After a six hour bus back to El Calafate to find we couldn't get on the route 40 bus (very scenic byway) any earlier than 5 day's time, we ended up catching a bus at 2am to Rio Gallegos, followed by another to some place just North of Puerto Madryn and then a further one on to Bariloche! A real effort totalling something like 30 hours in addition to the 6 hours we'd already spent travelling. We were shattered when we arrived and I was particularly pleased to find we were on the top floor of the hostel as I was still having trouble walking down steps after Torres! Not to worry though - we thought we'd go hang-gliding. We actually got as far as the beautiful view back over the lake and the town before the guys we were supposed to be jumping with were sure it was going to be too unsafe for us to fly. A real shame.
We spent a little time looking around the square, though didn't really see much of the St Bernard's dogs which were supposed to be everywhere. Hardly a disappointment though considering that Bariloche is the chocolate capital of Argentina - and also a close second to Buenos Aires for ice cream and steak! Legendary.
So our lunch consisted of a main course of a selection of the most amazing chocolate slices ever, followed by a desert of ice-cream cones top heavy with 3 huge scoops of awesome ice-cream flavours...including chocolate again! Start as you mean to go on...Mum would be proud of my healthy eating!
Being supposedly a bit of a party town we went to check out the local Irish bar that evening - the most happening bar in Bariloche, but were sadly disappointed - you can see from the glum faces!
Day 2 we tried, once again unsuccessfully to go Hang Gliding. This time we were lucky enough to see a different viewpoint, this time part of the recommended "short circuit", but that was all we got again - a lift there and a lift back! Not to worry though - solutions to the disappointment were plentiful, once again in the form of chocolate and ice cream. Well there were so very many shops and they each deserved our attention!
Day 3 we finally got to do something - Canyoning! As everything in South America it was a little non safety conscious, but doesn't that just make it even more of a thrill?! Following our childish amusement with our equipment we went for a good walk straight up a steep mountainside, then plummeted into the canyon, by way of a free-hand abseil - well the first drop was only 5 or so metres. Once safely slipping and sliding about on the rocks of the streambed we advanced to the edge of other precipices from which we had to "take a big jump, don't slip and make sure you miss the rock" into pools which were just deep enough to slow the impact! That, some rides down natural slides and we were ready to do some pretty mental abseiling - down a waterfall! Even our guide must have considered this to be pretty mental as this time we had a safety rope!
***video - waterfall abseiling 1***
***video - waterfall abseiling 2***
At least dinner was more nutritionally rich with probably the best steak ever and a huge serving of potatoes!
Being the prepared travellers we are we arrived two days early into Puerto Natales, had a quick look around what seemed to be a ghost town (well it was Sunday) and started to strum a few new tunes in our luxury hostel. The day after would have been cycle-around-the-coast day but the weather turned as it often does in Patagonia so we spent almost the entire day indoors. The one exception was when we went to buy trekking supplies from the supermarket and got followed back by fighting squads of stray dogs!
Next morning, just as the sun was coming up, we hopped onto a bus for an icy-cold drive to the park, whilst the both of us tried to fall back into our warm sleepy slumber...lucky we'd brought the earplugs as the bus was filled with shouting Israelis!
Getting to the park at 11am things had clearly become a lot more organized since Martin's brother had done the hike, giving us plenty of time to reach our camp. Now I'm not saying we're competitive, but we definitely like a challenge. In this instant it was provided by the times quoted on the map, times which we were able to cut in half by just walking quickly! Well OK we got a little overexcited so we jogged some of the downhills on occasion...but even so 54min instead of 2 hours for the first leg is quite commendable!
So after a walk along a narrow path above the river valley we dropped down to our refugio where we made a quick stop for lunch (well peanuts and chocolate) and Martin for his siesta! The cloud was looking like it might clear so we decided to make the hike up to the torres. 80mins (not two hours) later we were admiring a clouded view of the Torres del Paine.
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With a lot of time to spare though and a little patience it did finally clear up for a amazing view of the three Torres and the glacially-cut lake infront. We were certainly having some of the best weather the park had experienced for a few weeks!
Another map beating march back down the trail (two hours in 61 minutes) and we were back at the refugio, acting about half our age with Pringles and trying to figure out why we hadn't been told to bring sleeping bags when we booked - well full board normally includes bedding doesn't it?! Hmm.
Food that night was bread for starters, steak, mash, chopped tomatoes and peppers for main - both of which were pretty alright, but then rounded-off my the most over-whipped-so-no-actual-substance-to-it angel delight I've ever slurped! Lovely. We were lucky enough to sit down next to two Aussies who we'd walked past early that day whilst chatting about how great our walking times were - apparently this amounts to showing-off and they didn't let us forget it!
