Overnight Bus from Buenos Aires to Mendoza

It's a 13 hour bus ride to Mendoza, so we opted for the deluxe bus where the seats fold down almost flat. It was a surprisingly comfortable ride, if a little ridiculous. We sat on the top floor at the very front so we were able to watch from above as the bus moved out of the city. They served a large dinner, although it had a number of prepackaged items that were nigh inedible. The warmed up portion of dinner was pretty decent: some chicken in a tomato sauce with peas and mashed potatoes. They also served wine and then after dinner, there was a bar service with the option of coffee, champagne or whiskey. There were options of movies to watch on the individual screens in either English or Spanish, but we just read and blogged until it was time for bed.

We slept fairly well except that the bus slowed down a number of times and woke us up. Apparently we're trained that on bus rides, if it slows, we are coming to the destination. About an hour and a half before Mendoza, around 8am, we woke up and they did a breakfast service, which was also fairly inedible. Anyway, we got into Mendoza at 9:15am pretty well rested. Argentina has great buses.

Chic Palemero

Our last day in BA we started by going to the gardens in the Palermo district. We started with the botanical gardens. It's fall, so there were very few flowers, but some of the plants were really interesting. There were a number of trees with very spiky trunks and branches from further north. Maybe they don't want big animals like monkeys to climb up them and get the fruit? For the most part it was relaxing.

Images for BA are in the album.

Then, we stopped at a cafe for a quick coffee and snack before moving on to the Japanese garden. It's one of the bigger Japanese gardens I've seen, although I presume there are some much bigger in Japan. They also have a sushi restaurant there that a BA native said was very good, but it was expensive and there are better places in the world (like San Francisco) to get sushi, so we gave it a pass.

We then walked to the old part of Palermo. Palermo is the current chic district and it shows. There were a lot of small cafes, boutique fashion stores and so on. Plus, there were a lot of kids on the playgrounds and buildings were at most 3 stories high, so it had a very neighbourhoody feel. We stumbled upon a celiac bakery, so Catherine was able to stock up on goodies. It's amazing how cognizant of celiacs Argentina is. We expected that the gluten-free awareness revolution probably wouldn't have made it here yet, but we were wrong.

After the bakery, we still hadn't eaten lunch and it was well past 2pm. We came across a famous parilla, La Cabrera that Catherine had tried to get a reservation for the night before, but was booked up. However, on Monday at lunch, there was plenty of space and they had a prix fixe lunch special. 99 pesos (or about $20) for a three course meal where we swapped the options. We had a first course of chorizo and caesar salad. A second course of chicken and beef with condiments on the side of pickled vegetables and so on. Finally, desert was flan. It was superb and the waiters were professional waiters, which was fun. The decor was homey and eclectic. The walls were stone and dark wood, while there were a number of interesting accents like mobiles of airplane models twirling from the ceiling, or decorative plates on the wall.

After that, we wandered around the neighbourhood some more and stopped in the central square to relax and people watch. Finally, we walked back to the hostel to pick up our bags before taking a taxi to the bus station and boarding the overnight bus to Mendoza.

Sunday Markets in San Telmo

After breakfast, we headed downtown. This was our first ride on the BA metro, or Subte as they call it. The cars on the trains are completely covered with street art and I'm not sure if the artists were commissioned or if they just hit the cars when they're parked in the depot overnight. Either way, each car is unique and I think it's fun. The only downside is that the windows are also spray painted so from the inside, you can't see out through them. As a result, all the windows are open, which is a little weird for a subway.

Images from BA are in the album.

Our first stop of the day was the rose house. This is the seat of the Argentine parliament and it's a large, pink building. We took a tour, which was bilingual and quite informative. The building itself is styled just like the castles and manors in Europe, especially southern Europe. It is very ostentatious in places, especially the president's office. Also, there were a number of new installations because Argentina had its bicentennial in 2011, so they did a lot of refurbishing and commissioning of new work all over the city, but especially at the rose house.

After the rose house, we headed for the San Telmo district by walking along Defensa street. Defensa is a pedestrian mall (at least on Sundays) and it was one gigantic market. At first the stalls were similar to the artisan market we went to the day before, but as we kept walking, it slowly changed. Around the main square in San Telmo, there are a number of antique markets in the buildings and some of that spilled out into the street market. For example, we saw at least 3 different soda siphon vendors and Catherine found an antique necklace made of coral and ivory with pictures of elephants carved into it.

Another highlight of the market is the street performers and especially, the tango dancers. We saw a number of different tango exhibits. The first one was when we had lunch. Catherine had found a vendor selling arrepas and colombian (corn) empanadas, so she at that while I got a choripan, or sausage sandwich. While eating, we watched some tango.

