus station and paid half the price they asked for. Also incredibly the bus left on time but as per usual with La Paz buses spent an hour filling the bus in El Alto (which is a really poor city on the rim overlooking La Paz). First 3-4 hours was driving along the vast expanses of the altoplano (not very exciting) altho did get a very tasty kind of mashed pototo filled with something snack from one of the local vendors who get on the buses along the way. The drive then heads over a high pass (damn cold, bits of snow lying plus raining) before descending down to 2500m to Cochobamba.

Cochobamba is a friendly little place, some good bars and restaurants. Spent a couple of hours in the square (well it was more like a roundabout with gardens) watching the newly married couples getting all their photos done plus watching out for the local shoeshine boys didn´t swipe nything from us (dodgy little muppets). Stayed in Hostel Jardina which was basic but fine. Got good mexican for dinner!

Next morning headed to the bus station for 6.45am ... managed to just about get on the 6.30am bus for a cheap 25 bols (we could have got the 7am but it costs more the earlier yo buy your ticket!) for the trip to Santa Cruz. Its 10 hours but the first 4 hours are incredibly spectacular. Cochobamba is still very dry and sparse and brown but has a few trees and from there head up over another ridge of mountains until suddenly everything turns green and from sparse altoplano landscape into cloudforest. Really sudden and surprising. The road then winds down thru steep valleys of cloudforest until a couple of hours later it hits the lowlands which is all very tropical and green. The temperature also goes from about 10C in La Paz, a pleasant 20Cish in Cochobamba (called the city of eternal spring) to a humid 30C in the lowlands. Bit of a shock to the system but nice to be back in hot weather and shorts again!

Santa Cruz is a lovely city, very modern, clean and feels more like a 1st world city then anywhere we have been so far. Staying in a great hotel for 9 eur per night for an ensuite, pool, fan and cble tv (which is pure awful 100 channels of poo but occasionally I get to see premiership highlights). Food is great here too. Huge portions tho - it baffles us how much food they can eat here in one go!! speaking of which off to some brazilian style buffet for lunch to stuff our faces for a couple of euros each and then it will be siesta for the afternoon!

Leaving on the train to the border tomorrow ... 20 hours on the so called ´death train´as its so slow and boring you risk dying of boredom! From there trying to sort out some panatal tour which could be interesting as sounds like lots of people trying to rip off gringos there.

More photos - jungle and Isla Del Sol

2007-11-30T17:09:00.000Z

Some day soon we´ll get organised and add photos inline to the blog!

Onto Bolivia - Isla del Sol and Copacabana

2007-11-30T16:53:00.000Z

On tuesday we left Cusco and headed to Copacabana in Bolivia. Spent the usual 10 hours on a bus and the border crossing was easy altho for some reason we only got a 30 day visa. Think there`s some tightening up of visas in Bolivia at the moment. Should be sufficient for us I think.

Stayed in Copacabana on tues night in the ambassador hotel which boasted hot water which was one of the selling points (altho at that stage any bed was beginning to look good). Was relishing the thought of a nice hot shower to wash the accumulated day of bus grime but when we turned on the shower, hot it turns out is relative. The tap water in this town is freezing .. about 6C SO the electric shower managed to heat this upto a massive maybe 14C ie bloody freezing. Had a very quick dip and hair washing as that would have taken me at least 20 mins to get wet hair not to mind rinsing.

Next day got the ferry out to Isla del Sol which is an island on Lake Titicaca. Ferry is also relative. Its a boat carrying way to many people with a small outboard that moves at approx slow walking speed. Took 2 hours to get to the north of the island and from there we walked back to the south. Stayed in Yumani which is a nice little village on a ridge with great views. Very pleasant place to chill out and heaps of places to choose to eat from and stay. Was some spectacular lightening, hail and rain storms that night and we had only just missed snow a few days before.

Returned the next morning on the Inti Kala boat (name of place we also stayed which was friendly and great views, good food too) which was `muy rapido` well at least 20 minutes faster! Got the bus to La Paz and staying here in Hotel Fuentes which is lovely and cosy since its cold and raining. Off to get some lunch of saltenas now.

From here the plan is vague. We are going to Buenos Aires to my aunt Helen for xmas so we have 3 weeks to get there. The rough plan is Chochamba (maybe for one day), Santa Cruz (hopfully get to Amboros NP and if we win the lotto a trip to Noel Kempff NP would be awesome but thats a dream-on scenario), Roboro (on the way to Brazil might do some hiking there weather permitting), border with Brazil, Panatal (4 day tour) either side of border depending on whats available, and the Iguazu Falls and then BA. If anyone has any tips for anywhere along that route fire them this way!

More stuff we forgot to add about the jungle trip ...

2007-11-30T16:36:00.000Z

Hmm as you can tell we REALLY really liked our 2 weeks from Los Piedras. Some stuff I forgot to mention in the first blog is below ...

Sounds

Frog Chorus .. seriously this was incredible (and we did have a sound clip which some langar from Cork accidently deleted from the camera ... sigh). We stood on the edge of the swamp one night after rain and the chorus of frogs was so loud we had to talk loudly to hear each other. It was deafening and it was cool when we saw the frogs which did make the sound as they had these massive puffed out air sacs to help them make this sound.
Rain on the way - its really very special to lie in a hammock in the hunidity and listen to a storm approaching. You know its really near when ya can hear all the rain drops on the forest canopy and its just gets louder and louder until it reaches ya. Not so nice if your out in the jungle and have to walk back!
Falling trees ... lots of this happens this time of year as the ground gets soft and the winds in storms knock anything unstable over.
Mosquito whines, and bats! ahh the pleasure of hearing a mossie whine near your mossie net and then a bat flutter and then no more mossie whine!

Other stuff

Bats ... we saw heaps of these. Some had really pretty faces NOT especially the ones that flew out of the termite nest on a tree.
Turtles ... saw a few of these too ... poor sods get an awful time from the mossies.
Frogs ... think my favorites are the clown frogs!
Snakes. Saw a small snake trying to swallow a frog one night ... really cool
Opposum .. saw a cool little fella one night!
Brazil nuts come from a BIG shell .. if it fell and hit ya on the head then that would be the end. Be kind of ironic to get nailed by a brazil nut when there´s so much other dangerous stuff out there!
Dunk climbed the platform and was watched by Howler monkeys - that was very special!!
Banana mash called Taracha (I think) which we had in Puerto Maldonado. Made from green bananas, bbq´d then mashed with pork rind and fat (very healthy for the heart) - yummo!
Peccaries (small black bush pigs that eat nuts) - good god they smell awful, sound weird (make this clacking noise) and travel in large groups that can be dangerous so you need to be able to climb trees just in case they attack!

