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Published: December 15th 2005
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I've decided that the hardest thing about hiking in the backcountry at El Chalten is the constant stream of other gringos who walk past saying Hola, Hola, Hola ... I tried everything from G'day to Cheers, but I got the same response time and time again ... just Hola.
The only satisfaction I could derive from this situation was when I replied with 'Buenos Tardes' ... for some reason that seemed to throw most people. Oh what joy there is in the simple things in life.
As always, I start in the middle of the story. We managed to escape Coihaique despite the public holiday.
As an aside, I read somewhere that there were two cities called 'Coyhaique' or some such, so to avoid confusion with directions they changed the spelling of this town to Coihaique ... problem is that now maps, my blog, and everything else all have different spellings for the city, so it is more confusing now than ever. Go figure.
Back to the story, we escaped by bus and then ferry (with what appeared to be half of the Chilean Army) across to Chili Chico which despite the rain and wind that greated
Dog of the Day
The Coihayque Hostel Dog us has a sign that proudly proclaims it as the ´Sun City of Chile'. When we stepped off the ferry and found we had the option of skipping the 8kms across the border to Argentina we were gone immediately.
We found ourselves a lovely little Hospedje in Los Antiguos and spent two nights kicking back waiting for the next bus down to El Chalten. It's a great place to just chill as there is pretty much nothing to do anyway and very few people, so you sit, sleep and read. What's more it was sunny in Los Antiguos!
We had opted for the rougher, shorter 13 hour day trip down Ruta 40, rather than the more luxourious overnight trip because we wanted to see why this road was so feared by cyclists and motorists alike. After 6 hours I knew. Death by boredom, or to put it more politely Ruta 40 isn't exactly a kaleidescope of changing vistas. I shouldn't always pretend to be so negative - I actually really enjoyed the trip, and there are stunning views of nothingness along the way, you just have to understand after 6 hours of sitting on a bus and with
Ferry Crossing
To Chile Chinco 7 hours to go, you sometimes just think 'Why didn't I fly?'.
I also now appreciate why this route is so feared by cyclists. As a general rule to stay in one place you have to lean about 30% into the wind. For evermore the phrase 'It's like p·ss·ng into the wind' will have a newer, deeper meaning for me because at the first toilet stop, I stepped of the bus, wandered over to a nearby bush, started doing the proverbial and became quickly dismayed by the wind current effects on a liquid stream. Appears I can dance a bit after all. Ah, the moments you remember.
At the end of our little road trip came El Chalten ... GRINGO VILLE!!!! It was terrible, after three or four weeks of occaionally running into the odd tourist or three, we stepped off the bus, pretty tired, to find a hostel bursting at the seams with gringos, and what's worse prices had sky rocketed and most places booked out. We ended up spending the night up the road in the free campsite, which other than having to set up the tent at 11pm and not getting any dinner turned out
Cool Dude
I just liked this Statue in Los Anitguos. to be a really good option.
We spent the next two days walking up in the backcountry around Lago Terre and Mt Fitzroy. We had good weather the first day and absolutely perfect weather the second. In between we camped at this gorgeous spot right below a Glacial lake with stunning views all around to the peaks. Just magic.
We bumped into a group of walkers from the Hobart Bushwalking Club who informed me that they had crossed from Villa O'Higgins on a ferry with some cyclists with trailers ... I'm thinking George must be in town. How small is this world.
Unfortunately Christie decided to head back the quick way on the second day (pack troubles) and so missed out on some of the best walking along the way. She also missed out on the 2,332 gringos I passed, each one without fail saying 'Hola' and if I was really lucky and stepped out of the way I'd get a 'Gracious' as well.
I know this sounds elitest, but when I'm out enjoying the mountains I find it irritating to hear people 10 minutes before I see them, and absolutely dumbfounded to see people wandering
Ruta 40
just after doing my little war dance. around with their iPods and designer jeans really looking like they'd prefer to be back in their nice air conditioned hostel, but they're there because they have to get The Photo of Fitz Roy to prove they've been there. Told you I'd sound elitest.
Got back to El Chalten, put up the tent, then almost immediately after found George and 3 other cyclists who had come across on the last ferry from Villa O'Higgins in another corner of the campsite. Beer was quickly purchased, our tent moved closer to the cyclists enclave and we settled in for an afternoon of catching up.
Somewhere during this, some guys in a site next to us moved out, so thinking to grab a better spot, I moved my tent a third time ... and shredded the front vestibule in the process. Thankfully I'd drunk enough beer to find this funny rather than life ending, and hopefully it will survive until I get back to Oz. 14 years that tent has lasted me. Sniff, sniff.
Not much else happened after that. We all went out for dinner, I got seriously sick for about 10 minutes (think it was the pepper sauce)
Jazzy!!!
Dog of the Month - Jazzy has arrived incognito. and ended up as an overheated puddle of sweat on the toilet floor, but then it passed and I stumbled back to my tent OK.
I opted to rest, do laundry and read the next day whilst Christie wandered off to see some of the areas she missed. Then that afternoon we jumped on a minibus to El Calafate and plan to go out and see Moreno Glacier today.
Another small world story: After a bit of a mix up at the hostel here in El Calafate, I ended up in a room with a guy from Alaska called Ray. We got chatting, found out we were both into Sea Kayaking, then that he'd been to Tassie in '99 to raft the Franklin River and that his best friend (who currently works in Brazil for one of the big pulp companies) has a PhD in Forestry from Canberra and is moving to Tassie in a few months to work at the Universties Cooperative Research Centre teaching something to do with the affect of light and water on the growth of eucalypts. Suddenly Tasmanians are everywhere.
Unfortunately Ray also snores like an earthquake so me and the two
Spring
It's still spring in El Chalten. other girls in the dorm room got very little sleep last night. I gave up trying around 5am and went and sat in the lounge to watch the sun finish rising. It sets about 10pm at the moment and rises about 4.30am.
The highs and lows of travelling ... Hola and Chao!
Will add photos later.
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What's a gringo? Did anyone get a video of the wind dance?