A little while later, we stopped at a cafe for tea and people watching. We ended up meeting a guy from the US who winters in BA every year, but he doesn't speak any spanish, so Catherine was translating for him since he wanted to find out when a certain show was on. I don't know how you can spend so much time in BA and not have at least picked up some rudimentary Spanish!

After the cafe, we walked around the market some more and ended up going into one of the little villas attached tot he street that have since been turned into multi-store markets. It was really interesting because it had a courtyard and was two stories. You can totally see a rich family living there, but something must have happened. Catherine thinks that part of it might have been an epidemic of yellow fever that swept through the neighbourhood at some point.

We also found a vendor that had a number of antique copper pots for great prices, so I bought a copper saucier originally from the 30s. It should be perfect for making sauces or whip creams.

Our last stop in the market, we circled back to the main square and sat down in a cafe for drinks. I had a beer and Catherine had a great camprania. After sitting there for a while, a couple showed up and did a tango performance. Completely unexpected, but fun.

After stopping back at the hostel, we went out for a ginormous parilla meal. This one wasn't as good as the one in El Chalten, but it was still pretty good. We had a grilled cheese with tomatoes and arugula to start, which was mouthwatering. Then we had the main course of roast vegetables, chorizo, blood sausage and steak. To finish, Catherine had a flan, while I had a lemon sorbet like thing with champagne drizzled on top. They called it a sorbet, but I'm pretty sure it had dairy, so it might have been closer to a gelato.

After dinner, we waddled back to the hostel to sleep.

Welcome to the City of Good Air

It's our first day in Buenos Aires. We arrived late last night at the Reina Madre hostel and went to bed shortly afterward. Catherine had a little more trouble sleeping since the hostel has a number of semi-permanent residents, it was a Saturday night, BA is known for it's night life and our room was right beside the kitchen.

Images from Buenos Aires are in the album.

In the morning, we woke up slowly and went searching for breakfast. In particular, Catherine found on the net a cafe that was supposed to have gluten free options just a few blocks away so we headed there. They weren't very gluten free, but they pointed us to a shop that sold gluten free items. It turns out that there are a number of dietary food shops around the city that have things for celiacs, diabetics and people with other dietary issues. They aren't restaurants, but they carry some good packaged food. Catherine found some rice crackers that she's now addicted to.

We ended up back at the original cafe to actually sit down and have breakfast. I had a muffin and Catherine was originally going to have a smoothy, but decided to have eggs with ham instead. When her eggs came, they were very undercooked. This is the second time she had undercooked eggs in Argentina. Maybe it's a regional thing?

After breakfast, we headed towards the Recoleta cemetery. It's a truly unique cemetery. We ended up hiring a British ex-pat to guide us through since we were going blind. He had an interesting setup where he would give us the tour and then we could pay him whatever we felt was appropriate. I think it's actually a good business model on his part because people will tend to give more when given an option like that and his English speaking audience hails from richer countries where guided tours are probably more expensive than in BA.

Anyway, the cemetery is a little nuts. It's entirely mausoleums, packed in beside each other. Each mausoleum is owned by a family in perpetuity. They're a small annual fee to pay for security, but all the maintenance and work on the mausoleums is up to the family. Now, some of the families die out or some cannot afford to pay for proper maintenance (or don't want to), while others invest to the nines. So you literally have some where the roof has caved in, or bones are just shoved into crates willy nilly. At the opposite extreme, there is fancy stained glass, carvings, etc.. Each mausoleum has the rights to the hut above ground, but also three floors under ground, including under part of the pathway. So you can fit a lot of relatives in there. It's also still very active. Our guide said that last weekend, there were 3 burials.

There are also a few state supported sites for famous people who didn't have a family crypt. People like the first democratically elected president of the country, or the leader of the rebellion for independence from Spain.

Around the cemetery on weekends, there is a very large artisan market. There was everything from jewelry  to mate cups, to toys, to clothes, to food. Catherine found some fun items and was able to cross off one stocking stuffer.

After the market, we walked to a local empanada joint. It was a cozy place that reminds you of an old beer hall or bodega. Lots of wood. Wine casks hanging from the ceiling. I had 3 fantastic empanadas, which Catherine was able to have a tamale, which was surprising since it's a Mexican food and not usually found this far south. We also had a medium carafe of wine that was served in a white porcelain penguin. The wine came out of the penguin's mouth.

