Southern Patagonia & the end of the Great Adventure

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As the region of Southern Patagonia is so vast and spectacular and divided by the Andes with Chile to the left and Argentina to the right, we felt it best to combine the blog for the area to reflect it’s true character rather than stick with the country by country format we have adhered to before now. Hopefully this will help some travellers who may chance upon this diary as accurate information about travelling in this part of the world is really difficult to come by - which is surprising given the huge number of people that travel here each year. The best information is from other travellers who have been there, done it and got the T shirt - so why this information isn’t universally available seems a mystery.

On the road from El Bolson to El Calafate

We board the bus - Marga Transport (also part of the Taqsa Group) from El Bolson at 2pm for our 26 hour trip down through Patagonia having had some snacks for lunch & bought some food for dinner as we aren’t sure if we will get a food stop - no one seems to know or say. We travel this route as it is the more comfortable way to do this long journey - semi cama on decent roads. The alternative would have been to take the Ruta 40 straight down the country but it’s a basic bus and a lot of the road is unmetalled. The plus point of Ruta 40 is that you go to El Chalten which is a drop off point for trekking the Fitzroy mountain area which is supposed to be spectacular, however, as time is tight for us because of bringing our return flight forward we choose comfort but a less picturesque way.

We get three films - White Chicks - worst film ever made, and a poor comedy about 2 guys pretending to be gay to get pension benefits for the guy with kids (Jessica Beil provides the sexual interest) & The Dark Night - good even second time around as we first saw it in Buenos Aires. We even stop unexpectedly in a small village where we have a few beers and home made pizza - fresh, which went down a treat.

The landscape is really arid & sparse for miles on end and the area looks really desolate with the odd sheep ranch, or with horses or cattle breaking up the monotony & sameness of the view. So we dose on and off. We can’t but admire the capacity of the human spirit to survive here especially during the winter months when folks will be cut off from everywhere & everything for months. What is striking however is that every strip of land bordering the road is fenced off, even here - miles from nowhere - on both sides. Looks like the pioneers got their land rights sorted asap! Now & again we would see small groups of Llamas or Emus. However, at sunset the view transforms and the sunset is awe inspiring and beautiful and lasts for what seems like a life time. Amazing.

We eventually arrive at El Calafate at 4.30pm after various police checks, and immediately book our trip with Cootra @ 60 pesos each to Puerto Natales in Chile in two days time - this service goes each day at 8.30 am but gets booked up fast as the alternatives are limited, so it‘s advisable to book your onward journey as soon as you arrive. The only other service is Haaj but they go on alternative days. It’s attraction is that it’s 10pesos cheaper. Then we get a cab to the hostel - it’s not that far but the hostel pays for it so hey!

Hostel America del Sur is pretty expensive so we do dorms - 4 in a room & en suite so pretty good. It‘s situated overlooking the lake with good views but for a new hostel the kitchen facilities are poor - it’s very small for so many backpackers with little cutlery etc. They do a nightly BBQ @ 50 pesos each including a litre of beer. We don’t try it as it seems expensive (though from our experience trying to find somewhere decent & affordable to eat in EC it’s actually good value). Surprisingly we discover at the hostel that the cost for the room has gone down as it’s 1st March - Summer season has ended the day before - yes!

EC is a funny little place. It’s very trendy & alpine looking (or at least the central drag which is about 100 metres is), catering mainly for rich locals & tourists. It also has a Casino in the centre of town. It looks & feels like a ski resort without the skiers. Thankfully the money exchange place opens everyday as we had to change some dollars for which we were getting a better rate thanks to the “credit crunch” & the collapse of the pound in value.

We book a day trip through the hostel with Cal Tur for the trip to Perito Moreno Glacier which is THE main reason for folks to come here. This is essentially a tourist resort and the economy is largely reliant on this.

We catch the bus at 8am the next day to go to the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares - the national park where the Glaciers can be seen in all their glory. We drive onto the Peninsular Magallenes, the landscape around is quite spectacular. After about an hour we come to the park entry point where we have to pay the Park entry fees of 60 Pesos each. On the way there is an initial stop off point where one can get off and take a ferry ride to see the glacier close up from the left - but all the advice is to continue to the next stop - 20mins away where you catch a ferry from the right side. The views are better and you see a lot more and get up close and personal - it may cost a bit more for the ferry ride but having come all this way we’d recommend folks to do this. The cost of the ferry ride is 50 pesos each.

