TravelStream™ news feed for member seankervin on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/seankervin en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:29:17 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1260492600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1260492600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1260492600/tpod.html Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:29:17 -0500 Upside Down - 4 months in South America

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Deception Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica

I'm jumping ahead here a bit to a story from Antarctica, but I need your help.

There was a guy named Ross from NationalGeographic.com on our ship (he was just on vacation). At the end of the expedition, we all shared our best photos with everyone else.

Ross showed the photo editor some of my shots and one in particular created quite a stir. They encouraged me to upload the shot for consideration on NG.

So my photo is now posted on NationalGeographic.com and they are asking people to vote for their favorite shot.

The highest rated photo from January will be published in the magazine!


What I need from you:
I need as many people as possible to go to the link below and give my photo a '10' rating.
(and feel free to give a '1' rating to all the others)

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/your-shot
Click on Voting Machine at the top, and then click on January: Week 1

You can continue to click on Week 2, Week 3, etc and rate the other photos appropriately :)

And here's the photo the NG staffers chose for it's rarity and one-of-a-kind composition (it is framed and proudly hanging in my bathroom...)


(If the link above doesn't work, go to www.nationalgeographic.com and click Photography on the Left, then go down a bit and click on 'Your Shot'
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1227633540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1227633540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1227633540/tpod.html Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:05:58 -0500 Upside Down - 4 months in South America

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Ushuaia, Patagonia, Argentina

In my last entry, I went to the official "End of the Road" in Tierra del Fugo National park, but any cursory examination of map clearly shows a road that goes at least 75 miles further south-east of Ushuaia toward the toe of South America.

Four of us rented a car, packed a lunch of empanadas, and decided to find out what was at the real end of the road for the Western Hemisphere.

What we found at the absolute end was very interesting... but our discoveries along the way made the trip.


Busy Beavers
After passing through some amazing mountain scenery - we started into the forests of tierra del fuego. However, there were huge areas of dead trees standing like skeletons.

In the 1940s, the Argentine government though it would be a good idea to introduce 50 Canadian beavers and start a fur industry. Apparently no one told them beaver-fur hats were quickly going out of fashion and the industry never took off.

With no predators, those 50 tree-eating rodents exploded to a population of nearly 250,000. Now, much of Tierra del Fuego is dammed and rapidly being deforested. Brilliant.

Click here to read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4490517.stm

Tortured Trees
The winds of Patagonia are relentless. Steady 20-30MPH winds are the norm, and it's not unusual to get gusts well above 100mph. If a tree is unlucky (or maybe hearty) enough to grow on a hill top without shelter, it usually grows hunched over from the torturous winds.

Acatushún Museum
The best part of our trip was randomly running across a small research laboratory with a tiny attached museum of marine mammals called Museo Acatushún.

Situated on an isolated bay on the Beagle Channel near "Estancia Harberton" the museum is housed in a small building where three scientists live and carry out their research in an apartment and laboratory behind the museum.

They live there! Look left and you see a kitchen and dining room that could be in any home. Turn around and it looks like a paleontological laboratory.

The combination of having three people extremely passionate about marine mammals and isolated in the middle of nowhere near the end of the world actually made for an extremely interesting visit. They were unbelievably excited we stopped by.

At first, it seemed like a normal museum tour - our scientist guide walked us around skeletons of whales and dolphins, offering tidbits of trivia along the way. Then he said "check this out," reached up to a skeleton of a whale on the wall and wrestled a vertebrae free. "Feel how light the bone is."

"Wow - it's like Styrofoam" I said as we passed the giant bone around.

"Now contrast that to a killer whale vertebrae, which is much heavier" as he sprinted across the museum, yanked a bone from the killer whale display and brought it over to compare.

This would never happen in the British Museum.

And that opened the door.

"Can I pick up this whale skull?" I'd ask

"Sure - that's a female - try moving the jaw." I carefully pushed on the jaw bone.

"No - like this." and he took the skull away and wrenched the jaw down with a creaking, cracking sound.

"Now try it on the male - the male's jaw is fused. Isn't that cool?"

They get their skeletons from beached whales and dolphins found in Patagonia. "We usually carve as much flesh off as possible on site - then load the bones on a flatbed and take them back here for cleaning. Do you want to see the bone processing room? It's a little smelly, but I think you'll find it interesting - follow me."

He walked us to a small shack strategically placed a couple hundred feet down-wind from their living quarters.

"The first step is to sink the carcass in a cage in the bay for a few months to allow natural decomposition."

