TravelStream™ news feed for member pgphoto on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/pgphoto en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 21 May 2008 21:26:06 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgphoto/1/1211413620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgphoto/1/1211413620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgphoto/1/1211413620/tpod.html Wed, 21 May 2008 21:26:06 -0400 The Road to Macondo

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Bariloche, Argentina

So the 29 hour bus trip..... Mmm, not exactly fun but not exactly as bad as it sounds either. I decided to take a longer but quicker route out and up by the Atlantic Coast in a more comfortable "cama" bus where I had a seat that reclined to about 160 degrees. Well we still had to stop and change buses at three different places so it wasnt like you had one long continous rest but I´ll bet it was a lot more comfortable than the other option I was contemplating - a 36 hour bone shaker of a journey up a more scenic but unpaved road in a crappy bus. A lot of time was spent in a daze or reading, nothing much else to report except that I woke up at one of the bus changes and realised that I´d left my ticket on the previous bus and they weren´t going to re-issue me another ticket for the longest leg. After arguing in broken Spanish while half asleep I eventually found the ticket. I looked like a total prat but that was better than forking out for a new ticket!

I decided to stop about 2 hours short of Bariloche in a town set up by hippies in the early seventies called El Bolson. Apparently there´s not a whole lot to do there except relax and eat jam which is exactly what I needed to do after too many late nights and three weeks of hiking at least every other day. I just needed some restful sleep and to maybe study some spanish (I hadnt looked at a book since the start of the trip) so I decided to get a room of my own in somewhere a bit nicer than normal to chill for a few days.

I got talking to Patrick on the bus, who is from Kells of all places. He also knows Dave who I´d been hanging around with in Ushuaia and had met him the week before in Buenos Aires. Small small world. I didnt want to seem rude but told him that I planned on taking it easy rather than just partying in a hostel so he said he´d come along and get a room in the same quiet place I had picked out. We tossed a coin to see who´d get which rooms and I got lucky with the much bigger one but in fairness they were both great. I had a shave for the first time in about 5 weeks, took it easy, got the laundry out of the way, made some calls, just bummed around really. I ended up heading out for a couple of drinks with Patrick later on but seeing as the night life was so dull it ended up being an enforced early night which wasnt necessarily a bad thing for my energy levels.

One of the most touristy things about the place is the market on a Saturday which in fact has some really nice stuff. The town is also famous for it´s numerous local brews which can be found in the market as well as a few micro breweries. I sampled a few and they were just great, they also got me talking to half the market and I bought a couple of gifts and found a beautiful but massive and heavy xylophone which I was nearly going to buy. I decided to leave it and call the owner later if I wanted it as I had to find out first how much it would cost to send it all home. I ended up bumping into Shane in the market, he had been scooting around town on a rented bike and just got as far as the market.

After two pints Shane could barely stay on his bike so we ended up looking for a micro brewery and found one that was only open until 6pm (how does that make sense?) but which sells the best stout I´ve ever had - the stuff is 9.5% and tastes of coffee and chocolate. Heaven! The guy who ran the place made his own guitars which were actually pretty decent. Of course it ended up being a very late one, waiting around for half the night for a band to start which turned out to be pretty rubbish. I headed to bed at around 3 having drank myself sober but Patrick somehow managed to keep going til 7.

The next day I was a wreck, I managed to rent a bike for the afternoon to cycle out to a couple of waterfalls which were pretty rubbish but the cycle itself was nice. The town is situated in a broad u-shaped valley surrounded by fairly high mountains. The changing leaves and snow capped peaks provided a soothing backdrop to my pain as I managed to blow away a few cob-webs and listened to some spanish CDs that Karen Fitz had given me. I must have fitted right in with the locals, talking to myself with wild hair and red eyes.

The next day I was going to just take the bike out for another trip around the outer areas of the town to enjoy the scenery and take it easy as I had a massage booked for later in the evening after which I was going to leave to visit Bariloche. Gordon however had other plans for me and rocked up at my place just before I had left with an Argentinian friend Juan who had rented a car for a couple of weeks. They convinced me to join them in climbing up the biggest mountain in the area which was meant to have great views. I agreed on the condition that I´d be back in plenty of time for the massage and to pick up the xylophone that I´d eventually decided to buy. The hike itself was really steep, fairly tough due to the pace but relatively quick. The people on the refugio on the way up took Juan´s number in case we didnt appear back down again as the paths were covered in snow. Great views on the way up there but the clouds closed in just as we got to the top which was a bit of a pity, at least the old wind got us up and moving again as I was in danger of missing the massage and the the girl with the xylophone.