After lunch, we headed towards the retiro plaza. There was a monument to the people who died in the Falkland Island war in the early 80s. Argentina has a complex about the Falklands. They're a bunch of rocks off the southern Argentinian coast that are so far south, they are only good for raising sheep (although oil was found recently offshore). They're part of the UK and I'm not sure of all the history, but I think that they are basically used in Argentinean politics to deflect from poor conditions at home. In the early 80's this peaked when Argentina sent an invasion force that was promptly destroyed by the British. Today, you can only get to the Falklands by flying for Chile, or you can take the direct flight from RAF Dover, which has to refuel in the Ascension islands.

After looking around the plaza, which also has an amazingly large gum drop tree, we did a quick tour of the nearby museum of military uniforms. It contained uniforms and weapons for a vast range of times. Quite a collection. Then, we walked to the museo del belle artes, which is small, but contains some great works by Gaudain, Degas, Van Goth and a few others.

After the museum, we went back to the hostel and capped off the night with an indifferent meal at an old school, white table cloth restaurant nearby.

El Chalten Mon Capitaine

The photo album for this entry

Our first two days in El Chalten were basically rest days. We initially arrived in town late at night, after a long day on busses getting from Puerto Natales via the Perito Moranio glacier and El Calafate. When we got into town, we just went stright to the hostel and crashed.

In the morning, we talked to our host at the hostel about the potential hikes and the weather report. There are two main full day hikes you can do, one to the base of Mt. Fitz Roy, or El Chalten. The second goes to the Laguna Seca (TODO check this) at the base of two glaciers. The weather has to be absolutely perfect for the Laguna Seca hike and it has to be pretty good for the Mt. Fitz Roy hike because it will cloud over very easily. Looking at the weather report, it looked like Tuesday (our first day) wouldn't work, Wednesday might clear up, but Thursday and Friday were looking perfect. There was one catch. We had a flight out of the El Calafate airport at 7:30 pm on Firday. It's a 3 hour drive and this time of year, there is one bus early in the morning to El Calafate and one at night. However, our host told us about a direct transfer to the airport for those flights that would leave the hostel at 2:30pm, so it would be possible to do the Laguna Seca hike, which is 3 hours each way, and still make the flight. So, our rough plan was to relax for the first couple of days, rest the knees and maybe do a short hike.

So, Tuesday, we explored town. It's ridiculously small, but spread out over about 1km, with a lot of empty lots. Apparently it was only incorporated in the 1980s and we saw a lot of construction going on. It'll be a very different place in 10 years once it becomes more popular. So after exploring, and this didn't take long, we just parked in a cafe for the afternoon that had a better internet connection than the hostel. Incidentally, it seems like all of El Chalten has a very poor internet connection, so don't plan on uploading any photos.

For dinner that night, we went to the Cervizeria, which is the town's local micro brewery that specializes in pasta and pizza. Now you might be wondering why we'd go there when Catherine can't eat gluten, but it turns out, they have an amazing gluten free pizza crust and are generally celiac aware. It's not a pizza crust the way we think of it because it's much thicker. They also seem to put their pizza's in the oven less so that the cheese isn't brown yet. Catherine got them to put it in the oven longer. As another bonus, their bar snack is popcorn. Great idea. I had some squash ravioli in a tomato sauce and their in house pilsner, which was excellent. For desert, we tried a liquor made from the local El Calafate berry. It's a dark purple berry that grows on a spiky plant in the area. There is a myth that if you eat the El Calafate berry, you're destined to come back to Patagonia. I'd say that's likely in our case.

For the second day, we had a relaxing start and then did a quick 30 min hike up to the mirador de condor that overlooks the town. Just as we got up there, the clouds finally started to break and we could see the sun for the first time in El Chalten. Later in the day, it cleared enough that we could actually see Mt. Fitz Roy from town. This was a big surprise because I thought that we'd have to hike to see it at all. Nope. It looks majestic just walking down the street.

For dinner, we went to El Murro on the recommendation of the laundry guy. It's a parilla, or Argentinian steak house and oh my, was it ever fantastic. First, the waiter was hilarious. For example, they had a number of single bottles of wine on the table that they were trying to clear out. Some were Patagonian, so we asked if they were any good. According to the waiter, absolutely not. They're terrible. Well ok, the reserve Patagonian wines can be fantastic, but the cheap stuff is awful so don't even bother.

For dinner, we ordered a chorizo (or sausage), patagonian lamb, rump steak, grilled veggies and potatoes gratin. We just shared everything. We learned that it's always a good idea to get a chorizo when doing parilla because they are cheap and they vary significantly. So, if you get into a good place, it can be mouthwatering. This one was mouthwatering. The veggies were good and smoky although the eggplant was too big so it was dry. The lamb and steak were both some of the best pieces of meat we've ever had. It's so simple. Grill up the meat on a wood fire, but the smoke, along with the fact that the animals are fed on the famous Argentinean pampas (or grassland), make the meat something special.

