So after Puerto Madryn and our nature adventures we headed south to El Calafate, via the stunningly dull Rio Gallegos.
El Calafate is the trekking capital of southern Argentina with access to the northern Fitz Roy range, the enormous Perito Moreno Glacier and Chile´s Torres del Paine just over the border.
On our second day we headed off for the ´Big Ice´tour which is seven hours of trekking (with crampons, thankfully provided) on one of the world´s few stable advancing glaciers. The face of the glacier is an incredible set of ice spikes which keep falling off into the freezing water below. The glacier advances around 2m every day so there´s always stuff falling off. Add to this the amazing milky blue of the glacier water (something to do with refraction) and the blue-pink-white ice it makes a lasting impression. The trek on the glacier was excellent, although I did manage to break one of my crampons, with stunning sink holes created by rocks (as they´re darker they absorb the sunlight and melt their way to the bottom 70m plus down, making these bright blue holes filled with water - take a look at the photos!). Excellent day´s trekking in perfect weather.
The next day we decided to head to Torres del Paine and booked our buses, packed our waterproofs, popped into the supermarket for some pasta and sandwich soup (a bottle of wine - of course), kissed our lovely soft beds goodbye and headed off for four days of trekking and camping around the famous ´W´ route.
For me this was one of the highlights of the whole trip. We arrived in TDP and caught the catamaran to the far end of the ´W´circuit. Given that we had three days of trekking and three nights of camping we were unable to do the last part of the W to the glacier (but having just spent a day on one we weren´t bothered and from other trekker´s stories we made a good decision! TDP is made up of two spectacular valleys that have massive stone pillars between them. Ten hours of trekking on the first day (after a relaxed wake up in our tent) set the scene for the rest of our time there. Thankfully the weather was good to us and we only got drenched for a few hours on the first day. Otherwise it was an awesome three days, highly recommend it to anyone who comes this way as unmissable. The photos tell the rest of the story (and there are hundreds of them) - I´ll put them on smugmug very soon.
After Torres Del Paine we headed south to Ushuaia, the world´s southernmost city and the staging point for many Antarctica tours (which are a touch out of our budget range at $4,500 per person). We did our tour of the Beagle channel (named after Darwin´s ship) and are having a relaxing day, catching up on sleep and emails, etc after a horrible journey that involved crossing two borders (Chilean borders are stricter than most and take ages) but we got lots of passport stamps so worth it!
So, we´re heading to Buenos Aires tomorrow morning for some culture, sun, a trip to Uruguay, present shopping, tango shows, a Boca Juniors match and a touch of luxury (thanks to the AMREF girls!)
Our trip is coming to a close really quickly, only three weeks left which will see us head to Rio for the carnival (via Sao Paolo and a beach) before taking in Brasil´s Pantanal (the world´s biggest wetland for some more nature), the Iguazu Falls, a bit of Paraguay and then a week of beaches and surfing our way back to Rio to catch our flight home...
Friday, 13 February 2009
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Chile and Argentina (and a little corner of Wales)
Well, Valparaiso was lovely and a day in Santiago followed where we took the cable car up to the hills above the city for the amazing panoramic view of the city. Santiago is lovely, and really diverse with the trendy bar areas of Bella Vista to the more bohemian (apparently!) area of Barrio Brasil, where we stayed.
We were understandly keen to get to Argentina's famous wine producing valleys of Mendoza so after a night and two days in Santiago we had pretty much seen all we wanted and moved on (we even managed a late night showing of Benjamin Button in the main cinema which was a nice taste of home - sort of!)
The border crossing from Chile to Argentina was a nightmare... they have a ridiculous system of big buses going first so we got stuck in our little bus at the back of the queue, so several hours later we emerged and eventually ended up in Mendoza in the late afternoon having not eaten for the entire day. However, our first (of many) Argentinian steak sandwich put the world to rights and we wandered with our packs to find a place to stay for the night.
The next day we headed out on our hired bikes with a list and map of local vineyards and got increasingly wobbly as the day went on. Brilliant. The first few were really interesting and we learned a lot about wine production (fuelling my pipe dream of one day owning a vineyard... a stunning lifestyle!) but after the third or fourth tasting that{s all we were interested in! We ended up at the nicest, a vineyard called tempus Alba where we ended up having six glasses of lovely wine between us... we were an hour late returning the bikes, the guy who had to wait for us didn't seem too impressed!
The next day we spent in Mendoza, taking in the sights until a freak downpour that made the national news laid us up in a cafe drinking coffee and eating chocolates... it's a tough life!
We caught the night bus to Bariloche that evening... on our way to the Lake District (although a few miles away from Keswick) we're now totally used to the 20hr bus rides that are the only real way to get around in this part of the world. Actually we quite enjoy them as they mean a night's accommodation saved and extra budget for wine and steak!
