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Published: February 22nd 2008
G'day all,
Well this installment comes to you live from the Chilean town of Puerto Natales, deep in southern Patagonia. Patagonia is full of the most remarkable untouched and rugged wildness I've ever seen and the people who live here are truly hardy, with biting winds and blistering cold the norm even in the summer months...... but I'll get to that.
In my last posting we were just finishing up our tour to northern chile and the Atacama Desert. Upon returning to Santiago we were dropped off at the central bus terminal hoping to get a ticket south to Puerto Montt. Unfortunately we managed to strike the bus terminal during its busiest weekof the year - over 600,000 (not a mistake) people caught buses out of Santiago that week. So the first bus we could get out of town was the following night - Clasico or budget class. So ater another night in Santiago we were on our way south on a night bus. Initially the bus seemed to be alright however shortly after we left the bus began making unscheduled stops and our bribe taking driver and conductor were willing to let everyone and anyone on for a
fee, and with anything. So with the bus now overflowing with dubious looking characters we were on our way with our passports more or less stuffed in our jocks along with all our cash. After an uncomfortable night - the airconditioning didn't work either and we were in the back seat on the engine - we arrived in Puerto Montt. There was not a lot going on there so the next day we caught another shorter bus ride to the town of Ancud on the island of Chiloe. Ancud is a pretty town based on a hill that looks down over a bay and once there we set off to find some accomodation. As we were wandering around town we noticed the offices of a small company mentioned in the Lonely Planet as one that offered not only adventure travel (kayaking etc) but also Agro-turismo. 20 minutes after we arrived at the office we were heading off in a small ute with a local farmer who spoke no english at all to stay at his dairy farm.
Upon arriving at the dairy farm we were treated to a huge lunch of traditioally cooked beef, lamb and sea food. It
was fantastic. We went for a walk around his farm which would not have lloked out of place in Gippsland. The farmer milked 14 cows using a portable machine that had two sets of cups on it. The milk went into an old style pail and was then transported by wheel barrow down to the front of the farm to a small vat. All the milk was used on farm to make cheese and other dairy products. Coincindentally at the farm there was also the extended family of the wife which happened to include a young American guy who was engaged to her niece. This made the whole communication process much easier and we spent the afternoon talking to the family about both Chile and Australia. One of the wifes brothers was fascinated by Australia and had watched many documentaries about the country. They were all really terrific people and their hosptality was great - more food than you could poke a stick at. When they left they gave us a business card and said if we ever needed any info about Chile just to write. Meeting them was a real highlight of the trip. THe next morning after breakfast
we employed the Chilean technique of catching a bus, which is simply to stand on the side of any road and when you see a bus jump up and down like a mad man. It only took about 15 minutes and we were on our way to Castro - the capital of Chiloe.
Castro is a fiching town of about 40,000 people and although the centre of town is quite nice, most of the town is quite run down and poluted. From Castro though we were able to catch a bus out to one fo the local national parks and hike around there for a day. It was quite a nice park but easily the highlight was the quality of cheap local seafood available in the restaurants. After a day at the park we headed back to Castro and then back to Peurto Montt. From Puerto Montt we said "ciao" to Chile and "hola" to Argentina and the stunning town of Bariloche.
Bariloche is a predominently snow skiing town very similar to Queenstown, New Zealand. It is surrounded by soaring mountains and pristine lakes and is easily one of the most beautiful towns I've ever seen. But that
was not the highlight of our first foray into Argentina. The steak people. The tenderloin steak that cost me $6 Australian dollars was the BEST steak I have ever eaten. It was thick, juicy, tasty and cooked to perfection!! It was awesome. The next day we spent some time getting organised for the next portion of our trip and also decided to book in to go white water rafting which is very popular in the area. That night we went out for more steak and ended up in a local Irish bar called Wilkenny. It was there we met Andy Tucker's long lost German twin brother. This man not only looked like and was the same height as Tucker, he also had the same mannerism's and unfortunately for us the same penchant for drinking 30 beers a night. After dragging ourselves home we unfortunately had the same experience we'd had several weeks before, with our hostel hostess coming to wake us because the white water rafting bus was out the front. After throwing some clothes on and stumbling onto the bus we made it to the white water rafting location and shared a boat with another aussie guy and also some brits, canadians and yanks. For some reason of the 4 boats on the trip, ours was the spastic boat. First rapid I fall out. Second rapid, Hughie goes swimming. And so it continued. At one stage we managed, with some help from our guide, to all end up in the drink. It was a great day none the less and was capped of with a(nother) BBQ and more meat. After an early night we left Bariloche at 6:30am and headed down Ruta 40 towards El Chalten.
