Jan. 15
What a lovely day. El Chalten is not our favorite place at the moment... It is about 30 degrees, it is pouring ass rain and it is so windy that we can barely stand upright at times. Needless to say, most of our tents are drenched along with everything in them. Heidi, Sara, and I spent the day outside, if you can imagine, trying to line up a trip to the nearby glacier. We felt as though it was a futile attempt since the weather was so foul, but we didn´t travel all this way to not at least try. Back at camp, most of our fellow travelers were in rightful foul moods or drunk.
It was a bit of a nightmare getting our trip organized. We needed to rent boots, buy rain pants, buy different gloves etc. All at different stores of course which required going out into the ghastly weather again and again. But in the end, it was all sorted out.
We spent the night in a giant workshop at the edge of town because all of the hostels were full. Most of us were greatly relieved we wouldn´t be stuck on the tuck overnight. Gotta love Patagonian weather. I can´t believe this is summertime...
Jan. 16
Holy shit! We awoke, in our dirty shed, to a glorious morning with bright skies and beautiful mountains that were previously hidden in shrouds of cloud and rain. It was like someone had flipped a switch. We were so excited and greatful that we braved the elements the previous day to book our glacier trip.
We took a boat across a lake to the Viedma glacier for our day excursion of ice trekking. After a short hike, we strapped on our crampons and took to the ice. We took amazing pictures as our guides led us around the glacier. Some people in the group were able to go ice climbing, which is what Heidi and I wanted to do, but it was booked full by the time we got all of our gear lined around. Bastards. We are still a bit bitter about that. Oh well. We had a great time anyways.
After a few hours, the guides gave us a nice cupful of Bailey´s Irish Cream with glacier ice. It was fantastic and we could have been content to spend the rest of the day on the glacier. We then ate lunch back on the boat and headed for shore.
That afternoon we left El Chalten for Calafate where we will visit another glacier and spend a couple of days.
Jan. 17
Arrived in Calafate late the previous night and for some reason the booking at the hostel was not correct. Once again, we have no rooms. Fuck. We ended up spending the night in their new construction site without any ammenities. BUT, we have upgraded from a shop (sleeping on plywood) to an almost hostel (with bunk beds and matresses!).
Today we had a free day in town. We spend the morning showering and pretending to be ¨civilized¨ human beings again. Then we had lunch and found a wine store, wandered around a bit, moved into our real rooms and are now at the internet cafe. I think tonight we shall try some local food and have a few drinks. Who knows, maybe we´ll even convince some people to go dancing!!!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Into Patagonia
Jan. 8
We spent the morning at the mall, grocery shopping and buying warm socks. We were then supposed to catch an overnight ferry to Chaitén, however they overbooked it and there was not room for our truck. And the next ferry wasn´t for two more days. So we went back and set up camp again to leave the next morning for a ferry in a different town, setting us back a couple days.
Jan. 9
Got up early to drive to Hornopiren on the Carraterra Austral. We took a 20 min. ferry with nice views and sea lions. We arrived early and hiked "25 min." to a waterfall that took an hour. We had a nice campsite by the river and had our first campfire of the trip.
Jan. 10
Boarded the ferry to Chaitén at 9 am for the 12 hr. ride. After the boredom set in around 1130 am we decided to crack open the wine. Which was finished before lunch. We saw Magellan Penguins and some dolphins. We arrived in Chaitén early and drove around town to see the ash. Chaitén was evacuated in May 2008 because the volcano just behind the town errupted for the first time in 9,000 years, covering the town in ash and causeing the river to flood. We camped at a place close by with hot springs that were really nice.
Jan. 11
We awoke to pack our gear that was now completely covered in ash. We spent most of the drive on the roof seats on top of the truck. It´s chilly but you can get great views of the mountains. We camped in a National Park with a hanging glacier called Ventisquero Colgante. Some of us made the short hike to a view point where you could see the glacier and the massive waterfall coming out below. While we were at the view point the glacier made some noises that sounded like thunder followed by large chunks of ice falling to the valley floor. Coolest thing ever!
Jan. 12
Drove all day around a lake with gorgeous views and ended up bush camping by a river and waterfall. The girls made an awesome bonfire and some German cyclists joined us.
Jan. 13
Made it to the Argentinean border, where we were heckled by the Chilean border control for not having a piece of paper, from the airline, with the exact same stamp that´s already in our passports....assholes. We camped just accross the border near a lake in a crowded campsite...but they had hot water! Yay!