Got back down just about 10 minutes late as Juan happened to bump into his best friend´s sister in the refugio on the way down, just about made it in time to meet the girl with the xylophone then went off for the massage. My back had been in bits since Torres del Paine so the massage was really welcome, though I nearly missed my bus out of there after talking for over half an hour anout spirituality in Spanish after the massage... it must be improving!

Some pics here....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulgaffney/sets/72157605145523479/show/

I got to El Bariloche quite late and got a taxi to a hostel where they were kinda supposed to be holding me a room but wouldnt confirm. The place was recommended as having an amazing view and being kind of laid back so I thought it would be worth the extra effort. It´s actually situated on top of the tallest building in Barilohe and looks out over the ity and massive lake below. Quality views, decent rooms and extremely anal owners. They had little signs up everywhere with rules for this and that. They must be used to catering for babies. That said, they were pretty helpful. Spent the first day there just sitting out on the balcony, reading and enjoying the view. ould barely sleep the first night as a fat English bloke was snoring the whole time. Someone atually got up and hit him with a pillow but it didnt solve anything.

The day after I rented a bike to cycle around the Ciruito Chico at Llao Llao which is just a bit outside the city. The route takes you around a few lakes and up and down some very steep hills. The scenery was beautiful and I stopped at a little secluded beach with an english couple I had been cycling with. There were massive big hawks in the trees and we managed to coax one down with a bit of our lunch. They weren´t even half scared of us! It was idyllic until a group of really noisy Puerto Ricans came along so I decided to head on and met up with another small group of people for a hike up a hill to a viewing point over the lakes. One of the guys, Scott from Scotland, had just finished up a 2 year stint in Antartica. Had some really interesting conversations with him, he´s given me some ideas...

We stopped at plenty of more views including Argentina´s most famous hotel and an impressive sunset before heading back to Bariloche to meet Gordon who was due to arrive at my hostel. We ended up heading out to an Irish bar which was the only one that was busy early on. Thankfully it didnt feel to Irish though but we decided to try somewhere a bit more local afterwards and ventured into a rock bar where everyone was about 5 foot 6, under 25, Argentinian and dressed in goth clothing. We stood out a mile (especially Gordon who´s well over 6 foot) so just stayed for the one before heading to a club. The entrance fee was a bit cheeky so we pretended to leave and they let us in 2 for 1. We ended up spending a fortune on booze anyway so I dont know why we bothered. It was a really weird place music wise... you could have Enter Sandman by Metallica one minute and Madonna the next. We were the only people dancing, just decided to take the piss and enjoy ourselves since everyone around us was po faced. Going absolutely hammered on Jaegermeister and Guillmes. Gordon reckons he was sick on the way back home but neither of us were too sure.

The following day was May Day so since everything was closed we didnt feel so bad about wandering around town hung over and eating the local chocolates so we consoled ourselves with preparations for a three day trek over the weekend just outside Bariloche. I spent the next morning sending home the xylophone and about 7 kilos of camping equipment and couldnt believe how light my bag was feeling after it. Gordon was determined to camp during the trek but I had had enough of carry all that crap and since there were refugios that we could stay at I took the easy option. The first day of the trek was only about 3 or 4 hours and brought us up through a burned out area where a forest used to be and then a very nice wooded area after that. The refugio was set just beside a frozen mountain lake and surrounded by tall rock faces where you could see people climbing and abseiling. The facilities were basic but you could at least get some running water and the guy who runs it cooks up a decent feed too. It was close to sunset so we decided to climb up one of the surrounding peaks to try to get a view into the next valley towards the sun. It ended up being a lot longer and more dodgy than we thought and in the end we couldnt actually even see much further. It was dark by the time we got back but we had managed to get some decent photos on the way. We met a couple in the refugio (Marco and Yvonne) who had just finished a 5000km cycle from Quito in Ecuador, down through Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina into Patagonia. They kept us laughing over our candlelit dinner with some really interesting stories and lots of good info on places to visit and things to do on the way up the continent along with some good bars to visit in Bogota.