Ruta 40 is the most direct route to El Chalten - but it is also the crappest. The first day we spent abuot 4 hours on sealed roads and about 6 on unsealed roads. The second day we spent 12 hours on unsealed roads. These roads are rough to. Our top speed in about 60km/hr and I'd say we averaged closer to 50. They are begining to seal it but from the way it's going I'd say they wont be finished for at least 5 years. We did meet some awesome people on the bus though - including Tess from Melbourne who takes the word 'Occa' to a whole new level, and Rachel from Sydney who calls people by their nationality rather than there name (ie. check out America, he's so hot!!) which made it all worthwhile. We arrived at El Chalten shortly before 1am and after an argument with the bus driver we were drpped of at our hostel.
El Chalten. Windiest place on earth! Hughie reckons he gunna come back, stick in some wind turbines and wait for the cash to role in. El Chalten is the perfect town for hikers, based at the foot of Mt Fitz Roy and the surrounding range and the views are amazing. After a day spent getting organised we sent off in our little posse of myself and Hugh, Melanie (Swiss), Ben (French), Rachel (American), and Auke and Romana (Dutch) for the base of Mt Fitz Roy. We made it there after about 4 hours of solid walking and found the camp ground that is set in a forrest to protect it from the wind. Just as we arrived and got our tent up it started to rain. Despite the rain we then trekked for another hour or so and were treated to semi views of the summit of Mt Fitz Roy but also to views of hanging glaciers jagged mountains. We returned to camp and made dinner before jamming 7 people into our 4 man tent for a couple of rounds of cards. It was then we discovered that a) our tent was about as water proof a fly screen door and b) the bloody thing was only 180cm long!! No good when you're 197cm tall. But we bunkered down for the night in the freezing cold listening to the rain fall. We were eventually releived when the rain stopped. This relief however was short-lived as snow gently began to fall. I would hate to imagine this place in winter! Once this happened we decided that rather than hike the longer 7 hour route back to town we'd just head backalong the same route we'd come. Once we descended out of the mountains the clouds began to clear and instead we climbed a nearby peak and again we rewarded with an amazing vista of the town and valley.
That night we caught the bus to El Calafate and the home of the Moreno Glacier - third largest land based glacier in the world. The glacier itself truly has to be seen to be beleived. 5km arcoss, 14km long, 50 deep at the face but up to 700m deep in places. Not only does it have to be seen, it has to be heard. The whole thing creaks and groans as the ice advances at a rate of 1.5meters per day. And when chunks fall from the face it sounds like thunder. We went out to the glacier and after being fitted ot with crampons (ice shoes) we set off and trekked around the glacier. The glacier is full of crevases and pools of water that are an iradescent blue. The water itself is so pure that we were told that it is unhealthy to drink it for more than 2-3 days at a time because it has absolutely no salts or minerals in it. When you drink it, it is completely tasteless. The glacier itself appears even less forgiving than the Atacama desert with jagged ice everywhere and more than once on our hike, our guides had us back-trackking searching for a passable route. After the tour we returned to El Calafate and caught the bus south to Puerto Natales. Tonight we are meeting up with our dutch friends Romona and Auke and tomorrow we set off on a 5 day hike in the Torres del Paine National Park which is meant to be the most spectacular hike available in South America. Hopefully the weather will be on our side and we will enjoy ourselves.
We were really lucky to have a good start to this part of our trip as last night after sitting down and having dinner and a chat with a couple of older American couples we discovered as they left that they'd paid for our meal. It really made our day so hopefully it's a good omen.
On March 1st we head to Buenos Aires and are staying in a hostel there recommended to us. From there it's north towards Rio and Copacabana beach.
The epic continues................
Cheers
Daniel
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Kate Taylor
non-member comment
Jealous!
Wow happy, sounds all so amazing! So glad your having such a great time and seeing some incredible things. Keep your updates coming, love reading them. Take care and keep having fun! Love Tayls X PS Do I remember you having an argument about best steaks and we said you have to try Argentinian steak before you can decide!