Mar 2008

After the hell of Torres del Pain we set off to another famous hiking town, El Chaltén, home of the Fitz Roy mountain range. It is officially Argentinas newest town, founded in 1985, and it shows, because they are still building all the roads, post office, shops etc. In the morning, at breakfast, Dee had a couple of handfuls of the "Fruity Loop" type cereal which is right at the back of the breakfast box because they taste like boiled sweets and look like someone smashed a rainbow and covered it in E numbers and sugar. This probably wasnt the best idea because 30 minutes later on the truck when everyone was trying to sleep, Dee turned into a hyper-active giggling child. She was screaming and sniggering and talking complete rubbish. Everyone else on the truck was confused who this new loud, annoying group member was. I put on my mp3 player and pretended to be asleep, but it was hard not to notice the ADHD sufferer sitting next to me. At the next stop everyone agreed that Dee should be banned from eating that cereal again.

The weather when we arrived was sunny, which we were told was a rare thing for that part of the country. Instead of walking up the mountain range we decided to pay for the optional extra of walking on a glacier. We had been so impressed by the Moreno glacier that we were keen to see one close up. The boat trip started early so we could see the sunrise over the beautiful icebergs on the Viedma Lake. We stopped at the end of the glacier and walked a short way to the edge of the glacier. We put on our supplied crampons over our walking boots and stepped onto the glacier. The crampons are great fun to walk about on ice with. They make you feel like spiderman - you can walk up near-vertical slopes and stick to the ground with no problem. The surface of glacier wasnt as clean as the one we had seen before - I think this area is very windy and it blows sand and dirt onto the surface, but the crevices were a dark, dark blue colour where the ice is so old and compressed and it glowed from the sunlight penetrating the glacier. We stomped around with our crampons for a bit and got to an ice cave for a photo opportunity. The guides broke some ice off the glacier and served us Baileys on the (glacier) rocks, which was lovely. We did a bit of ice climbing and Dee kept pretending she needed help because she fancied the curly-haired guide, and then headed back.

The next day we were going to go for a walk up a mountain, but it rained, so unfortuntely we sat on the truck all day and played cards and drank wine. Luca managed to call the hostel we were at previously and arrange for someone to bring my jacket to El Chaltén, so in return we bought Luca a bad hat, which he loved.

That night the kitten, which has been running around the campsite in the cold, got into our tent somehow and slept in my sleeping bag. Dee quite liked the little thing, I think I can turn her into a cat lover eventually.

So after the PAIN of torres we head back to civilisation and to, wait for it, modern day luxury. A "matrimonial" (double room to you and me) with ensuite shower/toilet and most of a bloody bed to soothe my aching body. I am physically shattered and my feet look like pig trotters as the toes have been eaten away by blisters. Well I exagerate a little but its not pleasant, so stright to the shower and a home DIY pedicure - lush!

After another pasta rich, carb loaded, home cooked stodge dish off the truck I went to the room to read my book and relax. Ollie found me 5 mins later snoring, book on face and a slight trickle of attractive drool pooling on the pillows, he tried to wake me, he got an earfull.

El Calafate is the closest town to the Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park, our next stop on the trip. Its also famous for this little bush that grows berries that they make tea and jam out of. Its said that if you eat or drink the berry you will return to El Calafate one day. Shame it tastes like absolute dog dirt, but it is quite a nice town.

So next day we are greeted by our nice tour guide for the day and head towards the glacier. Of course, we have seen them in Torres, but we had to hike uphill miles, which somewhat took the pleasure out of it, and they were a little grey in colour. This time, as we came round the corner we were greeted by a milky turquoise glacial lake bathed in sunshine and what looked like fluffy white meringue on top and deep icy blue flowing into the cracks. Its stunning and the best thing Ive seen so far.

This glacier is the 3rd largest in south america but its the only one that is not retreating and stable. Its 250km long, and the point you view is 5 km wide, with an average height of 60 meters above the surface of the water and 170m below. It advances at a speed of up to 2 m per day but loses at the same rate so you are always going to see the amazing spectacle of pieces breaking into the lake.

The night before it had rained non stop and now the sun was blazing making conditions perfect for ice fall as the rain water heats in the deep cracks. From the platform view point you can her first the crack (like thunder) and then start to see small drips then a massive piece break off. They can been thrown meters away and cause massive waves. We also saw a piece that had broken off from the floor of the glacier rise to the top of the lake, it rose half way up the height of the glacier and was the deepest richest blue colour and MASSIVE, the boat near it had to move fast and looked like a micro machine compared to the giant iceberg.

We took a boat trip on the glacial lake to 200m away from the front of the glacier. We saw a massive wall of ice fall in and everyone on the boat ran to the other side with the fright of the load cracking noise and growing tidal wave. Only me and Ollie ran to the front of the boat to get the best view, I did debate that I may get wet but assumed it would be worth it, however, the captain skillfully maneuvered the boat to ride the wave and we barely felt it.

