Last Days...

We left Puerto Madryn on the 1st Class bus - fully reclining seats, 4 different movies and bingo games made the ride pass quickly. Buenos Aires is hotter than we remember, its 30º today and sort of humid. My feet are sore from walking everywhere. A 9 hour walk to and from Palmero and almost 7 hours today looking for the perfect wine holder. The city is busy after the small towns we´ve been in for the past month. But its exciting, with tango dancers, street venders and multiple icecream stores to chose from.

We´ve pretty much just shopped and ate since we arrived here. Our hostel is busy and full of young people, so we tend to avoide it. But its conveniently located within walking distance of most everything and the room is confortable and clean. It currently looks like we were robbed, with clothes and bags and papers strewn everywhere in preparation for packing tomorrow.

We´re just taking it easy until our flight tomorrow. We saw most of the tourist sights last time except for the Japonese Gardens, which we visited yesterday as a break from the shopping (and walking). For a $0.33US we bought a baggie of food and fed the koi in the ponds. One more trip to the grocery store for some last minute dulce de leche is all that we have to do. And perhaps a trip to the icecream parlor for some last minute dulce de leche icecream too...

The Last of Patagonia

Puerto Madryn was our last stop in Patagonia and our last new city before returning to Buenos Aires (and then home). After the winds and mountains of inland Patagonia we were looking forward to the ocean and warm breezes. We got the ocean, but until this morning those warm breezes were blowing pretty cold!

On the bus to Madryn we met up with our Swiss friends and made plans for visiting the two sights near town – Reserva Faunistica Peninsula Valdes and Punta Tombo. Upon arrival, tour bookings was taken care of by the eager staff at the hostel and we were off!


Reserva Faunistica Peninsula Valdes

This peninsula is located about an hour north of town and is home to a variety of marine life from birds to seals to whales. We´d booked a bus tour which included an English speaking guide and a chance to spot some marine life close up. Like all tours we´ve taken, this one involved a lot of driving, a few angry Spanish people and an extra long lunch stop at a very expensive restaurant (which we avoided by eating sandwiches on the bus). But we did get the chance to get close enough to elephant seals to touch the ugly monsters (not that we did, the sign warned ¨puppies may be squished¨!). We spent over an hour sitting on the beach within spitting range of a hundred large elephant seals, watching them lumber around and listening to the farting sounds they make when they sneeze. The seals are there in large numbers right now, just sitting on the beach, waiting for their fur to molt off. Not a bad way to pass 5 weeks or so...

After the seals we went to see the real stars of the peninsula, the southern whales. We´re pretty near the end of the whale season, and its possible that we spotted the very last of the whales in the bay. They come to the area to mate and to raise their young before heading back south for the summer. The majority of the whales had already headed south, but we did get close up views of a mother and her calf - close enough that I could have touched them from the boat.

The elephant seal pups from last year (looking cute).

Momma whale poking her head up to see us.


Punta Tombo

Punta Tombo is the largest breeding colony of Magellanic penguins in the world. Its a couple hours south of Madryn, but we couldn´t stomach another tour (which always include a stop we don´t want to see). Instead, a car was rented, a picnic packed and Jon got behind the wheel to drive. Because we didn´t leave at the same time as the tour buses, we arrived late enough in the day that the hoards of tourists were leaving as we arrived and we had a couple hours of almost just us and the 170 000 penguins. You can get amazingly close to the penguins and its really a pleasure to watch them waddle around and even swim in the ocean. Penguin chicks were just starting to hatch, and furry babies could be seen sitting on their parents feet.

Penguins as far as the eye can see. Each hole is a nest and in each nest are two penguins...

Stretching after a good grooming. Penguins spend a lot of time cleaning their feathers...This guy was enjoying the peace and quiet after the tours left. He may also have been working on his tan...