The ferry ride lasts about 1 hour - it’s pretty well organised and the quality of the craft is really good. After leaving the jetty, most people end up on deck where you can get amazing views of the sheer scale of the edge of the glaciers. Essentially 4 different glaciers converge here & create an awesome spectacle which is 40 km long, 4 km wide and 30 to 60 metres high - it makes Fox’s glacier in NZ look like a baby.

The sound of cracking ice as it moves fills the air and from time to time huge chunks of ice fall off the side of the cliff of the moving ice mass and smashes into the water with a thunderous sound creating huge waves. One of the reasons the Ferry keep a safe distance away. It’s fresh and cold with the sun shining & the ice looks crystal blue. This has got to be one of the top 5 natural wonders of the world definitely. It is well worth the trouble to get here.

After disembarking, we have time to explore the area. They have built walking bridges which takes you from one end of the glacier to the other - this will take at least an hour or two with stops for pics galore. We see many chunks of ice fall off and Caroline is lucky to take a video on her camera of a massive plop.

Our surprise of the day is that M’s camera lens which has been stuck on the wide angle setting since The Cook Islands comes free and he can get back to taking zillions of pics again. It definitely makes his day as he’d lost the joy of photography since the zoom couldn’t be used. After 3 hours we hop on another bus as the one that brought us here has broken down and head back to EC.

Back in El Calafate we decide to try out a place recommended for dinner but as it’s our last night in Argentina we have limited funds on us & feel the place is expensive. So instead we do a tour of possible eateries (most expensive & uninspiring) before settling for La Tablita near our hostel - only because it was 2 hours later and we were running out of time. C rushed back to change a few more dollars at the hostel so we could pay for our meal. We had the BBQ platter for 2 - the Lomo & Filet were good, however, not quite Buenos Aires standard - with some cheapish wine at ridiculous prices but hey this was our last night in Argentina.

Puerto Natales - Southern Patagonia

We take the early Cootra Bus from El Calafate to Puerto Natales in Chile, which should take 4 - 5 hours depending on customs at the border. Unfortunately the border crossing alone takes 3 hours! The Chileans are doing checks on every bag - though not very thoroughly it has to be said! We pass through lakes and mountain scenery initially which gives way to open land with a scattering of simple houses.

PN is a small town, mainly the hub for trekkers who go to the Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine. Most of the houses are clad in corrugated iron and painted quite colourfully though many of the buildings look in poor repair and so the town feels a bit transient really. It’s packed with hostels and supermarkets and rental shops for trekking gear. In the centre are a large supermarket and a newish small arcade of shops in wooden alpine style - looks very out of place. The central square, another Plaza de Armas, has a train engine in the middle (still not sure why!) and has as a backdrop snow covered mountains which looks lovely on a clear day. Many of the walls near the centre are covered in paintings depicting local traditional history.

The town sits on the Magellan Sound and one of the options for travelling back up through Chile is the 4 day trip on MS Navimag which sails from here up to Puerto Montt. It‘s pretty expensive and while it can be beautiful through the Fjords this is entirely weather dependent and with the risk of seasickness & boredom after a while, we decided not to do it.

We’re booked into Hostel Yagan near the centre (26.50$US a night) which got high ratings on hostel bookers but looked like it was being refurbished. The room and bathrooms were lovely but the showers leaked into the lounge below and the waste pipe from the kitchen sink wasn’t connected to the drain!
Paulina, the owner kept C awake at 2 am as she was having a girlie night in as the old man was away. Despite this we booked a room for our return from the trek only to find they’d screwed this up too! The only saving grace was that they didn’t lose our bags which we’d left with them & they found us a cheaper better alternative nearby at Lili Patagonico - nice room with cable TV for only US$21 per night.

One of the tips we got from Eimir in Valpo was to go to the daily free briefing by Erratic Rock hostel. This was excellent. It’s mainly geared for campers but gave useful tips for the “softies” (us) staying in lodges. The main one being - don’t go from east to west as most of the tours do, the other way gives a much better view of Los Cuernos (one of the mountain ranges), is easier and means you do all the steep bits with a lighter pack - as you’ll have eaten most of your food supplies. We also don’t need to worry about carrying water - there are plenty of streams and the water is pure glacial so great for drinking. It also prepared us for the wind! Apparently this is what makes the trek an extreme trek!! Oh joy!

Armed with all our tips we spend the next day buying up the supplies of snacks in the supermarkets, hire another day pack and another set of walking poles, and C turns into bag lady as she practices packing the sacks with layers of bag liners in case we get really bad weather.