He gestured out toward two massive ropes leading down the shore into the water.

"Next, we boil the bones for a few days to remove the flesh and get the natural oils out of the bones."

"Finally, we bleach them in the sun for a year - and then they're ready for display!"





In all, we spent about 2 hours at the research station learning all about how dolphins regulate their temperature and how all killer whales have unique markings.

Did you know that all mammals have same number of bones in their necks? A giraffe has seven really long vertebrae while a human has seven shorter bones. A whale has seven pancake shaped vertibrae that are fused together; however, they fuse in adolescence. A baby can move its neck.

Unfortunately my whale 'rubber necking' joke didn't translate very well and only received strange looks.



We were about to get in our car and leave, our guide ran out and excitedly said "I forgot to show you the most rare skull we have! This is an extremely endangered Pink Amazon River Dolphin."

"Can I take a photo?" I asked?

"Sure!"


Finally - the end of the story
After parting ways with the researchers, It took another couple hours of driving along the beagle channel, but we finally reached the absolute end of the road. All we found there was some sort of concrete building and (of course) and Argentine flag.


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1227928920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1227928920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1227928920/tpod.html Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:42:17 -0500 Upside Down - 4 months in South America

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Ushuaia, Patagonia, Argentina

Ushuaia is a beautiful little port town nestled at the base of black basalt mountains on the Beagle Channel on the Southern edge of Tierra del Fuego (the island that looks like the toe of a boot at the southern most tip of South America).

Ushuaia claims to be Fin del Mundo (the end of the world) - the most southern city on the planet, and Ushuaians are passionate about this designation.

They are not, however, the "bottom" of the planet - Patagonians resent our "Euro-centric view of the globe" that requires a person to get on their knees and crane their neck in order to see Patagonia on the typical school globe.

So they take their globes apart and flip them with Antarctica at the top.

I made the mistake of asking the girl at the front desk of my guest house "hey - why is this globe upside down?"

"Earth is spinning in space - there is no up or down. Why do people from the North arrogantly insist that Europe is 'up' and everything else is 'Down'?"

What could I say other than "a very good point... so, which way is my room?"

I had no idea it was such a sensitive topic. But I found two other ways to really piss off Ushuaians. But first, you need some background.

As you may know, Chile and Argentina don't really get along. In fact, they basically hate each other. These two countries have fought over Patagonia for decades.

In 1881, a treaty was established that defined the border between the two countries as the highest peaks that divide the Atlantic from the Pacific.

At the time, that seemed straight forward - however, it becomes fuzzier when you're trying to split the islands down there at the bottom of the world (ooops - 'end' of the world). For example, Tierra del Fuego is an 18,500 sq mi island roughly twice the size of New Jersey and is surrounded by the Pacific and the Atlantic - it's hard to know where one ocean stops and the other starts.

Things got so tense in 1977 that both countries sent troops to the disputed areas and land-mined large areas.

The ironic thing is that no one really lived in the disputed areas - the troops themselves were the largest number of humans to actually occupy that land to date.

On December 22nd, fighting broke out for 2 hours but was stopped when Pope John Paul II sent a personal plea to halt the skirmish. Both countries (being very Catholic) agreed to let the Pope draw the border and settle the dispute.

John Paul II cut Tierra del Fuego in half by a North-South Line. Argentina got the East portion and Chile got the western half along with all the islands South of the Beagle Channel.

Click here to see the Pope's compromise (the red line): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Chile.estrechodemagallanes.png

Now if you look at the map in that link, notice there is a Chilean town called "Puerto Williams" directly south of Ushuaia...which is the second way to really piss off an Argentinian.

"If this is the most southern city in the world, what's that city just across the Beagle Channel? The one directly south of here - do you see it over there?"

"That's not a city - it's a Chilean Naval base." is the usual reply.

Puerto Williams is mostly a naval base - but it's definitly a small town and Ushuaians hate the fact it's there. The residents of Puerto Williams call themselves 'The REAL end of the world' to rub it in.

I wanted to go check Puerto Williams out, but Ushuaians refuse to take tourists there. I would either have to pay an exorbitant amount to charter a private boat - or fly to Chile and take a ferry. It's funny how Ushuaians deny that Puerto Williams even exists...



So anyhow, I spent a week in Ushuaia and went to the end of the Pan American Highway where there is a sign that says "Alaska - 17,848km", spent a couple days hiking among the ancient twisted forests of Tierra del Fuego national park, climbed a mountain and a Condor hovered at eye level about 20 feet away.