Ok there`s heaps more great stuff that we saw, did, heard, smelt, learnt, etc but its lunchtime here so the rest you will just have to go and experience yourself!

Specific details on Las Piedras Biodiversity Station

2007-11-30T16:06:00.000Z

I´ve just copied this from a trip report I´ve written for South American Explorer´s:

See http://www.tambopataexpeditions.com/ for information on the research station. They offer volunteer placements, as well as tours.

We went to the biodiversity station for 2 weeks as volunteers. Most days consisted of getting up early, and helping with research work being carried out at the station for the morning. Some examples include mammal surveys, observation of mammals and parrots at a colpa, and vegetation surveys. Aternoons were spent with a siesta, walking, birdwatching, and the odd bit of fishing and log surfing on the river...

Emma and JJ (the owners) were extremely knowledgeable and friendly and more than willing to share their knowledge. This is a small lodge, so we weren´t one of a crowd. There is also a small and very good library which we found very useful especially when trying to identify birds and frogs (there is an aweful lot at this time of year).

There is a large and very good network of walking tracks around the lodge, a bird watching platform, mammal colpa hide, and tree top platform.

The lodge is located in small clearing 1.5 days from town on the Rio Las Piedras. One night of camping is required in each direction unless Emma uses an outboard instead of a peke on the boat. The lodge consists of lovely, open rooms with 2 beds in each, a large, open common area with dining table, couches and hammocks, and a kitchen. There is enough electricy to run a HF radio and light in the kitchen (and perhaps to charge a laptop), but thats about it.

If you love being outdoors, and in the rainforest, this is a fantastic place.

Into the jungle

2007-11-26T22:35:00.000Z

Have just returned from an incredible 2 week trip into the jungle. We did a volunteer working trip on the Los Piedras with Emma and JJ from http://www.tambopataexpeditions.com/. Just flew back into Cusco today so its a bit of a shock to the system after spending most of the last 2 weeks out in the jungle in the middle of nowhere so excuse this entry if its a bit scattered!

Getting there
We flew into (and returned from) Puerto Maldonado with LAN from Cusco. This is a 45 minute flight from 3500m dry, altiplano Cusco in the Andes to Puerto Maldonado at 350m in the heart of the amazonian jungle. The flight is incredible (the road trip is supposed to be as well but 18 hours on a truck just didn´t appeal!). From out and over the the snow capped peaks near Cusco and then hitting the clouds and then the next thing we saw was huge flat rainforest that stretches as far as we could see only broken up by lazy winding S-bend brown rivers.

Puerto Maldonado
The town itself is pretty remote and hard to get to so most people get around on motobikes and motokars (which is a 3 wheeler motorbike with a cabin for 2 passengers) and the odd car or tourist bus. Its sooo cheap compared to Cusco and so relaxed too. Hardly any tourists or gringos as most tourists get whisked off to expensive lodges up the Madro Dios or Tambopata rivers. Great local places for icecream, local bbq fish, pork, banana dishes, chicken etc and beer is only 1 eur per litre bottle AND ICY cold ... agggghhh so blissful!!

Boat trip up the Los Piedras
To get to the lodge where we were staying is a good 8 hour river trip (with an outboard motor) or 2 days with a peke peke motor (more basic but much slower motor). We left Puerto early- ish. Its hard to explain how large the rivers are and these ones are onyl small compared to the Amazon when it really gets going! Mostly the river is anything from 50 - 100m wide and the current depends on the rain in preceding days. There heaps of debris, logs, trees etc washed down too in the bigger rains this time of year. Saw lots of birds (herons, toucans, etc - sorry I cant remember all the names and left my little notebook in the hostel!), capuchin and squirrel monkeys, a capybara (worlds largest rodent '- its like a hairy pig) and the rainforest along the way is very impressive. The trip back yesterday was much faster (as its down stream) but we had the added excitement of torrential rain which made it difficult for the boat driver to see sand banks (a potential boat turning over hazard) so slowed us down a bit and then about 1km from the port the engine seized. Luckily some local fishermen kindly steered us back using their boat and the afternoon wasn´t spent sitting in torrential rain desperately wondering how we´d get back!!

Los Piedras Research Centre
The lodge itself is really cool ... set up about 300m from the river with lots of outdoor light, hammocks, and bedrooms set up with mossie nets and such that it never got too hot at night. Really tropical and lovely feeling around the lodge. Its pretty basic as there´s no electricity so cooking is done by gas or the clay oven. There´s 2 little farms nearby which supply fresh bananas, herbs, avocados, limes, pineapples and more when the season is right. I have to say fresh banans are the BEST .. how will we ever go back to that muck they sell in shops at home! Dunk also had to get converted to the thought of eating bananas as a main part of a email ... yummo fried bananas with eggs or dinner or in a curry type sauce!

There´s lots of trails out from the lodge, along with a mammal colpa, macaw colpa, 20m viewing tower (with stairs), 50m platform in a big tree (for this you had to be hoisted in a harness onto the platform so my stupid head for heights prevented me doig this) and just heaps of birds, mammals, frogs, insects, more birds, monkeys and interesting stuff to see.

The Work
In comparison to my normal office job this is not work. The main work was

macaw colpa observation - counting how many macaws (and other birds) visited the colpa (which is a clay lick by the river that the birds visit to get missing minerals for their diet - in human terms its like the pub except they go early in the morning!) over a 6 hour period on a given morning. We saw 130 mealy parrots one morning and the highlight was 130 green & red macaws with about 50 feeding on the colpa. Incredible.
transects. This is a 4 hour slow walk (YES I learnt to walk slowly!!) along a 4km trail counting mammals mostly but also some birds. Really cool as we usually saw monkeys (howlers, dusky titi, squirrel, spider or capuchins), squirrels, heaps of birds, deer (well Dunk did), Saki monkeys (Dunk did), frogs, etc.
Vegetation - probably the equivalent to writing documentation ;) someone has to do it! Would have been fine except for the plagues of mossies that descended on us (especially on the last few days after some really heavy rain). This involved counting and marking trees.

Other then that our time was filled with siestas in hammocks every afternoon, trying to help the guys make a trail map (nearly there!), walks to the farm or on the trails watching for birds and creatures, helping out making dinner, eating, night walks ie frog spotting and general relaxing!

Would HIGHLY recommend this trip. Its complelty allowed us to get a proper feel for the jungle and at the same time learn heaps from Emma and JJ. Was an incredible experience.

