Yeeeah so we´re now in Ecuador, which is pretty crazy considering the fact that a week ago, it was snowing. Now it´s just really hot. Our way back up to Santiago was actually pretty eventful. We had assumed our flight from Punta Arenas to Santiago was direct, but turned out to have two stops on the way: Balmaceda (i.e. Coyhaique) and Puerto Montt. The pilot ditched our first landing in Balmaceda, which I´m pretty sure scared the crap out of some people, but I´m almost positive that it was just the ridiculous Patagon winds. Now, people are jumpy so we go quickly onto Puerto Montt without incident after some people checked out the plane to make sure everything was cool. Now in Puerto Montt, people started wondering what was happening, so making this short as possible, we jumped back on the original plane, then got off (which got a bit hairy after someone pulled out a professional video camera and started filming), and then they finally ordered a new plane to come which we took to Santiago. Basically, a trip that was supposed to take 3 hours took almost 12, as we finished at around 2 am. After failing to find open rooms in a few hostels, we slept at the airport in a nice little nook with no one around. Great travel day.
My only day in Santiago wasn´t particularly eventful. We walked around the city when it was really, really hot out to the Mercado Central and Plaza de Armas, as well as a few really pretty churches. We also walked through this huge market looking at food for hours. It was a crazy place. Also split a kilo of delicious strawberries in a park square.
Afterwards, we flew to Guayaquil to meet up with Chris, who very nicely showed up at the airport to meet us. We stayed in a hostel, walked around a bit, and had a beer apiece until the police yelled at us (even though there isn´t an open container law, dunno what exactly the problem was).
Next, we headed to this really cool town called Puerto López on the ocean. Our hostel was pretty awesome, split two cabanas and a delicious breakfast apiece for $10 a night. The beach there was beautiful, long stretch that we walked down the first afternoon we were there. Lunches and dinners we ate at the city center, traditional food for $1.50 a piece (things here are wonderfully cheap and in US dollars, both great things). The following day, we did this awesome trip on a boat for $15, starting with catching fish and then making fresh ceviche on the boat and eating it, just amazing. Then we went to a private beach and tossed the frisbee around for a bit, saw a whale, and snorkelled. What a day.
Today, we packed up our stuff and did a quick jaunt in a nearby national park, basically wandering around the beach, sitting around, throwing the frisbee, etc. Went back to town, ate another good lunch, and took a bus to Montañita, another little surf town on the coast, but it´s more like walking into a real life Hollister. Surfing, drinking, smoking (leaving that ambiguous), and just doing nothing. We arrived pretty late in the day so went for a jaunt down the beach and then rented surfboards for an hour going into sunset. I managed to get up on the first try, which was pretty sweet, and continued that success into the hour until I almost managed to get decapitated by another surfer. Toned things down a bit after that.
Chris cooked dinner tonight, $4 total for the four of us to eat rice with his version of an Ecuadorian tortilla, which is a little omelete type deal with onions, carrots, and peppers. And now I´m here. Off to go play euchre or pitch, whatever people are more interested in. And hopefully pictures tomorrow, if I can´t muster the strength to surf all day :-D
Monday, March 30, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
It Ours Always Best
Since we left Calafate, we travelled back into Chile to get to Puerto Natales, our base for getting prepped for going into Torres del Paine National Park, one of the more famous Chilean parks other than Pumalín. Crossing the border itself was a bit frightening -- we (i.e. I) had prepared a sauce for pasta the night before and had thrown it into my two nalgenes not thinking that the border police might be concerned about the 2 liters of fruits and vegetables that I was bringing into their country, along with Mack´s two packages of green beans, two pounds of cooked pasta, and other miscellaneous food items. I´m still not entirely sure how we managed to cross the border without getting fined, but I think if the food is cooked, somehow it doesn´t matter. I think the experience shaved a few years off of my life (especially as I was trying to literally dump the red sauce in the toilet at the border, I had no idea what to do. Mack had arrived in Santiago with a kid that had mistakenly brought an apple into the country and was fined $131 -- I couldn´t imagine what the fine would´ve been for us).