Jan. 14
Got up very early to make a 12 hr drive to Chalten the trekking capital of Argentina. We drove all day accross desert with very high winds. But we saw Guanacos (like llamas), Rheas (mini emu), armadillos, and wild horses. We arrived in Chalten where it is very cold and windy and little bit rainy. We walked around the town, which has a population of 600, and ended up getting a beer in a bar, before returning to our wet tent...in the rain and cold.
Jan. 15
Bad weather, so we´re finally catching up on our blog, laundry, and eating some real food. Have plans to take a boat tomorrow mornging to a glacier to do some hiking and ice climbing, hopefully the weather improves.
We spent the morning at the mall, grocery shopping and buying warm socks. We were then supposed to catch an overnight ferry to Chaitén, however they overbooked it and there was not room for our truck. And the next ferry wasn´t for two more days. So we went back and set up camp again to leave the next morning for a ferry in a different town, setting us back a couple days.
Jan. 9
Got up early to drive to Hornopiren on the Carraterra Austral. We took a 20 min. ferry with nice views and sea lions. We arrived early and hiked "25 min." to a waterfall that took an hour. We had a nice campsite by the river and had our first campfire of the trip.
Jan. 10
Boarded the ferry to Chaitén at 9 am for the 12 hr. ride. After the boredom set in around 1130 am we decided to crack open the wine. Which was finished before lunch. We saw Magellan Penguins and some dolphins. We arrived in Chaitén early and drove around town to see the ash. Chaitén was evacuated in May 2008 because the volcano just behind the town errupted for the first time in 9,000 years, covering the town in ash and causeing the river to flood. We camped at a place close by with hot springs that were really nice.
Jan. 11
We awoke to pack our gear that was now completely covered in ash. We spent most of the drive on the roof seats on top of the truck. It´s chilly but you can get great views of the mountains. We camped in a National Park with a hanging glacier called Ventisquero Colgante. Some of us made the short hike to a view point where you could see the glacier and the massive waterfall coming out below. While we were at the view point the glacier made some noises that sounded like thunder followed by large chunks of ice falling to the valley floor. Coolest thing ever!
Jan. 12
Drove all day around a lake with gorgeous views and ended up bush camping by a river and waterfall. The girls made an awesome bonfire and some German cyclists joined us.
Jan. 13
Made it to the Argentinean border, where we were heckled by the Chilean border control for not having a piece of paper, from the airline, with the exact same stamp that´s already in our passports....assholes. We camped just accross the border near a lake in a crowded campsite...but they had hot water! Yay!
Jan. 14
Got up very early to make a 12 hr drive to Chalten the trekking capital of Argentina. We drove all day accross desert with very high winds. But we saw Guanacos (like llamas), Rheas (mini emu), armadillos, and wild horses. We arrived in Chalten where it is very cold and windy and little bit rainy. We walked around the town, which has a population of 600, and ended up getting a beer in a bar, before returning to our wet tent...in the rain and cold.
Jan. 15
Bad weather, so we´re finally catching up on our blog, laundry, and eating some real food. Have plans to take a boat tomorrow mornging to a glacier to do some hiking and ice climbing, hopefully the weather improves.
Rolling, Rolling Rolling
Sorry it´s been a while. We haven´t been anywhere with the internet in a couple weeks. So we´re just going to do a quick recap to get up to date.
Jan. 2
We had our meeting with Dragoman in the morning an met a few of the people we would be traveling with. After moving into a different hostel we headed off for the Funicular (train like thing) and Teleferico (cable car) with Sara, a Scottish girl on our trip. The Teleferico went to the top of a hill in Santiago and had nice views of the city. We took a break at the biergarten on top of the hill before heading back down. We then proceeded to get lost for about 2 hours, because no taxi knew where the road was that our hostel was on. Finally after buying a map, we made it back and went out to dinner with most of the group...at a viking themed restaurant. It was definitely interesting.
Jan. 3
Today was our frist day on the truck "Mamasita"...she´s a beast. We stopped during the day at the Belduzzi Vineyard for a wine tasting. Where we got try a Carmenere, which is apparently the Chilean specialty. And also where Moss (Australian lady) told Lawrence (pretentious British guy) that she was going to "gangster slap" him if he didn´t stop having such a bad attitude. Ha ha, it was hilarious! We ended our day camping by a river with a huge waterfall. A few of us went swimming in the river, but it was a bit chilly since we didn´t make it in until after 8pm.
Jan. 4
Today we arrived in Pucón, a cute town that is definitely tourist oriented. The weather was really nice so we wandered around town and had some ice cream. And that´s about it...