The Andean Condor is the largest land bird with a 9-10 foot wing span. I was afraid he was trying to assess whether or not I'd make it back down or not. (The largest bird is the Wandering Albatross, which is found in and around Antarctica - stay tuned for more on that).



Every wonder why they call it Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire)?

The original Indians wore hardly any clothing and often walked around in the cold completely naked - but they slathered themselves in seal fat to keep warm and waterproof.

And they built lots of fires.

I also took a cruise on a small boat down the Beagle Channel to check out the Sea Lions who play king of the hill, and the crazy blue eyed cormorants who have to walk on water during take off.

The funniest part of the cruise was that every little rock that stuck out of the water had either an Argentinian flag or a Chilean Flag - everything that sticks out of the water is claimed... even if it was just a big rock with a bunch of birds on it.

Oh - and I almost forgot. The third way to really get an Ushuainan going is to bring up the Falkland Islands. They're still pissed off about it. First of all, they call it "Malvinas" so even saying the name 'Falkland Islands' will get you firmly corrected. And many of the cars have bumper stickers commemorating the 15th anniversary of the war that say "Malvinas was ours...is ours...will be ours again".

"But didn't you guys lose that war?" (No - I didn't say that...)

Check this out if you want to learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War

Next up: I looked on a map and there is a road that goes down to the tip of South America - beyond the 'end' of the Pan American highway. We rented a car to go see what's at the real end of the road - the furthest south you can go by car in the world. But the best part was what we found along the way.

And then, of course... Antarctica.

(And if you zoom all the way in on the map above, you can see one of the ships to Antarctica at the pier)


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1227323580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1227323580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1227323580/tpod.html Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:28:07 -0500 Upside Down - 4 months in South America

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El calafate, Argentina

The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the classic Patagonian must-sees. It is a river of ice three miles wide, and towers 200 feet above the lake it empties into. The amazing thing is that the ice is also goes down another 350 feet below the water line!

But what's most impressive is that it is one of the few glaciers left in the world that are not retreating - in fact, it's advancing about a meter per day.

On a warm afternoon, the glacier is alive - groaning, creaking, cracking - and about every 10 minutes, chunks of ice that range in size from school buses to apartment buildings crash into the water and create mini tsunamis.

I took a boat cruise out to the face of the glacier for a closer view, but the best part of the day was just sitting on the observation deck and watching the ice chunks fall off into the water.

If you're wondering why the glacier is blue, it's because the pressure squeezes all the air out of the ice - it basically becomes a single, giant crystal. Ice absorbs red light, but lets blue pass through - hence the color. However, it usually takes at least 300 years for the ice to turn blue - so the older the ice, the bluer it becomes.

Zoom in on the map above to see the glacier - and check out the video to see a chunk about 100 feet high fall into the water.




]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1226838300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1226838300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1226838300/tpod.html Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:35:52 -0500 Upside Down - 4 months in South America

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El Chalten, Patagonia, Argentina

Los Glaciers National park is the third largest ice field in the world behind Antarctica and Greenland. Spanning the boarder between Chile and Argentina in Southern Patagonia, there are three major access points - Torres del Paine, which is the South West corner in Chile, Peirto Moreno Glacier on the South East Corner in Argentina, and El Chalten on the North East corner in Argentina.

After hiking 69 miles Torres del Paine, hiking another 32 miles in El Chalten sounded like a walk in the park - especially since I planned to do it as two 16-mile day hikes, with a stay at a guest house and a hot shower in between. All I had to carry was a compact camera and a sandwich.

The first day, I hiked to see Mount Fitz Roy, which is one of the most spectacular chunks of rock on the planet. Shaped like a sharks tooth, it tower thousands of feet above a jade colored lagoon - and is considered one of the hardest ascents in the world. Today, when a hundred people may summit Mount Everest in a single day, Fitz Roy is only successfully ascended on average once a year.

You can zoom all the way in on the map above and see the lagoon where I sat to take these photos.

On the second day, I hiked to see Cerro Torre, which John Krakauer describes in Into Thin Air as one of his earlier difficult ascents: "I'd scaled a frightening, mile-high spike of vertical and overhanging granite called Cerro Torre; buffeted by hundred-knot winds, plastered with frangible atmospheric rime, it was once (though no longer) thought to be the world's hardest mountain."

Even more amazing is that I work with a guy (Rob Parkin) who attempted to summit this granite minaret but was unable to complete the ascent due to unrelenting weather.