Highlights for me were:-

macaw colpa
seeing monkeys on a daily basis
beautiful walks on the trails
chilling out and not having to think about normal travel hassles for a whole 2 weeks
seeing SO many cool looking frogs on night walks
seeing all the bizarre insects and fungi out there - incredible stuff!
just being in the rain forest for so long - and having such great local knowledge at hand all the time. Thanks Emma and JJ and also Vicky, Holly and Edgar for sharing all that with us!

Someone (who shall remain NAMELESS) asked me about the creepy crawlies - YES there was LOADS ... massive hairy spiders, huge variety of grasshoppers, beetles, crawling things, centipedes, millipedes, ticks, sandflies and clouds of mossies but sure if these weren´t there then I think we´d have found paradise and never left!! Anyways my itching has now subsided as its a little cooler in Cusco!

Speaking of which ... next stage is onto Bolivia where we´re going to spend a couple of days around Lake Titicica and then onto La Paz before heading east ... well not sure exactly yet what the plan is but will let ye know when we get to La Paz!

New Photos

2007-11-09T18:12:00.001Z

I´ve uploaded pictures from our trip around the Salar De Uyuni. Some of these include links to google maps which show the approximate locations in which they were taken...

Off to the jungle for 2 weeks

2007-11-09T17:58:00.000Z

Reached Cusco (Peru) just before mid night local time last night after a long day on many buses. Got the local bus to Copacabana where we lunched on local trout from Lake Titicia. Yumm! From there booked the `tourist` bus across the border from Bolivia all the way to Cusco ... big mistake. We should have just booked to Puno and then sorted another local bus ourselves to Cusco. After we crossed the border (which is not very border like!), back onto the bus where the tourist agent informed us there was a strike and we wouldn´t be able to get a bus from Puno to Cusco until 8pm that night or 8 am in the morning. The strike was ONLY during daylight hours lucky for us - ya right?? Also LUCKY for us he could organise us a tour on the lake during the extra 6 hour wait we had for a SPECIAL price and even LUCKIER again he could arrange accomodation in Cusco for when we arrived. Lets rush out and do the lotto ... how lucky are we NOT. Anyways we decided not to take any of the above options and miracously just before we hit Puno he told us we could get a normal ie local bus to Cusco immediately but it would take an hour longer. Dunno what happened the strike etc but we got the local bus ... which was very local ... but did the job and got us here to Cusco.

Stayed in a cheapo hostel that touted us at the bus station. The lady was lovely, the room was ensuite and had cable tv etc but was very basic with the hardest bed I have evcer slept in. Seriously I think it was a sheet on concrete. Tonight we´re staying in a lovely place off San Blas called Koyllur (about 70 soles for the `confidential`price which we got when we started to walk off). Its awesome compared to last night so think we will spend the afternoon watching tv and sleeping!

Tomorrow we fly to Puerto Maldonado which is in the amazon jungle just west of the peru/bolivia border. On monday we head to the jungle for 2 weeks volunteer work in the Tambopata. Check it out here http://www.tambopataexpeditions.com/ and we´ll chat to ye all when we get back!!

Chulumani - 4 hours from La Paz

2007-11-09T17:28:00.000Z

After we recovered in La Paz, we had about 5 days to `spare` before we had to be in Cusco. We decided that hiking was out of the question (again sigh) since I was a snot factory and the dodgy chicken sandwich was after aflicting us both with an unease at being far from public toilets plus carrying a pack and eating camping food on an already quesy belly is no fun.

Chulumani was decided as our next destination. Its similar to Coroico (of death road and mountain bike fame but we didn´t really fancy falling into another tourist trap and figured that the death road was probably way easier then any biking we´d done for free in Aussie - memories of wiseman´s ferry and the great northern road which nearly led to overheating a couple of years ago pop to mind!). So off we headed on sunday. The bus is a local bus from Villa Fatima in La Paz. It goes when its full and whilst you wait you get the opportunity to sample local `delicacies´ - dunno what any of it was but we refrained.

The bus drive is incredible. Ascending out of La Paz over a high pass (must be 4500m) surrounded by massive peaks of granite like cliffs and small glaciers and fantastic looking side valleys, the bus then starts the looooonnnggg descent into Chulumani. Most of the road is not paved ie its gravel/dust and clings (seriously it defies belief) to the side of the valley walls. Since I´m afraid of heights sitting next to the window was NOT a good idea. Of course at the start, we saw them retrieving a 4WD from down one of the many preciptious cliffs along the road .. afterwards we found out 2 people survived ... dunno how many didn´t tho but in the last year 240 people have died on this 120km stretch of road. We also had picked a really busy day to travel as it was a long w-e and all the La Pazians were heading back up the valley against us. Some of them have obviously NEVER driven anything wider then a bike. Thankfully the bus driver was a steady and careful driver (most of the time) and always made sure the bus was perched safely on the side of the road with at least 2-3 inches to spare. He even stopped the engine and got out once and refused to back up when this silly 4WD refused to go back. Behind us was a 150m chasm!! So 4 hours later we had descended down to a least 1200m and then back upto Chulumani at 1700m, and I had used up more adrenalin then all the trip so far! The scenery was amazing thou. Massive peaks towering overhead, waterfalls, cloudforest, coca fields perched in seemingly impossible locations.

We stayed in the Country House Hotel (50 bolivianos pp) with Xavier as our very hospitable, informative and great cook! Its a really nice place to relax and we spent the afternoon sitting in the reading room, overlooking the mountains, sipping beer. Ahhhh its tough being a backpacker sometimes! We eat dinner and breakfast at the hostel and it was soooo good. Dinner (40 bolivianos pp ie 4eur!) was always some great stew with potatos (droool), quinoa or rice, plenty of bread and salads, dessert and of course beer (not included). Brekkie was bread with local honey and home made jam, loads of tea, sandwiches, fruit, juice, omelettes and yoghurt ... ahhhh so good! We didn´t need to worry about lunch!

The first full day we did a walk down and into the valley exploring some streams and seeing the local farmers planting coca, banana or coffee crops. The next day we climbed to the top of the hills for a fantastic view. On both days saw heaps of birds (more hummingbirds and parrots!) and butterflies, no traffic and just a few locals. Would highly recommend Chulumani for the scenic (even if scary) drive in, the walking (well its more like rambling about really) and relaxing in the hostel above! If your looking for anything else tho you wont find it in Chulumani!

