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Published: October 15th 2006
Chalten Glacier
Pitta Patagonia!Hola chicos y chicas. Tis time for another blog as Ive been pretty crap on the news front recently. Since I last left you I have travelled the full length of Patagonia from start to finish and have loved it. Sparse and barran, the landscapes were generally the same throughout. But the national parks hosted some of the most incredible views Ive ever see; it was well worth it.
Me and Andy left Esquel with the intention of heading all the way to Ushuaia, but having bought our tickets and boarded the bus, we were dutifully informed by a nobhead bus man that there were no buses to Ushuaia the next day. Pissed off, we headed to Coromandel Rivadavia for the sake of it, a nothing town on the east coast of Argentina. We were woken 3 times on the nightbus by a second nobhead bus guy for not wearing our shoes, having taken them off-must be a culture thing, but what if somebody goes on the bus who cant afford shoes?! Problematic!! We spent the day looking around the town, which had nothing to offer whatsoever, and then caught a second night bus to Rio Gallegos, arriving at 4am.
A bus to
El Calafate, a town that is the base for trips to the Perito Moreno Glacier, wasnt till 8am, so we had to snooze in the bus station with other travellore, before baording our final bus of a mammoth 2 day trip! The landscapes were what i expected of Patagonia, with nothing to see other than about houses in hours of travel.
El Calafate is a very touristy place and typical of the towns in the very south of the country- lots of tacky tourist shops and scummy dogs roaming the streets. We stayed at an absolutely fantastic hostel called "I Keu Ken", very new, clean and homely. The people who run it are just a group of friends who do everything for you. Definitely the best hostel ive stayed at in South America, and one of the best all trip.
After a days relaxing as it was properly pissing it down, we booked onto a trip to the glacier. I wasnt that excited as I thought id seen that done that in New Zealand at Fox Glacier. However, the Perito Moreno Glacier is phenomenal and about a squillion times better than the ones in New
Sailing the Beagle Channel
Furtherest South Im ever going to go! Zealand. Its massive and is located perfectly within the Andes and next to a great big lake. Every now and then massive icebergs broke off and crash into the lake, making a sound as if a bomb had gone off. We went on the boat trip across the front of the glacier, and my word, its huge. Then we went to the different look outs of the glacier and finally a small trek to get some different views. I think it should be one of the natural wonders of the world. Well it is, but it should get more hype- I didnt even know about it until I was down here. Shame I forgot my camera like a muppet, so no photos of it. You´re just going to have to trust me that i went there!!! Loved it.
The next day we bundled ourselves in a bus to go to El Chalten, a small village 4hrs away with some good treking to another glacier and the famous Fitzroy mountain- famous as its got a unique vertical appearance at the top so cant hold any snow. The views from the bus journey to El Chalten of Fitzroy were pretty amazing
as it breaks the skyline in 2. Shame that when we walked there a day later it was pissing it down, and cloudy so couldnt see anything of the "great" mountain. Great, my arse! Not sure was worth the 4hrs there and back on consecutive days!! Randomly, however, en route to El Chalten we stopped at the only building on the 4hr journey (a cafe) only to find they had a pet Guanaco, which is very close to a lama, so everyone had a bit of a stroke as it licked your legs!
Next destination was Ushuaia, and our night bus was to leave at 3am the same night we returned to El Chalten. The hostel, kindly, allowed us to use their kitchen, eat and get drunk with them for 5hours before we caught our bus. The bus to Ushuaia was an arduous affair, with stops at borders leaving argentina, entering chile, then leaving chile and re-entering argentina, and crossing the Magallan Straits on a ferry. Arriving at Ushuaia at about 9pm, after 18hrs on a bus, we were knackered!