On local recommendation we eat at La Picada de Carlitos which was excellent; good value & large portions. They did mean burgers, great Lomo a la Pobre, & awesome Asado Costillar de Cerdo (roast pork rib). We go here again on our return form the trek with Jen (Ozzie),Tan (Ozzie from Bangladesh), Izabela (Poland) & Uwe (Hamburg) who we’d met on the trek.
We also had a lovely if slightly surreal coffee experience at Living café on the main square. Honestly, it wouldn’t have looked out of place in Islington.

Having booked our bus tickets to and from the Park, and feeling very much more unfit than we should be we head off for the climax of our adventure and the anticipated highpoint of our trip to Patagonia.

Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine

The first thing to say is that getting good information about trekking here is really hard. We’re not sure why as it’s very popular & everyone does the W walk or The circuit. The tour companies that we had thought of booking this with suggest doing the W in 4 days/3 nights which really is only possible if you are mega fit & rush around with a tent on your back. They also charge ridiculous amounts in fees. By booking direct with the Refugios online - which was easy - and taking the regular local buses we saved about US$400. And that was against the cheapest price we were given. Based on our experience, if you really want to enjoy the scenery and don’t want to do a route march every day, allow 5 or 6 days for the W trek. Our recommended itinerary would be to start at Refugio Paine Grande taking the boat across Lake Pehoe, and do a ½ day trek to the Grey Glacier and back. Next day trek to Refugio Los Cuernos. Next day go up the French Valley with only light packs, and back to Los Cuernos, then the next day head to Refugio Chileno. Have an early start next day up to the Torres if you want to see the sunrise, and then down to Refugio Las Torres, staying the night there if you don’t fancy a break neck race down the hillside for the afternoon bus back to Puerto Natales.

Anyhow - that’s what we should have done & here’s what we did!!

There are lots of buses that go from PN to the Park picking you up from the hostel. It costs 12,000 pesos return each and takes about 2 hours to get to the Park entrance. Once there you book in & pay the Park fee of 15,000 peso’s each & they give you a map which is good enough for the trek. All the trails are well marked so it’s difficult to get lost. As we were going west to east we then took the bus for another half an hour on to Pudeto to catch the boat across Lake Pehoe. Unfortunately this means waiting around for about 1 ½ hours in what can be howling wind. There are decent toilet facilities though!

The boat carries slightly more passengers than it has seats for which is fine if you can go up top to enjoy the beautiful views of the Los Cuernos range and snow capped mountain scenery. Unfortunately it was blowing a hoolie and raining hard so the captain insisted we all stayed inside and shared the pitching and lurching movement of the boat!!

The boat lands about 50 yards from the Refugio Paine Grande and we knew the afternoon walk would be tough as the winds which topped 90km/h made it a battle just to get to the lodge. Refugio Paine Grande is a flash 4 star style lodge - except with dorms - & expensive at US$39 each + 5,000 pesos each for a sleeping bag.

We check in, eat our picnic lunch and then head off for the Grey Glacier which should take about 2 hours each way. The wind is evil though. Even when you think you’ve found shelter behind a rock it whips round almost knocking you off your feet. We have no idea how the guys with tents on their backs heading for the sites by the glacier can keep going. And as for the one’s trying to pitch a tent in this……! The rain comes down too and as it’s blowing off the glacier it’s cold and sharp. The walk itself is pretty easy through scrub and along well marked paths. And suddenly the wind goes - we’re sheltered by a range of mountains and what a difference. You can look around without the wind whipping your sunglasses off and the poles can be used as an aid to walking rather than an aid to keeping upright. And then it comes back again! Stronger than before but by now we’re almost at the viewing point to the Glacier and the view certainly distracts from the discomfort. The Glacier isn’t as stunning as Perito Moreno or Fox but what is lovely is to see the huge icebergs that have calved off it sitting in the lake and the fabulous mountain scenery around. And when we turn to head back there are rainbows arcing over the lake which adds to it’s beauty. However, we don’t stop long to take it in - the viewing point is high on a ridge and blustery as hell. We still can’t quite work out how the wind could be against us in both directions.

We get back to the Refugio and as we munch over our picnic supper we have to admit we are not hugely looking forward to tomorrows walk if the wind stays like this. We had hoped to buy some supplementary food at the lodge (chips or a pizza etc) but we find they only serve full three course meals after tea time which we didn’t want. Plenty of hot water for tea though and a (expensive) bar for a beer. And so we hit our beds, knackered and praying for a better day tomorrow.