On the downside, coca is a major growth plant in the valley which unfortunately means a lot of the cloudforest is being destroyed to allow farmers to met the demands for coca. Allegedly there´s 300 trucks of coca leaves a night leave the valley and its under constant satellite supervision by the US: its hard to know how much of this is true but it does seem like there is coca plots everywhere!! The coca is made into cocaine elsewhere and allegedly most of the locals dont even know what cocaine looks like. In fairness why bother cos they chew huge amounts of coca!! Heard lots of other conspiracies and rumours but hard to know whats going on just pretty sad to see the cloudforest getting destroyed so rapidly.

The Salar De Uyuni

2007-11-03T20:48:00.000Z

Taking a tour of the Salar De Uyuni is the reason we (and nearly every other gringo) went to Uyuni.

The Salar De Uyuni is the worlds largest salt flat, and is at an altitude of about 3600m. We went on a 3 day tour, which covered the Salar, situated close to Uyuni, several high altitude lakes, many of which are inhabited by several species of pink coloured flamingos, and spectacular volcanic landscapes, situated south of Uyuni, as far away as the Chilean border. The tour included the Eduardo Avaroa National Park.

There are 101 agencies in Uyuni offering tours, and many of them are reputed to be crap (although which ones depends on who you talk to). We scoped out 4 or 5 places, and settled on Oasis Tours, based on the fact that we'd heard good reports of them and their food, that they were good to deal with, and promised that we'd be riding in a late model landcruiser (there are HJ60 model landcruisers still being used - most of these appeared to come complete with a mechanic to get them thru the 3 days).

Tour, Day 1:

We rocked up at the oasis office on tuesday, and were told that there was only enuf room for 1 of our 2 big backpacks on the roofrack (would have been handy if they'd mentioned this the day before), so we had to hastily repack. Oasis had 2 tours going that day (and luckily, the 2 groups shared a cook, meaning we had 7 people in our landcruiser, rather than a very squashy 8). Our tour group consisted of an American Couple, Rick and Holly, and a French Canadian couple, Melanie and Mark. We all had a common interest in the outdoors, and everyone was a good laugh, so this contributed heaps to the tour being such good fun. Fuel, stoves and our backpacks went up on the roofrack, and food behind the back seat.

We left around 10 or 10.30, and made a quick stop at the train cemetry outside Uyuni - this is basically a graveyard of old Bolivian, Chilean and Argentian steam trains which seem to have partly been used for scrap metal, and partly left to rust (which takes a long time in the dry, cold climate). From here, we drove to the Salar De Uyuni, and stopped to take a look at the 'salt mines'; the salt miners scrape the top layer of salt into heaps to dry (its quite damp just under the surface, although it feels very hard), and later cart them off to market. Each wet season, the lake is covered in a foot or so of water, which later evaporates to leave a new, clean salt layer. During the dry season, the surface of the lake is made up of hard salt (very soft around the lake edges).

After a stop at a now defunct salt hotel (they shut it down due to effluent disposal problems), we drove out to Isla Pescado, one of several islands that dot the lake. (If all roads in Bolivia were as flat as the lake, is would make for much more pleasant bus journeys). The islands are former coral outcrops, and the limestone structures built by the coral are still clearly visible. Isla Pescado is covered in Cacti, and has a population of small birds - its really quite unusual given the surrounding salt lake, which stretches almost to the horizon. After a good walk around, we had a great lunch of steak and other tasty stuff.

At about this point, we realised that we had a great guide/driver; he was very informative and interested in the place (between everyone in the group, we could usually figure out his explanations in spanish), was a skillful and careful driver, and had a a good sense of humour. The cook was also fantastic!!

A couple of hours drive took us to a cave in a coral outcrop near San Pedro. The formations in the cave were made from calcified sheets of algae, which were suspended from the ceiling. Very pretty, and very unusual. Next to this cave was another, filled will small, man made caverns. The ádversiting´outside the cave reckons it is filled with graves, but according to our driver, no-one really knows what the story with it is. He grew up in a small pueblo nearby, and used to shelter in the cave during hail storms as a child.

We spent our first night in a small hostal in San Pedro. A lovely place, and the sky was unbelieveable clear. Couldn´t see the Southern Cross tho - I think its only visible for some of the year at this latitude. Dinner was great, and a few drinks and a game of cards made for a great finish to the day. Everyone in our Landcruiser voted to smell together rather than try the ´hot´shower...

Day 2:

Our second day consisted of a long drive south to Laguna Colorado in Eduardo Avaroa National Park, stopping to look at lakes full of pink flamingoes, massive volvanoes in a multitude of colours, strangely shaped lava flows, and unusual rocks scattered in the desert landscape. Basically, we spent the time gaping at the view. Its amazing how pink the flamingoes really are - apparently, the pink colouration comes from something in the water of the lakes in which they spend most of their time. Most of the lakes we saw flamingoes in looked fairly inhospitable; they were muddy and somethimes salty, often stank of sulfur, and looked like they contained a lot of minerals that had just come out of a volcano. Defo not somewhere I´d like to go for a swim...

Laguna Colorado is massive, and coloured a stunning dark red. Its surrounded by volcanoes, and filled with pink flamingoes- what a mad sight... Its also bloody cold there - I´m not sure I´d like to be there in winter...

We spent the second night in a simple hostel which accomodated about 10 tour groups, a kilometer or 2 from Laguna Colorado. It was cold, but dinner was great! Unfortunately, Grace started coming down with a cold in the afternoon, and she was helped by the combination of altitude, cold and dust.

Day 3:

We began at 4.30 or something - can´t remember because it was too early... We jumped straight in the car and headed off to a geothermally active area to look at bubbling mud pools and jets of steam. Personally, I thought that looking at the landscape as the sun rose was way more interesting - the colours were muy bonito. Breakfast was by a thermal pool - I chickened out cos while the water was about 30 degrees, it wasn´t much above zero outside, and there was breeze...

After brekky, we drove south to the Chilean border to drop off our 2 Canadians, stopping at the arsenic filled Laguna Verde (a mad green colour), and Laguna Blanco. We drove down a long valley to the border, surrounded by snow capped volcanoes. Everything appeared in shades of red, white or black, and the valley floor was a couple of kilometers wide in places, and filled with red gravel, and the odd herd of Vicunas (got knows what they were eating...). This was, in my opioion, one of the most scenic parts of the journey.

The rest of the day consisted of a very long drive back to Uyuni, with a few stops to look at the mad scenery. Not nearly as interesting as what came before, but quite nice all the same.