Anyways, after that somewhat harrowing experience, we got into Puerto Natales where after being solicited by a very talkative teenage girl to come stay in her house left there to go to a very reputable place called the Erratic Rock. The Erratic Rock has several different hostels and hotels, run by Americans who do some gear rental and the like while also booking tours and guides for visitors with larger budgets than ourselves. They failed to have any rooms left, but recommended a place down the street on the other end of the town square run by the 3 Isabellas -- yes, the hostel is run by three little ladies all named Isabella. It has actually been my favorite place so far to stay, since the little place had a lot of character, was clean, and had a nice kitchen. After dropping off our stuff, we went to a great talk at the Erratic Rock given by one of the two owners, Rustin, who basically gave us the low down on everything we needed to know about the park for free. Awesome. Before heading to bed, we bought food and packed.
We left for Torres early the next morning on a two hour bus ride to the park itself. It was a quite beautiful day, as we could see the Cuernos and the Torres just from entering the park. After a quick jaunt to a nearby waterfall, we took a catamaran across a lake to get to the trailhead.
A brief overview of our six day hike: we decided to do a somewhat longer version of the "W" trail (as opposed to the circuit) which would allow us a better view of Glacier Grey and make the trip a bit easier than the last one where we basically killed ourselves everyday to arrive at our destination before sunset. The trail, as you might guess, makes a somewhat "W"-like shape, though you still might have to squint a bit to see it. Feel free to visit the Torres del Paine map (it´s a pdf, just to warn you) to see the pictures of the trails.
Day 1:
So we were dropped off the catamaran at the Refugio Pehoé, one of the many ski resort type places that you can stay along your hiking journey. This also makes the trip waaaay easier for people that aren´t that serious about hiking because you can take a really light pack (i.e. clothes) and buy all of your meals at the refugios, as well as have a great night´s rest in an actual bed. Anyways, we started hiking up north on the W to have a nice view of Glacier Grey, one of the largest glaciers in the world save Greenland and Antarctica. After arriving at the Refugio Grey, we decided to walk the next hour to try to get to the free campsite where on the way, we all promptly bonked and had a pretty crappy evening trying to get our energy levels back up to par.
Day 2:
Did a quick day hike up north to try to get some better views of Glacier Grey, but turned back after a little more than an hour to arrive back at the campsite to get ready to move. We had planned to just go back to Refugio Grey, but since our morning light hike had been shorter than planned, we hiked all the way back to Refugio Pehoé where we cooked a hearty dinner in a nice little octagonal building provided to the paid campers.
Day 3:
Awful. We woke up to rain after not getting a great night´s sleep (the winds in Patagonia are no joke). Breakfast was great because we had bought some eggs and bread from the refugio which was a nice supplement to soup. The rain stopped for a bit but picked up with an even greater intensity about thirty minutes into the hike. We´ll just leave it that we did the hike in about half the time that the map says we should normally do it because we were cold and miserable. Early afternoon we got to Refugio Los Cuernos, where we changed into dry clothes and warmed up inside for the entire afternoon. Unfortunately, we went out later that night to find that the Patagon winds had completely destroyed Mack´s tent (i.e. the only one we brought) -- the guylines had been ripped off the tent, one of the aluminum poles bent in half, and the tent fly had a four-ish foot hole. One of the stranger things about the trip was that it happened to not matter at all. We simply rented a tent that was already set up for us, which was incredibly nice considering the fact that it was already quite late.
Day 4:
Backtracked to the Campamento Italiano and hiked north from there up Valle Frances with light packs. Just incredible views of the valley, plus views of glaciers and the Cuernos. Hiked back down and got back to camp at a reasonable hour. Justin was pretty wiped after the hike and dinner (which we bought that night, but was not nearly enough for hungry early-twenty somethings), so he slept while Mack and I patched the tent and pole. I learned that night that mooching and being able to speak decent spanish is totally worth it -- after talking with a bunch of the guys that worked there, I got a large loaf of bread for Mack and I to share for free (otherwise costing about $8). Sweet.
Day 5:
Hiked from Refugio Los Cuernos past Refugio Chileno to Campamento Las Torres about an hour away from the mirador of the Towers. The hike itself was pretty uneventful. It was a scorcher, and we were hiking uphill most of the day, thus leading to a bit of sweating. The winds in the valley leading up to the Towers were just ridiculous, enough to push you from where you were standing. We made sure to pick a somewhat more sheltered spot in the camp so that the tent hopefully wouldn´t get destroyed. Cooked dinner in a nice little shelter where we were able to meet come very cool people from all around the world (actually, one of the best things about the Torres del Paine hike was meeting lots of people). Prepped for our morning hike and headed off into a deep sleep.