And the contrast in weather is amazing! We rise early and the wind is a whisper and the sun is shining. Which is great as this is supposed to be the best days walking. The first couple of hours to the Italian campsite are easy, and with great views of Los Cuernos as you walk towards them. The campsite is closed (as are most of the sites not attached to Refugios at the time of our visit - manpower issues rather than weather we understand) but many campers have left their sacks there to have an easier walk up the Vallee Frances. The walk is pretty tough - climbing steadily but also requiring clambering over rocks and across streams and then up through trees until it opens out for the most amazing views. Behind you is the lake and all around are snow capped peaks, glaciers and bright blue skies. We sit and enjoy the view, chat to some guys we’ve crossed paths with several times as we’ve travelled south, and listen to the thunder claps as sections of ice fall off the glacier. We picnic a little further on by the side of the river then, deciding that we won’t see better if we do keep going (Britanico campsite is just ahead) we head back down past the Italian campsite and on to Refugio Los Cuernos. Quite a lot of this final section is over quite steep downhill shale and gravel and we‘re glad to be heading down rather than up.

A final ankle breaking walk along the stony beachside by the lake brings you to the Refugio and it’s fantastic, sheltering just under the peaks of Los Cuernos which result in some great sunset shots. It’s nowhere near as plush as Paine Grande, and with dorms beds 3 tiers high (fortunately we’ve got lower tier beds) but much friendlier and cheaper. We book the 3 course dinner (9000 peso’s each), a couple of sleeping bags (3500 peso’s), drink lots of tea, and have a great supper with a couple of beers. Local tip - pay on arrival in Chilean peso’s not dollars - works out much cheaper.

Next day the weather is back to high winds. M is up at 5 am and finds a couple sheltering in the lounge after their tent blew away in the night! He’s pleased to be an early bird though as there’s a double rainbow over the lake and he gets some great pics. The path to the Refugios Chileno & Torres are well marked and as we walk along the wind isn’t too bad as we’re sheltered by hills though we can see how strong it is on open land by looking at the lake - the water is blown off the surface in huge sprays. After a couple of hours we reach a small lake and the paths split, and the lower one which runs by the side of a small lake isn’t shown on the map, so we stick with the higher one; mistake! The lower path takes you direct to Refugio Chileno and is much quicker and avoids some of the steep climb up from R.Torres.

We walk as far as Chileno which is the base for the early starters tomorrow to see the Towers at sunrise, then head back to Refugio Torres. We know we won’t make it to the Towers and back to the Refugio before dark and are disappointed not to have known about Chileno when we were doing our planning.

Refugio Las Torres is another 4 star style lodge - again with dorms, but also with great customer service & lovely roaring fires. It’s expensive at $51 per person + 4,000 pesos for sheets & duvet but we feel we’ve deserved it. And in the morning M is up in time to see the sunrise on the Towers and get some great photos.

Collectivos pick up trekkers from the lodge at 2pm or 7pm to meet the buses back to PN, and again we enjoy fantastic views as we drive back through the Park as the clouds stay away so we get some lovely final views of the Cuernos.

Punta Arenas - the last city on the South American mainland

We take Bus Sur from the Puerto Natales main street for our 3 hour trip to Punta Arenas. It is literally the last city on the South American mainland. After this its wilderness or you catch a ferry to Tierra Del Fuego or a ship to Antarctica.

The landscape of the journey is quite remote Patagonia & arid Pampa with very few ranches miles apart and miles from “civilization”. Apparently this is all snowed in during winter. Some living! We can see snow capped mountains in the distance and from time to time pass ranches with lakes filled with pink flamingos & a variety of bird life, and small groups of Llamas.

Punta Arenas is named “the sandy point”. It’s an ex sheep farming city whose wealth was built on the wool trade till the Panama Canal opened.
Oil is now it’s mainstay apart from tourism of course. The place itself is quite grand in part - some of the buildings would not be out of place in France or Spain. The Spanish were the grandees here, but there is evidence of the Chinese, the British (English, Scots and Irish), and a big Croatian community.

There’s a mix of derelict houses/streets surviving the harsh winters and some very affluent areas with art deco style homes and bungalow style residential property. The streets are overrun with dogs though - so watch your step. Outside the impressive central square area the air of the town is dusty & dirty with garbage thrown into the canal that feeds into the pacific sea.

A walk by the beach provides a view of Tierra Del Fuego & in the distance is Antarctica. We chose not to make the trip down there for no other reason than the fact that being stuck on a boat for days (with unpredictable seas) to see a lot of ice wasn’t quite our idea of fun or adventure - especially having walked across glaciers in NZ and seen the Moreno glacier up close.