Afterwards:

All in all, we had a superb trip. I would recommend Oasis tours for the professionalism, friendliness, and great tucker! I think its worth noting that many people we met seemed to find 3 days in a 4wd on rough roads (or no roads), and staying in basic accomodation to be too much. Many people also seemed to get a bit bored with the scenery. I think these things may contribute to the negative comments some of the tour agencies receive. The Salar is best appreciated if you love to look at lots and lots of unusual scenery and animal life, and don´t expect that doing so will be like going for a trip to the park.

We caught the train back to Oruro, and then a bus to La Paz where we stayed in a much swankier Hostal than usual (Hostal Fuentes - really nice, and great views from the top floor) while Grace got rid of her cold, and I got rid of the the runs given to me by a dodgy chicken sandwich...

Arequipa to Uyuni, Bolivia

2007-10-29T19:25:00.000Z

Left Arequipa at 8.30 on saturday morning, spent 6 hours on the local bus to Puno which is the same time as the tourist bus takes except 4 times cheaper and lots more interesting as its all locals! Saying that could have done without the chiuld puking in the seat in front of us. Was a very scenic drive over the altiplano which is high altitude plains that are basically desert. Mostly its just all huge flat valleys, with hills on the rims and not much there except the odd llama/alpaca/sheep farm ... these people seriously live in the middle of nothing in the middle of nowhere. There´s the odd river of green with little lakes and we saw our first flamingos!

From Puno, we got the bust to Cocabana .. well after a ritual of ´theres no bus until tomorrow´followed by ´there is a bus and its 30 soles´ followed by us saying we we leaving tothe other bus terminal and then ´miracously´ there is a bus ALL the way to La Paz for 25 soles! Saying that we had to sit on little stools for 2 hours to Cocabana (which we will stop properly at some time later as its really nice looking there). Also Cocabana is in Bolivia so we had to cross the border which is all very relaxed. Had to get off the bus and get 2 stamps in Peru, then walk over to Bolivia for 200m and get another stamp there. There´s stalls and stuff for sale all the way and locals pushing bikes both ways. From Cocabana we had to change bus to La Paz which was another 5 hours ... 2 hours of this was spent waiting for the ferry across Lake Titicaca. BTW ferry is the largest exageration todate. For the people on the buses there was little boats with a motor smaller then a lawnmower and for the buses there was large floats/barges with a slightly larger motor that held a bus each. Throw in the added bonus of nighttime and NO lights on any of the boats increased the sense of adventure lots ... especially when our boat driver couldn´t start the motor. Anyways we made it. Got into La Paz 2 hours later then we were told at 11pm so that was a bit dodgy. The police met all the tourists, get ya a taxi, take his number etc (which isn´t the safest feeling) and then we went straight to the hotel (which we actually had the foresight to book).

Stayed in Tambo de Oro which is right next 2 the bus terminal and worked out very handy for the next day. Spent another 4 hours on a bus to Oruro. The drive there is much less spectacular then in Peru or maybe I was getting tired of seeing nothing but desert with the odd llama and unbeleivably remote looking village. In Oruro booked our train tickets to Uyuni but then got ´latched onto´ by this kiwi fella - now its good meeting people along the way and I have no problem talking to someone travelling on their own BUT not if they turn out to be one of those tight arse, ´I carry 2kgs of stuff´, ´only use the toilet when its free´´ kind of blokes. We were STARVING ... seriously had no hot food in 2 days and had only eaten biscuits, bread and snacks the day before SO we wanted to get a nice hot dinner before the train. Yer man tags along and suggested this place outside the train station ... now I dont have a weak stomach but jayus the food looked like it had been frying in the oldest oil in Bolivia for 4 days continously .. so we said NO. Eventually found a lovely little pizza place open and went in there. So we ordered pizza and he said he{d have a bit of ours cos he had already eaten (ok fair enough we´re getting a big pizza). After that he vanished to the toilet for 15mins and then came back and said dont use the toilet as he stunk it out! and then he proceeded to tell us on ways to save backpack weight for the next half hour .. eg dont bring a change of clothes just wash them every night - like seriously what a muppet ... we didn´t say too much as really no point. He was ASTONISHED when Dunk ordered icecream for dessert ... like I mean how extravagant are we ... must have cost us all of 1 euro .. seriously like. Anyways in fairness he did throw in some cash for the meal and then told us to use the toilets as they were free!!!! Baffling. After that we managed to lose him on the train but did see him lurking about Uyuni today ... we made sure there was no kiwis on our tour just in case!

So ye we made it Uyuni. The train trip was really good (altho screaming brat of child was annoying but was worth it to see the bolivians telling the mother to shut him up - no words spared seriously!). It was like being in a wild west movie as the moon was full and we could see the plains going on and on and on. Uyuni is grand. Got an unbelivable good brekkie (fresh fruit and yoghurt and the best pineapple juice, Dunk got an omellete that much have had 5 eggs in it!)this morning (the kiwi would have freaked at the price) and 3 day tour to salt plains sorted so we´re all good and happy. Have had a post brekkie nap and think a post lunch nap (altho dont think there´s room yet after brekkie!).

Booked our 3 day trip with Oasis but all the tours here are allegedly unreliable so could be an interesting few days. Watch out flaming flamingoes here we come!!

PS we´ve started to met the ´extreme backpackers´ and I dont mean the ones who do extreme sports BUT the ones who harass, are rude and horrible to all the locals they met just to get the best deal ... is arguing over 2 bolivianos(about 20 cents euro) REALLY worth p1ssing off that many people. Ah well as long as the locals dont think we´re all like that!

Photos of Peru are up!

2007-10-27T01:25:00.000+01:00

Check out the link on the side bar or

http://picasaweb.google.com/grace.cantillon

We´re off to Bolivia and the salt plains for the next week or so. More news when we get back from there!

Arequipa, Colca Canyon and studying!

2007-10-26T00:09:00.000+01:00

Yes so we arrived safely to Arequipa which is Peru´s 2nd city. Its got perfect weather ... seriously like ... sunny 300 days a year, cool at night so nice to sleep, no mossies, cheap beer, nobody harassing us to buy finger puppets, paintings, etc, good food and its just a normal real town which is a relief after 12 days around Cusco and mass tourism!! Staying in an ok hostel (PS in case your wondering why I keep mentioning hostels its for anyone else who´ll be along soon after us!) Hostal Nunez. The ensuite rooms were great but we´re going cheapo now so in smaller non-ensuite room. Saying that hardly any backpackers about so have the top floor to ourselves. Really nice rooftop for brekkie.