The Rest
Puerto Madryn is a sleepy little town but after touring for two days we were happy to sleep in, try and locate our laundry from the laundry service and enjoy amazing icecream. We´ve walked the beach, dabbled our toes in the Atlantic ocean for the second time this year and gotten our fill of browsing stores filled with whale decorated t-shirts. With only another 1/2 day in town we´ve got just enough time for our laundry to be found (hopefully) and another few icecream flavours sampled before we continue on our way.

Enough with the glaciers already!

After Torres del Paine, we caught a bus back into Argentina for a little more mountain viewing. Parque National Los Glaciares is just on the other side of the border and offers more spectacular hiking and the granddaddy of all glaciers, Perito Moreno. Apart from the scenery, the towns we visited had nothing going for them but we endured high prices and mediocre food for the chance to view some of the nicest mountains we´ve ever seen. Oh, a just a few more glaciers in case we hadn´t gotten our fill of ice...

Our first stop was the big glacier- Perito Mereno. We skipped the tour (since we´re way over budget by this point) and simply took a bus out to the glacier for a few hours. We´re glad we didn´t spend longer, as the glacier filled up with tour buses shortly after we arrived. We can´t handle the crowds of people pushing around and retired to eat avacado sandwiches from a view point after only an hour. Still, even with all the people, the glacier was spectacular and we´re glad we made the trip for it. As you can see, it was a little cloudy and chilly at the glacier front, but back in town the sun was shining and we warmed up with a hike to see the local flamingos.

After only one day in Calafate, we were ready for a change and we headed north to El Chalten. We´d been warned that El Chalten was not the finest of towns, but that didn´t prepare us for the partially finished pile of buildings that our bus driver claimed was town. It was windy, dirty and ugly! The main drag (which was really all that there was in the town) was un-paved and contained, well, nothing. Maybe I´m being a little judgmental, but our first impressions of the town weren´t good. The bright light was our B&B and the apple pie at the nearby panaderia.

Luckily, El Chalten has more going for it than its buildings (or lack of). Treking to the mighty Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre can be started right in town which is the only reason why you´d endure the endless winds and dirt of El Chalten. Unusually, the day we decided to start our trek was clear and windless and within a few hours we could see Mnt. Fitz Roy ahead of us. Its the highest peak in the area and portions of it can be seen from town when the wind isn´t howling.

We´d given ourselves 3 days to hike and camp in the area, so we weren´t too disapointed when the peak clouded over as soon as we were within range of the view point. Later, when we did attempt to climb to the view point, the incredibly strong winds kept the viewing to a minimum. Thanks to the borrowed treking guide, we knew there were other sites to occupy our time and spent the rest of our afternoon looking at yet another glacier.

The next morning was perfectly clear (which could explain why we were so cold at night), and a sidetrip along the valley before breakfast gave us crystal clear views of Fitz Roy without the wind. We could have spent all day watching ice fall from the glacier but there were other mountains to view.

(Fitz Roy and other peaks with glacier and lake)

Setting out from camp we met our Swiss friends day-hiking our three day trek (crazy) and from them we heard that the second big peak in the area, Cerro Torre, was visible. People in town say that you can only see it 5 days of the year so we´d expected to find it clouded over when we arrived to camp at its base. I think the townies are wrong about the visibility frequency, or we´ve used up all the clear days, since the peak was visible for 3 days while we were there. I found it less spectacular than Fitz Roy, but easier to enjoy as its only a 10 minute walk from camp. Usually we don´t have time for sitting around when we hike, but this time we found ourselves with a whole afternoon of free time. Again, luck was with us and it was hot, really hot, in the valley. Fleece jackets were shed and 4 glorious hours were spent basking in the sun, and yes, waiting for glacial ice to fall.

A not so early walk to the lake rewarded us with reflections of the peak and an absence of other trekers (rare). We look our time getting back to town, but all was well in Chalten when we arrived, with the wind still faint and the sun shining. The circuit that we completed was short (30km?) but probably one of the nicest hikes we´ve ever done. If you find yourself in El Chalten and the weather is nice, we highly recomend!

While waiting for my photos...

