Andean Adventure Sports Extravaganza

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Hi everyone, I hope you are all well and enjoying life wherever you may be!

Tim arrived safe and sound in Chile at the start of February and since then it has become the Timbo-and-Pendo-do-South-America trip. If I was more technologically minded I would try and change the name of the blog, but lets face it, I am just too lazy, so we are sticking with the old name.

As Tim arrived armed with all the camping and outdoor activity equipment a nice girl like myself could ever wish for, it has been an adventure sports extravaganza in the Andes and Patagonia ever since he got here. We have travelled down the spine of Argentina and Chile, starting out in the Andes and moving into Patagonia and generally doing as much outdoors stuff as we could fit in. So here is a quick summary of everything we have been up to:

- Hiking in Huequehue National Park, Chile: A two day hike featuring lots of mountains, lots of lakes and amazing trees that you expected dinosaurs to emerge from at any moment

- Kayaking in Puerto Varas, Chile: A day long kayak trip through a huge glacial valley. Our guide turned out to be Australian so we think we are the largest Australian contingent to ever kayak this particular route. Luckily we were able to convince the Chilean navy that we were not an invading force.

- Mountain biking in Bariloche, Argentina: We did a big mountain biking trip through an absolutely spectacular national park with more lakes than you can poke a handlebar at. Bariloche is also famous for producing delicious chocolate so we were able to keep our energy levels up without too much difficulty.

- Hiking around El Bolson, Argentina: A three day hike to a glacial area that featured a great canyon with crystal clear water and lots of Argentinian hikers that liked to play bongo drums late into the night.

- White water rafting in Futeleufu, Chile: A day long lesson in how to get dominated by water. The rafting was on grade 4 and 5 rapids and it was pure gold, my only disappointment being that I didn´t get thrown out of the boat.

- Hiking in Torres del Paine National Park: This was the big one - an 8 day hike through Chile´s most famous national park. We saw amazing glaciers, massive mountains and rock formations, perfect turquiose lakes and condors flying overhead. We also ate far too much pasta and redefined the word ´stinky´after hiking over 100km in the same set of clothes. Good times.

But if all of this seems like a bit too much activity for your like then never fear - the travelling distances from place to place are huge, so interspersed with all this activity were large amounts of time sitting on buses eating chocolate and watching bad movies. We have had a great time though and still have a few more days in Patagonia to soak up some more glacier and hiking action with our friends Kate and Ryan

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Photos

Big mountains, big lakes
Huequehue National Park in Chile - impossible to pronounce but very beautiful

Kayaking (bludging) in Chile
Luckily we had a massive wind at our backs so that our kayaking was more like floating while being pushed by the wind

More big mountains and big lakes
The national park at Bariloche, Argentina - the views were worth every pedal

Tim being hardcore with a mountain bike
Notice that I took the photo, ie I got to the top of the hill first :)

Torres del Paine (PAIN!!) National Park
8 days, 100km, one t-shirt and 10 million unforgettable views

White gold in Torres del Paine
Glacier glacier glacier as far as the eye can see.

Comments

[Nick]

Adventure Shushmenture......
It seems like you guys are taking it fairly easy over there.... Looks like Tim is struggling trying to carry just ONE bike up a small hill. And I thought the time spent in Boorondara St would have been good training for the 8 days, 1 set of clothes situation. Back in Australia, however, we've been pushing it to the LIMIT. Mads and I spent whole 2 HOURS riding around the lake at the weekend, and this weekend everybody is putting their body on the line with a 3 hr DRIVE to the Coast, followed by some hardcore multi-sport action (a swim leg, followed by a BBQ leg, followed by a gruelling European Beer leg, with only the front runners then moving onto the adreniline packed Poker leg). It'll be survival of the Fittest! Seriously though, looks like you're having same kind of Fun over there (not My kind of Fun, but fun nonetheless). We're trying to survive without you guys, but it's hard. Look forward to your safe return!