One of the cool things about backpacking for an extended period is that you begin to see many of the same people over and over. By now, I feel like I know half of Patagonia. I ran into Canadian Christa and Kiwi Justin and hiked with them to see mount Fitz Roy - and at the summit, we ran into a dutch couple we knew from the Navimag and had a little reunion and made plans to grab dinner that night.

On the hike back, We'd hike through wilderness for 30 minutes not seeing another person and then would run into someone I knew.

"Wait - I know you... where did we meet?" I'd say.

"That's right - by the waterfall in Pucon. You were with a German guy."

"Actually he was Dutch. No, he was Swiss. Anyway - where have you been since?"

And it ends with "we're having dinner at the German Microbrewery at 8 if you want to meet us."

It seems like the longer this trip goes, the larger the tables we need at dinner...

"Table for 10, but we may have as many as 16, por favor."

Next up: Watching apartment sized chunks of ice breaking off one of the few advancing glaciers in the world.






]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1226317440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1226317440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1226317440/tpod.html Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:37:34 -0500 Upside Down - 4 months in South America

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Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile

By the second day we were referring to Torres del Paine as "Towers of Pain".

The trail itself isn't terribly difficult on it's own, but we typically hiked 12 miles a day with heavy packs through every conceivable type of weather: rain, sleet, snow, wind, and sun. Sometimes it would cycle through every flavor in an hour.

We spent a lot of time doing the goretex shuffle. The sun would come out and in 10 minutes we'd be roasting hot so we'd stop to take off our jackets. 10 minutes later it would start pouring rain - so we'd stop again, take off our backpacks and put jackets back on just in time for the rain to turn to sleet. An hour later, it was hot again.

Most of the time, the trail was wonderful and almost felt like walking through a garden. Other times, we were slogging through mud or snow. Occasionally we'd have to cross a boulder field with no idea where the "path" was supposed to be.

For the most part, the trail was well defined, or marked by orange spots painted on trees or rocks. If it became unclear which way to go, you just had to find next orange spot.

Crossing rivers was often a challenge. Occasionally they'd build bridges, or even suspension bridges to cross the rivers. Other times, there was only a log as a balance beam, or we'd just have to jump from rock to rock which is especially challenging with heavy packs and the random acts of violent wind trying to sweep backpackers into freezing glacial runoff.

The suspension bridges sounded like a good idea, but they would swing impressively in the wind. I actually preferred the logs.



However, my pack wasn't nearly as cumbersome as some in our group. I pride myself on packing an absolute minimum and sacrifice personal comfort in order to keep my pack nimble. The problem is that I then end up carrying everyone else's stuff.

"Could you carry some of this fuel? My pack is so much heavier than yours."

"Why did you bring 4 canisters? We're only camping 4 nights and a canister should last 2 or 3 days." I said.

"Well, I didn't want to run out."

"Let's throw 2 tanks away and carry 2 for the rest of the trip".

"No way - those were expensive."

I ended up carrying the tanks. Later that night, I saw the same person wrapped in a beach towel after a hot shower while I used my t-shirt to dry off. I know why their pack was so heavy... I should have offered to let them unload their towel on me...

I also had 18lbs of oatmeal in my pack.

"This is way too much oatmeal - we only need to feed 3 people for 3 breakfasts." I said. "Let's only take half of that."

"We'll totally eat that much - we're going to be working hard. Besides, I really like oatmeal." Justin, my New Zealand friend said.

"OK - you carry it, then."

"No way - your pack is way lighter than mine." Justin said.

"That's because you're taking three pair of shoes." I exasperated.

"I don't have three pair of shoes - I have boots, shoes, and sandals. I don't want to wear wet hiking boots around camp, and the sandals are for the gross camp showers."

I ended up carrying the oats... and although I never said "I told you so", I did make it Justin's job to try and give away the 25 extra bowels of oatmeal we had every morning.

We actually ate pretty well. For example, the second night, I made a smoked salmon pasta with procino mushroom and rosemary sauce, finished with Romano cheese and cracked pepper.

"You used way too much sea salt in this - I can't get a good sense for the rosemary." Justin complained.

"Give me a %&$@ing break" another backpacker quipped over his mug of instant soup. "I'll eat it."


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1226805180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1226805180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1226805180/tpod.html Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:34:03 -0500 Upside Down - 4 months in South America

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Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile

Our final goal on day 5 was to climb a mountain of boulders and ice in the pre-dawn to watch the sunrise from the base of the Torres. On a clear day, the rising sun will illuminate the towers in an amazing pink or orange glow.