Day 6:
Woke up ass early to what one might call a wintry mix, what sounded like mostly rain but turned out to be mostly snow. After sadly putting on our clothes to begin the hike, we moved pretty quickly up to the base of the towers in a few inches of snow. Once we had arrived, we could barely make out the towers because of the snow, which naturally turned into whiteout conditions soon thereafter. However, it did clear up a little bit for a few minutes, which were some great picture opportunities. Headed back down to the campamento, packed up, and then booked it down to the bottom of the valley to Refugio Las Torres, a Vail-esque huge hotel where we hung out until we were able to catch a van and then another bus out of the park. After arriving back in Puerto Natales, we bought bus tickets for the next day to Punta Arenas (our current location) and dinner in the form of many calories (1/3 kilo of cheeseburger for each of us with onions, peppers, eggs, mushrooms plus we split 2.5 L of ice cream for dessert). Overall, awesome trip.
Since the hike, we´ve travelled to Punta Arenas, which is the furthest south we´ve been yet on the trip. It´s a pretty big port town of over 100,000 people. Lots of character. The first day we got here, we basically hung out at the internet cafe and walked around town for a few hours, staying at the Hostel Fitz Roy. Today, we backed up pictures and took care of things on the internet, headed to this absolutely terrible center of consumerism called the Zona Franca (no taxes), and then went on a very cool personal brewery tour of the Cervecería Austral. Tomorrow, off to Santiago and then Friday to Ecuador to see Beels. Very excited.
Lastly, I can´t upload any photos because I can´t convert them to jpegs. I urge you to check out Mack´s blog for photos of everything, plus another take on the trip. Justin has also documented the past week or so in his own style.
´Til next time.
Anyways, after that somewhat harrowing experience, we got into Puerto Natales where after being solicited by a very talkative teenage girl to come stay in her house left there to go to a very reputable place called the Erratic Rock. The Erratic Rock has several different hostels and hotels, run by Americans who do some gear rental and the like while also booking tours and guides for visitors with larger budgets than ourselves. They failed to have any rooms left, but recommended a place down the street on the other end of the town square run by the 3 Isabellas -- yes, the hostel is run by three little ladies all named Isabella. It has actually been my favorite place so far to stay, since the little place had a lot of character, was clean, and had a nice kitchen. After dropping off our stuff, we went to a great talk at the Erratic Rock given by one of the two owners, Rustin, who basically gave us the low down on everything we needed to know about the park for free. Awesome. Before heading to bed, we bought food and packed.
We left for Torres early the next morning on a two hour bus ride to the park itself. It was a quite beautiful day, as we could see the Cuernos and the Torres just from entering the park. After a quick jaunt to a nearby waterfall, we took a catamaran across a lake to get to the trailhead.
A brief overview of our six day hike: we decided to do a somewhat longer version of the "W" trail (as opposed to the circuit) which would allow us a better view of Glacier Grey and make the trip a bit easier than the last one where we basically killed ourselves everyday to arrive at our destination before sunset. The trail, as you might guess, makes a somewhat "W"-like shape, though you still might have to squint a bit to see it. Feel free to visit the Torres del Paine map (it´s a pdf, just to warn you) to see the pictures of the trails.
Day 1:
So we were dropped off the catamaran at the Refugio Pehoé, one of the many ski resort type places that you can stay along your hiking journey. This also makes the trip waaaay easier for people that aren´t that serious about hiking because you can take a really light pack (i.e. clothes) and buy all of your meals at the refugios, as well as have a great night´s rest in an actual bed. Anyways, we started hiking up north on the W to have a nice view of Glacier Grey, one of the largest glaciers in the world save Greenland and Antarctica. After arriving at the Refugio Grey, we decided to walk the next hour to try to get to the free campsite where on the way, we all promptly bonked and had a pretty crappy evening trying to get our energy levels back up to par.
Day 2:
Did a quick day hike up north to try to get some better views of Glacier Grey, but turned back after a little more than an hour to arrive back at the campsite to get ready to move. We had planned to just go back to Refugio Grey, but since our morning light hike had been shorter than planned, we hiked all the way back to Refugio Pehoé where we cooked a hearty dinner in a nice little octagonal building provided to the paid campers.