... check out our friends Katia and Didier, a Swiss couple traveling around the world. They´re almost at the end of their trip and have some amazing photos of South America, India, Nepal, etc. Their blog is in French (problem for us who don´t read French I guess) but for those of you who are multilingual, they´re pretty funny. We´re regreting not bringing our big camera as our shots aren´t half as nice as theirs, but they have captured a few moments with us that we are looking forward to seeing.

Internet Woes

I´d meant to upload more pictures with my Torres del Paine post but we had a dinner date with some friends and I had to end my session early. I think it was worth it as we ate at an amazing restaurant, but its taken me until now to find an internet connection that will allow me to upload this one photo! Thats what $4US in a tourist town in the middle of nowhere buys you. The satallite connection here keeps going down and when its up it doesn´t like anything google related. But the photo is proof that Jon and I are alive and well even if we can´t use the internet as we wished (the tough life of a traveller). Perhaps in a week or so when we get back to the other side of the country I´ll be able to up date with photos again. Until then...

Us, in front of the Torres, enjoying a sunny, windless day in Patagonia.

The ¨W¨

The ¨W¨ is probably the only reason 90% of travelers are in Puerto Natales (Chile). Its a well reviewed 5 day trek in Torres del Paine National Park that takes in some stunning scenery. Named for the W shape it traces out along the base of several peaks its only about 80 km long and not ranked as the most difficult of treks. Loaded up with rental gear and the Chilian version of treking food, we set out to see for ourselves.

The trek is wonderful, if you can stand the large groups of people (oh, a far cry from Canada) and the wind. But the views were fantastic, we only had seriously bad weather for one morning (snow) and we got to see almost everything we set out to view.

We saw the Grey Glacier (ok weather), missed the Valley Frances (snow and clouds) and got two beautiful days at the Torres. Other than freezing everynight in our rental sleeping bags (perhaps we should have brought our own) things went fine. In fact, 4 out of 5 sunny days is pretty good! I prepared 3 different pasta meals (and one potato) and we dinned well on PB and honey on crackers for lunch.

We finished the trek exhausted, in need of a shower and craving something other than pasta. We´ve got tonight in Puerto Natales before heading back to Argentina to see more glaciers and doing a little more treking. Below are just a few of the many pictures we snapped on our 5 days.

Into Chile

We were both a little nervous about crossing into Chile from Argentina - we´ve never had to cross a border by bus before and we were loaded down with fine chocolate and wine. In order as we were seated on the bus we were presented first to Argentinian border guards to get our exit stamp and then to Chilian border guards to get an entry stamp. Other than a long look at Jon´s passport photo (those sideburns throw them off) we were into a new country hassel free!

Crossing into Chile from Bariloche hadn´t been in the original itinerary. But the lack of buses heading down to Patagonia on the Argentinian side prompted us to change plans and book berths on the ferry from Puerto Montt, Chile, to Puerto Natales, Chile (home to the famous Torres del Paine National Park). The ferry was a little out of the budget (at a whopping $370 US each) but seemed to be the least painfull way to make it south.

Puerto Montt, our first stop in Chile, was disapointing. We found it dirty and full of drunks when we arrived by bus but our guest house was nice and our fellow travelers welcoming. The next morning, things looked a little better in town, especially since we were leaving and the drunks were still sleeping it off. We lugged our bags to the ferry check in (along with 200 other tourists) and then left to purchase a few more motion sickness pills (Jenn) and wine (Jon). We returned later in the afternoon for a final check-in before setting sail (behind schedule already).

The ferry is a combination cargo ship/tourist trap which allows approximatly 200 people and an assortment of semi-trailers to be carried through the Chilian fjords south into Patagonia. We were settled into a massive 22 person dorm, sub-divided into sets of 2 bunk beds. Luckily for us, our bunk mates were wonderful and didn´t even snore!