Bariloche is a lovely town right in the middle of the Lake District and we clambered up a mountain to see the view (rather than take the cable car!) It´s really geared up for the hoardes of trekkers that descend from across the world to this region every January and February. North Face and Salomon stores sit side by side little artesañal stores selling traditional wood carvings and millions of mate (tea) cups and metal straws that are de riguer (alongside a flask of hot water) for every Argentinian from teenagers to old men.
The lakes around Bariloche are a stunning shade of deep blue and looked incredibly inviting, so while Loretta sunbathed I dived in and was quite surprised at just how cold the water was... that little venture didn't last too long.
El Bolson was next. It´s pegged as the ´hippy town´of South America - basically a bunch of pretentious unwashed travellers trying to out-cool each other with their skanky matted hair and stoned dancing. Needless to say I wasn´t hugely impressed, Loretta loved it! While she perused the various craft stalls I took myself up a big hill to work off my irritation and returned suitably relaxed.
We´d heard great things about the east coast of Argentina, particularly about a big flock of penguins, so off we trotted (another night bus, only 12 hours this time) to Puerto Madryn. We were really surprised at how nice the place is; bit of a beach resort for Argentinians. people come from across the world here to see the penguins (largest colony outside of Antarctica) and whales (and the Orcas taking pinnipeds off the beach and throwing them around for fun before eating them, as seen on Planet Earth). However, the whale season had passed and so we only had two really cool trips rather than the hoped-for three.
The first was snorkelling with Sea Lions in the middle of the sea. Brilliant. When they see a boat they all jump into the water to come and play and they were all around us nipping our knees and fins while we stroked them and played in the water. Really stunning experience.
The other trip was to Punta Tombo´s penguin colony, over 500,000 Magellenic Penguins... always good comedy value and they didn't disappoint! They were hilarious. We also had the chance to see some Commerson´s dolphins (black and white, they look like mini-Orcas) which were beautiful.
On the way back from the penguins we stopped off at a Welsh colony... apparently lots of Welsh people came over to Argentina at the beginning of the 1900s and set up a colony so there are loads of Welsh Tea Houses and all the signs are in Welsh, although they grow cherries and garlic as their main crops so that´s a touch different. A trifle bizarre seeing all of the Welsh flags... O, Luce and Carrie if you come to this neck of the woods you have to visit, just for comedy value.
Bariloche is a lovely town right in the middle of the Lake District and we clambered up a mountain to see the view (rather than take the cable car!) It´s really geared up for the hoardes of trekkers that descend from across the world to this region every January and February. North Face and Salomon stores sit side by side little artesañal stores selling traditional wood carvings and millions of mate (tea) cups and metal straws that are de riguer (alongside a flask of hot water) for every Argentinian from teenagers to old men.
The lakes around Bariloche are a stunning shade of deep blue and looked incredibly inviting, so while Loretta sunbathed I dived in and was quite surprised at just how cold the water was... that little venture didn't last too long.
El Bolson was next. It´s pegged as the ´hippy town´of South America - basically a bunch of pretentious unwashed travellers trying to out-cool each other with their skanky matted hair and stoned dancing. Needless to say I wasn´t hugely impressed, Loretta loved it! While she perused the various craft stalls I took myself up a big hill to work off my irritation and returned suitably relaxed.
We´d heard great things about the east coast of Argentina, particularly about a big flock of penguins, so off we trotted (another night bus, only 12 hours this time) to Puerto Madryn. We were really surprised at how nice the place is; bit of a beach resort for Argentinians. people come from across the world here to see the penguins (largest colony outside of Antarctica) and whales (and the Orcas taking pinnipeds off the beach and throwing them around for fun before eating them, as seen on Planet Earth). However, the whale season had passed and so we only had two really cool trips rather than the hoped-for three.
The first was snorkelling with Sea Lions in the middle of the sea. Brilliant. When they see a boat they all jump into the water to come and play and they were all around us nipping our knees and fins while we stroked them and played in the water. Really stunning experience.
The other trip was to Punta Tombo´s penguin colony, over 500,000 Magellenic Penguins... always good comedy value and they didn't disappoint! They were hilarious. We also had the chance to see some Commerson´s dolphins (black and white, they look like mini-Orcas) which were beautiful.
On the way back from the penguins we stopped off at a Welsh colony... apparently lots of Welsh people came over to Argentina at the beginning of the 1900s and set up a colony so there are loads of Welsh Tea Houses and all the signs are in Welsh, although they grow cherries and garlic as their main crops so that´s a touch different. A trifle bizarre seeing all of the Welsh flags... O, Luce and Carrie if you come to this neck of the woods you have to visit, just for comedy value.
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