That night sleepover quality sleeping-bags were provided for a rediculous GBP3.50 a night (on top of the GBP40 we were already paying!) and it was cold. Undeterred though, next morning after an beautiful sunrise, eating breakfast and receiving our packed lunch, the sun was shining brightly once again so we decided to hot-foot it round the back of the torres to the hot springs and the path that was only meant for climbers...pah!
After taking a closer look at stems of ice which seemed to have grown out of the ground overnight, supporting the small piece of rock above them, we took our turning. The moment we tried though to turn from the main tourist route though, a ranger stood in our way telling us we could absolutely not go any further. And then it happened - for the first time Martin and I argued coherently and clearly amazingly well in Spanish with no need to confer in English - and we had it - 2-1/2 hours to go to the next refugio but absolutely no going up the climbing route (sure, sure).
Its amazing how fast you can move when the time pressure is on - we were past the camp after 40 minutes and on up to the steep stream to reach the "climber's route". The stream certainly slowed us a bit though - heading directly up the steep mountainside. Pressing on we completed not only that, but also a narrow walk slowly climbing the contours of the mountain until we came into view of the other side of the Torres and even got the chance to do some impromptu bum-sledging! And to imagine Mr Ranger was going to deny us this!
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Martin - STEER!! So maybe Señor Ranger did have a point after-all. Maybe the reason for not going up there was so that your hiking companion did not crash into a rock whilst bum-sledging and mountain rescue did not have to be called! We were both relieved things didn't turn out quite that bad, though leaving ourselves a matter of just over an hour to get back made the return journey a real rush before the mountain rescue was called for real - well that's what the ranger had threatened anyway! When we dropped-in to tell him we had returned he blatantly knew where we had been - probably because we were a little over enthusiastic about how beautiful the village was...and did we mention the snow?!
The rest of the day we walked along between mountains and lakes and cleverly lengthening our route by about an hour by missing the path! Once again we were really paying attention! Starving as we were that night, Martin was particularly delighted by the Tuna Bake put before him. Not to worry though - I had a system of working my way around each of the people working there asking for "un poco mas pan, por favor"...so we'd get our carbs if nothing else! And then just as we finished eating, Chris let on that he had a whole stack of surplus chocolate bars which we could help ourselves to! Not much persuasion was needed!
That night I'd began to feel that I might have overdone it with the speed we'd been walking and by the next morning I knew a lot more about it! With it becoming harder to bend my knees on either side I managed to scrounge some Ibuprofen from an English couple we knew which I took at tactical moments during the hike.
That day the challenge was to get up Valle Francés, however I was a lot less worried about that than coming down - which I was certainly a lot more adept at on my arse than on my feet! The valley itself was beautiful, with a noisy river in the bottom and a mountain piled high enough with snow to cause constant mini-avalanches...a good excuse to stop and rest now and again! After a stop for lunch admiring the avalanches, the two of us walked a little further to what looked like the best viewpoint for quite a while, grabbed a photo and then Martin headed on up, trying to beat the Aussies to the peak whilst I made my way back down...but as the photo shows still looking good on it haha!
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The remainder of the day we walked alongside mirror-lakes and other beautiful vistas until we came to a very different Refugio for the night - practically a hotel and a free pisco sour at the bar on checking-in! So whilst the moon went down over the lake we sipped our pisco sours and admired the Cloudagh's and Maria's very brave socks-with-sandals footwear choice. De la moda. Alas my ploy to get more free piscos from the barlady by telling her I'd spoken to her boss and he said it was buy-one-get-one-free night didn't work, but on the bright side it was good Spanish practice!
Later that evening a Dutch man came up to me in a very embarrassed manner, tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if he could have a quiet word. Naturally our whole table had gone quiet to listen when I blurted out "oh no those would be Martin's socks"! It turned out that the stench coming from Martin's socks was enough to prevent everyone in the room from sleeping! Impressive feat...hahaha. So poor Martin had to trot off to the room, remove his socks and then sniff mine to make sure they weren't smelling as well!! If only they'd been stinking like his it'd have made my day!