The second day of the hike was another great day of hiking, up there with the best I´ve done in Patagonia. We had to climb up over 2 passes and through a massive valley to get to the next refugio. Marco even decided to take a dip in a freezing lake on the way... mad git. We heard lots of crazy big rumbling noises during the day but they were lasting too long to be avalanches and there was very little snow. We joked that maybe there was a war on or something. The day was all topped off with one of the best dinners I´d had in a while, though it was hard not to rub it in with Gordon who was supping on soup and pasta. The last day was a bit of a rush down the mountain through a forested valley as I had a paragliding trip booked in the afternoon. It ended up that I couldnt do the paragliding because it was too cold so I booked in again for the next day and we met up with a couple of Swedish guys Emmet and Joel that Gordon had travelled with before and Karen (who I had met briefly in El Bolson) and watched the Boca Juniors vs River Plate game in the Irish bar. It wasn´t the best game ever. Boca scored early on but neither team looked like doing much afterwards so the fans were fairly quiet during the match. That didnt stop them running around the street later and starting fights with one another. There were lots of cars going around beeping horns with lads hanging out the sides waving Boca flags and chanting. After about 5 minutes it was obvious that there was only about 10 cars doing the same block. Just like Navan. It also happened to be Bariloche´s 106th birthday so we were treated to some fireworks from the pier right next to hostel.

I tried to go paragliding again the next day but it was too windy this time around so I just took a chair lift up to Cerro Otto to check out some of the views and had lunch in a very touristy revolving restaurant. They even had a museum up there with life sized models of some of Michaelangelo´s most famous works. Why bother? I met up with the Swedes, Gordon and Karen again for a meal in a "hobbit" restaurant made out of wood with a massive big round door where Joel ate about half a cow. Without a doubt the biggest steak I´ve ever seen.

It turned out the rumbling noises we´d heard on the second day of the trek had been the Chaiten volcano erupting a few hundred kilometres away in Chile. I had planned to go to Chaiten to do some trekking after visiting Chiloé where I was planning to go to the following day which is off the coat of Chaiten, about 100 km to its west. The Swedish guys gave me a few tips for Chiloé and seeing as there had been no news of any negative impact I decided to head in that direction as I had heard that it was very different from the rest of Chile and since it had been pretty much isolated for hundreds of years it had developed its own slightly different culture and myththologies.

Some Bariloche pics...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulgaffney/sets/72157605141654384/show/
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El Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina

With a new camera and a recovering body I took the bus to El Calafate in Argentina which is famous as the gateway to Argentina´s Parque Nacional de los Glaciares and met Shane from Cork at the border, who had camped with us on the last night in Torres del Paine. We didnt have too much of a wait on either side of the border but thought at one stage that some apples that an english couple were carrying was going to cause a bus-wide search of other such meat and fruit-like contraband. We ended up heading to the same hostel in El Calafate which turned out to be the best hostel I´ve stayed in so far... anywhere!

Many of the other guys from Torres were also staying there and had got there the day before. We met them looking tired and wet after their "Big Ice" hike on the Perito Moreno glacier. It had been pissing rain all day and they didnt have many good things to say about the hike, they reckoned it was too long (5 hours on the ice plus another couple to and from it) and the shorter one would probably be better. Myself and Shane decided to go for the long one anyway, hoping to get better weather the next day. We had a monster sized barbeque in the hostel and got an extra beer free because the barman reckoned Brian O´Driscoll is a cry-baby. Surprisingly the only rugby slagging in Argentina so far. We ended up staying up way too late with some of the Torres guys and then later on we ended up playing Shane´s guitar with a couple of real reggae-heads that worked in the hostel. Really cool guys, had a great laugh, but maybe not the best idea to be drinking til 4 if you´re due to go on a trip at 7.

We had to drag our drunk asses to the bus a few hours later to get out to the glacier. The park itself has over 200 glaciers, most of which are advancing, at least 12 of which are massive, it also has the biggest ice-cap outside of the polar regions, several massive lakes and some amazing trekking at its northern end. The glacier which we were due to visit and hike on is not even close to being the biggest but it is still 5km wide, 30km long and is the most famous. It´s well known because you can get very close to its face and also because of a natural phenomenon which happens every few years when the glacier advances across Lago Argentina cutting off one arm of the lake from the rest. This causes the water to rise more in the lake on the north face of the glacier as the lake is taking in water but has nowhere to drain it to. A small tunnel forms under the front of the glacier and eventually enough pressure builds up and the front of the glacier collapses. When we were there the water at the north face was a whole 7 metres higher than the other side!

