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  Puerto Montt, Lake District, Chile
Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Hello hello again, I've had a busy last couple of weeks and only now really getting a chance to update the blog. I've been trekking quite a lot, walking on glaciers and drinking whiskey and been on a 4 day boat trip up the coast of Chile.
I left Commodoro after a 12 hour stopover which was great because I got a chance to get some much needed kip in after a pretty shocking bus journey from Bariloche the night before. I arrived in Rio Gallegos and immediately sought out the bus company that would take me to Ushuaia, the very Southern tip of Argentina. I found one pretty quickly and was on the bus within 2 hours of booking it which was great. I met a couple of Irish girls from Longford on there and we got chatting and the craic started. They had just arrived in Rio Gallegos too and like me were pretty glad to be getting a bus out of there pretty quick smart. It was the 1st time I had to cross into Chile on my way to Ushauia, we would have to enter into Chile and out and back into Argentina again which meant in and out of border check points a couple of times

Lago Torres, El Chalten

. We had been warned not to take any fruit into Chile so we stuffed our faces with whatever fruit we had before reaching the Chilean border. We arrived into Ushuaia 12 hours later after quite an ass numbing journey. The roads were like sheets of glass at one stage, I was convinced we were going to hit a couple of incoming buses a couple of times. We decided to get a hostel together which I had been recommended and threw our bags in before seeking out a good steak house. It was the 1st time we came across heated floors in a hostel and boy did we need it. It read -4 in our taxi on the way to the hostel. We planned to have an early night that night but we came across a group of people playing a card game at the hostel and joined in. A few games later I was walking around on my knees as a forfeit for loosing the game, doh! it then proceeded to a drinking game and the rest as they say is...
The next morning we were not feeling the best but we still managed to take a bus to the national park. Tierra del Fuego is one of the best parks in Patagonia, with beautiful lakes surrounded by fresh snow capped mountains and the skies were blue, perfect weather for a trek. We did a 6 hour hike to the local hostel within the park and had a very welcome hot chocolate at the end. The next day we woke up to 6 inches of snow covering all of Ushuaia, it was really beautiful. We jumped into a taxi who's driver was testing the latest in wheel chain technology by going as fast as he could up a mountain in icy conditions at 70mph, luckily no sick bags were required

Peurto Mereno Glacier

! We walked to San Martin Glacier on the foothills of the mountains surrounding Ushuaia and the views were amazing. Ushuaia is officially at the end of the world and we got our obligatory stamps on our passports to prove we were there and the photos like geeks of course!
We then headed back on our route to Rio Gallegos to catch a bus to El Calafate which would get us in at 1am. Thankfully the hostel we were staying at had arranged to pick us up on arrival which was cool. El Calafate is a small town born largely out of tourism in the local area. The main attraction here is Puerto Moreno Glacier, the largest moving glacier in South America. Some stats, the glacier is 30kms long. 6kms wide, it protrudes 60 meters out of the water and underwater it is a further 120 meters below. At the top of the glacier it snows almost every day of the year. The sheer scale of it simply blows you away. Our 1st day there we hired a car to enter the national park and we wandered around all the balconies taking pictures. Our first sight of the glacier was on the way into the park and we were all silent for about 10 minutes, which is kinda hard for 3 Irish people... The next day we joined a mini trekking tour which consisted of a boat trip around the glacier, hopped off onto a island near by for a safety lesson before putting on crampons and actually walking on top of the glacier. It was fantastic, we all walked like John Wayne for about 2 hours up and down the glacier before reaching our final point of call, the whiskey bar

Tierra Del Fuego

! We drank scotch whiskey on the rocks (rocks from the glacier) overlooking the lakes, it was the best whiskey bar I've ever been to.  The next day we headed to El Chalten, a small town nestled in the middle of the National park, Los Glaciers. It was a small town with lots of construction going on. You can see the effect that tourism is having on this small town, which sometimes isn't always positive in my view. I hope they don't let the big name hotel chains spoil this quiet town in years to come. We trekked 6 hours to Lagos Torres in the national park. 70% of the trek was in the snow which was great, we were rewarded with some amazing views of Fitz Roy mountain ranges at the end before making our way back. 
From El Chalten we headed back to El Calafate for a night before moving onto Puerto Natales in Chile for a couple of days. We came across the Chilien border with ease and found our hostel pretty quickly. It was cool, very homely and warm and the owner bill provided us with some invaluable information on Torres Del Pienne National park, which is the mother of all parks in Patagonia. A very popular trek here is the W trek, 3 days 4 nights camping, pretty hard core! Thats all very well in the middle of summer but when you arrive mid winter its a different ball game. We decided to rent a 4x4 jeep from Bill and go to the park early morning the next day. A Canadian girl came along with us the next morning for the ride. It was a 5am start if we wanted to get to the park before 8.30, that was when the park officials started, and we would avoid paying in if we got there on time

Torres Del Pienne

. We made it just in the nick of time, of course I was the nominated driver so I had to use all my skills to floor the pedals when we came to the entrance of the park, we shot through all laughing like school kids who had just out smarted the head master! We parked up at a local hostel. well it was more like a 3 star hotel, I'm not sure how they received plans for the Hostel, but it was huge and swiss, a bit of an eyesore really. we trekked 7 hours to the Torres which was pretty tough going, lots of snow, really slippy ice in parts and the trails were only a foot wide to huge drops into canyons at one stage, adrenalin was kicking in. The last part of the climb was about 1km and very steep and it was all worth it the top, amazing views over Torres Del Pienne and the Torres staring down at a perfect lake. The wind chill was numbing our fingers and toes on top, we had lunch quickly and returned down. One of the girls caught a glimpse of a mouse on top and she leaped a foot high in the air before sliding on the snow to a safe area. We were all in uncontrollable fits of laughter at that stage. That night we treated ourselves to a big steak and a well deserved beer.
After 3 days in Puerto Natales we decided to jump on a 4 day boat trip to Puerto Montt which is where I am now. The other option was to get a couple of bus trips to Santiago but we decided it would be a better option on the boat. The Navimag is quite famous for travelers in this part of the country, it also serves as a transporter for livestock between Natales and P Montt

Ushuaia

. There was about 40 of us on the boat and by the 2nd day we all knew each others names and we were like one big family. I just chilled out, ate lots and had a few wee glasses of vino. We met Irish, English, American, German, Swiss on there and had a great laugh with them all. It was a great way to relax and just dump your rucksack down for a couple of days.
From here I'm heading north to Santiago for a couple of days before going further north to San Pedro de Atacama and then into Bolivia.
Thank you all for your best wishes along the way so far, its nice to hear from you all.
Paula, thanks for  printing off all the blogs for the gang in Collon.                                   

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