Next morning, probably still full of Pisco, we began our hike to the *** glacier - about a four hour walk. At the beginning I was feeling fine and flexible and enjoying the lake vistas complete with huge chunks of floating ice, however by about 2/3rds the way there though the story was changing - I was really feeling the pain and stiffness of the previous days and there were some pretty sheer rock faces to get ourselves down which are amazingly dangerous when you have the grace of movement of a octogenarian crossed with Gollum. To our credit though we were still completing the route in the suggested time...hardcore. Well hardcore enough to be elated to finally sit down and have lunch when we reached the glacier. En route back I bumped into the Kiwi guy we'd met in our hostel in Puerto Natales - he'd hiked the whole back route and was raving about it the whole way...maybe next time! That night was a much quieter event without the gang - who'd all decided to mission it back from the hostel at the glacier before the boat the next morning - nutters! We enjoyed our lie-in!
Arriving back in Puerto Natales, amazingly the place wasn't actually completely dead like the days before. It seems the locals have muck-up day at the start of their school term - hoards of children were running about covered in flour and cake! Inspired by some kind of life in what was previously a ghost town we headed for an awesome steak dinner with the gang and then on to check out the nightlife. Amazingly stuff was happening...well in one bar at least which was playing a very eclectic mix of music. Time once again for a spot of blow-the-cards-off-the-glass, plenty of banter and some crazy dancing.
Arriving in El Calafate and feeling the cold we all suddenly realised just how unprepared we were for the cold to come, and I was beginning to regret sending my ski jacket home from China, even if it had stopped the cream parts from turning yellowish-brown! The worst part of it was nothing was cheap as it was geared-up for the tourists with lots of money, not us traveller types, so we ended up not only taking almost 5 hours running around the shops, but also spending almost as much cash as we would have done back home. And then came the second frustration of the day - Martin's clippers stopped working just after he'd managed to take a nice big chunk of hair out of the back of his head...and all this just half an hour before dinner! However, persistance and superglue paid off with Martin making it to dinner only an hour late!
Next day we headed out by the old road to the Moreno Glacier, stopping to annoy the many condors lazing about at the roadside and the alpacas running away over the plains. Just before turning back to the new road we reached an Estancia (a ranch) which seemed to have a bigger industry in selling hot chocolates to tourists than farming goats. We could understand why though - these hot chocolates were literally boiling milk in a cup and a slowly-melting slab of chocolate in the bottom. As rich as it comes.
Before we got back on the bus, with a bit of coaxing all of us gave some poor unsuspecting goat-kid a cuddle! I think maybe we went for the soft-option on goat-capture as we'd already seen him jump into a post accidentally so maybe he wasn't quite all there!
After some education about glaciers back on the bus and a few interesting statistics (such as 30 people died from falling ice in 20 years) we went for a little wander about the glacier, avoiding various mafia-like characters who seemed to be following us! Strong as we are though we survived, making it to our glacier outlook where we decided posing like the Chinese was infinitely cool!
The glacier was amazing...apparently it appeared even more blue as it was a cloudy day (their argument as to why we were lucky). The colours actually appeared even better through sunglasses, though taken a picture with the camera through sunglasses didn't seem to have quite the same effect! The best part was when huge chunks broke off the edge of the glacier and crashed into the water. A bit surreal to be standing admiring a glacier but at the same time willing it to break apart dramatically and crash into the lake!
After lunch (away from the viewpoint as all the good seats were taken grrr) we had a bit more of a wander around and then hopped on a boat which was completely dwarfed by the glacier for a close-up look at it. We all stood there expectant, waiting for ice to break off and fall in, but each time, by the time we'd heard the initial cracks, turned the camera back on, focused it and pressed the shutter button, the ice had already fallen below the waterline! The frustration! Great to see though and impressive to feel just how much the wake from the falling ice rocked the boat.
That night Martin and I stuffed ourselves quite unnecessarily at the local eat-as-much-as-you-like restaurant...including steak and all for about GBP3.50! Oh how i love Argentina! After a very early goodbye to the girls the next morning, Martin and I were lucky enough to find ourselves on our second shopping day about El Calafate in preparation for Torres del Paine...hats being the main problem.
A little late cos of some upload problems...but here it is for the mums out there - possibly the best Mother's Day song in the world! >
And for those who want to sing along... Oh Mother, please believe me, I´ll stop spending your cash come May. Believe me when i tell you, I´ll get a job one day.
Oh Mother, please don't leave me, I still love you even when you moan. Believe me when i beg you, I cant do my ironing on my own.
When we parted, I knew that things would be hard alone, I needed a travel mum but who? When we parted i knew things would be hard alone, But now i can mend my clothes with super super glue.
Oh Mother, please believe me, For your nursing home i will pay. I written this to wish you, A really happy Mothers Day!
