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Published: February 12th 2009
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Hi there! Here is the last article about the journey of Los Mineros in South America. We just landed this morning in Sydney, Australia. Jet lag is painful:14h time difference between Chile and Australia. However, our loyalty to our dear readers helps us telling you what follows.
El Calafate, Santa Cruz, Argentina
We will skip the theft story as you already read about it in the previous entry. But there was more, and more beautiful indeed. We went to admire the incredible glaciar Perito Moreno. Its figures are just amazing: 14km long, 60m high at its end when the ice is falling into the lake. Its colour is changing from blue to white depending on the light. Even if the weather was not as good as we expected, the boat trip on the lake was a great experience.
El Chalten, Santa Cruz, Argentina
As you might remember, we were facing our own financial crisis and had to severely cut our expenses. Luckily, in El Chalten, an Argentinian saw us in the street looking for a cheap hostel. He offered us to stay in his caravan for a low price. We could not refuse his proposal
as it included another caravan where we could cook our own food and live like real gipsies ("gitans"). We will never forget our gipsy life in El Chalten.
El Chalten is also the trekking capital of Argentina and is well known for the Fitz Roy, a magnificent peak surrounded by glaciars. We hiked 2 days in the national park with more beautiful landscapes as we were getting closer to the Fitz Roy. During the ascent, we met 2 Swiss girls we first saw in Torres del Paine (Chile). We invited them for apero+dinner in our caravan. From an ugly place, our kitchen-caravan became the place to be in El Chalten! Having drunk all the alcohol we bought, we ended up the night at 6am in a local bar. Nevertheless, this did not prevent us from hiking the next day to El Lago Torre.
Los Antiguos, Argentina / Chile Chico, Chile
We then decided to cross the border to Chile as it looked more interesting than its Argentinian counterpart. But the border crossing became an epic story! In order to save precious pesos, we chose to walk between Los Antiguos and Chile Chico, not being too sure about the
exact distance as the information given was contradictory. As the road was making a loop, we took the initiative to cut it across thinking this will make a great shortcut. How surprised we were when we faced a river! Still confident, we took off our shoes + shorts and crossed the river barefoot carrying our heavy backpacks. The first part was fine, but the second was too deep and the stream (courant) too strong. We had no choice but to come back to Los Antiguos. Conclusion: it' s not easy to become clandestine passengers! However luck came back quickly as hitch-hiking worked well.
We had a quiet stay in Chile Chico, where we met Pinsel, a 70 year-old waiter, with whom we ended up discussing for 2h. Small villages provided more opportunities for this kind of encounters.
Carretera Austral (Southern Road), Aisen and Los Lagos, Chile
The Carretera Austral is the only way to get to southern Chile. It's a pretty road among glaciars, forests and rivers but it's also a dust road where travelling is not so easy especially with the rainy weather we had. Indeed we experienced its difficulty: hitch-hiking did not work (waiting for 3h...)
+ our bus had a serious breakdown: we got stuck in the middle of nowhere for about 4h.
But this slow travel speed allowed us to meet some very interesting people. In Coyhaique, we met Ramon, 74 years old, who invited us to have a drink and shared its opinion about the changes in Chile since his youth. The next night, we had what we called the "Nuit de la Francophonie" (night of the French speakers) as we spent the night in Puerto Puyuhuapi with 2 Belgians guys (Karen and Kun), 2 French (Jerome and Sabrina) and one Quebecois (Christian)! This village is so small (500 hab) and with only one restaurant open, we expected to have a quiet evening. But thanks to them and Chilean red wine, we had a great night discussing till late.
The last stop on the Carretera Austral was Futaleufu well known for rafting, but too expensive for us. So we chose to rest a little, enjoying the river side and swimming in its cold water.
San Carlos de Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina
This was the meeting point of Los Mineros and Los Hermanos (Tim's brothers: Jeremy and Terence). No choice but to
celebrate during the first night! The result of the addition of Los Mineros + Los Hermanos is Los Empegados!
The following days, we rented a car to drive along the road of the 7 lakes to San Martin de Los Andes for 2 days. The colours of the lakes in which we swam went from dark blue to grey and shiny navy blue. A lovely place to finish our trip in Argentina!
Pucon, Araucania, Chile
Pucon is a resort for the wealthy Chilean youth. Its main attraction is the vulcano Villarica in its surroundings. Usually it's possible to climb it but we were unlucky with the weather. Terence and Jeremy wanted to force their destiny but had to renounce at its bottom.
The alternative was to do some rafting and it was a good choice! 2h of good fun on a river with class IV rapids. We of course fell out of the boat, but making sure the guide fell too! Everybody was safe at the end and it was a lot of fun.
It was also the opportunity for us to meet again Christian, who is travelling in South America as well, but with his motorbike (his
famous "brelle" as he likes to say). We planned to meet again in Santiago to celebrate our last day together.
Valparaiso, Valparaiso Region, Chile
Valparaiso is the place where the famous Chilean writer Pablo Neruda lived and is a major harbour in Chile. It is surrounded by several hills (called "cerros"). Its houses are all painted with bright colours which give to this city a particular taste. Once very prosperous, Valparaiso's economic strength has declined leaving room for cultural expression and artists' innovations. It is really impressive to see how walls are painted with artistic graffitis. This big city is one of the few we liked in South America and is definitely a must-see in Chile.
We also met Anne-Claire aka AC and Jacobo, Jeremie's friends from Dublin. Once again, a good reason to celebrate and pay tribute to a Chilean cocktail: pisco sour (also called "pissard" by Los Hermanos). This night became a crazy one when we all went behind the bar together with the owner and the waiters. Indeed, a concert was supposed to happen, but the artists never came. Not a big disappointment as DJ AC took the lead and rocked the party.
Santiago,
Santiago Region, Chile
Santiago was the last stop of our trip in South America after almost 5 months. We did not expect a lot from this 6-million people capital, 35km wide. Nevertheless, we appreciated the Bellavista Barrio (=district) and the Cerro Cristobal where we realized the immensity of Santiago. This was the time of the goodbyes... Los Hermanos + Christian. Saying goodbye is never easy so it took us two nights and a few bottles of Chilean wine to succeed. The last night, we had our own asado (barbecue) Terence prepared for us in the Argentinian traditional way. Meat was delicious!
This is how ended our trip in South America. A turning point for sure, but this is far from being the end! Australia and its treasures are waiting for us. Sebastien, Jems' brother, and Marco, another Minero, will share this experience. We will be driving along the East Coast. And yes! this is big news: Los Mineros now have a car!
As usual, you can find all the articles we have published since the beginning of the trip at the below link:
http://www.travelblog.org/bloggers/los mineros/
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Dawei
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Until the end
Last chapter of Los Mineros South America's Adventures, and once again i have to say that you really make me addict to your trip! Read book or article is definitly not one of my hobby (even Harry Potter, maybe "Pif et Hercule" but no more), but i have to admit that your stories are well narrated and illustrated. Thanks to let us travel with you guys (imagination is great). Looking forward to read the next chapter in Australia, and don't hesitate to add some naughty details...you will sell more book :)