Jan. 5
Today was the first day of poor weather we´ve had. So we ran some errands to find an adapter and an alarm clock. We finally found one alarm clock in the entire town and it worked exactly one time before breaking. We ate some more ice cream and had an afternoon beer before heading back to the campsite to have a BBQ.
Jan. 6
We got up bright and early to climb Villaricca Volcano, which was just outside of town. We headed to the tour agency to get geared up with ice picks and crampons. We then headed to the bottom of the volcano where the weather was fairly iffy. We started up the mountain in the fog, gale force winds and cold. After about 4 hours we were about 150m from the top when the guides decided to stop because of the weather. Every once in a while the clouds would clear and we´d get a nice view of the lake and town below. Heading down was definitely the best part. There were snow chutes made from people sliding down the volcano. So we clipped some tarp like material on, kind of like a diapper, and sat in these chutes and slide down the volcano. You were supposed to use you ice pick as a brake, but that usually didn´t really work. Once we made it to the bottom with frozen bums, the guide gave a Pisco Sour for our hard work. That night we went out to dinner at "El Rincón de la Carne" that´s Volcano of Meat, for you non Spanish speakers.
Jan. 7
Drove to Puerto Montt, where we got lost and drove around town for a while. Camped by a playground, and drank wine while swinging. Callie had been sick for the last few days and spent the night in the truck because she wasn´t feeling well. However, unknown to Callie one of the girls that had already been on the truck 2 months had started a "relationship" with our guide/truck driver (who never showers...ever, seriously...ewww!) and they sleep on top of the truck. Callie was wondering what he was doing up there to cause the truck to rock so much! Double eww!
Jan. 2
We had our meeting with Dragoman in the morning an met a few of the people we would be traveling with. After moving into a different hostel we headed off for the Funicular (train like thing) and Teleferico (cable car) with Sara, a Scottish girl on our trip. The Teleferico went to the top of a hill in Santiago and had nice views of the city. We took a break at the biergarten on top of the hill before heading back down. We then proceeded to get lost for about 2 hours, because no taxi knew where the road was that our hostel was on. Finally after buying a map, we made it back and went out to dinner with most of the group...at a viking themed restaurant. It was definitely interesting.
Jan. 3
Today was our frist day on the truck "Mamasita"...she´s a beast. We stopped during the day at the Belduzzi Vineyard for a wine tasting. Where we got try a Carmenere, which is apparently the Chilean specialty. And also where Moss (Australian lady) told Lawrence (pretentious British guy) that she was going to "gangster slap" him if he didn´t stop having such a bad attitude. Ha ha, it was hilarious! We ended our day camping by a river with a huge waterfall. A few of us went swimming in the river, but it was a bit chilly since we didn´t make it in until after 8pm.
Jan. 4
Today we arrived in Pucón, a cute town that is definitely tourist oriented. The weather was really nice so we wandered around town and had some ice cream. And that´s about it...
Jan. 5
Today was the first day of poor weather we´ve had. So we ran some errands to find an adapter and an alarm clock. We finally found one alarm clock in the entire town and it worked exactly one time before breaking. We ate some more ice cream and had an afternoon beer before heading back to the campsite to have a BBQ.
Jan. 6
We got up bright and early to climb Villaricca Volcano, which was just outside of town. We headed to the tour agency to get geared up with ice picks and crampons. We then headed to the bottom of the volcano where the weather was fairly iffy. We started up the mountain in the fog, gale force winds and cold. After about 4 hours we were about 150m from the top when the guides decided to stop because of the weather. Every once in a while the clouds would clear and we´d get a nice view of the lake and town below. Heading down was definitely the best part. There were snow chutes made from people sliding down the volcano. So we clipped some tarp like material on, kind of like a diapper, and sat in these chutes and slide down the volcano. You were supposed to use you ice pick as a brake, but that usually didn´t really work. Once we made it to the bottom with frozen bums, the guide gave a Pisco Sour for our hard work. That night we went out to dinner at "El Rincón de la Carne" that´s Volcano of Meat, for you non Spanish speakers.
Jan. 7
Drove to Puerto Montt, where we got lost and drove around town for a while. Camped by a playground, and drank wine while swinging. Callie had been sick for the last few days and spent the night in the truck because she wasn´t feeling well. However, unknown to Callie one of the girls that had already been on the truck 2 months had started a "relationship" with our guide/truck driver (who never showers...ever, seriously...ewww!) and they sleep on top of the truck. Callie was wondering what he was doing up there to cause the truck to rock so much! Double eww!
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