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Published: March 10th 2006
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Cerro Torre, the real deal.
The lake, the flowing glaciers and the huge rock spire of Cerro Torre (3102m). This is what Patagonia is all about. Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales
Further details from our last entry (for other travelers) about transferring from Puerto Varas to Puerto Montt airport. From P.Varas, we caught a local minibus from Av. Del Salvador (in front of Cafè Real) to P.Montt bus terminal for $1000p each (about 30min trip, buses about every 15min). Then took the large ETM bus to the airport for $1200 each, buses every half hour and trip takes about 20min.
We stayed one unexciting night in Punta Arenas on 14th Feb at Residential Roca (about one block south east of the main plaza on Av. Magalles) which was clean enough, if a little noisy, on the main street for $6000 each (with breakfast). Caught the Fernàndez bus to Puerto Natales for $4000 each (about 8 departures daily), takes less than 3 hours. Found a fairly new place, Residential Chorrillos, on corner of Chorrillos and Galvarino with no sign outside. It has large clean rooms, ours is $15000 with a nice bathroom and large breakfast, there are also rooms without bathrooms and multiple beds. The owners speak very little english but are very nice.
Puerto Natales is a nice sized old town which has obviously undergone
Cerro Torre
It speaks for itself. a huge change in recent years with thousands of trekkers passing through every year to walk the famous Torres del Paine trails. It is generally windy, cold, sunny, rainy, sunny, windy and cold in the space of about half an hour. Anyone from Melbourne, Australia would feel quite at home here. It is situated on an inlet with snow capped mountains in the distance. It has snowed a few times on the mountains in the mornings and then it dissapears when the rain comes in later. It is still quite busy (in mid-Feb) with backpackers from all over the world but apparently should quieten down a little over the next few weeks. We got a really good run down on everything about the hikes in the Torres del Paine park from the very friendly guys at Erratic Rock Hostel who give a free info talk every day at 3pm. They also hire good camping gear.
El Chaltèn, Argentina
In the hope that the crowds may become smaller in Torres del Paine before we did the walk, we thought we would head north into Argentina to El Chaltèn and check out the mountains there. We caught a Cootra bus at
Lago Capri and Fitz Roy (Chaltèn)
A nice day for a walk in the hills. about 8am across the border to El Calafatè and then a Chaltén travel bus at 6:30pm on to Chaltèn. The border crossing was uneventful but I did wonder if I should use my British or Australian passport when we saw a sign (see photo) outside the Argentine immigration office which stated that the Falkland Islands belong to Argentina. If you didn´t know any better that would certainly make sense considering they are only a few hundred kms off the Argentine coast and tens of thousands of km from England. In any event, the immigration officers were very friendly, singing to the radio as they stamped our passports.
We arrived in El Chaltèn at about 11pm and it did feel busy in town and there was basically no nice rooms left. It was also fairly expensive compared to Chile, a double room with bath being about Ar$130p (may be cheaper after Feb). There is no ATM in town so you need to get all the money you need from El Calafatè before arriving. Most places do take US cash and the exchange rate is surprisingly good considering they know you have no other cash. Some also take credit cards.
Monte Fitz Roy (Chaltèn) and glacier Fitz Roy Este
View of Monte Fitz Roy (3405m) and glacier Fitz Roy Este from the Rio Blanco trail. El Chaltèn is at about 400m, has all dirt roads and about 400 permenant residents. It´s a windy, cold place with an incredible backdrop of rugged mountains up to 3400m just a dozen km away. In summer (Dec-Feb) there are thousands of tourists, last year about 40000 passed through town during the season (according to our bus driver). It´s a real boom town driven by the tourist dollar and there are many new buildings going up. We stayed for about a week and got three very nice clear days, otherwise it was overcast, windy and cold. The clear days well and truely make up for all the rainy days with spectacular views.
We treked into Laguna Torres (in the rain), about 3 hours from town and planned to camp for three nights but unfortunately I must have eaten a very nasty lettuce and tomato salad for lunch in town before we walked in the afternoon. It was probably below freezing that night and I had projectile action from both ends on several occasions from about midnight till 7am, not much fun at all, hideous in fact. The weather cleared overnight and the views of Cerro Torre in the morning
Dead wood and glacier Fitz Roy Este
Another special view down the Rio Blanco valley towards glacier Fitz Roy Este. (as I finished emptying my stomach over a boulder) were truely stupendous (see photos). Rather than risk not being able to walk at all the next day, we packed up and I staggered back to town in the afternoon feeling totally drained and lifeless. I slept for 14 hours and it took a few days before I felt like eating normally again. Thankfully we did get another almost clear day later in the week when I felt human again and we had an excellent walk up the Rio Blanco valley which is a very quiet trail through a very pretty forest with many fantastic views of Glacier Fitz Roy Este and of course Monte Fitz Roy. We then climbed up to the Laguna de los tres lookout (but the clouds moved in while we were there) and then back into town via the very pretty Laguna Capri.
Anyone wanting to be flexible with their departure day from El Chatèn should not pay for a return ticket with Chaltèn Travel as they were booked out for two days in advance when we wanted to get out of town (late Feb). So, we bought another ticket with Taqsa buses (who leave
A big boat (bottom right) for a little perspective.
The boat has got to be 6m high which makes the face of the glacier 25-30m easy. It´s huge. from the south side of town) who seem to have hardly anyone on their buses (only five of us when we left) so it´s easy to buy a ticket the day you want to leave.
Glacier Perito Moreno, El Calafatè
After leaving El Chatèn, we had intended to continue straight to Puerto Natales the same day so that we did not have to stay in the very sterile El Calafatè, but we could not get a bus until the next morning. So, somewhat reluctantly, we decided to do the touristy thing and went out to Glacier Moreno in the afternoon. It cost Ar$60p each return for the 1 hour bus ride (from the bus terminal in El Calafatè) and another $30p each for entry into the Parque Nacional Los Glaciers (only $10p if you look Argentine).
The bus ride was fairly exciting as the driver decided to take a few dolphin naps (very short sleep) at the wheel and I had to try out my very poor Español to wake him up a bit. We then had about 3 hours in front of the glacier and I must say it was very impressive and probably worth the rip
off prices. We were lucky enough to time our arrival with a huge chunk of ice breaking away from the 25m+ (probably much bigger than this; see photos) front of the glacier and crashing into the frigid waters of Lago Argentino sending splash up about 30m and small pieces of ice (probably the size of a large beachball) up about 60m. Apparently about 30 people have been killed in the past by these ice bombs before they made the viewing platform a respectable distance from the glacier front. It may sound boring but it was actually quite nice standing in front of the huge glacier, listening to it crack, groan and break off bit by bit over the few hours we were there.
Perhaps the only good thing about the very touristy El Calafatè is that it is actually a good place for a nice meal and the deserts are so much better than anything we saw in Chile. The next day we left for Puerto Natales and began buying hiking food for our Torres del Paine adventure; coming soon.
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Paul Sharman
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