There are a whole series of walkways to let you get close to the face and no sooner had we got there that a massive chunk crashed off into the water with a massive thunderous splash. Our guide seemed happy because you could be waiting there for days to see that happen. After a very short 15 mins or so we all piled back on the bus which shuttled us over to a wharf where we got on a boat to get to the south shore of the glacier from where would start the hike. The weather was gorgeous and warm and we hiked for about an hour to where we could pick up and fit our crampons and get on the ice itself. The glacier is so wide that we were only trekking on the outer edges which only moves 15cm a day (the middle moves 1.5 metres!) so the ice doesnt get as bunched up and its more like a moonscape than the craggy peaks in the middle so there was no need to tie us all together for safety. It was a really strange experience walking with the crampons on, you have to be careful not to catch them on each other or you legs so everyone is walking around like a bit of a zombie at first. We saw amazing ice formations, deep blue sink holes and even got to climb into some small crevices. We also got to have a picnic on the ice next to a little lake which had formed on the surface of the glacier. Really beautiful, had a numb ass afterwards though... naturally.

I didnt find the hike long at all, the good weather made all the difference, it would have been very cold if the wind had picked up and miserable in the wet. When we got back to the boat we were given whiskey on the old glacier rocks and chocolate. Man they know how to treat people who´ve been walking all day! We finished off the evening with more quality all-you-can-eat BBQ, more steak than I´ve even seen and some beers with a few other Irish people into the hotel who tricked us into staying up late drinking again.

You can see the pics from the glacier here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulgaffney/sets/72157605073996097/show/

We spent the next day bumming around the town, buying bits and pieces and getting ready for the hiking that we had planned for El Chalten. Ended up having another massive feed of BBQ, beers with the rasta guys and playing guitar - Shane is really good for someone who has just been playing a few months!

We next moved on up to El Chalten at the northern end of the park for a few days trekking around some of the most spectacular mountains in Patagonia. The town is only about 25 years old and was set up to claim the territory for Argentina after some disputes with Chile over the borders. Chile still claims certain parts of Argentina... I can see why they try, when the global warming heats up they´ll be one of the countries worst affected. In fairness Argentina still claim ownership of the Malvinas Islands too (the Falklands). Anyway, its a tiny place, with just a few streets but you can go hiking from your front door which is cool.

We were due to meet up with Gordon and JP and after some confusion everyone managed to find each other. The first day was fairly cloudy and although it wasn´t raining most of the highest mountains were hidden. The scenery still managed to be beautiful though. We headed up towards a glacier on the side of a mountain with a few others from JP´s hostel and after taking a wrong turn we decided to save time by crossing to where we now knew the track to be. We had to go through seriously wet, boggy land to get there and eventually came to a river which was too wide to cross so had to make it back up-river to a bridge and lost about and hour and a half, it was still beautiful hiking so I didn´t mind a whole lot. We eventually got to the glacier after scrambling up a short valley with massive boulders. Really great views of the glacier in front of a small lake, but we had to turn around pretty quickly to avoid walking for too long in the dark. I let the lads wander on ahead after a while and I managed to see Fitz Roy through the cloud, it´s a really imposing mountain, easily the highest in the area and is still a difficult mountaineering prize - many people have died trying to climb it. Needless to say we finished off the evening with some booze and brownies in a german micro brewery no less. Poor Shane had to get up to get a 7am bus back to El Calafate to catch a plane up north and it was just comical seeing him trying to get up the next morning. I woke up a 7:05 and woke him up, he ran outside and the busman said he couldnt wait so he ran back in effin´ and blindin´ then ran back out and saw the bus stopped a few hundred yards down the road then grabbed his stuff and ran back out, doors slamming all over. A minute later he was legging it back for his wallet. I dont know how he managed to catch that flight.

I met up with JP a couple of hours later (after arranging to meet Gordon further up north) for what turned out to be one of the best day´s trekking I´ve ever had. The day was glorious, the clouds just about stayed away from the tops of the mountains and we had great craic as well. He´s a very very funny guy, a smart one too! We spent about 10 hours trekking to several lakes, seeing many great views and managing to catch the sun setting behind Fitz Roy itself. Now´s probably a good time to tell you that the photos are below... Btw Flickr uploads them in reverse... ie last photo taken is the one you´ll see first. http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulgaffney/sets/72157605073986733/show/

The last day in El Chalten was again a bit cloudy, we hiked across a fair bit of snow and a lot of ice to a look out point above one of the lakes which we had seen the day before. We managed to take a bit of a detour which took us away from the peak which would have given us a better perspective on the surrounding countryside but with the clouds on top of the mountains we really wouldnt have seen too much more. We decided to head back to El Calafate that night to the same hostel for what turned out to be the best ánd most steak I´ve ever had at one sitting. Everyone has to come to Argentina, even if its only for the steak.

