| South America 2 |
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| continued from page 1 see the pictures We had put up our tent on a very scenic place, which meant a very exposed one. The wind roared around the tent and occasionally pushed it almost completely flat. Needless to say we didn't sleep much. Our tent is made in Holland, where ventilation is important, and has a very nice sunroof (called bikini top). However in the Patagonian storms it tends to serve as an entrance for fine sand and dust! When we got up in the morning we were covered in a nice layer. That day we had arranged an excursion on the Torre glacier, walking with grampons and ice-axes, climbing great ice walls. It turned out to be a bit of a fake, the first 2 hours were spent walking to the glacier (actually the most dangerous part of the trip, with gusts of wind trying to tear us of the ridges. Once on the ice we walked with the grampons for an hour, spent a lot of time waiting, saw one ice cave (nice picture) and had one shot at a small wall for ice climbing before turning back for 2 hours walking. However you won't see that from the pictures! This sounds a bit negative (other people really liked it), but we may have been spoiled by our experience on the Fox glacier in New Zealand. Sorry. The next night turned out to be even worse than the previous...we were happy to wake up with the tent in one piece and walked back to El Chalten. We took the bus back to El Calafate and spend a day doing almost nothing (which was driving Anita up the walls). However, we did buy a traditional argentinian Mate, used as a coffee/tea/smoking substitute by locals. Something we definitely wanted to try as well......and it was disgusting (probably an acquired taste)! Yuck! �Do you want to see what it is? Check this website (in spanish with photos) Perito Moreno Glacier We took a tour (yes, really again) to the Moreno Glacier, a famous glacier because it is one of the few in the world not retreating and because of its spectaculair and easily accessible face. Frequently parts of the glacier crash into the lake, making all the tourists turn their photocameras at once in the direction where the noise came from. We had a very enthusiastic guide (they apparently do exist), explaining a lot about the geology, flora and fauna of Patagonia and dynamics of the glacier during the one and a half hour walk towards it. It was a day well spent. Torres del Paine (Chile) 12-18 February (pictures) The most famous National Park of Chile and rightfully so. One of the most beautiful parks we have seen thusfar. The access to Torres is from Puerto Natales, a typical south Chilean village (A Plaza de Armas in the middle and not much to do...). We spent exactly 1 hour, in which we had to buy all our supplies for 6 days of walking. We managed by a couple of minutes and set out to the park. Which takes another 2 hours by bus, but gives you great views when getting close to the Torres. We arrived late in the afternoon and set out immediately to Campamento Torres, a nice climb up for about 2.5 hours. From C. Torres it is 45 minutes climbing to a lookout from which you can see the granite towers for which the park is famous. Especially in the light of the sunrise it's supposed to be spectacular and this we wanted to see... but we couldn't get up early next morning. We made it to the top at about 11 AM (!) just in time to see the clouds cover the Torres and the first snowflakes falling. To punish ourselves for this we decided to spent another day to get a second chance (and to avoid walking in the rain/snow that day). A day is very long from the inside of a tent, inside your sleeping bag (it was snowing outside) and playing cards. All night it rained and snowed and when at 5:30 the alarm clock woke us it was still raining... No luck it seemed, however 45 minutes later J. woke up again and looked outside to find the skies clearing. We jumped out of the tent and raced up the mountain just in time to see the Torres glowing reddish in the morning sun. It was a good reward for a day of waiting. 15 Minutes later the clouds covered the Torres again and we started our way down. Almost reached the camp to sneak a last look up...the clouds were gone and it was so beautiful that we decided to go up one more time... Finally back at the camp we packed our bags and started a 5 hour trip to Refugio Los Cuernos. |
| A great walk through alpine like meadows dropping down to a path alongside the lake. A couple of condors were flying just above us. Amazing how fast these birds can climb to the top of the mountains (makes you envy them). On the last part of the track the wind picked up to almost blow us of the track, which went past the black and white, chocodiplike mountains 'Los Cuernos'. The next day we hiked up to Campamento Italiano, put up the tent, and continued into the Valle de Frances. A 6 hour return walk gives you incredible views of the glaciar Frances (dropping chunks of ice from great heights) and further on views of the rugged mountain peaks surrounding this valley. This day and the next few we were incredibly lucky with the weather, clear blue skies and high temperatures accompanying us all the way up to Glaciar Grey. We left the park by a boat touring the face of this glacier, drinking 12 years old whisky on the rocks with 1000 years old glacial ice. Puerto Montt and Chiloe Island (Chile) 20-23 February Backtracking to Punta Arenas to catch a flight to Puerto Montt further up north, Anita was tempted again to arrange a trip to Antartica, however her Russian turned out to be rustier than the Russian boat that could take us there, so no luck this time...and a good reason to come back one day. So we arrived in boring Puerto Montt (staying close to the now familiar Plaza the Armas) and escaped the next day to Chiloe Island. This large island has a vulcanic origin, but now consists of rolling green hills and a rich history of which we unfortunately learned nothing. We walked another track here (it gets a bit boring doesn't it?) this time almost no mountains, but next to the Pacific Ocean on the beach through small 'pueblos'.One pass we had to climb through eroded tracks, which turned into 2 meter deep gullies here and there. This got us into a great sheltered bay, where we put up our tent and walked around for the next day. On the beach we could see the dolphins surfing the waves (no boards necessary). Walking back we had the wind in our backs, which blew us in record time back to Cuca�, just before the rain started. The rain didn't stop that day, nor the next when we were on our way to Osorno, to get to Puyehue National Park. This track on a high exposed vulcanic peak (2250 m) didn't appeal very much in this weather so we decided to cross the Andes once more to Bariloche in Argentine, hoping the weather would be better (it is usually less wet on the argentinian side). Bariloche and Nahuel Huapi NP (Arg.) 24 Feb - 3 March Bariloche is the largest city in the Argentinian Andes, a ski and summer tourist town, looking like a typical Alpine village with wooden chalets and a lot of German/Swiss restaurants and bars. In general Argentinian towns are much more attractive than their Chilian counterparts (no Plaza de Armas) and are much more touristic, mostly for the Argentinians themselves. Our reason to come here was the Nahuel Huapi National Park, the first national park in Argentina and in the Andes. Nahuel Huapi received this land from the government in return for his explorations in this region, but he gave it back under the condition that it would become a national park. At that time people starting to recognize the importance of preserving nature and more national parks were established after that. We set out for a 5 day track starting with an easy ascent to 2000 meters by a chairlift (lazy bastards) from a ski resort close to Bariloche. From there we climbed further to a pass from which we had great views, unfortunately partly obscured by the upcoming bad weather. We traversed over rocky steep slopes to another pass leading to the valley under Cerro Catedrale ( a famous mountain in the area) dropping steeply down to the lake. >>Continue to page 3 |