Arriving early from another luxury cama bus into Puerto Madryn we headed out looking for something to do and discovered windsurfing was available and costing under GBP9 for an hour's lesson! Sold!! The last time I went windsurfing I distinctly remember getting stuck in some reed at the edge of Bala Lake, so it was a welcome change to find that after some brief tuition I actually had an awesome time going exactly where I wanted to go...even if the odd tac wasn't actually quite so perfect as I would have liked!
Having a lot of Welsh influence in Patagonia, the Lonely Planet mentioned that Puerto Madryn had various statues devoted to various Welshmen. Martin and I went off in search of one and although we didn't find anyone particularly famous (Tom Jones for example) I did hitch a ride on his equally curly-haired, four-legged cousin...made out of Plaster of Paris and wire.
Mission accomplished it was off to meet Jen and Rosie (Jen who I'd met whilst queuing for the loo on the nightbus!) for a steak and champagne lunch...cos we could and cos they were loving the change in cost of living since leaving Brazil. That night, classy as we were, the four of us went for white wine on the beach, after which we tried to check out the nightlife in Puerto Madryn. Out of season nothing much seemed to be happening...being such a party animal Jen wouldn't let that stop her though...making use of a children's play area to get the party started! The rest of us would have joined her but we were over the height restrictions! :-p
Our seal, penguin and whale-watching viewpoints for the day lay a good 120km away down gravel roads, out on the Valdes Peninsula. Whilst we went to get the car, the girls assembled a picnic, then off we headed down some twisty gravel roads with Jet pumping from the CD player. Unsurprisingly our two CD collection of Jet and Foo Fighters got a bit old after 420km...but they certainly bring back the memories now!
After a brief stop at the tourist information centre, more dashing down dirt roads, and nearly seeing a nasty accident as one woman slammed on the anchors as her car started to skid, our first stop was at the southermost point. From there we had an awesome view of the coastline and hundred of seals all bathing in the sun whilst some were making a very laborious task out of reaching the sea!
Another good stretch of driving got us to the halfway viewpoint, complete with some stripy colouration in the sand and a view of the south end of a huge sandspit. An unmarked stop, partway to the northermost end was one of the most exciting. You were literally feet away from penguin burrows. They would emerge just below you to begin their waddling slightly clumbsy, sometimes falling descent to the sea. Very cute!
Completely unexpected at the north viewpoint an armadillo was charging around the carpark scaring the local foxes away from the food offered by the Argentine tourists! The foxes certainly didn't know what to make of such a fast-moving armoured hedgehog and just seemed to keep well out of the way.
After patronising the cafe (we seemed to be in desperate need of cake), due to the very good time we were making about the peninsula (must have been the car) we had a good couple of hours to sit and wait for the orcas. Furstratingly luck wasn't on our side, but on returning to the car we did get to see armadillo combat which was an awesome spectacle!
All about what I do, what I intend to do, what I intend to do and do, what I intend to do but don't do, what I think of things, but then sometimes I don't think. Basically stuff about me, my friends and what I'm up to.
After a six hour bus back to El Calafate to find we couldn't get on the route 40 bus (very scenic byway) any earlier than 5 day's time, we ended up catching a bus at 2am to Rio Gallegos, followed by another to some place just North of Puerto Madryn and then a further one on to Bariloche! A real effort totalling something like 30 hours in addition to the 6 hours we'd already spent travelling. We were shattered 
when we arrived and I was particularly pleased to find we were on the top floor of the hostel as I was still having trouble walking down steps after Torres! Not to worry though - we thought we'd go hang-gliding. We actually got as far as the beautiful view back over the lake and the town before the guys we were supposed to be jumping with were sure it was g
oing to be too unsafe for us to fly. A real shame.
to Buenos Aires for ice cream and steak! Legendary.
to go on...Mum would be proud of my healthy eating!
Day 2 we tried, once again unsuccessfully to go Hang Gliding. This time we were lucky enough to see a different viewpoint, this time part of the recommended "short circuit", but that was all we got again - a lift there and a lift back! Not to worry though - solutions to the disappointment were ple
ntiful, once again in the form of chocolate and ice cream. Well there were so very many shops and they each deserved our attention!
Following our childish amusement with our equipment we went for a good walk straight up a steep mountainside, then plummeted into the canyon, by way of a free-hand abseil - well the first drop was only 5 or so metres. Once safely slipping and sliding about on the rocks of the streambed we advanced to the edge of other precipices from which we had to "take a big jump, don't slip and make sure you miss the rock" into pools which were just deep enough to slow the impact! That, some rides down natural slides and we were ready to do some pretty mental abseiling - down a waterfall! Even our guide must have considered this to be pretty mental as this time we had a safety rope!