Click below to see what it's supposed to look like.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Torres_del_paine_at_sunrise.jpg

To make the summit, we rose at 3AM, packed our sleeping bags, camp stove and the remaining 50lbs of oatmeal and began climbing the mountain by headlamp.

Only four of the original 13 made it this far. New Zealand Justin, Canadian Christa, myself, and Omar of the world. (Omar is originally from Ecuador, lives with his Finnish wife in Amsterdam but is moving to Barcelona.)

When I tried to wake Christa up, she bolted up in her sleeping bag and said with the stern tone that can only come from a teacher "I am not climbing this mountain this morning - I'm cold, I didn't sleep at all last night - you are not going to persuade me. Get out of the tent."

"OK, then..."

So Justin, Omar and I set off to climb alone.
We made the summit just in time for the sunrise, but the torres were shrouded in a snowy haze. Luckily, the haze broke for a few minutes and we were able to see the three fangs in the glow of sunrise.
Mission accomplished.

We spent about 2 hours at the summit, wrapped in sleeping bags and making our oatmeal breakfast - which was a challenge in the fierce wind. We basically had to build a little igloo to keep the stove from blowing out.

And with that, we returned to the base camp, packed all our wet gear and hiked down to meet the rest of the group.

In all, Torres del Paine was an amazing experience. I'm not sure if it was amazing in spite of the difficulty, or because of the difficulty - either way, if you come to Patagonia, I consider it a mandatory experience.

There are easier ways to experience the park - for example, instead of camping, there are really cool Refugios set up at key locations.

The refugios feel like mini ski lodges with a wood stove, sweeping views, as well as rooms and rustic cabins to rent. They are full service with hearty multi-course meals, as well as beer, wine and a mini-market to stock up on anything you may have forgotten or depleted.

Two of our four nights we camped in the wilderness, however, the other two nights we camped near the refugios and played cards and warm up by the fire with a couple beers.

Many people simply hike from refugio to refugio with a small day-pack and have a steak dinner and a bottle of Malbec waiting for them at the end of their day.

The refugios also have tents set up as well as sleeping bags to hire if you don't want to carry equipment - and if we had run out of oatmeal or fuel, we could have avoided starvation with omelets, bacon and hot coffee, or a steak sandwich.

It was actually the steak sandwiches that caused our highest attrition. On the afternoon of day four, eight of us were harbored from blowing rain in a refugio about an hour and a half from the base camp where we planned our pre-dawn ascent.

At about 2PM, I said "OK - let's push on to base camp."

"You know, I think I'm going to get one of those steak sandwiches... and maybe a beer and warm up a little more."

That was it. Half the group never left the refugio. But at least they didn't have to eat oatmeal for breakfast.







]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1226144220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1226144220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1226144220/tpod.html Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:44:54 -0500 Upside Down - 4 months in South America

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Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile

One of my big goals was to hike what is known as the "W" in Parque National Torres del Paine (pronounced Pan-ya).

The W is a 48 mile(!) trek over five days through what is universally regarded as the most amazing scenry in South America. Many claim it the most scenic in the world. They call it "The W" since the trail resembles an upside down M.

13 new friends from the Navimag Ferry set off with everything on our backs for 5 days of strenuous hiking into the wilds of Patagonia.

Torres del Paine was painfully beautiful - but there was a price - we slogged through mud, rain, snow, and wind strong enough to blow hikers into trees and send tents flying across the landscape like bright red tumbleweeds (with a couple backpackers running behind yelling expletives).

Click below for some videos of the wind. The second video is of one of the girls in our group getting blown into a tree.



"Help me - don't take photos of me!!" she yelled.

"I'm not taking photos - I'm getting a video! Hold on...this is going to be good!"

I never imagined there could be wind like this. Torres del Paine borders the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, which is the third largest chunk of ice on the planet behind Antarctica and Greenland. If you look at the map above, the ice field is the big white streak the size of Vermont and New Hampshire.

The ice creates it's own weather system that works a similar to a giant meterologic jet engine. Humid air from the Pacific is forced up the Andes where it cools and dumps snow on the ice field. The ice continues to cool and compress the air creating a high pressure system that just hangs out over the field. When the sun warms the Argentine Patagonian steppes to the east, a massive pressure difference is created and all that compressed air races down at 100MPH to fill the void.