Doing a spainish course with CEICA and I have to say its brilliant. We´re doing 5 hours a day and its all beginning to make sense in shops, restaurants, etc. Would highly recommend this place to learn spanish. Its in a little house, with lovely garden and room, about $10 us per hour for us both and really good, professional and keen teachers. Did a cooking course last night with them and made cerviche (Peru´s national dish of fish cooked in lime - really nice!), cuasa papa (which is like a potato castle made from egg, spuds, avocado and mayonaise mixed in layers - its ok), and some yummy dessert made from purple-black corn syrup with fruit. Tell ya what tho - the Peruvians are seriously sweet toothed. All of them out 3- 8 spoons ofsugar in tea ... really they do!! there´s cake shops everywhere and ya its a bit of a tubby place (altho not obese just well rounded). Oh and the meals here are MASSIVE ... did I say this before? Like I can eat for Ireland and I find I leave half my food frequently as they just serve way too much.´Oh and its about 2-3 euro for a litre of beer .... yummy!!

What else is in Arequipa ... nice main square and buildings. Think its called the white city cos of the stone they use. Found awesome coffee (well for Peru) too in Manola just off the square.

Annoying things are the little taxis, buses and colectivos (hiaces with lunny drivers which are local buses really) that continously beep the horns ... and I mean all the time ... not just at each street corner but every 10 metres ... really. And if someone stops, everyone behind the car just beeps the horn even if its for a red light (all about 6 of them!!). Also the beds here are the lumpiest things ever ... I think they went out of their way to make our pillows and bed lumpy. But aside from that ... we´re happy being spanish students (altho learnt the irregular verbs today and that sucks!) until tomorrow.

Think we´re going to head to salt plains in Uyuni (Salar del Uyuni), Bolivia on saturday via either aArica in Chile or else La Paz. Will decide on beer tonight!!

Colca Canyon ... did the trip last weekend. The plan was to do the 2 day tour and see what it was like and go back for more this weekend after spanish course. Decided tho not to go back as its savage dry - suppose it is the Atacama desert for a reason - hence the plan to head south.

The tour was ... well VERY touristy. It was cheap out us$20 but jaysus they did their utmost to squeeze every last sole out of us. The drive is amazing (could also have done in public transport), over the desert, passing by ChaChani, El Misti and other volcanoes I cant remember the name of. The highest pass was 4900m and the view was incredible. The road was a bit wild tho, drove thru an (extinct) volcano at one stage, the driver was a headcase - I wouldn´t put him drivign nails, and in some parts drops of 1000 (ya 1km) straight down. Stayed in Chivay (with obligatory Irish pubs - was alright, the most irish thing was the name McElroy!), had to do tourist lunch, dinner and again lunch the next day but in fairness the food was good. Didthe hot springs as well which were really good and clean ... recommended!

On the sunday we got dragged out of bed at 5am to go and see the condors ... supposed to go early as best time of day. So off we went, and then we stopped at not 1 but 3 little villages on the way so it was 9am by the time we got to the condor lookout. I seriously thought that was pulling the p1ss like. In one place there was little boys danvcing around a fountain at 6am for the tourists ... jayus whats that about. And the usual hawkers selling stuff everywhere but I suppose at least they didn´t follow us. Its a cool drive (altho a bit scary) out to the highest part of the canyon which is 3700m or something AND we did see condors AND they did make the trip worthwile as did the scenery but we could have done with less ´sheep tourism!´ Oh also seeing llamas, alpacas and vicunas in the wild is very cool!

One last rant for the week. There´s a delicacy here called ´cuy´which is guinea pig. Now I´m no biologist (I cant even spell the word!) but dotn guinea pigs look a little like colourful rats??? We´ve all seen road kill ok (especially in Oz) and you know the flattened look it gets after a day or so ... well thats what cuy looks like on a plate except the head is fully intact and not squashed, the little paws have all the nails etc but apart from that everything is flattened as they cook it under a big stone. Our spanish teacher said check the tail before eating as if its long then its RAT!! yummo ... on that note I´ll sign off and have a good w-e all!!

We´re off to Chile or Bolivia or both .... wahoooooo!!

Off to sunny Arequipa

2007-10-18T19:25:00.000+01:00

We had planned to head off and do a 6 day hike around Mt Ausangate but the rainy season has well and truly hit us here in Cusco. Yesterday poured all the day and the clouds were down on the hills here so decided it would be miserable at 1000m higher. Bit of a pity cos looks like a fantastic hike.

We´re off to Arequipa tonight instead. Going to learn Spanish there and wander about Colca Canyon for the next 3 weeks so that should keep us out of trouble.

Eating, sleeping and drinking in Cusco

2007-10-17T23:46:00.000+01:00

There´s over 200 places to stay in Cusco. So far we have tried 3 of them all near San Blas on Carmen Alto.

Hostel El Grial - very clean, cosy and friendly place. Free internet, ok brekkie included, had cable tv in our room, but there was a stink of sweage in the toilet and we had a very noisy room but possibly all rooms noisy as face over the balcony and since people arrive-leave at all hours then quiet sleep impossible. US35 so expensive for what it was.

Hotel Marani. Stayed there for 6 nights with tara and colin. got a deal for 30us per room per night so was well worth while. Spotless clean, new towels and room cleaned everyday, good staff. Continental brekkie included. Nice cafe area, very sfe, stored all our stuff when went on the inca trail plus they made us brekkie at 4.30 am also on the morning we left for inca trail. Only reservation was that it was slightly clinical and I got the feeling if I was Dutch-german then it would have been more welcoming as its run by a dutch lady.

Hospedaje de San Blas - US20 including brekkie, staying here cos its near the last place we stayed and cheap ;) bit disorganised and water seems to be a problem. Very friendly tho and free internet when the kids aren´t using it!

Restaurants abound in Cusco. I think there is more then there is tourists. have tried some peruvian but also falling back on more western type food as the peruvian food seems to be very carb driven.

Jacks cafe - gringo place. great comfort food, steak sandwich rocks, so do there fries, coffee and shakes. medium expensive. 15 -20 soles per person

Fallen Angel - fantastic bar restaurant. Steak (35 soles) is incredible but dont get the hot one as its too hot. Fries are amazing - seriously! great pisco sours - think thy add some dynamite!
also salads and desserts are very good. Decor is funky. Has baths with goldfish as tables!

Chez Maggy and a millin other pizza places like it. good italian pizza in Cusco.

Inka Panaka, on 140 tandapata, just before the right hand corner ther´s an amazing peruvian
restaurant. try the banana wrapped in bacon and the ceviche. Also the
veggie curry and alpaca were excellent. go hungry tho cos the portions
are huge. about 40 soles for entree and main.