We met a couple that night (Talía from Colombia and Javier from Barcelona) who had just finished a course in documentary film-making in Buenos Aires and were out to make some films around South America. Talíá was delighted to hear I was into documentary and heading to Colombia so she gave me the low-down on several places to visit and how to avoid a kidnapping :)

We met them again the next day as we were renting cars to head out to Perito Moreno again. we caught up with them just before the entrance to the park and they sped through to avoid paying the entrance fee while we had a ranger practically run out in front of us thinking that we were going to try to avoid it too.

It was great getting to spend more time at the glaciar face without having to rush and myself and JP found some paths that got us down pretty close which neither of us had seen the previous day. There were very few people around so late in the evening so it was really peaceful and you could really appreciate the scale and noise of the massive cracks opening up in front of you - some the height of a house! We managed to see another massive chunk falling off, probably about the size of a lorry and managed to catch it on camera. We were well chuffed with ourselves heading home and we also picked up a Spanish hitch hiker who left managed to leave his tripod in our car but found us later on, a bit flustered.

So that was that for El Calafate and El Chalten, lots of people spent the evening hanging around the hostel til 4am in the morning when the buses were leaving to Rio Gallegos. I was sorry to be splitting up with JP, we´d had some great laughs together, but he was heading south and I would be continuing onwards and upwards to El Bariloche, a 29 hour bus trip!
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Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile

I spent a couple of nights in Puerto Natales, mainly just getting things ready for the trek. Its a pretty sleepy place and the most interesting thing about it is the number of stray dogs on the street. They´re just about everywhere and they´ll follow you around hoping for some scraps but they´re not aggresive at all, nice doggies. They seem to go nuts when a car passes by and absolutely mental when a pickup goes by with another dog in the back. It´s actually really funny.

I took the bus out to Torres early in the morning with a massive backpack laden down with almost 20kgs of food, tent, mat, stove, gas, pot, clothes, and lots of things I could have done without, in order to start my 5 day trek of the "W". I had decided not to do the full 10 day "circuit" as the weather had been so bad and everyone was saying that it would be crazy to try it alone as there would be no-one around to help if things went wrong (the W is much more popular at this time of year). When I got there, there was a sign up saying the Circuit was closed anyway due to a big avalanche which confirmed the decision for me.

As we entered the park there was a great view of the Torres themselves which are three big towers of rock. Took a few photos because from what I heard from people who had been here over the previous weeks the weather was very changeable - lots of cloud, wind, snow and rain. Perfect trekking weather. I took a catamaran across a lake to the bottom of the left U in the W (if that makes any sense!) as we couldnt get to the top left because there wasnt enough demand for boats. This is by the way the low season in the park so everything is close to shutting down for winter.

I set up my little tent in the campsite beside the refugio at about 1pm and decided that I´d try to walk to the Grey glaciar and back if possible - one way is normally a full day with a backpack but I was just carrying water and a camera. It lashed down for the most of the afternoon and when I got to the lookout point about half way to the glacier you could barely see it so I pushed on as far as the glacier itself. It was much bigger than any of the glaciers I had seen before you were able to get quite close to the little icebergs that had broken off. Took plenty of photos and decided to turn back as there was not much day light time left.

I met a Swedish couple on the way back who were also trying to make it back to same campsite. They weren´t going particularly fast because the guy´s knee was giving him trouble but we thought it would be safest to stick together as we were definitely going to have to walk in the dark. We ended up walking for about 2 hours in the dark but by this time the clouds had cleared and the stars were out - the first time I had seen the southern night sky properly. I looked up at one point and saw a couple of green eyes staring back at me about 15 metres ahead. They were gone without a sound a second later. I spoke to a guide about it the next day who reckoned it was probably a puma. Apparently they´re not that rare but very difficult to see. I was well chuffed with myself! Made it back to the camp site pretty late and we were all tired. Cooked up some quick pasta and then hung the food up in the shelter as I´d heard lots of stories of mice getting into tents in search of food.

It was a very cold night but my sleeping bag was pretty good so didnt feel it too much. I woke up at around 3am to the sound of a mouse chewing something in my tent. I lashed out at it and it started scurrying around my tent. I then swung at whatever place I thought it was and it would move and hide again. I found my head lamp and plastic hammer for the tent pegs but at this stage it was in my rucksack and I didnt fancy a mess in there so I started chucking things out of the tent. I had a look through everything but it seemed to be gone. The little b"·$%"%d had chewed through the tent and through my waterproof jacket to get at a peanut that I had forgotten to take out. No wonder I could hear it chewing! For the next hour or so every time I heard a noise near the tent it was head lamp on and hammer in hand. Saw some shadows scurrying around outside but nothing in the tent.