The wind was so strong, it would whip 10 story walls of mist off the lake. From a distance, it was amazing and beautiful since the walls looked like dozens of rainbows moving across a jade colored lake. However, one of these rainbows would also flatten and drench any hikers unfortunate enough to be by the shore (like us).

We saw wind gusts so strong, they reversed a waterfall!

Our first night, we camped at the base of Glacier Grey at the upper tip of the left side of the "W" and watched icebergs drift past as we cooked our dinner.

In fact, if you zoom all the way in on the map above, you can see the icebergs in front of our camp - and a really cool shadow of the Torres (towers) and peaks on the lake.

Next up... Torres del Paine part II, slogging through mud.






]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1225970760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1225970760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/seankervin/1/1225970760/tpod.html Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:58:07 -0500 Upside Down - 4 months in South America

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Puerto Eden, Patagonia, Chile

Puerto Eden is a tiny isolated maritime hamlet in the middle of the Chilean fjords. The only way to get to this picturesque little cluster of tin houses and peeling boats is by the weekly ferry - and we had the opportunity to come ashore while the Navimag unloaded supplies.

The setting is absolutely amazing - nestled on a little protected fjord with snow-capped mountains towering above, it was an amazing and rarely visited hamlet.

Other than Micke's Supermarket and a couple women selling handicrafts, there wasn't much happening in the town.

I told one of the little women she should stop selling little canoes and could make a fortune by simply putting up an espresso bar - the Navimag doesn't have coffee(!) and about 80 of us would have paid anything for a double. Alas, she didn't understand. Chileans don't drink coffee and don't understand why tourists complain about Nescafe and powered milk.

















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Pacific Ocean, Patagonia, Chile

Chilean Patagonia is one of the wildest and most remote places left on the planet - and without roads, it is difficult to explore.

I booked passage on the Navimag Ferry - four days cruising the chillean fjords, weaving between islands, skirting icebergs, and escourted by dolphins, whales, and sea lions.

The ferry mostly carries backpackers, a few locals, vehicles, and supplies for the small fishing villages along the way.

The best part of the journey was spending four days aboard a ferry with 160 backpackers who have nothing better to do than watch the scenry flow by, tell stories, play cards, drink chillean wine and pisco sours.

The drinking part got me in a little trouble, though. We had to go out into the open Pacific for 12 hours and experience what 35MPH Patagonian winds do to open water.

We were playing cards in the bar and working on a second bottle of wine when the cruise director announced in a monotone German accent "We will be entering the Pacific in 2 hours. We advise everyone to take sea sickness medication now."

Reaching for my glass of wine, I confidently decided I've spent enough time on ships that I can handle anything the Pacific can dish and ignored the advice.

The problem is that sea sickness pills knock me out - if I take one, I have about 20 minutes before slipping into an 8 hour coma. Sure enough, within an hour of the announcement, half the people in the bar were asleep! - I wish I had thought to take a photo of dozens of people asleep on couches, curled up in chairs, and heads down on tables. Many fell asleep, drink in hand...

On que, the ship started it's up and down motion and within an hour, we were rolling over 12 foot waves. Between the combination of one too many glasses of wine, playing cards, and the rolling of our boat, I started to lose my confidence that everything was going to be OK.

The final blow was the spaghetti for dinner. I took one look at my plate and just couldn't do it. Spaghetti on open sea night is a sick joke...

I took the pill and slept for 12 hours.



Save those 12 hours on open seas, the ship stuck to the calm water in the narrow passages between mountains and the scenry was spectacular! Dolphins would surf our wake, seals would swim by and check us out. Condors circled above while icebergs floated by.




The bridge came to be the second most popular place to hang out - we had open access to the bridge and it was a nice, warm place to watch the captain maneuver through the fjords. Every time it started to rain, everyone would dash for either the bar or the bridge.




On day 3, we passed a glacier and the captain took us close to get a better view.



Two of the crew were lowered in a zodiac and zipped out to get pick up a small iceburg, brought it back, cut it into chunks and the bar special that night was 10yr old scotch over 300yr old glacieral ice!



...It rained one night and my room had a leak. Drip by drip, the water filled one of my inconveniently located waterproof shoes. Everyone was giving me grief for wearing sandals out in the freezing weather. I endured as long as possible, but as my toes turned red I ran in to put on my wet shoe.



The best part of the Navimag were the friends I made - by the end of the four days, there were 25 of us who got to be close, and most all of us were planning to hike in Torres del Paine National Park.






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