Cerro Guanaco
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
1
283
551
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
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Tiera del Fuego National Park,
Argentina
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
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That night the german guy inour room thought it was smarter to leave the window open, because the floor heating was too warm. Lionel woke up coughing and I had a sore throat.
We checked out of the hostel, went to buy some food, rented a tent and matresses, could not rent hiking shoes, and by noon we took a minibus to Tiera del Fuego National Park, east of Ushuaia, along the border with Chile. The minibus dropped us at the camping ground, and we started by setting up the tents.
Before leaving we had bought food for twodays.We had lunch, and 3/4 of our food was gone...
There were a few hikes awaiting us in the national park, the most difficult one being the most beautiful and recommended one, to Cerro Guanaco (Cerro means Mountain, and Guanaco is the local herbivorous lama). It was a 6 hours hike, we were already in the afternoon, but the weather looked good so we decided to go for it. We had been warned that there was mud and snow on the way, and therefore I did not know if I could make it to the top, because my shoes were dead, in the sense of having holes everywhere,so that stones and water get in all the time. And dead in the sense that the soles were slick, slicker than trainers, just perfectly slick.
I had decided I would buy new shoes in Punta Arenas, because they were supposed to be cheaper than in Ushuaia, which is already a bit cheaper than at home.
We started by walking along Lake Roca, and there were rabbits everywhere. Then the hike was in beech forest, steeply going up, and with a reasonable amount of mud. Then we got into serious trouble, with lots of mud, black and cold and wet, and then crossing wetlands, like swamps, with snow in places, all this water coming from the melting snow that had fallen the previous days.
That took us about half way up, and then we started walking on the mountain side, on a mix of stone and snow. It is quite rare to hike in snow, but here it was ok because there were only 10 to30cm, and it was nice. Slipery, cold, wet at times, but the sun was there, really heating us up, and the views on the valleys and the lakes were great.We were invited for a hot drink by some Israelis (there are loads of Israelis in Patagonia, even more than frenchies), and hiked up to the top. It was only 1000 meters high, with a start near sea level, and it had taken us less than 2h30... but unlike our mountains in France, where 1000 meters is plain and ugly and occupied by men, here we were dominating the mountain range and he valleys and lakes, and ther was snow all around, it was really beautiful, a great reward, and it wasn't even that cold. We spent almost an hour up there, we could even see Ushuaia in the distance, and also the little train coming towards the nationl park, the Tren del fin del mundo as they call it.
We went down, slipping on the snow, and also on the accumulation of unstable rock, it was tiring but still fun, with great views. We went past an argentinian couple with their 3 year old girl, that we had taken over on the way up: they had started in the morning at 9, and the little girl had been hiking for hours and hours in the mud. For that last part she was tranquilo in the backpack of her father, but she was still very talkative, insisting that we answer everytime that she addressed us. They were a bit late, but close to the summit, so they had to keep going.
The way down took more time and was more tiring than I expected: the mud was everywhere, an even when we were walking beside the track, it was really slippery. I had to put my hands on the ground a few times, and I had to save from sneaky slips all the time. I made it allright, but it was strenuous.
In the evening we had planned to go to see some beavers (castors) on a lake, but the sun was going down, and we did not really feel like going, so we bought sandwiches at the camping, opened our bottle of wine, and had dinner. A dutch guy was camping beside us, so he joined us, we made soup and we bought another bottle of wine. We started a fire, my mongolian technique was supposed to be real good but I had to do it three times cause the wood was really damp and cold and the fire would stop even after being ok... I hate that.
After a while the night was coming and the couple with the little girl was not back, so Bruno and Lionel went with torch lights to find them while Nikki the Dutch and I were trying to lit the third fire. They came back shortly after, and the Argentinians joined us for a hot tea beside our fire. They had been camping the night before, but they were really tired so they called a drive to take them back to Ushuaia for that night. The little talkative girl was deep asleep in the backpack.
After hot showers, wine, talking around the fire, it was time to go to bed, hoping we'd not get too cold.
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