On Thursday, we did our main hike to Mt. Fitz Roy. Compared to Torres Del Paine, the hike was dirt easy and the path luxurious. It was wide, very few obstacles, steps on steep sections and finally, very little elevation change. There's a little bit for the first quarter of the hike out, then it's flat until the campsite at the base of the mountain. Finally, if you decide to go up, it can be a steep ascent at the end. It's about a 4 hour one way trip, so it's a long day. We got a great view of the mountain from the first mirador, which is just over an hour in. It was a crystal clear day with hardly any clouds in the sky.

When we got to the campsite, we had three choices. We could do the steep ascent up to the official Mt. Fitz Roy lookout. We could go north a little ways to another lookout, but it was relatively flat and you can't see Mt. Fitz Roy from it, only a glacier. Or, you can take the unofficial trail to the south that follows the river up the gully. Any of the options were supposed to be about an hour one way and our knees were sore so we didn't want to do the steep ascent, but, based on the topo maps, it looked like we could get a great view from the unofficial lookout, so we tried that. Big mistake. The path is reasonable for most of the way, but with about 800m to go (according to my GPS), the path ended at a boulder field that forms the river bed in spring. The river was also going through the area. This is why it's an unofficial path. It would be impossible to maintain it. Even in the fall, when the waters are low, the river is still running strong and we couldn't easily ford it. That, combined with Catherine crashing, made us decide to return back to town.

By the time we got back to town, exhausted and hungry, we were ready for dinner. We went to the Cervizeria again because I wanted to have their trout ravioli in a white wine, mushroom cream sauce. I let my expectations get too high. The trout in the ravioli was from a can and the sauce was more cream with a dash of wine instead of the wine with a dash of cream that I was envisioning. Oh well. Catherine got to have another pizza and the beer was still great.

On our last day in El Chalten, Catherine decided that she wasn't up for the hike to the Leguna Secca (TODO check this), so I went solo. I got out of the hostel at 7:30am and stumbled around town for a while trying to find the trail head in the dark. By the time I got going and reached the first mirador on the trail it was 8:20 and the sun was showing signs of starting to come up. Since I had a crystal clear view of the mountain range and Mt. Fitz Roy, I decided that I wanted to wait at the mirador for dawn and do some photography. It took a little longer than I expected and it wasn't until 9 that I was able to keep going, but it was worth it. See for yourself.

I had to be back in town by 1pm in order to have time to shower and get ready before our shuttle to the airport. That would put my turnaround time at about 10am, but the first mirador is only about 45min into a 3 hour hike. So, it tried motoring to get to the lake in time. I didn't quite make it. At around 10:30am, I was about 20 minutes from the lake and I decided that I should turn around. I was already able to see a lot of the glacier and it wasn't worth missing the plane. Plus, I had consciously made the decision to catch sunrise even if it cost me a view of the glaciers. In the end, I could probably have made it since I got back to town around noon, but you only know that in retrospect.

The hike itself is gorgeous. It's a rolling elevation hike with nothing too serious, even for tired knees. As you get closer, the two glaciers that you're aiming for start to open up and you can start to see up their valleys. It was crystal clear that day so the only clouds were those rolling in off the gigantic continental glacier on the other side of the mountains. Incidentally, if you want to be extreme, El Chalten can do it for you. The only way up Mt. Fitz Roy is, hard, vertical rock climbing. Or, you could take the many day, mandatory guide, trek around Mt. Fitz Roy and over the continental glacier. You end up spending days walking, sleeping, and living on the ice.

One last note, at the end of the hike, I ran into the two Belgian teachers again. We had met them originally in Torres Del Paine when their tent almost ended up in the lake because of the wind. They had just arrived in El Calafate and the weather report said that the clear skies were going to cloud up so they wanted to get to the Laguna Secca. It just goes to show you that around Patagonia, everybody is doing the same thing, so make friends. You'll run into them again.

Torres Del Paine

This blog entry goes into more detail about our time in Torres Del Paine. Catherine gave a good overview, but for posterity's sake, I wanted to record a little bit more.

Day 1

On the first day of Torres Del Paine, we had to wake up very early at the hostel in order to catch the bus into the park that left at 7:30am. Our hostel didn't have a large dinning room so there were two breakfast shifts: 6:30am and 7:00. We were on the 7am shift so we got to sleep in a little bit more. But still, but the time we hopped on the bus, it was still dark out. That's one disadvantage of going to Patagonia in the fall, the days are shorter.

The bus ride was an uneventful 2.5 hrs with a quick stop for overpriced coffee at a tourist stop. That stop gave us our first view of the mountains in the park rising up out of the scrub.