Ushuaia is a great town and does have that feel as the most southern city in the world
a bit. Its a bit similar to El Calafate but is set on the shores of the Atlantic. The first day was spent walking around which made a change from sitting in a bus! We went on a sailing trip on the Beagle Channel and saw loads of sealions and cormorands as well as the most southern lighthouse in the world, maybe! The night was spent having a bbq with an some argies, israelies and spanish. We shared a room with two barcelonan girls who when I practiced my spanish laughed as it sounded different from their "stupid catalan"! We then proceeded to have a good old fashioned knees up- the first one since Bariloche! Leaving the hostel at 1am, we went to a few bars, with the Israelis proving they cant drink and getting hammered, then onto a boogie woogie argentinian club which played everything from dance, to baywatch to funk! Classic!! We were the last ones in there at 7am, and when we walked home it was light, but what a classic night. Up at 12pm though as we cant waste the day as we were only in Ushuaia for 2 days (mum you would have been so
Its not a lama!
Guanacos wandering off. I get them confused with the mexican guacamole! proud!). What a mistake that was as I felt like death all day, and my cousin once said "I felt so bad, I needed to be putdown"! We thought it clever to walk to a glacier up in the mountains but I turned round half way up and went and drank tea and ate cakes in a cafe at the bottom. Im glad we went to Ushuaia, even with the long distances, but I never did get my bloomin passport stamped with the southern most city in the world stamp. Must I return?!
Again an early start awaited us as we caught a 5am bus to Puerto Natales. Again, the same rigmeroles of border crossings. You can imagine hgow wrecked I was having had about 7hrs sleep in 2 nights. Arriving in Puerto Montt at about 9pm, after anopther 16hr bus journey all I wanted to do was curl up and sleep forever!! We spent a day doing nothing before heading to Torres Del Paine the next day. Lonely planet states it as "the number one backpackers destination of Chile" so I had high expectations. We went on a tour which cost us about 18squid, we luckily avoided the
extortionate park entrance fee of about 15squid as the park ranger wasnt about. Sweet! The day was great as although we spent a lot of time on a mini bus we saw loads of guanacos, some great views of the Torres dep Paine peaks, loads of lakes and most importantly icebergs, tonnes of the buggers! Some of the views were incredible beautiful and with snow capped mountains I do believe it ranks higher than the Peak District! On the way home the driver stopped just opposite a sheep who gave biorth to a lamb right infront of our eyes, with it dropping down to the floor in a hepa of gue. Managed to get a snap, as today I realised how my zoom in function works on my camera after 6months use!!!!
The day after we boarded our ferry, Navimag, for a 3 day (or so we thought) cruise up through the fjords of southern Chile to Puerto Montt. The ship was a ferry carrying us travelling passengers, lorrys of goods and even 2 trailors of cows who were kept in their small trailor in ALL conditions. Met some cool people on the ship, from Germans to English, Spanish
to Belgians. I pretty much spent the time relaxing, playing chess or cards, reading or watching films or eating loads of the very good food. The weather, however, was horrendous so we couldnt go up on deck much. The first day was fresh!, as temperatures dropped to -3 degrees in the middle of the afternoon. The second day it rained continuously all day and the wind picked up. By the third day we had reached the ocean and my word it was v bad!!! It was probably the worst Ive felt in absolute years, as I well and truly got seasickness. I projectile vomited 4times,3 times infront of everyone. Shame went out the window, shame my spew didnt (good line eh?!). The waves reached 10metres and it was continuous for all 16hrs I was awake. I literally couldnt move off my settee and when I did it was a mistake! Even some of the workers on the boat hadnt experienced such bad conditions and were ill. As a consequence of the conditions, the ferry was delayed a day and we arrived into Puerto Montt on Tuesday morning, with some people having missed their onward flights. Think of the poor cows
who quite frankly i thought would all have died! The final day was great though as the conditions were calm, weather was warmer and I spent the day on top deck enjoying the sun! The final evening on the boat was fun as everyone played bingo and had a party afterwards. Muchos boozos was had and the seasickness returned to an extent!!!!
Me and Andy walked off the boat last as the workers were piling on lorries to leave that very morning. I was to leave to head north as I needed to get to some sun fast. Andy was to travel slowly up the Chilian coast so we were to part ways. After almost 4weeks travelling with the dippy scouser I say farewell and bon voyage!