The next morning my tent was covered in little drops of ice where the previous day´s rain had frozen over night. My neighbours, an older couple in their fifties from the Czech Republic and South Africa thought my mouse story was very funny until they looked in their food bag and saw a lot of it had been chewed at. It looked like a much nicer day and the mountains which had been covered in cloud the previous day were now out in full view - really spectacular stuff.

I caught up with the older couple a while into the day and walked with them for a couple of hours until we reached the bottom of Valle Francés where I had planned on staying that night. The place was very cold due to winds coming off the glaciers above and looked like serious rat territory (lots of rubbish and close to the lake) so decided to climb up the valley and get back ASAP and push onto the next refugio a few hours away. The valley itself had two of the most amazing mountain formations I have ever seen, one on each side. On one side was a mountain which was topped with glaciers from which huge chunks of ice regularly cascaded down into other glaciers far below, almost like some kind of ice "waterfall". You could hear the sound of the ice crashing and avalanches for miles. On the other side of the valley, which got more light and therefore had no snow or ice, were the Cuernos (or Horns) of Paine which were formed by magma being pushed up through the earth´s crust. The tops of the horns were black volcanic rock while the rest was older lighter coloured sedimentary rock. In any other country either would be a tourist attaction in their own right. Here they were just some of many amazing rock formations.

I bumped into the Swedish couple again and pushed on to the next refugio. Was really feeling the weight of the big pack by the end of it. Very very tiring, ended up spending the last while looking at my feet rather than the scenery. We got in late again and had to pitch tents in the dark. Had just finished pitching the tent in a patch of dirt surrounded by bushes and was about to leave my bag of food in the refugio when I turned around with the headlamp and saw 2 mice waiting patiently for me to leave so they could scoff my queso. Had a beer in the refugio after some well earned pasta and luckily had no more mouse incidents that night.

Got up late the next day, I was probably the last person to leave but was happy to be going at my own pace. Some of the others I had been hiking with wanted to finish the trek in 4 days but I decided to take the 5 days seeing as I wasnt pushed for time and after the previous day I was happy to go at my own pace. It was another glorious day weather wise and I was continually surprised by the variety of the landscape. At some stages I was being pushed up the hill by the wind and was strggling just to stay on my feet. I was really glad not to be walking into it. I later caught up with Rob and Elizabeth, an American brother and sister, as I got close to the campsite. Really great people, very nice and very funny. The campsite was great too, massive open spaces, horses wandering about, clear skies, a clear view of the Torres and we even had a place to make a camp fire (illegal at most places in the park). We cooked up lots of different courses and it was the nicest camping experience of the trek. The wind picked up a bit later on and I felt like the tent was going to take off a couple of times, but had a really restful night´s sleep.

The next day we decided that we would carry all the gear up to the campsite at the base of the Torres and camp there so that we could see the towers at sun-rise when they glow orangey red if you have a clear sky. The way up was really steep and the further up we got the icier the paths became. We were slipping about with big packs which wasnt terribly safe - really could have done with some trekking poles for some extra stability. We got up there at around 4pm, pitched tent and decided to go up to the Torres in case it was cloudy the next morning and we would have come all that way to miss them.

The way up was really really icy. Everyone was slipping and sliding all over the place though luckily the ice seemed to have thawed a bit during the day and it wasnt as bad as it could otherwise have been. It took us about an hour to get up there and the view was really cool - the three towers shoot up from the surrounding mountains behind a small lake. Everyone up there was really happy to have reached the end of the W and lots of group photos were being taken in front of the towers.

It took over an hour to get back down. Most people were sliding down parts of it. The campsite was sitauted under really high trees and covered in a few inches of snow but I had been lucky enough to sneak into a spot where someone had camped the previous night so the snow underneath had melted and I was therefore a bit warmer than I should have been. More mice here than anywhere else and they were more brazen too. Met lots of sound people as we huddled in the shelter to cook our dinner.

It was a really windy night and I could see the massive trees swaying wildly through the plastic window above my head in the tent. I tried some kung fu on a mouse that had bitten through my expensive platypus water bottle (which was also a gift) which I had left hanging inside the door of my tent. There was nothing but water inside... pure vandalism if you ask me. Didnt manage to find the git either.

The whole camp site got up early to a clear starry guys at about 6 in the morning and faced the icy climb again. It was much worse this time around. The previous evening we had been able to use foot holds that people had kicked out during the day, this time we had to go up the recently frozen slide which we had come down the evening before. Everyone made it up without busting themselves though but some clouds on the horizon spoiled the sunrise effect, but at least the view was a bit clearer than the evening before.