On corner of Calle garcilaso and Plaza San Francisco
theres a great cheap local place. he menu of the day is 4.5 soles and
is massive. 3 courses for 1 euro! and tasty also. They serve the quioa
soup which is yummy!

El Buen Pastor is good bakery and very cheap.

KM 0 is a good bar with live music and the muse also is ok.

Cusquena is yummy beer and pisco sours are a must!

Great bakeries down Tullymayo - 3 in a row together as you head towards the pisac bus station.

On the inside corner of Teqoscha and Wayna Pata, there{s a great cheap peruvian place which is really cheap. Its something Baieche Trattoria. Great feed for 7, 12 or 20 soles. Their Lomo Saltado is good.

The Inca Trail

2007-10-17T23:32:00.000+01:00

This is the reason we´re in Cuso, really... The Inca Trail is a 4 day walk, following an old Inca road, which finishes at the Inca site of Machu Pichu. It´s compulsory to use a guide to walk the Inca Trail, and we went with Peru Treks, who were superb.

We (Tara, Colin, Grace and Dunk) were picked up from our hostal at about 5.30 (a sign of things to come), and headed off to Ollantaytambo on a bus with the 13 others in our walking group. After a stop for some strange luke-warm coffee we drove along a dirt road to "km 82" to the checkpoint which marks the start of the walk. Along with the 15 walkers, we had 2 guides (the cheif guides name was bobby), 18 porters and a cook - i think they needed all the porters to carry the mountains of food we were fed!

We followed the Rio Cusichaca for a few hours, stopping to check out the Inca site at Llactapata - Bobby gave us a 30 minute description of the site, its purpose, the reasons for it being built where it was etc. He was very knowledgeable. Not long after starting the walk, we began to see some of the 13 species of humming bird which inhabit the Machu Pichu National Park - I´ve never seen them before and they´re pretty unusual. The smallest looks more like and insect than a bird...

Lunch was had across the river from Llactapata. We had a dining tent and 3 course meal - a bit of a change from sitting under a tree and munching on a sandwhich like we usually do at home! From here, we walked a couple of hours to the village of Huayllabamba, where we camped. A couple of beers from the village shop broke the ice; we had a great group of people on the tour, most of who were fairly fit, which made for a great trip.

Day 2 consisted of a climb up to Warmiwanusca Pass (Dead Woman Pass) at 4198m, and then down to camp at a site named Pacamayo. The walk was made difficult by the altitude, but was otherwise short, and easy going on a rock-surfaced track. Much of the walk up to the pass went thru lush cloud forest. This reminded me a bit of the rainforest in south west Tasmania, and was beautiful. Views of the surrounding mountains were obscured by high cloud for most of the day, but Mt Veronica cleared in time for sunset. The view from our tens was stupendous - we looked across a massively deep rainforest filled valley surrounded by huge and precipitously sided mountains. No beers for sale nearby this night, but we were entertained by Bobby´s card tricks, and fed a huge lunch at 3 in the arvo (at the camp site), followed by afternoon tea at 4.30 and then dinner at 6.30 - no chance of loosing weight on this walk! Myself, Grace and Tara spotted an Andean Deer (quite common apparently) whilst going for an afternoon stroll.

Day 3 began at some ungodly hour of the morning, and we finished walking at 2 or 3 in the arvo. It was very misty in the valley where were camped, with a lot of low cloud which pesisted for the day. This was very atmospheric, but prevented us from seeing the apparently majestic mountain views this days walking is sposed to provide. We stopped at the Inca site of Runkuracay on our way up to the second pass at 3998m, where we each added a stone to the collection of cairns on the pass. Spectacular high mountain scenery... From the pass, we walked several hours thru cloud forest, and open alpine areas along an original section of Inca trail. This is a rock trail built by the Incas which clings to the mountain side in some unlikely places, providing people who dont like heights (won´t mention any names ;)) with a few nervous moments. We stopped at the Inca site of Phuyupatamarca, which provided a spectacular view of Machu Picchu mountain and the surrounding peaks before descending to camp at Huinay Huayna - this ´research station´built by the cusco university years ago seems to have been transformed into a Gringo service station, equipped with cold beer and hot showers. The researchers have been replaced with walkers in (I can only assume) the name of profit. This is a real shame, but we had a few coldies anyway...

The final day began sometime before 3 and 4 in the morning (you´d think we were off to climb a mountain or something!). We walked for 2 hours to Machu Picchu through beautiful cloud forest with yet more majestic views of the hugely deep valley below us, and massive moutains above. It was too cloudy to see anything from the Sun gate (the point at which the trail enters Machu Picchu), so we walked down to the site itself and were shown around for a few hours by Bobby. It was great to have a guide to explain the place, and I don´t think it would be half as interesting without. The train arrived in the valley below at about 10.30 and the crows descended at about 11, at which time we bailed to Agus Calientes.

Macchu Picchu is an interesting spot, but I think its location is really what makes it, rather than the history of the site itself. It sits on top of an improbably steep mountain in a rainforested valley, bringing back memories of Indian Jones.

We caught the train back to Ollantaytambo, and then the bus to Cusco, where we promptly went for an awesome streak at Fallen Angel - thouroughly recommended!

All in all, this is a very enjoyable walk. The spectacular mountain scenery, cloud forest and humming birds made it for me, and the Inca sites along the way, and particularly Machu Picchu at the end add an interesting cultural aspect to it. The distances are short, and the track has a hard rock surface for most of the walk, making life easy indeed. The altitude made for hard going about about 4000m. Going with a tour group was not as bad as I thought (it was great fun actually), although I suspect we were particularly lucky in having such a good guide. Also, I think I mave have become a walking pole convert - i took a wooden pole on the walk as my knee is giving me grief at the moment, and it helped a lot...

A trip to Pisac

2007-10-17T23:29:00.000+01:00

The day after Tara and Colin arrived we headed out to Pisac which is a village in the Sacred Valley. Went on the local bus which was pretty interesting and very cheap (2 soles). Decided to walk UP to the inca site as I thought it was only 20 mins - well turned out to be a very steep hot climb in altitude to the top but the view was magnificient and the inca ruins were pretty impressive as well perched on top of a precarious hill side. We should have brought more food nd water but found a nice little cafe to have dessert at the bottom ;) probably not the best preparation for th inca trail either!!

There´s a massive tourist market there selling all the usual peruvians tourist treasures - think its just the same ole same ole stuff everywhere except more expensive out there. Well overloaded by that now.