Ill stop yabbering on about frozen water now, but, it really was magnificent.

So last night in El Calafate we were all excited still from the daytrip so headed into town for dinner. This, as usual with myself and Ollie, turned into after dinner, drinks, cocktails, shots and dodgy club. Carlos and Big Head our new buddies, joined us in making drunken idiots of ourselfs in the casino at half 4 in the morning. I was thinking I was on a massive roll on the slot machines in the casino. It took ages to load about 50 coins in each time (totalling about 10p English) but each time I kept winning! - an hour I played like this until I learned the wheels never turned and the spanish word for ´cancel´was on the button I played with. Damn, my dreams were shattered.

We slept through the alarm, the tour guide woke us with one minute to pack and leave. I had to do the walk of shame to the bus in last nights clothes and makeup streaked cheeks. Ollie left his only waterproof winter jacket at the hotel as we were heading into Los Glaciares national park, it rains a lot, there is ice, its cold, good move. Im glad we paid extra to have a double room that night and not a dorm, the 1.5hr sleep I got in bed that night really worth the money. ;(

Off deeper into Los Glaciares national park.....

This leg of the journey, from Ushuaia to Santiago, is where we do a lot of the hiking. There are 3 big walking destinations; Tierra del Fuego (which we only did a short 2 hour walk to the beavers dam), Torres Del Paine and Los Glaciares National Park. We have told ourselves that this is the leg when we are going to get fit and stop drinking so much.

We had 3 days in Torres Del Paine National Park. The approach was spectacular. The mountain range is the end of the Andes, which is a 7000km long mountain range that spans pretty much the whole of South America. We cross it and climb it and slide down it many times in the next few months. The Torres Del Paine range sticks out of the landscape like giant mr whippy 99 ice cream which could be seen for miles away. We sat on the roof on the way in to get the full effect of the size of the range. It was pretty cold up there but it was worth it.

When we got to the campsite we got a good spot in a little hut to protect us from the wind then 3 of us decided to climb up a hill overlooking the campsite to get a better view of the mountain range. The walk was a tough uphill stuggle followed by some rock climbing at the end to get right to the top of an out crop. We were knackered but proud of ourselves and figured it was good practice for the next day.

How wrong we were. The first walk was to see the 3 towers, which is the main walk of Torres. We were enthusiastic when we set off, wearing our walking boots for the first time, with my hydration bladder in my bag, thermals, fleece, goretex jacket, packed lunch and bar of chocolate. The walk was in 3 parts. The first was a steep but boring incline up the side of a mountain. My lungs were burning after about half an hour and to make it worse the sun had come out and it was boiling hot, completely the opposite of what we expected. Who climbs a mountain to see a glacier and expects it to be hot? We had to take all our layers off and then carry them for the rest of the journey. After the first hour we didnt appear to be any closer to our destination, and everyone in the group had gone ahead of us, but the route changed to a more foresty and less steep walk. After over an hour walking uphill, walking downhill felt gooooood.

The second part of the walk took an hour and went by a river. The views werent very spectacular, but most of the time we were looking at our feet anyway and wishing it was over. The third part of the walk was a boulder scramble to the top. When the glacier had melted hundreds of years ago, it had left huge boulders which were very hard to climb over. By the time we had crawled to the top it would have to be a f··king amazing sight to make this pain worthwhile. Fortunately the 3 towers had been covered in cloud all day and had just cleared as we got to the top. There was a little glacial lake and a waterfall and the rest of the group were there to greet us. It was nice and quiet and we had a chance to chill out, put down our stuff and enjoy the view. The relief was only sullied by the fact that we had to pick up all our stuff again and travel another 3 hours down the mountain to get back. By the time we got back, Dees feet had turned to bloody stumps and my legs felt like jelly. We collapsed on the grass and people cheered as we arrived. It was one of the worst experiences I had been through, not just on this trip, but ever. I dont think me and Dee are natural ramblers.

On the second day everyone set off to do the French Valley walk, but we decided to go horse riding instead, with the rest of the blistered people. The views of the range from the plains were amazing and we even got the horses to canter, but me, dee and a couple of others had the older horses and eventually everyone else had trotted off and left us with the retirement party horses to slowly amble the last hour and refuse to go any faster, no matter how hard we kicked them.

We were tempted not to go out on the third day, but I really wanted to see the glacier so I forced Dee to come on another walk to the Grey Glacier. As soon as we set off Dees blisters were in pain and she was in a bad mood. She refused to talk to me until we got to the first viewpoint for the glacier, 2 hours into the walk. We had lunch and headed back to the bar at the bottom of the mountain. She cheered up after a buy-one-get-one-free pisco sour

We left Torres with the understanding that we are not good hikers...

Straight after ushuaia was our first bushcamp with the new group. We stopped a short way into chile in what looked like a small deserted village. There was a deserted building next to the camping area which looked like an old school, an old shop and a huge building which looked like a factory. It was my job to get the fire started so I went looking for firewood and almost immediately I found a dead dog in a chicken coop. On further inspection I also found a dead sheep in a dog kennel and another dead sheep lying next to a dead fox in the school building. Somethiing about this town wasn't right. Maybe there was somethiing in the water that had killed everything in the village. There was graffiti on the walls saying things like "juan 2007" or "carlos + maria 2006". I freaked out a bit when I saw one saying "DAN 2010". If things here weren't weird enough, there was also graffiti from the future...

We explored the shipwrecks on the beach, ate dinner and then went to find out what was going on in the factory. We weren't too surprised to find out it was an abbatoir. Things couldn't get much weirder. There were a few more dead sheep lying around outside and the smell was almost unbearable as we scrambled in via one of the sheep pens. The huge building was covered in sticky bits of wool, and at the end there was a long box-like contraption that we guessed was the killing machine. The smell was starting to make us feel sick and when I mentioned that you can get anthrax poisoning from dead sheep wool, we legged it out of there. All that was left to complete the horror movie we found ourselves in was some redneck psychos to ride into town and hang us up in their sheep-torture device. As it happens, one local did ride up to us, but he was a friendly guy and told us that the land was owned by a farmer with 60,000 sheep. He didn't tell us if these sheep were alive, or had been trained to eat human flesh, but he looked healthy and that was enough to convince us there wasn't a rare brain-eating virus that wiped out the village.

Another interesting bushcamp.

Finally we have arrived at the most southerly town in the world, its been long (5989km) and painful getting here and people are definately trucked out but glad to be here. Special moment for all of us as we all stared together in Rio and travelled all the way down togther and this marks the end of the first leg where 10 people leave and 10 people join.

Pulling into Ushuaia was strange, as I was expecting ice, snow and general cold but the weather (although I had my ski jacket on) was rather mild, they keep reminding me its summer. We all did the tourist poses at the towns entrance then put up the tent -again. Our tent has leaked everytime its rained and basically I was fed up of having a tent shower in the night so I nicked one of the girls tents who was leaving the trip the next day. I felt a little guilty knowing some new excited fellow traveller would get our damp leaking cast off, but then "snooze you lose", right?!

At the campsite the owner is "Mr Steak", soon as we pulled up he was beating 3 (dead) cows into steak sized portions. The other option was fish, with head and bones, so I had my lettuce and bread and lots of Argentinian red wine. As it was the official last night of the first leg we partied hard saying good bye to "Team Oz - youre awesome!". There was a columbian family staying at the campsite and they had all their mates down celebrating their daughters 3rd birthday, so we headed down to the Rio Pipo for a folktastic fiesta. I never knew I could drum, but few glasses of wine and I rocked that bass beat. It was cold so a large fire kept us dancing and drumming into the morning dawn. Perfect last night, difficult saying bye to people youve lived with for the past month but excitment at meeting the next lot!

The next day all the "newbees"arrived. They all had on serious hiking gear and me and Ollie both gulped - maybe this leg was the party leg and now the serious hard work begins?! In fact, none of them were still drunk from the night before - maybe things are gonna be a changing :S

Chance for a quick shopping expedition in town - I didnt buy anything but Ollie has the whole of Ushuaia now packed in his bag. One sleeìng mat, thats not enough for his delicate hips, he HAD to buy the deluxe self inflating quilted 8cm thick matress. I have his punctured cast off. Plus, trainers, head torch etc, etc. At least he was happy.

The afternoon was spent eating free cakes and cookies on board a boat taking us down the Beagle Straight to the famous Faro lighthouse. We saw yet more sealions and sea birds but no dolphins. A little overpriced for what it was but worthwhile doing - if not for the free cake.

Then off to my most challening restaurant of all time. Ushuaia is famous for King Crab. What happened last time I ate crab - yeah thats right, great big swollen puffy face and general illness. So, salad and bread again and trying not to breathe in fumes. Ollie said it tasted pretty brilliant though.

The next day was an early start to Tierra del Fuego national park. Part owned by Chile we went to the Argentinian side and did an american style natinal park visit. Coach, guide, half hr drive, 100m walk to cafe, 20 min drive, 5 min walk to a tourist spot. Didnt really enjoy the way our trip ran but did get to see the worlds most southerly post office and saw a beaver dam.

Off to Chile tomorrow, the second leg of our adventure. The walking bit, the glacier bit, mmm, exercise and cold. My blog entries may be quite rude and grumpy from now on. Better stock up on that Vino Tinto.

P.S. It was the 29th while we were here so I proposed to Ollie, if the man says no, you get a present. The bugger said yes, no present, dont start panicking dad - I was NOT serious. Just wanted some jewellery, chocolates, wine.........etc