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Published: April 21st 2008
Perito Moreno Glacier
our first view of the glacier..Okey dokey lemon smokey, we are back in the writers chair! Right now we are in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador.. It has been an enjoyable transition from chilly Patagonia to the tropical Galapagos which is bang on the equator! Out have come the sunnies & sunscreen and to the bottom of the pack , the thermals and fleeces! But anyways, nuff about the Galapagos, that will come a bit later, we need to let you know what we got up to down south, on our ‘end of the earth‘ tour!
Patagonia is incredible.. One of the most beautiful places we have ever seen! And one that we must come back to as we only scratched the surface while there. We met our group in Buenos Aires to begin the tour, a nice mix of Aussies, Brits, Americans and a Canadian and Swiss guy for good measure. We flew straight down to El Calafate which is quite a bit south, further down than Bariloche where we were previously at 43deg, and further south than good ol’ Tassie! It was a quaint little town feeding off the backpacker trade nicely, so it had a few restaurants, cafes, hotels,
Perito Moreno Glacier
up close and personal.. souvenir shops and even a casino. We were only here for one night as there is not a lot to do, it is a launch pad to visit the stunning Perito Moreno Glacier, located within the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. This awe inspiring giant is 30km long, 5km wide and 60 metres high! It is considered a stable glacier, as it advances 2 metres every day and loses the same every day. From the viewing platforms you can hear the roar the ice makes as it moves and see the constant sheets of ice breaking away in to the water. Every four years or so the glacier does advance to touch the land forming a bridge which then collapses as the river cuts thru it… hundreds of people gather to see the phenomenon, as to witness the spectacle of thousands of tonnes of ice collapsing in to the water below is most impressive!
From El Calafate we headed towards El Chalten. This is only a small town, similar again to El Calafate, it is the launch pad to trek the Fitz Roy mountains, the town itself is only 22 years old! On our first day here we arranged a
Ice Hiking
Sarah climbing the second more difficult wall.. day of ice trekking and climbing on a nearby glacier, Viedma, which is the second largest in South America. What a cool day we had! Sarah and I haven’t really climbed at all previously so the ice climbing was great fun! We started the day fitting our crampons (special fittings to grip the ice) at the edge of the glacier, and after learning some ice trekking techniques we trekked to the first climbing site. At first seeing the wall we were a bit nervous as it was quite high for us non-climbers, about 25 metres up.. But after inspecting a little closer we were comforted by the fact that it wasn’t a straight up 90 degrees, there was a slight slant, which made it easier to climb! Anyway, after wrangling our way to the back of the group, letting everyone else go first…it eventually came around to us, so made the climb which was an awesome experience. After lunch we went to a second wall which was more difficult because it was pretty much vertical with a slight overhang, so it required better technique to get to the top.. But we made it without any slips, so we finished the
Ice Climbing
geared up.. ready for the top gun awards day on a high and with a great sense of accomplishment! We were even rewarded with a glass of baileys and a chocolate for the boat ride back… bliss!
The next day we trekked up to the Fitz Roy mountain. The initial plan was to hike up to a higher elevation where we could get a good view of the peak but due to bad weather we decided to go to another view point where you could see it from a different angle, but also get close to a glacier and lake below. Unfortunately we could only see part of the mountain as it was mainly covered in cloud. None the less, it was a great hike with some very rewarding views. I hope the photos justify the beauty of this place! The only down side of the day was Sarah rolling her ankle whilst posing in an action shot, so the trek back down was a little slower, luckily she was still able to walk on it - just. We only had a one day hike here but you could spend a couple of weeks here with the amount of trekking it has to offer.
After two
Ice Climbing
me, on the easier first wall.. nights in El Chalten we travelled back to El Calafate to spend the night before leaving early the next morning for a long bus haul to Puerto Natales in Chile. We experienced the frustrations of Chilean customs whilst crossing the border. They have tight restrictions on borders mainly to stop people crossing with fruit, which I find really odd for a land border (how do they stop the animals crossing).. So they proceed to have everyone off load the bus or car with all luggage to ‘supposedly’ be checked before being cleared to go thru. It is a long winded process with long lines etc but when you finally get your bags to the checking area, they don’t actually look inside.. They open up the zip, just enough so everything falls out for you to have to pack in again, give you the nod of approval and let you pass…but not before you struggle for a few minutes to tidy up all your gear. It was a whole lot of fuss and frustration on our part for no reason in the end.. A great way for a country to waste their resources and piss off tourists along the way! They
Ice Climbing
a nice finish to the day.. were even so bored (as it was the end of the season) that they decided to pick on our tour leader because she had been in and out of Chile so often in the last six months…you know, just in case she was trafficking drugs. So she had to check in with the police every day in Puerto Natales, hand over her passport until she left and was not able to accompany us on our hike!! They didn’t even turn up to interview her when she first went down to the station… just to rub it in a bit more.
