Into the lake district

South America » Argentina » Chubut » Esquel
March 3rd 2006

Published: April 16th 2006

Hi chaps me again, having loved my time in the deep south i am know heading back north to the lake district.

I have flown out of Ushuaia in the direction of esquel as the bus would have taken 32 hours and crossed the argentina/chile border twice despite esquel being in the same country as ushuaia. The plane was only a few dollars more and took only 4 hours. Unfortunately despite esquel being only a further 6 hour bus journey the next available bus wasn't for 34 hours making the journey somewhat longer than taking the bus from ushuaia. Even more unfortunately Comodoro Rivadia the place i am waiting for the bus is the second most boring place in south america after the legendary Rio Gallegos a couple of hundred kilometers to the south. It is the little differences in Comodoro that cause the most confusion. For example having failed to find a room in any of the hostals that were recommended i finally find a place that has a spare room, it just doesn't have a bed in it! So i end up sleeping on my camping matress on a wooden floor in my room. Still there are kitchen facilities so i head down to the supermarket and buy a load of stuff for dinner. Go through the checkout and discover that they don't have plastic bags. Admittedly everyone in comodoro appears to know this and brings their own, strangely having just arrived on a plane from the south where the same supermarket does have plastic bags at the checkout i wasn't aware of the comodoro recycling policy and so have to try to carry a load of stuff in my hands. It quickly becomes apparent that this isn't going to be a successful policy, luckily i spied a broken cardboard box and with the usual ballard ingenuity (and knowledge of origami) in such circumstances managed to fashion a container that just about made it back to my bedless hostal. I could see that my time in Comodoro was going to be memorable!!

The following evening i managed to get a bus to esquel where i stayed for a record minimum time of 35 minutes before getting on another bus to the Los Alerces national park. This was absolutely amazing. It is formed of several mountain ranges with the most unbelievable lakes filling the valleys. The water in the rivers is so pristine that even when it is several metres deep you can still see the bottom as if no water was there, the colour of the lakes and the reflection of the forests on the mountain sides made it really spectacular. the first day there i took a boat trip to see a stand of Alerces trees after which the park gets its name. These look very similar to the giant redwoods in america, they are huge and the oldest tree in the park called el abuelo (the grandfather) is over 2600 years old. Aparently the oldest Alerces tree known is nearly 4000 years old, quite impressive i thought. The boat trip out onto the lake was amazing more of the pristine lakes surrounded by towering forested mountains with glaciers pouring from their peaks and condors souring above the forests.

I took a few video clips but have unfortunately lost them with a slight mix up when leaving a cd in an internet machine! Having strolled around the park for a while i wandered back to a campsite by the main lake which was absolutely gorgeous particularly as the sun went down. The next day i climbed the biggest mountain in the park called cerro Deldo. It is not particularly high a bit over 3000m but the path up is great starting through thick bamboo forest, then up a ridge with great views out to the patigonnean steppe and the surrounding mountains and lakes. By the time i was at about 2600m i had long run out of water, i hadn't expected the path to be completely devoid of streams, but unfortunately as it went up a ridge there was no water to be found. Eventually i had to descend into a ravine where i found a snow patch and sucked handfuls of snow to try to quench my thirst. I then filled my bottle with the remaining ice waiting for it to melt as i carried on up the ridge.The path led me to a col a couple of hundred metres below the peak and then to my astonishment started down the other side. Of course having climbed for a few hours there was absolutely no chance that i was not going to pop up to the top, it being so close. The peak was the highest point on a ridge and required nothing more than a bit of scrambling, (well not much more than that!) As i got to the top of a particularly steep section a huge shadow passed over my head. I turned around and a condor had flown just a few feet above me. As i perched on a rock it flew back flying beats along the ridge i had just climbed looking for lift, each time just over my head. To my amazement a second condor joined it and i watched in awe to see them find lift and bank away, there seemed to be some interaction between them perhaps manouvreing for the best lift. They stayed close at my height for 10 minutes or so swooping back and forth as i noted the way they took advantage of the natural contours to find the rising air. Eventually a third bird joined them as they found a thermal rising from the neve formed within the horseshoe of the ridge i was climbing, and thermalled up until they had gained the height they wanted and then with merely a dip of the head soared off down wind at great speed along another ridge. It was brilliant to see the birds at such close range they are absolutely enormous, but usually you see them so high up that they seem quite small.

