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Published: January 22nd 2009
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Cerro Torre Marco Uri
Cerro Torre Marco Uri After all this water in the North, at Iguazu, it appears there is even much more of that in the south, in both frozen and liquid form, in all possible hues of blue.
Arrived here from Barlioche, 2 hours flight, and fell immediately in love with the area. This feels really Patagonia. Desolate, lots of white tops, green lakes, blue skyes with 10 floors of clouds in all shapes, even the clouds have sometimes structures i have never seen, as Marco put it: as if they had been ironed....
Calafate itself is cute, though quite touristic (cant be any other way, there are in this immense Glaciers area only 2 places: Calafate and Chalten, and these are also the opnly places to stay).
Calafate, Upsala, Perito Moreno
It is fun to walk on the street and enjoy a coffee or more. Whats behind it is though whats it all about. The first day we took a 7 hours cruise thrue Lago Argentina, which feeds on the water of the huge glaciers Upsala, Perito Moreno and some others. I was thrilled. Every half an hour had tears in my eyes from the impact. This is really beyond description. Cruising and seeing
Upsala Cruise
Upsala Cruise all around all kinds of icebergs, in all forms and colours. When u concentrate on the blue it seems u can just jump into these blue splits and holes and disappear for good....Than, after these iceberg it was the turn of the galaciers, starting by Upsala, the biggest in this area. What u see is a wall, as high as a 20 stores building, all white, by which, the catamaran we were on seem a small ant next to an elephant! This massa has areas as huge as cities, like tens of kilomters length and kilomters of width.
The next day we made it easy and went to watch the Perito Moreno glacier from a very close promenade where u could walk and see it from all corners. This gave as more insight into how huge this phenomenon is! The weather that day was however cloudy and rain, so the view was less clear. Howevee, in Patagonia terms, we had great weather in general, on the cruise day, and the day after, when we did a trek of 13 hours, god forbid.
El Chalten, Fitz Roy, Cerro torre
The day after, than, we took a bus to the village
Upsala
Upsala nearby Calafate (¨only¨220 km and 3,5 hours bus, in Patagonian terms, very close :-) - El Chalten. For me, this was the place to be: a village surrounded by huge mountains, which u can see from any place in the village. I doubt it there are more than 500 people living there...though i wouldnt be surprised if this place will get bigger and bigger...would be a pitty.
The program for El Chalten was to go ice walking, which means, walking on a Glacier. Marco did it b4 and i was just too thrilled of the idea. We thought we were going to peacefully walk a couple of hours to the glacier and than some hours on it. Not a problem, we thought. So dear me didnt take neither the elastic support for my bloody knees, nor the walking sticks. Well it appeared to be a medium to high trek...left at 7:30 and arrived back at 20:30, while almost all this time walking, sometimes in almost 90 degrees up or down. Me praying to god and the ghosts to keep my knee alive. When i told the guid of my problem he warnes me that i should better go back, as
Cruise Upsala Uri
Cruise Upsala Uri long as i can...But luckily, and i´m sure thanks to all the tips and instructions from great Mohamed (my Physiotherapist) I survived it. The trek itself was amazing, exceeding even Machu Pichu, as the variation is views was amazing, we passed forrests, a huge lake, had crossed a river by hanging on a cable, and of course, at the end, reached the glacier. While all the way the Cerro Torre mountain serves as an amazing background! So arriving at the glacier I cant describe how it feels to make the first step from the solid ground to the glacier, which is just as solid, yet ofcourse, is all water. I felt like Jesus walking on water :-). As the walking took very long (many people didnt know it was a meduim-high trek) there was not much time left on the glacier, so we walked a bit with the crampons (special shoes for walking on ice) and had a lunch at one of the amazing blue caves there.
The way back was again very intensive, but worth each and every moment of pain! The last half an hour was almost unbearable, but luckily i was able to get one walking stick
from a very nice german fellow hiker. That helped!
After arriving and resting i treated myself, for the first time, to a real Argentinian steak of 380 grams (which i left unfinished, (how do they do it???). The day after we took a day off and just walked around in El Chalten, had coffe and cake and read all through the day. In the evening the bus back to Calafate, where we are now, having yet again a peaceful day, after which, at 17:00 we´re going abroad, to Chile, to start tomorrow a 6 day trek in the mountains, glaciers, forrests and lakes of Torres de Peine, the jewel in the Patagonian crown.
These couple of days were definitely one of the great moments in my all time travel experience, and the wonder of my knee not letting me down has just added enormously to my joy. Those who were near me the last half year know how terrified i was for not being able to make it thru the treks due to the bad knee. The trek yesterday, which i wouldnt have dared doing if i knew in advance it was as hard as it was, makes me feel
Upsala3
Upsala3 100% positive that the 6 day hike will just be fine!
Love and special thanks again to Mohamed, and to Yigal for bringing us together!
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tova
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looks divine
kef to follow and fly with your journy.......