After packing up, it was back down the mountain with our big packs. I was dreading hitting that icy path again especially after iovernight freeze but luckily most of it had managed to thaw the evening before so it was much quicker and easier than expected. Everyone bought loads of ice creams as we waited for the bus. We all looked wrecked and scruffy and the manager of the hosteria we were waiting outside told us to get off his premises though Im not sure what customers we were supposed to be scaring away. The place was empty and at least we were buying up his whole supply of ice cream.

Everyone was very happy to be back on a bus, though Im sure the smell was pretty bad. Went back to the same hostel as before where Michael and Eliza, a really sound Aussie couple I had bumped into a few times, were also staying. A lot of us from the last night in Torres ended up heading out for dinner in Puerto Natales at a really great little restaurant. Everyone was pretty chuffed with themselves for managing to get through the five days, though we were very lucky with the weather (it was much worse the week before and after and lots of people had to bail out!).

I also got talking to some of the guys who I hadnt met properly before. JP (another really sound Aussie) and Michael are really into photgraphy so we bored all around us for a while talking about that stuff. The guys had arranged a birthday cake for Gordon, who had only realised it was his birthday when he had to fill out a registration form on the way into the park. It was a pretty early night though as everyone else was heading off to El Calafate the next day to visit the glaciers and I had decided to head back to Punta Arenas to get that digital SLR!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgphoto/1/1210468200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgphoto/1/1210468200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgphoto/1/1210468200/tpod.html Sat, 10 May 2008 21:15:04 -0400 The Road to Macondo

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Punta Arenas, Patagonia, Chile

The ship was pure luxury. Amazing. This cruise was not aimed at backpackers and there was only a couple of others on there. Our cabin was like a hotel room with a massive window. The decks were plush, the food was great and the bar was free. What more could you ask for? There were a lot of pretty rich people on there, one guy invited us to come to his island that he manages in the Bahamas, others jingled with jewellery as they walked around. Everyone I spoke to was good fun though. There was also a big crowd of Mexicans that sang at every opportunity, mad people. It turned out that Lluis is a linguistics lecturer, very useful for the old Español!

The first morning we were woken up early and were in the zodiacs by 7am for a landing at Cape Horn. The weather was incredibly calm, a lot of the time you cant land there because its too dangerous but today the water was like glass. There´s a massive statue of an albatross just next to the Cape in memory of the estimated 10,000 sailors and 800 ships which have been wrecked while trying to pass it. Windy as hell up there and very strange to be at the southern tip of the world. Next stop Antartica! There´s a family who stay on the Cape and keep the lighthouse going but it has not been as significant as a shipping route since the Panama Canal was built.

Every time I got in the zodiacs I got excited, it felt like I was in the Life Aquatic... quite sad, I know. We got back on board for breakfast and found our beds had already been made. They were made at least twice every day...quality service I tell you! We spent the afternoon on our way to Wulaia Bay and saw whales spouting and swimming under the ship. We disembarked again for a quick hike and a nature tour thingy (we also had various lectures every day on the local ecology, geography and peoples) and had some dolphins following the boat on our way towards land. We finished it up with a whiskey on the beach on the several thousand year old rocks which were taken from a glacier that we were due to see the next day.

The next day we woke up in some really narrow fjords with amazing scenery. The wind on deck soon blew away the cobwebs caused by abusing the free bar and it also snowed quite a bit. We passed out of the fjords late in the morning and spent about an hour in the open water of the Pacific. Man that was pretty rough but really great fun. Took loads of pictures of the storms coming in as we bounced on the waves and all our possessions landed on the floors of our cabins. Unluckily for a couple of American guys that meant 20 bottles of beer smashed all over all of their clothes. Maybe they didnt understand the concept of "free bar". Also nearly lost my camera overboard as the strap went flying over my head and I took a knock against the side of the ship. I went down to the bridge later to check out how strong the swell was (because I had never experienced anything like it). Apparently it was only force 6 out of 12. Good man Beaufort... a Navan man he was!

When we left the Pacific we were again in the narrow fjords. The ship parked up once more and we got back into the zodiacs again to go up a very narrow fjord to see a couple of glaciers - Nena and Pilot. In fairness as we approached the Nena glacier it didnt look too impressive, not as big as the one in Ushuaia anyway. We then rounded a corner and there was the other massive glacier hanging over the water. It was incredibly blue and really really high.

