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Published: February 17th 2011
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WOW! what a week is has been!
we survived our 27 hour bus ride down argentina and made it to el calafate. it was a long one but i made the best of it by sleeping for around 20 hours of it... apparently i needed the sleep? el calafate was a nice little town its main attraction is the perito moreno glacier and what an attraction it is! it is the only glacier in the world that is actually advancing, get this, up to 2m a day! crazy! it is something like 35km long, 5 km wide and 60 m tall! unreal! we took a bus out there and stayed for few hours walking the boardwalk up and down, taking a ton of pictures and watching huge pieces of ice fall off... they sounds like bombs everytime they fall... amazing and powerful!!
then we took a five hour bus ride back into chile to puerto natales... which is where we are now. puerto natales is an interesting town, it is the jumping off point for torres del paine national park. we spent the past 5 days in the park hiking what is called "the W". we took the bus
to the park administration building, bought our park permits (around $30 CDN) and started our trek. our first day was from hostel las torres to las torres campground... i write this because i know people like dad and scott and hal will have a map of the hike pulled up at the same time as they are reading this... haha. the first day was beautiful sunny, dusty, and warm. we came into camp around 4, set up and then did the hour long scramble up to las torres... these are the amazing spires that you see in any book on patagonia that you pick up. it was SO BEAUTIFUL! the peaks are huge! the torres are also interesting because they are a mix of granite and sedimentary rock. the lines between the two types of rock are sharp and make for a really stunning contrast! the glacial lakes are also soooo amazingly blue and full of minerals. the water is crisp and clear that you can drink it straight out of the lakes! anway i could go on forever! the second day we hiked from las torres to britanico campground. it was a really long day, around 26 km i
think... and it was a bit colder and rained. we were planning on camping at camground italiano but as we walked up about 5 pm the rangers told us that it was closed and no one could stay there because they were having issues with their toilets.... they have kind of pseudo flush toilets at the campsites... they suck but you have to use them since there is so much traffic... anyway after 20km in the pouring rain neither of us were too impressed to hear this but we has no choice so we slogged on up the french valley to britanico... this campsite has no bathrooms so we knew it would be open.
anyway this french valley is supposed to be one of the most spectacular views of the hike but we were stuck in some kind of terrible storm so we didnt see much... such is life i suppose... anyway that night we have decided to call our patagonian initation... because we got it all, howling winds, pouring rain and yes even snow!!! everything they say about this place is true. it is one of the most wild places! so the next morning after not much sleep
we woke up in an ocean! thank goodness the tent was waterproof but underneath us was like a waterbed! feeling a big unmotivated we packed up all of our soaking wet gear and trudged onward.
the weather was still a bit rainy and super windy but it was better to be walking than sitting in a soaking wet tent! we walked about 15ish km to campground paine grande and alas when we got there the sun came out just enought for us to dry everything out!!! this put big smiles on both of our faces! hurray! we stayed at paine grande that night and then left our gear there the next day and did a day hike up to glacier grey. it was nice to not be carrying packs! the glacier there is nice too but after seeing perito moreno it seems a bit tiny (haha glacier snob!) anyway then we hiked back down to paine grande, ran into our friend callum AGAIN (he was doing the full loop), had a relaxing evening then then caught the catamaran and bus back to puerto natales. overall, the hike was unreal! it had its emotional rollercoaster points (long days, tricky terrain)
and the weather is really challenging but overall one of the best hikes! patagonia is amazing! i could go on forever!!
well we have bus ticket booked for 6 45am tomorrow to ushuaia, the southern most city in the world. we are hoping to see some neat wildlife and maybe go kayaking there. today is filling with writing home and dropping our bags of biohazard trekking cothes off at the laundaria... poor mamasita! all is well here! we are both happy and healthy and loving life!
much love to home!!!!
mon
(and hurray for finally being at an internet cafe that is fast enought for pictures!)
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Mom
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Wow and Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!