I continued up to the peak where the view was also fantastic, looking out over the lake i had sailed upon the previous day some 30 kilometres away, and the lake i was camped next to beneath the peak. The additional height meant that i could see over the surrounding peaks so i had views of snowy mountain ranges disappearing into the distance with azure lakes and emerald forests adorning them. Here the rugged beauty of the deep south gave way to a more rounded elegance. Both are unbelievably beautiful but the south seemed more raw where nature could turn on you in an instant, here it seemed more built by an artist specifically for the aesthetic appeal. Not a bad spot to spend an afternoon!!!

The next day i headed off to the small welsh village of trevelin. This is apparently where a bunch of welsh settlers ended up after deciding that puerta madryn was too harsh an environment for them. I could tell i was visiting a welsh village because despite it having been glorious sunshine for days the moment i arrived it started to pour with rain and didn't stop until after i had left. It was quite entertaining to see a welsh dragon on top of the tourist information office and find that the place was full of places with welsh names. I obviously had to visit one of the tea houses and try endless cakes made allegedly to original welsh recipes (I had a suspicion this didn't include the banana cake as i have no knowledge of banana's being indigenous to northern wales in the 19th century!) with the most amazing homemade raspberry and plum jams and homemade butter, bread and cheese. It was $5 very well spent. Apparently they have an eisteddfod here as well although it wasn't for a couple of months with people coming from puerta madryn as well as wales to compete. That evening i stayed in a great hostel in town where the owner a rossarian lady was most excited to hear i had lived in swansea, then most disappointed to find out my welsh stretched only to 'diolch y fawr' and 'bore da' she could speak perfect welsh having picked it up off the locals despite coming from a town completely unconnected to any welsh heritage.

After a night spent chatting to israeli's in the hostel i headed off to chile with four of them. I was heading for futaleufu, one of the best kayaking and white water rafting rivers in the world. They were heading on from there to travel down the carretera austral the road which travels all the way down the andes from puerta montt to villa o'higgins which i could see from the chillean side of the lake back in el chalten. The prices for rafting in futaleufu are quite high by south american standards, however the river is absolutely amazing, it is set in an absolutely gorgeous valley as cristal clear water tumbles down over granite blocks forming fantastic grade 3,4 and 5 rapids. The first day i kayaked on the more leisurely 2+ espolon to check i could remember what i was supposed to do. That wasn't too tough but it was nice to practice some surfing on the waves at which i am still not very good! The next day i took a raft down 2 sections of the futaleufu. The flow rate is really high which means that the standing waves get huge. Particularly when you are hanging off the side of the boat giving it your all to cries of 'adelante' (forward) and trying to get your paddle into the water when it keeps either disappearing or leaping up in huge waves to slap you in the face. Also when the raft drops down a big wave due to the angle the next wave looks enormous as you are only holding on with your feet in a toe strap. All in all it was a brilliant trip which i would whole heartedly reccommend to anyone. We did the second grade 5 section with 2 less crew members who had decided that one section was enough. This led to a 'be serious' talk from brad, our american guide, about how we all had to put serious effort in to get through the rapids. Fortunately only one person fell out of the boat during that section and that was brad. We were half way down a grade five rapid having hit a big stone and i heard a muffled cry behind me. Turning round brad was hanging onto the paddle outside the boat with his foot just disappearing over the side. Luckily i just managed to catch hold of it and haul him back in. After we had got through the rapid he thanked me for saving him, i told him i would have loved it to be an altruistic gesture, but without him there was a good chance we would all die so i thought it for the best that he didn't fall out!!!