The different boats had a shouting competition to see who could knock off some ice. The Mexicans sang. We managed to knock off a couple of decent sized lumps and our zodiac driver picked up a few big pieces and put them in the boat to top up the bar. We were greeted back on the boat with hot chocolate and whiskey. Mmm tasty. I thought that it would be a relaxing few days, but with the early mornings, late nights and Lluis´s snoring I didnt get much rest. The only thing that got me up in time for the visit to the sea lion colony the next morning was the chance to get back in the zodiacs.

When we finally got to Punta Arenas in Chile I had decided that I would check out there duty free area to see if I could get a cheap digital SLR as I seemed to be flying through the film and it was proving both expensive and difficult to find more. I wandered around bleary eyed for a few hours but could only find one old Canon model which wasn´t exactly a bargain and I was too tired and hungover to make a decision so decided to leave it to move on to Puerto Natales to prepare for my big trek in Torres del Paine.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgphoto/1/1210467660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgphoto/1/1210467660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pgphoto/1/1210467660/tpod.html Sat, 10 May 2008 21:06:12 -0400 The Road to Macondo

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Ushuaia, Patagonia, Argentina

After a several long flights, a couple of which were shared with hundreds of uniformed UN troops on their way back to Chile, Paraguay and Argentina from God knows where, the clouds eventually opened up at dusk and I could see that we were finally circling over Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, the southern-most city in the world. Of all the views I would later see of the city this one really allowed me to appreciate the fantastic setting of the place, it´s surrounded by massive imposing mountains and faces onto the Beagle channel, which is named after the ship which brought Darwin through the area on his round-the-world trip which spawned his theory of evolution. The t-shirts say "the end of the world" but there´s another town further south the opposite side of the bay in Chilean Tierra del Fuego.

I managed to understand about half of what the taxi driver was talking about which I was pretty happy with and when I got into the hostel the first people I saw were a group of Irish girls. It´s very typical these days. Come to the end of the world and the first people you meet are Irish, we´re everywhere!

The next morning I got up early and got chatting to a French guy Pierre who was staying in the same dorm and tagged along with him for a trip on boat out into the channel to see some sea lions, fur seals and lots of bird life. The most impressive part of the tour was the views from the bay, with several glaciers in the mountains close to the city. I met a couple of very sound Argentinian guys on the boat, Andrés and Juan, who were working for the Tierra del Fuego tourism office and were down from Buenos Aires for a week, all expenses paid, to check out different trips and places around the area so that they´d have a better idea of what to recommend to tourists etc. When I got back to the hostel I bumped into David Burke, from Kells, who I´d met before through my friend from home Dave Coen... small small world.

Went for a trek with the Argentinan guys in the afternoon up to a valley with a glacier and an amazing lake called Laguna Esmerelda which was a really cobalt blue colour. The trees had various autumnal shades between yellow and red which looked really impressive, and has been similar in other places in Patagonia since. Just past the lake was an area where beavers had dammed up the stream creating big pools of blue water where the trees were all dying and falling over. Really spooky looking. Tried to practice some Spanish with the guys but their english was perfect and my spanish horrible so that didnt last long. Mainly laughed at random stuff the guys got up to - real jokers.

There was loads to see around Ushuaia and I spent a good bit of time trekking up to one of the glaciers and also along the lakes in the national park. Lots of great scenery and plenty of wildlife. Saw the biggest fox ever, lots of rabbits (which is maybe why the fox was so big) and an eagle chasing some hawks.

Had a couple of great nights out in Ushuaia too. Went to an "Irish" bar with Dave one of the nights and bumped into a Spanish guy looking to share a cabin on a cruise around Cape Horn to Punta Arenas in Chile. I had looked into doing this months before but opted out because it would have been too pricey to get a cabin on my own. At first thought I reckoned it was a bit expensive (had no longer budgeted for it) and told him Id talk to him next day when soberish. Continued on to a locals bar where we watched a technically great band, which almost bored me to tears, but at least we got talking to some fun locals. One guy called Willie was telling us that he likes the boys so we taught him the phrase "Willie likes the Willy". He was well pleased with his new chat up line, really nice guy. His friend was amazing singer, she could sing anything but mainly serenaded us with blues and jazz numbers. Ended up dancing and prancing around a nightclub til five in the morning before retiring to a pretty serious hangover.

Spent most of the next day hanging out with Juan and Andres and trying to get in touch with the Spanish guy Lluis but we kept missing each others´ mails and missed the opportunity to book the cruise. It was only then that I realised how much I really wanted to go on it. We decided to go down early on Sunday and try our luck even though we were told the reservations had closed. We were really lucky and managed to book a cabin about 4 hours before departure. After running around like a blue arsed fly trying to get everything organised we met up and headed down there.
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