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Published: August 7th 2007
Hello from Puerto Natales - a little town on the shores of Seno Ùltima Esperanza, and gateway to the Torres Del Paine National Park. It's windy, it's cold, but I couldn't be happier - I'm off on a 6 day trek tomorrow around the famous "W", taking in lakes, mountains, glaciers, and of course (weather dependent), the Torres del Paine themselves - the spectular granite pillars that dominate the surrounding landscape.
It's been a brilliant couple of weeks since my last blog, taking in some of the most amazing scenery on my way down through the Lake District in Chile. First stop was Pucòn, which advertises itself as the "adventure capital of Chile". It certainly had a nice feel to the place, perched on Lake Villarica, which the huge and still active Villaricca volcano looming ominously over the town. I stayed in another top drawer hostel, Le Tetera (literally translated as "The Teapot"), where I had a cosy wood-lined room, and was well looked after by Gretzen and his Uruguayan wife, Rita. The breakfasts there were amazing, and the home made apple pie and a nice pot of tea were divine after a hard days trekking!
I had another
go at white water rafting on my first full day in Pucon. After trying it previuosly in Nepal and New Zealand I now considered myself a hardened veteran! The Puesco Run was a grade five trip though and was far tougher than any I'd done before. What brilliant fun though. We got absolutely soaked and the water was freezing cold, but the six of us that went out had a fantastic time. One waterfall dropped 5 metres and it was pretty hairy, and we paddled hard and got through the whole trip without flipping the raft over once - which is quite unusual apparently!
Next up was a day climb up the still active Villaricca volcano. I went up with a French company based on Pucon called Aguaventura, who were very professional and gave us all the gear we needed, including waterproof trousers, snow jackets, gloves, boots, and crampons. The volcano itself is 2847m high, and the smoking crater at the top spits out lava on a regular basis. Nobody had been able to climb for a few days because the weather had been so bad, but the guides thought we could get up the day I wanted to
go. It was an amazing sight, climbing in knee deep snow towards this smoking summit. After around two hours climbing however, the winds really picked up. It was pretty full-on, with stinging bits of ice flying into your face as you walked head first into the wind, and eventually a woman in our group lost her balance and fell a few metres. That was enough to convince our guide that to go any higher would be too dangerous, and we had to turn around and head back the way we came. It was very disappointing after climbing halfway up in difficult conditions, especially as I felt good and wanted to kick on, but the right decision was made as the guides had the safety of 15 people to worry about.
I needed to go on a nice long trek after the disappoint of my volcano trip, so the following day I went up to Huerquehue National Park for the Los Lagos (The Lakes) trail. It was an 18km hike there and back from the entrance to the park, mostly uphill on the way up past waterfalls and dense forest. Once you got to the top though, you were rewarded
with a selection of the most beautiful, placid lakes you will ever see. The few hours I spent up there were very tranquil, just chilling out for 20 minutes at a time watching the mountains and forests reflected in these perfect lakes. It really was one of those "this is what I came travelling for" moments, totally alone with just me, the lakes and the mountains.
I relaxed on my last day in Pucon with a chillec out half day horse trekking around the Villaricca National Park, with a nice German girl called Nora. Chilled out that is until our guide asked us in Spanish if we would like to gallop back along a dusty road. Before I had a chance to say anything, Nora said "Si" and off we went! I don't know how I stayed on board my horse, but I certainly wouldn't have scored any points for style as we galloped for the few kilometres back to the ranch! Great fun though, even if the backside was aching a bit the day after!
After Pucon I got the bus to Puerto Varas, another lakeside town. I nearly got stranded in some bus station in the
At the base of Villaricca near Pucon
Yes that is smoke coming out of the top!middle of nowhere however, after popping out for a pee while the bus picked up some passengers. I came out of the loo and the bus was driving off without me! A quick 100 metre sprint down the road meant I just caught the bus up before it turned a corner, but it could have been disastrous!
Puerto Varas was not as nice as Pucon in my humble opinion, but was still a nice place to spend a few days. As I have travelled further south, I have seen fewer and fewer tourists, as Chile is now officially in Autumn and a lot of places are closing down for the season. I stayed in Casa Azur, a nice place run by a German guy and his wife, but the place was cold and the heating only came on for a while each night. The other problem about travelling around the botttom of South America this time of year is that it is getting colder all the time. I had to invest in a snow jacket in Pucon because my fleece wasn't warm enough for the freezing evenings.
I went on one trek up to the wonderful area of
Petrohue and Lake Todos Los Santos, overlooked by another massive volcano, Osorno. Again, the time of year meant that I didn't see another person all day as I walked around on the scoria surrounding this stunning snow capped volcano, and down to the lake. It may have been cold, but the tranquility of the area and the amazing views more than made up for it.
Next stop south was Puerto Monte, where I was catching something called the Navimag ferry to Puerto Natales, some four days sailing further south through the maze of islands that make up Chilean Patagonia. I arrived in Puerto Montt at 12pm and was out on the boat by 4pm - more than enough time to see a town which lacks the character of the other places in the Lake District I had stayed!
The Navimag ferry trip is something else I can happily add to the "highlights of my trip" package. The ferry was less than a quarter full due to the start of low season, but the 40 of so people on board were all party animals and it made for a great trip. We were unlucky on the first two days
with weather, as the clouds sank in and our visibility was limited, but our third and fourth days were blessed with sun and blue skies. The mountain peaks and the fjords all came closer as the channels we travelled down became narrower, and everyone was out on the deck snapping away in a frenzy to take photos of the amzing views. It was a strange experience, floating through these uninhabited, desolate islands with the Andean mountain range as a back drop. The occasional seal would jump out of the icy water and disappear again just as quickly. As I chatted to other people on board, the over-riding feeling was how lucky we were to be here and witness this isolated part of the world at first hand.
As I mentioned there were some great people on board. Ged and Amy were a couple of Kiwis who had arrived in South America after watching their team in the Cricket World Cup in Grenada and Antigua. On our first night we demolished Ged's rum stash with a couple of Chilean guys who couldn't speak English. The universal language of drink was understood though and the world was put to rights by
At the start of our Villaricca Volcano Climb
"Right folks - it's uphill now for 4 hours!" the end of the evening! Ged and Amy were on a round the world trip but were based in Clapham, London before they left(small world!).
I shared by room with two really cool French guys called Sebastien and Matthieu. They were travelling from Quito around South America by bike - bloody mad in my opinion, but there you go! They were both great value though and we had some real laughs.
Finally I met two brilliant American girls from the east coast called Erin and Kelly. They were a real scream, and for reason hadn't had much luck meeting any nice people from England. "You are too nice to be from England" they kept saying to me and anyone else who would listen! I dread to think of who they must have met up with before from dear old Blighty! On our last night Kelly decided to teach me a few salsa moves on the dance floor - I think I trod on her feet around 8 times before she gave up on me!
There were many more people who I met on the boat, including Wayne and Danny, the Man Utd fans (not happy when the
On the way up on our Villaricca Volcano Climb
"I think the rest of the party are under that cloud somewhere!" ships captain got the Champions League result for them on his radio!), Lillian from Holland, and Dave and little Sandra from Dublin. Everybody was great fun and made the whole experience a really memorable one.
I'm finishing off now - it's 12.30 at night and I have a 7.30am taxi taking me into the Torres del Paine National Park with some of my buddies from the Navimag ferry. My next blog will hopefully be from Ushuaia in Argentina...now that really is the bottom of South America!!!
Bye for now.
Sean
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Amy
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What´s with that horrid photo of us ´looking messy´? Some photos should be deleted Sean! Great blog dude! Now got to find that rabbit shearing!