I was then going to kayak the upper grade 4 section of the river but the bank in futaleufu won't accept visa so i had to change my emergency dollars and with things being so expensive i decided i would have to head on and kayak elsewhere. I hitchhiked along the carretera austral north in the direction of the island of chiloe. The place is really remote and the scenery is awesome even by the standards of patagonia. The standout spot is lago yelcho where three mountain chains come together surrounding a huge and beautiful lake. My lift took me all the way to chaiten on the mainland from where i could catch a ferry to chiloe the next day. Unfortunately i still wasn't able to get any money out of the bank, they did have an ATM machine but it didn't accept visa so more dollars were lost. I arrived at sunset to a really strange phenomina of sunset being reflected both up and down from some clouds, it was really weird, pictures can be seen on the gallery.

In the morning i took the 6 hour ferry ride over to the island, it is quite large but has a very laid back feel where everyone is exceptionally tranquillo.We arrived at the cute fishing port of quellon. It has loads of brightly coloured houses common of fishing ports where the weather is often bad. I think it is just to stop people getting depressed in the dreary weather. It also had houses built out over the water on wooden stilts which were quite cool. Apparently every few years the houses are moved. The locals get a team of twenty bulls chained together and pull the house on rollers to a new location away from the sinking sands. It is meant to be a real spectacle if you are around when a house is moved, after the move the locals have a fiesta to bless the new house (any excuse for a party eh!). I was expecting the transport on chiloe to be really difficult as the transport down south was bad and this was an island. However it wasn't the case the panamerican highway strangely travels all the way through south america and terminates at quellon so getting about by bus was really easy which was a pleasant change after many long bus journeys over unpaved roads where if i got out i could probably jog along the road at the same speed as the bus. That night i headed to Castro the capital of chiloe which is supposed to be a lovely little town. I wouldn't know as it rained for three days solid so i really only saw my hostel and a couple of bars!!!

When the weather improved i headed to the national park a couple of hours away. The best place in the park is a beach in a secluded bay called cole cole. This is a 25km walk along another stretch of beach. All the way along are anchors with ropes heading into the sea that have little fish traps made by the locals. In the morning they haul in their catch and you can buy a huge fish for just over one dollar. I strolled along the beach enjoying the sunshine and eventuially a few hours later made it to the beautiful secluded bay and chilled for the afternoon. On the way back the sun was beginning to set which was really pretty. I noticed a guy in a wetsuit kneeling in the surf so went in to investigate. He was digging clams out of the sand so i asked how much to buy some. They were $1 a Kilo fresh from the sand, unfortunately the smallest note i had was worth $2 and he didn't have change so i had to have 2Kg (it's a hard life but what can you do!) when i got back to where i was camping there was a spanish girl and a german bloke so i suggested we make a fire and cook up the clams. A quick trip to the shop for garlic, white wine, parsley and onions later, we had an absolute feast.

The next morning i travelled up to puerta baras with the spanish girl. Most of the way we could see A huge volcano called volcan osorno, with glaciers covering the top. Puerta baras is set on a beautiful lake with views of the volcano, however it is a bit touristy with big hotels and casino's, So we decided that we should visit the national park beneath the volcano. The park is called petrohue which means place of petro's. It wasn't until we arrived that we discovered petro's are biting insects similar to midges so despite being in a really beautiful place camping had a few issues. Also as we wandered around the lake beneath the volcano we disturbed a wasps nest so both got stung a few times, sylvia got a wasp caught in her hair which repeatedly stung her while i was telling her there wasn't anything there (oops). We both decided we hated insects by the time we left. However the photos of the place were quite pretty.

From here i travelled on to bariloche which is the subject of the next blog.

Ps there is a photo gallery on kodak gallery if you don't get an invite let me know and i will add you to the list.

Into the lake district

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved