Puerto Natales

Travel day today, over 6 hours on bus from El Calafate to Puerto Natales. The terrian on Argentine side is treeless and wind swept, mostly pasture and again not a lot of cattle to be seen.

We spent about 2 hours exiting Argentina and entering Chile. The bus stopped on the Argentine side, all exited the bus so we could have our documents scrutinized, stamped and written on. The bus driver even passed 10 pesos to an officer, presumably repaying a prior debt.... We then proceeded to the Chilean border post about a kilometer away and again emptied the bus, this time with all our baggage. The process was a bit more organized, but again documents were carefully reviewed, baggage was run through a scanner and we were asked only if we had fruit(which we did not) and then were admitted to Chile..... Other than the time it takes to review 2 bus loads of folks documents, the process was efficient I suppose....

The bus dropped us in town and we are now free to roam Chile.... We are staying at the Keoken b&b a very nice place with helpful folks running it.

Had a quick lunch and beer at El Living, a cafe with an interesting vegetarian menu and delicious chile and sandwich.... and the beer was also delightful after the long bus ride.

Then spent the evening organizing gear and packing for our visit to Torres del Paine that starts first thing tomorrow with a 2 hour bus ride to the park.

Portions of the Park are still closed, although the exact closure is not entirely clear.... but we will find out for sure when we are there on the ground. It appears tbat the west side of the trekking circuit is still closed from the recent fire. However, I am sure there will be enough areas to visit. We plan on being in park for 10 or 11 days. As no cell or internet there will try and catch this story up in early February....

Los Glaciares Day 3 and 4

Day 3 and 4 Camp Poincenot to Laguna Piedro Blanca, Laguna Capri
and return to El Chalten and El Calafate


Up at the crack of 9:30, and another sunny day, well maybe a few whisps of clouds, but they soon cleared...a rerun of breakfast and off on a day trip to visit Laguna Piedros Blancos. Its about a 3.5 km walk down the valley. The trail follows the Rio Blanco downstream to the Piedro Blancos valley.... the last km up valley is slow going following well placed cairns through granite boulder fields (many thank to parks for the markers). 
It is well worth the effort, Glaciar Piedras Blancas spills down from the icefield above terminating at Laguna Piedro Blancos. Numerous bergie bits are stranded in the Laguna, they make their way to the outlet where the are trapped and slowly melt in the summer sun......
 We enjoy some time on the rocks here, crowds are much smaller than Laguna de Los Tres, maybe 10 other folks here, maybe 100+ (probably a lot more) at Los 3.


Back to Camp Poincenot and pack up our stuff to head down valley and reduce the extent of our morning walk to El Chalten. Its a pleasant 1 hourish flay stroll to Laguna Capri. A delightful spot whers folks are swimming in the lake and enjoying the sunny day, we spend a couple hours on teh shore soaking up the sun....
A young lady standing knee deep in the water for a longish time (thong and bikinin top) seems to indicate the water is good.... we go in for a refreshing if brisk 1/2 dip....

Back to campo and reprise dinner substituting genuine Argintine corned beef for the tuna.... delicious...


The Laguna Capri Camp is smaller than the previous ones, maybe 20 tents. But the inhabitants make up for the
lack of mass with impressive stamina. I was woken up by boisterous converstaion on and off until 3:00 AM, but sadly slept through the conjugal event thereafter....

We have to catch the bus by one, so an earier start required... I think we were up by 8:30, Elaine stil a bit miffed that she was awake until 5... but hey, she heard all the entertainment... A quick ditto of breakfast, most importantly the delicious instant coffee (am I really saying this?), break camp and head to El Chalten.

Its about an 1:15 walk from Laguna Capri, a 350 m elevation drop so pretty much downhill. Many folks coming up, maybe passed at least a hundred? A justifiably poular spot. Once down to El Chalten, its back to a tourist town, more like Waterton than Banff, decent accomodation and coffee/Abuela/Cerveza places, but pretty quiet... many unfiinshed construction projects are seen, the rebar sticking out of the ground floor of someprojects paints a picture of dreams still to be realized.

The merchants are well stocked with high end items. sunglasses, clothing, campimg gear etc amd of course craft work from local (or chinese artisians). I even found some (yet to be tested) White Gas/Naptha... I thought I had previously purcased Naptha, but what the gentleman called Benzene Blanco and assured me was ¨white gas¨ but seems to be some form of Kerosene, but clogged both K and G jets of MSR whisperlight, I repalced the jetes, cleaned the stove fully 5 times so far it would work until shut down then not restart...  Hopefully this version of fuel works better.... I should have brought the jetboil, canisters are available every where...

At 1:00 PM we are on the bus back to El Calafate,. The views of the mountains to the west are spectacular, but clouds are seen to the southwest... for shadow, will find out in a day or 2...?

Choique - Shamelessly clipped from Wikipedia

From the window, I saw a group of 2 legged crature that looked something like Ostriches, do they ranch them here? Didnt look like a domestic farm? I  decided I must have been mistaken, but then I saw anote rone close to the highway.... I looked in a book in a bookstore in El Calafate and see that indeed thes creatres exist, called a Choique, can be close to 5 feet tall and weigh almost 90 pounds.... who knew... getting back to the  internet decade I found out enoug and maybe even more that I wanted to know about Rheas....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_%28bird%29


Back in town we ´got a room´ again at Puerto San Julian (decent place, friendly folks, beer in the fridge, breakfast included... did I mention they speak english?) and clean up from 4 days on the trail.... sometimes showers are really wonderful.... A couple of beers at a sidewalk cafe dulled the aches of the walk, we decided to try the ´Pizza Free´place, turns out it serves Pizza too... just unlimited quantities as long as ypu drink unlimited quantities... novel idea in atourist town... we opted for the pay as you play pizza, ham. cheese, olives. MAYO??? wtf.... Mayo was artisticaly squeezed as if from a cake decoration device liberally over the Pizza.... actually wasn´t too bad.. but weird...

Pack up our crap in the morning and the the bus to Puerto Natales..... Will see how the politics of wildfire are burning in Chile...Not clear yet what is open at Torres del Paine...

Los Glaciares Day 2

Day 2 Camp Torre to Camp Poincenot with side trip to Laguna Tres

No alpine start today, up at maybe 9:00, another bluebird morning, we can't believe our good fortune.  A hearty breakfast of bran buds and a boiled egg, washed down with surprisingly delicious instant coffee....mmm mmm....   We break camp and head for Camp Poincenot, 10 kms away below the east face of Monte Fitzroy. The first 3 kms reverse the last 3 of yesterday, then a short climb to a pass into the Fitzroy basin. The trail passes through more beech forest and past a couple of lovely lakes before descending to the trekkers camp at the base of Fitzroy. 

Monte Fitzroy and Laguna Madre

Climbers are afforded a special campsite of their own about 500 m away, not sure why the segregation and who benefits from it....

Camp Poincenot is bigger and busier than Camp Torre, tents everywhere, some only a few feet apart.... Earplugs a requirement.

We make camp and head for the storied view of Fitzroy from Laguna de Los Tres. This lake lies some 400 vertical metres above the camp and maybe 1.5 km as the crow flies, very steep. We meet many people descending the trail, a kind lady offers when we are about 10 minutes into the walk that , 'you are almost there' we are cheered by this news but skeptical as the gps shows only 50m of some 400m elevation has been done. The trail steepens and a parks sign informs us that this trail is the most damaged in the park system. To preserve the environment the parks department has hacked a new trail into the mountain side, very near the old one. ( the old trail looks in most places to be better than the new one...) We stumble up the new trail though boulders with loose rock, in the zeal to get the construction project finished the design phase was apparently forgotten. No surveyed switchbacks here. Anyway we persevere and about 20 minutes later another kind soul tells us it is.only 10 minutes to the Laguna, this time I hope it to be true, however 30 minutes later another gentleman informs us that is about 20 minutes to the Laguna... This proves to be true.... Interestingly all these prognostications of nearness or time to the objective came unsolicited? Did we look like we needed false encouragement, are some folks just mean spirited.... who knows. Several folks also volunteered that the walk up was well worth the effort, also possibly as encouragement. (yes I know that we are twice the age of most of the folks here, but come on we aren't that old).

Laguna de Los Tres

They were absolutely correct in that it was very worthy of the effort, at the top the Fitroy massif towers above the Azure waters of Lago de Los Tres, glaciers tumble below the smooth granite faces. We wander a few hundred metres over and look down on Laguna Sucia, a Peyto Lake replica about 300 m below our vantage point. A delightful hour or so is spent enjoying the views. The descent is as ugly as going up... we meet an unfortunate young lady who has fallen and injured her leg, its a long way back to camp but she says she has a bandaid, it might cover 10% of the massive contusion on her lower leg.... We return to camp for a delicious dinner of couscous and tuna, less of a surprise tonight.... Even though there is over 50 tents, the night is generally quiet other than the squeal of glee form one young lady....

Los Glaciares Day 1

Day 1 El Chalten to Laguna Torre

We are up early to travel to Fitzroy area for a few days backpacking. The sun is already up before 6:00 and its a bluebird day, not a cloud in the sky. The bus leaves El Calfate at 8:00AM, its about 2 hours by excellent paved highway to El Chalten. Very open dry grasslands, a few Guanocos, a few Sheep, Cattle and Horses but not a lot. Most buildings/farms appear abandoned, one or maybe 2 occupied. Land can graze maybe 1 or 2 animals per square mile. No doubt a tough living so land maybe managed as massive ranches? After about 2 hours Monte Fitzroy and Cerro Torre can be seen from the bus window. Spectacular granite peaks, Monte Fitzroy peak  at 3400+m is some 3000m above the valley. The bus stops at the National Park visitor centre and they passengers are herded into a room, english speaks on the right, espanola on the left. A young park ranger tells us the rules, and we head back to the bus to travel the remaining short distance to the bus terminal. We notice that the spanish speaks were given a map at their presentation.... Would have been handy....

Cerro Torre

Off the bus in El Chalten, shoulder the packs and a short walk to the trail head at the edge of town. Our planned route is up the Rio Fitzroy valley to Camp Agostini just below Laguna Torre. The path is well worn, with many other hikers (trekkers?) both day tripping and with full gear, even a few climbers. Its a pleasant walk through generally open country with some forested sections, interestingly the trees are all deciduous(beech?) no evergreen forests here... Cerro Torre dominates the view up valley for most of the walk, an amazing granite pinnacle rising from a massive icefield. It takes about 3 hours to slog the 9 kms to the camping area, we are happy the trail is relatively flat.... Only 250m elevation gain.

We setup camp among the other tents, we counted over 30 later in the evening, a very popular spot. Our tent is a Stephenson Warmlite 2C specially purchased for this trip after we heard about the fierce Patagonia winds. This tent can supposedly withstand 100mph winds, I hope not to test that ceiling.

We then head for Laguna Torre a short walk above the campsite, it is not as blue as it appears in the map, rather a grey/green from the glacial silt. We walk away up the trail to Mirador Majesti until we find some suitable rocks to hang on and enjoy the grandeur of this place.

Laguna Torre

Back to camp and time to check out the plumbing.... Primitive could describe it but that might glorify the facility too much, looks like a normal construction project toilet unit, however on opening the door, one notices immediately that there is no toilet, in its place is a hole in the spongy floor, carefully cut in the shape of a toilet seat, just to make us feel at home I suppose. The sign on the wall with a smiling pig encourages our accuracy with a cheery "Lets be clean Put it on" .... The floor and wall are silent testaments to the apparent difficulty many have in putting it on. A delightful 1 pot slop of tuna and couscous follows. We go for a short walk and encounter a lady waitimng fro her male companions, she is wearing flipflops, caaring a 1 gallon Thermos container, nothing else, she is 6 miles from the road.... her male companions return, they are no better equipped....these folks are tough. We retrace our steps to camp and retire for the tent. The night is clear and calm the tent remains untested....

Perito Moreno Glacier

The rental micro chev was just fine.... the 80  kms to Perito Moreno glacier were traffic free. Left El Calafate at 7:30ish and were out to glacier by 9:00. Tour buses weren't on road yet.... a brilliant drive.

The glacier is an amazing natural feature, as seen on right, a massive ice front extends from the icefield and it ends in 2 separate lakes calving large blocks of ice into the water randomly...

The lookout area is a busy tourist destination, as well some local fox like creatures called 'zoros' were around early to check out the menu....
We spent a couple hours walking the view point trails, very excellent walk ways.... spectacular views... a short video below gives a decent feel.



Back in El Calafate, picked up some supplies, white gas, lighter, food etc... packed our gear for next four days of backpacking in the Fitzroy area.Then a deserved or not beer, then dinner. Someone asked about the beer, as a wise friend once said beer is beer with few exceptions.... much the same here.... ahh but the wine  is delightful and the beef.... well there is apparently lots of it.... don't get the full order...two of us were unable to finish 1/2  order shown below....

They also have a unique window presentation for lamb on a rack so to speak.... we had a small sample that was tasty....

On bus in AM to El Chalten, back in El Calafate late sunday, Puerto Natales Monday? later...

Arrive Argentina

Lets try this again.... some technical difficulties trying to use this program on handheld iphone and blackberry playbook... so far playbook has least errors.... amazing....Steve come back....

Anyway after 28 hours of airports and flying(18hrs in the air), we are now at El Calafate in Argentine Patagonia, pretty much 1/2  world away given Calgary's 50+ degrees north latitude and El Calafate's50+ degrees south...

Along the way we passed through Houston, Buenos Aires international and Buenos Aires Jorge Newberry airports. All very clean, organized and efficient.... at least on these days and times.... and of course the El Calafate city? airport was a delight to land at after circling for 30 mins....( another flight was landing, busy place).

Pizza is a big thing here, so much so one establishment has declared it self Pizza Free. Regardless we dined on delicious pizza and beer...Tomorrow maybe pizza free.

Will try and figure out how to add some photos....might need to find a real computer... Puerto Moreno glacier tomorrow.... ok bye...

In transit

Cab arrived, even a few minutes early? Other than the driver not having any idea about getting to airport the trip was uneventful, customs took the oranges we were thinking of having as a snack.... Anyway safely in Houston airport and fortified by a bud light and a Pooboy sandwich will soon to board the flight to BA Another 10 hours and will be on the ground in Argentina... One can hope.... Then change airports And off to El Calafate in afternoon...

Before the beginning

Well, all the crap is in the bags, 1 more sleep before we leave at 1:00 tomorrow. Hopefully the notoriously unreliable Calgary cab arrives in AM. Looking forward to exiting the -20 deep freeze that has set in the last 24 hours. Am hoping we will have time to update this page a few times along the way... if this is the only post and its February, I guess it didn't happen. Anyway, this is the first load of asphalt on the road....