When we entered the park, we had to pay the park fee and then we were corralled into a room to watch a video on park rules and especially fire safety. Apparently there have been two major forest fires in the last 10 years. Both were caused by humans. This is especially problematic because there aren't very many naturally occurring wildfires down here, unlike the US west. The owner of the hostel said that int he 14 years in the area, he'd only heard thunder twice, which means there isn't much lightning to start fires. In any case, the first fire was caused by a Check. They fine him and apparently felt really bad about it, but didn't have enough money for the fine, so he emptied his bank account. In general, the people we talked to had forgiven the guy. The second fire on the other hand was more controversial. The official story is that a young Israeli went off the path to relieve himself and to clean up, burned the toiled paper. Another story says that it was simply a bonfire in an unsanctioned campsite. The problem is that young Israeli's have a very bad reputation in the area. Apparently, after their mandatory service, the young men are given a bunch of money, which they can use to go to school, start a business etc. Many of them decide to travel and for some reason South America is a hot destination for them. So, you have a large number of 20 year old guys who are away from authority for the first time in their lives. We all remember freshman year in college.

Anyway, after the fire video, we took the minibus to the refugio where we'd be staying on the first night. Refugios are basically hostels on the mountain. There are bunk beds to sleep on, showers to use, fireplaces and food to buy if you want. They have similar huts in the Alps and in either case, they tend to be expensive, although to avoid a cold Patagonian night, worth it. We checked in and dropped off our big bags. Then we had a quick lunch and donned our day packs. Our goal was a quick afternoon hike up to the towers, the iconic image of Torres Del Paine.

The first part of the hike was a steady climb up the foothills to the Chileno refugio. It definitely got the legs moving, though we were lucky. That area can often be very windy, but for us is was just a steady breeze. The Chileno refugio was closed for the season, but we stopped for a quick snack and to refill the water bottles. One of the great things about hiking in these mountains is that you don't need to carry much water with you. Just put your nalgene in a stream and enjoy some fresh glacial melt!

Up from the refugio, it was a relatively flat walk through the forest until the path split. One way went to the campemento, the other went up to the towers. The last stretch up to the towers was a wicked climb over and around boulders, but at the top, you get a fantastic view of the granite spires towering over a blue glacial lake. A popular way to see the towers is to camp at the campemento and then get up before sunrise so that you can see the towers at dawn. However, that wasn't an option for us since we weren't carrying camp gear.

On the way down the mountain, we got a little bit of rain, but it was warm and windy enough that it wasn't worth putting on any rain gear. This would be our warmest day in the park and the only time we were able to hike in shorts.

At the bottom of the mountain, it was getting dark. We saw some crazy people who had lit a bonfire right off the road so we let the refugio staff know when we got in. Originally, we were planning on making dinner since it would be a lot cheaper and we wouldn't have to carry the weight. However, it was dark and we were spent, so we decided to splurge and buy the dinner from the refugio, which consisted of a chicken, egg drop soup, a hunk of pork, mashed potatoes and canned fruit for dessert. Not bad for camping food.

After dinner, we chilled by the fireplace for a while and then went to bed. Unfortunately, one of our roommates snored like a freight train. I could hear it from the bathroom across the hallway with the doors closed and it wasn't even consistent. It would slowly build for about seven breaths, each one louder than the previous, until he'd partially choke and you'd hear a loud snort. So appealing!

Day 2

Our second was a short day, but with full packs this time. We were hiking the 6 miles or 4.5 hours (according to the map), to the Cuernos refugio. We started with a leisurely oatmeal breakfast, a staple of our trip seeing as how Catherine couldn't eat anything the refugios were serving. Plus, it is the ultimate camping breakfast in my opinion. The day was much cooler than the previous day, so needed more layers, but it was fairly comfortable. Shortly after we started walking, it started to rain. It was strong enough that it was worth donning full rain gear and it lasted for about a half hour. By the way, pack covers are a genius idea!

The hiking was a lot of up and down as we were skirting along the base of the mountain range. It was frankly the most beautiful day overall, largely because of the variety. We started in scrubland, with a view over the lake and hills. Catherine says that it reminded her of Land Before Time. Well that dates us doesn't it? As the day went along, the sun came in and out at our altitude, but it was still mostly cloudy up at the mountain tops, so there was some spectacular lighting. Also, as you might be able to guess, with sun and rain and low clouds, what do you get? Rainbows!! Tons of rainbows. We saw full double rainbows. Rainbows that were close enough that they reached down below the horizon and tinted the actual terrain. We even saw some rainbows on the lake late in the day that were caused by the wind whipping up a spray of water.

We also hiked by Badger Canyon, which you can't go up because it is an area of heavy rock falls. Lo and behold, we heard two falls going by. Around the same time, we also were buzzed by our first condors. Huge birds that just swooped by overhead.