We spent the next four days crawling at a snails pace through some outstanding scenery. There were only 12 hours of very rough seas, in which I curled in first my bunk and then the bathroom while the boat swayed madly. Jon is unaffected by such things and he read and dined and slept through the night.

But the boatride was worth the seasickness. We got about 50% sunny weather (which I think is pretty good) and we were the first trip of the season to visit the large, advancing glacier enroute. Very spectacular!

We´re now in Puerto Natales, Chile (the ferry arrived last night) and madly doing prep to get on the trail tomorrow. My rough night on the boat has cost me, I have now caught a cold and am snifflying and sneezing my way around town while wiping my nose raw with cheap kleenx. Its chilly, as expected but it hasn´t snowed (yet).

The mighty ferry.

Mountain views.

Snow.

Glacial rocks.

Glacier Pio XI

The front.

Three Weeks and Mountains

We´ve been touring around Argentina for a little under 3 weeks now, although it feels like its been a lot longer than that! In the past 19 days we´ve been up through the northern half of the country, and covered waterfalls to high altitude desert. We´ve got just under a month left in our trip and a fair bit of the country left to see. We´re headed south towards the Chilian Patagonia for some mountains and treking before returning to Argentina for glaciers and penguins. Given the large distances we have to travel, it will probably take our remaining month to make it back to Buenos Aires. Luckily for us travel hasn´t been that hard and our small amount of Spanish is serving us well.

I try and add a new phrase or word to my vocabulary everyday, but its never enough to fully understand. We spent a whole day very curious about signs reading ¨picnic sin fogones¨ at all the stops on our bike trip, until we looked up fogones in the dictionary at the hostel. It means firepit.

I´ve finally found some reasonably fast internet here in Bariloche and uploaded some photos of the past few days. Our boat trip yesterday was a disaster - long, boring and ugly! But we had an excellent lasagna last night and some gourmet chocolates to help us recover.

So, we´re well, well fed and enjoying our adventures!

Photos are 1- View of the the lake from our hostel, 2- Mountains on the Circuito Chico and 3- Lake view from Cerrito Llao Llao.

More mountains from our bike trip.

Another view from Cerrito Llao Llao.

View from the gondola ride.
Jon and I at the top of Cerro Otto.

Mountain view from the boat trip.

Brrr...

Bariloche (Argentina) is a shock to the system. A mere 20 hours on the bus and we were no longer enjoying heat and palm trees but instead cold winds, snow and mountains! Despite the chilly temperatures, Bariloche is fast becoming on of our favorite places so far. Its got a certain vibe, which is really nice after the northern Argentinian cities. We´ve got 4 days here, the longest we´ve spent anywhere so far, and are filling them with mountain type adventures.


Wednesday (our first day) we rented bikes and biked the Circuito Chico, a lovely mountain loop with excellent scenery and several large hills. Although it was chilly enough to need toques under our bike helmets we had an excellent time since we were practically the only people on the road. Biking, instead of taking a tour, gave us the time to snap pictures of the mountains and enjoy a late afternoon break with a beautiful view (and some great olives). Our calves are not happy today.

Today we took it easy and rode the gondola to the summit of a near by mountain, Cerro Otto, for views of Bariloche and the lake. It was windy, so the the ride made me quite queasy (7 minutes is a long time!) but the views from the slightly rundown chalet on top were worth it. We had a licuado (like a milkshake) in the revolving restaurante at the top, but that only enhanced my seasick feeling. On the way down we watched a family trudging up the 4 km hike and felt that our $20 was well spent to avoide that.

The rest of our time has been filled with sampling chocolates to determine who is the best chocolatier in town (a demanding activity) and browsing in the shops. Bariloche is like being in Banff or Jasper - plenty of tacky souviner shops to check out for the best deals on woolen toques and shirts with Bariloche on them. There are a few gems out there, and we´ve got some time penciled in to check it out.

Tomorrow we doing a boat tour (thankgoodness I packed gravol) and then spending Saturday preping to head into Chile. My internet connection won´t allow for pictures, so those will have to wait until next time.