Recommend the trip and climb up the hill tho!

Cusco, Peru first impressions

2007-10-10T22:02:00.000+01:00

Arrived into Cusco on Sunday afternoon. Bit of a shock to land in a mountaineous region after being accustomed to landing in large open spaces in Aussie - the sharp left into he valley was a bit stomach churning! First day was spent mostly suffering from altitude sickness unfortunately - horrible headaches and short of breath but had some coca tea the next day and that set us right!! Stayed in a nice atmo hostel calld El Grial altho it was pretty noisy and the toilet was stinky even tho looked spotless. Woke to the sound of bells/siren at 7am. Thought the whole street was n fire or the police were raiding the biggest drug baron in peru - it was th garbage men who ring a siren as the streets are so narrow people ya cant put the rubbish bins on the streets.

Cusco is a lovely little town altho very tourist driven which is good for the locals. Touts everywhere trying to selll hats, finger puppets, massages (dunno if they have a happy ending!), paintings, etc which gets a bit annoying after awhile. The range of food and restaurants here is amazing - today we had lunch for 21 soles for 4 people (3 of us had the menu of the day which was soup plus a main of steak with rice - the soup had me full!) which is about 5 eur for us ALL! There´s also good pizzas, italian, mexican and basically anything ya want here. For anyone visiting Jack´s cafe on Chocheura, El Coccilora (cheap place mentioned above) on Calle Garcelisoa cnr with San Francisco plaza are tops so far and some pizza chain place which had yummy pizza altho the guy also gave us some evil local spirit/brew (think that contributed more to th altitude sickness then anything).

Have walked about the place a good bit. Its all cobblestone narrown streets, crazy taxi drivers i this tiny little cars, inca stone walls, spanish churches and museums. The market near San Pedro was worth a visit altho I hope they dont source the meat in restaurants there cos there is NO hygiene. Fruit there is ridicusly cheap - like 1 eur for 4 apples, 6 bananas and 2 oranges. Lots of weird looking spuds and unidentifiable things - think there was llama foetuses dried and hanging out to sell as well. Presume some local ritual. The locals tend to dress like westerners ie jeans ad jumpers but some of the women wear the full peruvian kit especially if they trying to flog ya something! Hiked upto Sachaysun (!?) ruins from inca times which the spanish thrashed so nooe is fully sure what is the story. Pretty impressive (once we got our breaths back from the 300m ascent) .

Also spent lots of time in South America Exlorers club which is brilliant source of info for treks, trips, accomodation, volunteering, spanish courses, etc. If your spending any time at all in SA probaby worth joining!

Colin and Tara arrived this morning so brilliant catching up with them. It rained again today so hoping it will clear up for the inca trail in 2 days time.

its all in spanish!

2007-10-07T23:21:00.000+01:00

Ok we need to learn Spanish FAST. First encounter with no english speaking person was of course the demented taxi driver we got from Madrid airport to Madrid city centre (via all the suburbs outside of madrid). He asks us where we´re going so we show him a piece of paper with the address and a map of the nearest large streets clearly marked then sticks its into his GPS (which was directly in front of his head - dunno how he saw anything but tahts another story), then off we head to some unpronounceable madrid suburb. We get there, he cant find the street, meanwhile were thinking hang on this is a VERY small city centre so we show him the address again. After about 15 mins of arsing about, asking locals etc he asks us are we sure the hotel is in dfjghdfghdajk and we´re like NO its in Madrid (you clown). So he gets pissed off with us at which point I did want to strangle the braindead first time ever in a taxi muppet. Why do new taxi drivers INSIST on doing airport trips - grrrrrr. Eventually we did find the hotel after he finally managed to find the centre by GPS - hopefully the dumbo is still trying to find his way back to the airport for next unsuspecting victim.

Aside from that Madrid was good fun altho jaysus the smoke is awful. Just about everything that moves including the dogs (which leave plenty poo smells in the small narrow streets) has a fag dangling at all times. Dunk reckoned the coffee was awesome and so did I altho didn´t have too much! The beer was either very cheap or very expensive if ya got caught in a touristy place which we figured out quickly enough. Number one backpacking skill has been rediscovered!!! Visited the palace, did the bus tour and admired all the really funky architecture (even tho some of the palace rooms had the tackiest decor ever). Also the pastries are awesome and so are the tostados! and the ham Dunk says!

Next headed to Madrid aiport by Metro (for 4 eur about 20 times cheaper and easier then the taxi langar) to be told we were on standby cos the flight was overbooked. Not very impressed but we managed to be the first on standby so did get a seat. Arrived into Lima last night. First impressions of Lima from the bus to the hostel was pretty intimidating place to arrive at night so we just stayed in the hostal (really nice place called Mami Panchita, they picked us up and dropped us to the airport which was great as didn´t really have the brains to fight Lima transport after the 12 hour flight). We now in Cusco.

First impressions are that its great - really nice, friendly place. Even the street sellers go away after 4 ´No por favor´s! Staying in a lovely hostal called El Grial Hotel on a really narrow cobblestone street. Got a HUGE lunch for about 2 euros so happy out now. The altitiude is knocking us about a bit - must start walking slower :) Right off for a beer now - must practise for Colin and Tara´s arrival on Wed!

Back in Ireland

2007-09-25T19:50:00.000+01:00

Well we made it back to Ireland safe and sound on an extremely uneventful flight for a change! Thai airways has just so much leg room but their entertainment system is possibly the worst in the world - slept instead tho so no complaints!

Found out that the best cure for jet lag is going to Tara & Colin's wedding and staying there til 5am! Had a super time and between big and baby guiness's I seriously hope Dec & Sean lose that video diary or at least cut us out!!

Other then that good to be home - there's new roads, houses and shopping centres everywhere so might need that new GPS after all - just to find our way home!

More soon!

Leaving Australia

2007-09-17T23:38:00.000+01:00

Well this is it, all our goodbyes have been said and we fly out this afternoon. Still have to squeeze everything into the backpacks and not sure if its all going to fit. We're really going to miss everyone here but 2 weeks of fun in Ireland beckons and then onto South America. Thanks to everyone who joined us on our adventures in Sydney and Australia in the last few years.

The 'plan' is to keep this relatively upto date so you can see what we're upto. We thought it was better then spamming everyone on monday mornings with tales of adventure ;)

Hopefully it'll be a bit more exciting then this post but suffering from 2 weeks of flying all over the place, saying goodbyes, playing soccer, late nights (I never want to see the courthouse again!) and packing. At least we should be able to sleep on the plane!