Near the end of the hike, which was midafternoon, the wind really started to pick up, but we didn't get the worst of it because the bluffs largely protected us. Around one of these bluffs, we found the refuigo nestled into the hill. It was well protected and there was even a small city of cabanas w/ hot tub that you could rent out. Although, apparently the cabanas get very cold at night.

We stayed in the bunks in the main refugio, which were stacked 3 high. Since we got in early (and so did most other people), we had an opportunity to talk to the other travelers. There was a Scottish couple who had just finished biking down Argentina and were now running around Torres del Paine. Apparently, it's a common thing to run the circuit (100+ km of tough terrain) in 3 days, staying at refugios. There was a British ex-accountant Nadine who quit her job and has been traveling for 6 months around the world with no plan to stop. There was Tom, a Dutch fish farmer, who just finished an internship in the Chilean salmon fisheries. There were a couple of from London on their holiday from banking. Finally, there were two Australian management consultants who were talking a few weeks vacation, but setting up for their sabbatical in a couple of years. Apparently in Australia, France, Belgium and other places, along with minimum holiday time, they have sabbaticals so if you are at the same company for X number of years (5-7), you can take a year off and come back to the same job.

During some good conversation, we enjoyed some pisco sours from the refugio, which were cheap and tasty because they had enough acid to them. For dinner, we made egg and ham curry with rice. It's a pretty decent one pot camping meal. We had hard boiled eggs in the hostel before leaving and had been eating them for lunch. Of course they were heavy, so we made sure to finish them off at dinner. This was the second dinner we had planned to make because the next day was going to be the biggest day of the trip (10 hours and 20km).

Day 3

As I just mentioned, this was going to be the biggest day. We had to take our packs to campemento Italiano, which was an 8km, 2 hr hike. There, we would switch to day packs and walk up the French valley to see the glaciers, which could be up to 3 hours. Then, back to Italiano to get the packs and continue on the last 11km and 2hrs to the Paine Grande refugio.

When we woke up before dawn, it was scattered rain, so we made our oatmeal and the sky cleared just enough to see the sunrise, paired with a rainbow. Everybody else doing that route had left camp already, but it took us a little longer because we were making our own food. It turns out that the delay was quite lucky. When we left, it was raining quite hard, so we had full rain gear on, but we only had to walk in the rain for about an hour before it cleared up.

At campemento Italiano, we talked to the rangers, who said that the valley was only open to the first lookout, about a half hour up, because it had snowed 20 cm overnight. So, we had some lunch and packed a light pack and went up. The first viewpoint was a spectacular boulder field. We could see the glacier on the valley floor and another one to our left up the mountainside. However, we didn't see where the trail was closed, so we kept going, and going and going. In total, we ended up walking two hour up the valley, well past the snow line. We kept seeing people on their way back, who said that there would be a good view over a far ridge, right when the valley opened up. Well sort of a good view. At first, people described it as quite cloudy, but as we got closer, people were starting to say that it looks spectacular. By the time we got there, it had mostly cleared up and we had a great, snowy vista.

On the way down the valley, it we started to get quite tired, partially because we had only brought enough food for a 1 hour hike up the valley, not 4. As a result, we were a little weak and our knees took more of a pounding than was good for them. Back in the camp, we were ravenous, so we ate before slinging on the big packs and heading out for Paine Grande.

The trail to Paine Grande was the easiest we had encounter since it was mostly flat. It spent a good amount of time going through a large burn area where the burnt trees made it look like a witch's haunted forest. Spooky. As we neared the end of the trail, the wind really picked up and we were blown all over the patch as we trudged into the refugio.

The Paine Grande refugio was the coldest, windiest one yet. There was a campground around the refugio and I'm just glad we weren't in one of the tents. There were a couple of Belgian teachers whose fly ripped and their tent, filled with sleeping gear hurtled towards the lake. Luckily it was caught by a tree, but they had to rent one of the tents that the refugio had setup.

Dinner was a tasty combination of veggies, potatoes, meatloaf and bread pudding, so we spent the evening eating and socializing with the Belgian girls and the banking couple from London.

Day 4

The day was quite miserable. The worst day weather-wise that we had in Torres Del Paine. We had a three hour hike up to Grey Refugio, at the foot of Grey glacier. It was rainy. It was cold. It was as windy as we have every experienced. Anywhere. Plus, my knee was sore after the previous day, so near the end of the hike, there was a big downhill that was a real challenge to get down. On the plus side, arriving at the refugio, we saw a fox and, we got to see our first icebergs. As our Belgian friends said: so blue! Near refugio grey, you can actually kayak among the icebergs or even do a glacier hike, although that wasn't in the cards for us.