Puerto Natales is only a small town, again feeding off a healthy tourist trade as people pass thru to enter Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine. We stayed just one night here before heading out early the next day to start our trekking. The national park is quite big with plenty to see, we spent three days out here hiking to see the best parts and then we camped at night. Luxury camping tho, we had some great meals cooked for us at night and ate in a refugio before heading back to the tent to sleep. We had two
Fitz Roy Hike
the view point from the alternative route.. days of good weather and we managed to see most of the mountains from different angles, even the ‘torres’ (towers) which the park is famous for. At one point we came across more than 40 condors feeding on a dead animal… apparently it is extremely rare to see so many together so we were lucky. We were able to get up close and get some good photos… it made up for not seeing them in the Colca Canyon back in Peru! Their wing span can reach over 3metres so when they fly close over head it is pretty awesome.
On the second day at the top of the trek whilst taking in the view we saw a huge avalanche on the glacier which ended in a massive cloud of white.. It was awesome to see and then you heard the incredible roar with a few seconds delay. On the third day the weather turned nasty, it was very cold with strong winds and rain. Sarah and I had only a couple of hours sleep battling to keep warm so it was a brutal start to the day. We took some comfort in the fact that it was a shorter
hike. We trekked to a view point to see the Gray Glacier, but once we got there the wind was that strong you could barely stand up and the hail was making it near impossible to open your eyes to see the foggy view of the glacier.. So we didn’t hang around long, it was a pretty fast hike back to camp whilst the rain got heavier. It was a good test for our wet weather gear which failed miserably, as we were soaked thru. It was nice to get back to Puerto Natales for hot showers and comfy beds at ‘Grandmas’.
We were back on the bus the next morning heading towards Punta Arenas which is a port town further south. We were here to see the penguin colony which did not happen in the end as they had already migrated. So there was not much to do here really apart from some duty free shopping. We felt like filthy rich backpackers in Chile as we got almost 10,000 Chilean Pesos for the pound.. Not quite tho, as a cup of coffee still cost you 6,000.
From Puerto Natales we headed south again, this time about as
Torres Del Paine
view from camp.. far south as you can go.. Spending most of the day travelling again we eventually arrived to Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world. On the way down we already had run in to some bad weather and had some snow falling whilst we were still driving. We couldn’t see much as we arrived, apart from city lights, but waking up the next morning was great. Our breakfast room was on the top floor which had panoramic views of the city and surrounding mountains which were covered in snow! Ushuaia is a reasonably large city and is the most active port for Antarctic explorations. They also have some world class skiing here as you can imagine but unfortunately we were too early for the season, even tho it is so far south and seemed to have enough snow already (March) it did not open until May. The mountains here are only 1000 - 1500 metres high but are very dramatic, making some beautiful scenery. The first day we did a cruise of the Beagle Channel, we saw loads of different birds and plenty of sea lions resting on rocks. In the afternoon we visited a national park to do
some lights walks. The next day we had planned to hike up to a summit and view point but 30 minutes in to the hike we were getting snowed on pretty heavily and it wasn’t quite cold enough to stay dry so we were getting soaked, so mission aborted. We ended up having a lazy day in town doing some exploring.. It was a great place to get some cheap hiking gear also but funds are dwindling so we couldn’t really take advantage.
On the next day we were due to fly out early, it wasn’t until we got to the airport that we were told our flight was 4 hours delayed.. Aerolineas Argentina have a monopoly in the country so they pretty much do what they like and you just have to accept it. It took just 5 minutes to do the airport tour so we were left to amuse ourselves. Eventually we made it back to Buenos Aires late in the evening. Having no downtime we went straight out to dinner, followed by a tango show… and then an Irish Pub where some shenanigans took place until 5am the next morning, a few of us were not
Torres Del Paine
just after the avalanche.. able to recount the night fully. We met some really good people on the tour that we will definitely catch up with.
It was almost time to say goodbye to Buenos Aires, but we are going to return at some stage in the future. Argentina has been the most amazing country, it has a lot to offer and is definitely coming in at first place on our favourites list.
We had two more nights here to enjoy the city before flying up to the Galapagos. We checked out some other parts of the city that we had not yet seen and sampled some more night life.. and that was that, Vamos!
We are about to start our cruise here in the Galapagos… perfect tanning weather at the moment so it should last for our return to Tassie! Not long now…
Much Love
Ben & Sarah
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