We stay at the Hostel - Hospeidaje Costanera. Despite the blurb on the website it is a ½ hour walk with rucksacks from the centre. M is not impressed as it was advertised as being 7mins away from the bus stop. Apparently it all hinges on which bus you catch and one of them has a stop nearer the hostel. That said, it was only $11 US per night per person (cheapest by far around) & had good reviews. The hostel is very homely more like a B & B rather than a traditional hostel including breakfast & free internet - no Wi Fi which is a bit of a drag for us as we have to take our turn with the other guests. The owner lives on site and is very helpful. She is obviously well connected as she has pictures of her grown sons with Diego Maradona all over the house.

The sunrise at 6 am is quite beautiful and the sky is a sea of red. M woke early with the help of the alarm to take some good pictures - although the dogs weren’t too friendly. C as is her way just lay in. Why get up when you’ve come all this way when you can make do with looking at the pictures!!

There is a lot of history in PA: Munoz Gomero Square in the centre with it’s elaborate buildings; Bernado O’Higgins (nice Argentinean name) was famous here (there’s a statue of his bust in the park by the river in Richmond, Surrey. He was educated in the UK); Hernando Magallenes - the straits are named after him. And to think that Charles Darwin was here on HMS Beagle when he wrote The Origin of Species.

The town is quite sprawling and we come across Chile’s only Hindu Temple which is a small affair - given the other temples we have seen around the world. The Cemetery, with tombs of the old rich & famous wool barons etc, is impressive though not quite as good as Buenos Aires. There are occasional English, Scottish & Chinese tombs, many German & Dutch as well, but hundreds of Spanish/Chilean & Croatian and from the names lots of inter marriage is evident.

We buy some lunch at the Abu-Gosch supermarket which is very reasonable - empanadas (Argentinean staple fast food) & cold beer. There are a number of fast food joints around - burgers , sort of Kentucky fried chicken, Pizza hut Puento Arenas style etc.

However, as recommended by our host we try dinner at El Mercardo. It’s a local institution for fish & local dishes. We try the local crab starter - fab, then scallops in garlic & chilli, the national dish Congrio soup & Congrio Margarita (seafood sauce) were awesome. We go there again for the last night where we have the Congrio grilled which is equally enjoyable.

We did consider some other places but the one recommended in LP was pretty expensive and we had to wait & the service was poor so we left before getting a table. The other haunt we found to be empty and they didn’t have half the dishes on the menu. So again we got up and left. We’d definitely recommend El Mercado to anyone.

Having confirmed our flight back to Santiago with Sky Airline (the Easy Jet of Chile - or so we thought), we catch a cab to the airport at 4-30 pm (standard 5,000 Pesos), which is about 30 mins away. It’s pretty modern with a range of facilities. Everything goes like clock work and on time. We fly via Puerto Montt in the Chilean Lake District.

We catch the 6.10 pm 4 hour flight back to Santiago & are very pleasantly surprised by this budget airline; we get allocated seats, food & free drinks despite the blurb saying this was not available. The first meal is on the flight to Puerto Montt (the Chilean equivalent of Bariloche - you can get there by bus crossing the mountain border). After a brief stop to let off some folk and pick up others we are again given a meal with booze etc. So no chance of us going hungry tonight!!

Return to Santiago before flying home to London

The only downer is that we (ie C!) lose the rucksack lock keys and despite a search of the plane they aren’t found. We go back to the same Hostel in Santiago, Chile getting there at 11.15 pm & find we’ve been put in a really fancy ensuite room on the 4th floor and it has lock forcing tools so M solves the problem.

The view from the room overlooking the square is quite spectacular at night and magical.

Next day we move back to our old double room & spend the next couple of days catching up on the Blog & sorting out our CVs in preparation for returning home. Again we enjoy dinners at El Rincon del Portal downstairs & cooked chicken with olive bread from the local supermarket washed down with a nice bottle of Santa Catarina - superb!.

On the last day we’re up at 3.30 am (actually 4.30 as the clocks had gone back thankfully) for the flight to London via Sao Paulo. The first leg is with LAN Chile & takes 4 hours. We then spend 6 hours in Sao Paolo which is pretty boring as part of the terminal is sealed off & there’s not much to do or see. At last the wait is over and we board our BA flight home. This goes well as they seem to have a very relaxed approach to how much wine & brandy etc you have - so we sleep well as a result!!

We arrive at Heathrow Terminal 5 (which seems like a soulless facility but an improvement on the older terminals) and we wait for Sarah to arrive to take us home. She’s turns up nearly an hour late as she has been caught up in a traffic jam - welcome back to London!!!

Well it’s the end of an amazing adventure and how time has flown… it feels like we only just left. So back to reality ………. But we are glad we have kept up the blog as it will definitely be our reminder of the many things we’ve done, enjoyed and experienced along the way.

Cheers and here’s to the next trip!!!

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