Our original idea was to drop off our stuff at refugio grey and then continue along the path to an old campsite in order to get an overhead view of the whole glacier. However, my knee was not up to it, so we waited in the refugio for the weather to clear and then went to the lookout 10min away in front of the glacier. It was jaw dropping, especially with the sun reflecting off the blue ice and the iceburgs clustered in the inlet.

For the rest of the afternoon, we curled up by the fire and read our books and talked with Tom, Dutch fish farmer who we had met in Cuernos and had the same itinerary as us. There were not many people staying at the refugio, so we actually got an entire room to ourselves and for dinner, all 8 of us sat around the table together. There was us, Tom, the Spanish couple that snored, two middle aged Jews on their honeymoon and an Emirates flight attendant who grew up in Scarborough, but is obviously living in Dubai now.

Day 5

Our last in the park was a short hike. The catamaran left Paine Grande at 12:30, so we had to make it from refugio grey in time. So, we had to get up early. So early in fact that they hadn't turned on the electricity in the refugio yet, so we packed up and ate breakfast with headlamps.

The weather was a lot better than the day before. There was no rain and the wind had shifted a little so it wasn't so challenging. It was still a strong wind on the hike, but not nearly as bad. Plus, the sun came out after a while.

The hike itself was relatively uneventful except that we saw a colony of what looked like green parakeets part way down. I thought those types of birds like a more tropical environment, but I guess they like Patagonia too.

We made it back to Paine Grande with a half hour to spare and so we relaxed a little bit before the catamaran arrived and talked with the British bankers who had stayed a second night at Paine Grande. When the catamaran pulled up, off came the two Australian management consultants. One of the fun things about hiking Torres del Paine is that you end up seeing the same people many times. It gives you a great opportunity to make friends and to hear the stories of other world travelers.

Once off the catamaran, we boarded a bus to take us to the park entrance. On the way, we saw a huge cabal of condors circling above a ridge. I counted 21 of them. You don't see that everyday.

At the park entrance, we switched buses again, back into the little minibus to get us back to Puerto Natales. Through all this bus changing, we managed to run across the Belgian girls, Nadine and a French girl we had met earlier when making oatmeal in Cuernos.

When we got back in town, we unpacked in the big double room this time at the hostel. It is significantly bigger than the dinky one we were in before. After showering etc, we headed out to get some laundry done and to find something to eat. Catherine has a good description of the crazy laundry guy and the fun we had at the dive bar watching football with a bunch of Chilenos.

Next stop, El Calafate.

Our First Rest Day

CI:  We've been gone for more than an week now, and it's been quite a trip so far.  Today we're in El  Chaleten, a small town in Argentinian Patagonia and taking our first day "off".

We landed in Santiago, Chile on March 31st after an unremarkable flight via Miami.  We had almost 10 hours in layover, so we checked our bags at the airport and headed into the city to wander around.  Unfortunately, it was Easter Sunday so there was nothing much to do and most shops/restaurants were closed.  We walked for a few hours around the town center. Our first impressions of Santiago: there are policemen everywhere (several on every block in the area we were in, which was the city center.  Is the city especially dangerous or is this some kind of jobs program?)  and it's filthy (there was trash everywhere and the river through downtown literally had bags of garbage floating in it).  We'll be back in Santiago for a few days in about a week, and hopefully with more time we'll have a more positive experience.

The first few days we spent getting our travel legs.  Stupid things we have done so far:

1. Found out the hard way that very few places accept credit cards and that ATMs are unreliable--we arrived in Punta Arenas with only cents to spare
2. Nearly missed the bus to Puerto Natales--Apparently this region of Chile pushed daylight savings time back an hour but didn't update the cell phone networks (?!) so we were an hour off
3. Catherine left her bank card in an ATM somewhere
4. Brought two sets of size 3 knitting needles and no size 4 needles, which of of course are the ones I need. Rectified in Puerto Natales.
5. Brought raingear and boots that only aspire to being waterproof--totally inadequate for Torres del Paine
6. Not bringing all our adapters.  Apparently Argentina uses the same adapters as Asia (?!) and not the one used by the rest of South America.  Fortunately they've retrofitted one outlet in our hotel room.

After another flight and a bus ride, we arrived in Puerto Natales, which is the gateway town to Chilean Patagonia.  We stayed in a goofy little hostel called Erratic Rock which is run by some hippy dippy expats from Oregon.  We had a private room about one foot bigger than a twin bed in every dimension right next to the shared bathrooms.  Apparently s-traps haven't yet made it to Chile so it was pungent to say the least. The outfitter next to the hostel runs a very helpful orientation talk about trekking in Torres del Paine national park--highly recommended if you're planning to travel without a guide.  They also rent all the gear you could possibly need, although if you're willing to hike in rented hiking boots you're braver than me.