I caught a bus at 5pm from Puerto Montt after spending the day looking around the town. Two other people from the boat, Feliz and Will also were on the same night bus to Santiago and we arrived into the capital at 7am. I then decided to head straight to Mendoza and the heat with no stop. I bought a ticket for the 8.30am bus but after being told by 5different
personel of the "tur bus" bus company which platform the bus was to arrive at, I found out at 8.45am that Id missed the bus as it left from a different platform. The stupid, inept Chilians! Anyway, I caught a later bus, crossed over the Andes back into Argentina and down into Mendoza. The 7hr bus ride went by fast as the views over this part of the Andes was fantastic, although my bloody mini disc player has decided to stop working. I could be now without music for 2 months!!!
Mendoza is an absolute gorgeous place with nice little plazas dotted around everywhere and trees lining all the streets. Its so hot here and I have managed to shake off the creases in my shorts and display my beautiful plae white legs once again- I´d been in winter since June when I arrived into Sydney. No more cold, I say, as I am now in the land of sun and heat! All the people here are beautiful but are all vain, and if you had shit hair like me they think your a weirdo. So inevitably I caved into pressure and got a haircut (the first since late
July- hence big mop!) It was good as I couldnt communicate a thing in the hairdressers but I did receive a great head and neck massage- bonus! I randomly bumped into a Geordie couple from the boat, and met up with Kerry an english girl from El Calafate we knew, and then in popped Will from Santiago. So we all went for dinner and had yet another amazing Argentinian steak. It felt good eating outside in the street restaurants. However, on the first day of my relaxing here I managed to get my sunglasses pickpocketted off my table whilst having a sarnie- more fool them I say as they were old, scratched and the lenses kept falling out. Then on day 2 of chilling and reading in the park, I nearly had my bag stolen by two theives- an old guy dropped his sunglasses just to the right of me as I sat on a park benck reading, and his accomplice sneaked up behind me to try and steal my bag when I got up to pass them back to the old man. Luckily I had my head screwed on and I turned back to the bench just in time-
Poor cows.
They couldnt even Moove! Animal activists would be turning in their graves! he skulked off and I followed him to see they both unsurprisingly knew each other. The young lad then felt the wrath of the Sprigens tongue as I confronted him and told him to politely go away and not steal anyones belongings! Thirdly, yesterday me and Will went to the wineries outside of Mendoza on a bus. We hired bikes and were going to cycle to all the wineries. After a good tour and free trys of the good stuff, we hopped on our bikes down the straight french style roads. Suddenly as we rode past 2 boys, one of them jumped up behind me and grabbed my back. I was getting mugged by an Argentinian little shit! He must have been about 20years old and was brandishing a massive screwdriver! I shrugged him off my bag but he then knicked the bike and sped off. His younger accomplice legged it away! I wasnt that bothered as he had knicked none of my belongings but it was the shock more than anything. Eventually, a woman helped us by phoning the bike shop, the police came and I was taken to the station to fill in some details. Midway through, the
bike man shop storms in to the office, completely pissed off, told me to leave now as "I was wasting my time, the police do nothing, this is Argentina"! I thought he was gonna nut a policeman at the time. Apparently its happened alot recently and the police are not doing anything to prevent bike theft! Who would want to knick these lumps of junk anyway, the brakes and the gears didnt even work properly!!!! So 3 days and 3 theft incidents- quite an eventful few days here in this great place. I still like Mendoza but these incidents has wiped off the cobwebs of naivety and made me much more vigilant.
The highlight of my stay here is that there has been a massive spring concert in the main square Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. They have been playing everything with a south american feel to it- tango (with hot dancers on stage), brazilian stuff, columbian, instrumental uruguayan....everything. So we´ve been sitting on the grass drinking our wine enjoying true Argentinian culture. Some of us has been really random, but some of it excellent.
I leave tonight for Cordoba on yet another night bus (im getting used
And finally we leave the ship.
Farewell Andy. You look wrecked!!! to them) and then later in the week for Buenos Aires. Ive enjoyed my time in Mendoza but Ill be happy to leave!!!
So all in all its been 3 weeks of lots of travelling but seeing some amazing sights and places. Im glad to be back in the heat, and as of today I have exactly 2 months to go, unless I postpone my return back till February!!!! 😉
Hope alls well back home?
Jonny x
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Will
non-member comment
unbelievable
well played for confronting the thieving bastards..when did u become a man??