We ended up with an extra day in Puerto Natales before our trip to the park due to a kerrfluffle with the airline, so we spent the morning of the 3rd kayaking in the bay.  It was a lovely day and it was fun to see the town from the water.

On April 4th we finally headed into Torres del Paine national park.  Torres del Paine is the most famous area for trekking in Patagonia-you've almost certainly seen pictures.  There are two main treks to do: the Circuit, which takes 7-9 days (although we met a crazy ultra marathoner whose plan was to run it in one day) and the "W", which takes five days and hits the main highlights.  If you do the W you can do the trip staying in Refugios the whole way and not have to carry a tent (they will also feed you and rent sleeping bags so you don't have to carry any gear at all, although we brought our bags and a stove to cook breakfasts and some dinners).  I can't speak for what is like in summer, but I was really, really glad to be sleeping indoors.  The weather was truly foul for a lot of the trip and a tent would have miserable.  It rains part of every day and drizzles for much of the rest, and it's cold (high of ~45, low below freezing) but what was really brutal was the wind.  I have never experienced wind like this--not in Newfoundland, not at the top of Sublette right before they close the lift.  We met people who were literally blown over, and one night two Belgian girls we met had a guy wire ripped out of their tent and the tent blown away with all their stuff inside. Luckily, a tree stopped it from swimming in the lake.

Torres del Paine is magnificent. Of all of the places I have been, Patagonia may be the wildest and most rugged.  Walking in these mountains it feels like you're hiking off the end of the Earth.  The landscape changes all the time from desert to forest to Andean steppe to high alpine to subarctic to glaciers every kilometer or so.  Words won't do it justice, so here are some pictures. More pictures are available on the album.

 

Some thoughts about the hike, in no particular order:

1. These are long hard days, especially if you've just spent the last six months sitting one your butt writing a dissertation.  We had two days of 10+ hours and three more of 7-10 miles with a fair amount of elevation.  If you stay in the Refugios, though, you can do the hard parts with only a day pack.  We are both a little worse for the wear and glad to take today off.
2. Bring serious foul weather gear, including a pack cover.  And trekking poles.
3. The map they give you is pretty detailed, but the contour intervals are every 250m (which is crazy coarse) so you get all excited about a a relatively easy day only to have it actually be thousands of vertical feet.
4. If you eat all your meals there and rent sleeping bags, the Refugios are crazy expensive.  Lik $100+ pppd expensive.  We saved a lot cooking our own breakfasts, one dinner, and carrying our bags.  They are good about gluten free, though.
5. There are rainbows everywhere! We saw several a day, including one in a lake, created by the wind whipping up a spraw. It's a phemonenon I have never heard of, much less seen.

At the end of the hike we bused back to Puerto Natales for the night.  We experienced quite a bit of local color that evening.  To wit: the two-hour laundry guy (who must have been at least 65), upon becoming concerned at my poor circulation after shaking my hand, attempted a diagnosis.  He pulled out a chart that looks like reflexology except for eyes, stared deeply into my eyes for an uncomfortable length of time, and then told me that something was wrong with my vagina (the chart said so!). Then he gave me a name to google and told me to eat right for my blood type.  We ate dinner at a local dive bar with terrible food and cheap alcohol and shared a table with Pedro and Marcello, who bought us several drinks and were exceedingly patient with my broken Spanish. (I was doing great until we got to the subject of gun control).

Yesterday we spend mostly on the bus getting from Puerto Natales to El Chalten, Argentina, with a several hour excursion to see the spectacular Perito Moreno glacier.  We're here for the next few days at a lovely B&B with a double bed (!) and a private bathroom (!!) for more hiking and some R&R.  Then on to Buenos Aires.

You are probably waiting for the part of this blog where Mark goes on and on about food.  The food has been pretty uninspired, though, so we'll skip that this time.  We've cooked some and eaten our some.  So far, food has not been cheap (actually nothing is cheap--fingers crossed for Boliva and Peru) although wine is.  Gluten free has not been too much of a trial with the exception of an inadequate perusal of the ingredients list on a granola bar.  Dairy free AND gluten free is flat out imposslbe so that's out the window.  My hands are holding together so far. So far, the trip has been relatively easy.  Me speaking some Spanish is useful, but probably not necessary.  It is occurring to us that we were way too ambitious with the amount of stuff we're fitting in to this trip; this will definitely be a "highlights" tour.  Next time we'll know that seven weeks is really only enough for two countries, max.

Ciao for now!