Day 3:
Awful. We woke up to rain after not getting a great night´s sleep (the winds in Patagonia are no joke). Breakfast was great because we had bought some eggs and bread from the refugio which was a nice supplement to soup. The rain stopped for a bit but picked up with an even greater intensity about thirty minutes into the hike. We´ll just leave it that we did the hike in about half the time that the map says we should normally do it because we were cold and miserable. Early afternoon we got to Refugio Los Cuernos, where we changed into dry clothes and warmed up inside for the entire afternoon. Unfortunately, we went out later that night to find that the Patagon winds had completely destroyed Mack´s tent (i.e. the only one we brought) -- the guylines had been ripped off the tent, one of the aluminum poles bent in half, and the tent fly had a four-ish foot hole. One of the stranger things about the trip was that it happened to not matter at all. We simply rented a tent that was already set up for us, which was incredibly nice considering the fact that it was already quite late.
Day 4:
Backtracked to the Campamento Italiano and hiked north from there up Valle Frances with light packs. Just incredible views of the valley, plus views of glaciers and the Cuernos. Hiked back down and got back to camp at a reasonable hour. Justin was pretty wiped after the hike and dinner (which we bought that night, but was not nearly enough for hungry early-twenty somethings), so he slept while Mack and I patched the tent and pole. I learned that night that mooching and being able to speak decent spanish is totally worth it -- after talking with a bunch of the guys that worked there, I got a large loaf of bread for Mack and I to share for free (otherwise costing about $8). Sweet.
Day 5:
Hiked from Refugio Los Cuernos past Refugio Chileno to Campamento Las Torres about an hour away from the mirador of the Towers. The hike itself was pretty uneventful. It was a scorcher, and we were hiking uphill most of the day, thus leading to a bit of sweating. The winds in the valley leading up to the Towers were just ridiculous, enough to push you from where you were standing. We made sure to pick a somewhat more sheltered spot in the camp so that the tent hopefully wouldn´t get destroyed. Cooked dinner in a nice little shelter where we were able to meet come very cool people from all around the world (actually, one of the best things about the Torres del Paine hike was meeting lots of people). Prepped for our morning hike and headed off into a deep sleep.
Day 6:
Woke up ass early to what one might call a wintry mix, what sounded like mostly rain but turned out to be mostly snow. After sadly putting on our clothes to begin the hike, we moved pretty quickly up to the base of the towers in a few inches of snow. Once we had arrived, we could barely make out the towers because of the snow, which naturally turned into whiteout conditions soon thereafter. However, it did clear up a little bit for a few minutes, which were some great picture opportunities. Headed back down to the campamento, packed up, and then booked it down to the bottom of the valley to Refugio Las Torres, a Vail-esque huge hotel where we hung out until we were able to catch a van and then another bus out of the park. After arriving back in Puerto Natales, we bought bus tickets for the next day to Punta Arenas (our current location) and dinner in the form of many calories (1/3 kilo of cheeseburger for each of us with onions, peppers, eggs, mushrooms plus we split 2.5 L of ice cream for dessert). Overall, awesome trip.
Since the hike, we´ve travelled to Punta Arenas, which is the furthest south we´ve been yet on the trip. It´s a pretty big port town of over 100,000 people. Lots of character. The first day we got here, we basically hung out at the internet cafe and walked around town for a few hours, staying at the Hostel Fitz Roy. Today, we backed up pictures and took care of things on the internet, headed to this absolutely terrible center of consumerism called the Zona Franca (no taxes), and then went on a very cool personal brewery tour of the Cervecería Austral. Tomorrow, off to Santiago and then Friday to Ecuador to see Beels. Very excited.
Lastly, I can´t upload any photos because I can´t convert them to jpegs. I urge you to check out Mack´s blog for photos of everything, plus another take on the trip. Justin has also documented the past week or so in his own style.
´Til next time.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Chaltén and Calafate
Heyo.
So after our four days of waiting at the estancia to leave, we finally headed out at 5:45 in the morning to catch a bus leaving around 8 in Cochrane, headed to Villa O´Higgins. After staying overnight in the town in a hospedaje, we started on one of our more intense travel days of the trip, beginning with a bus at 8. We arrived at a dock at 8.30, and hopped on a boat going across Lago San Martin with some beautiful sunrise pictures (wish I could post pictures, but it´ll probably be a while until I´ll be able to get going on that again). We arrived about noon, checked out of Chile at a little carabiñero office, and crossed the border on foot on a 15ish mile hike that took us until about 6. Fortunately, we arrived just in time to check into Argentina and catch 7 pm ferry across the smaller and very beautiful Lago del Desierto, with a huge glacier on our right and Mount Fitz Roy shrouded in clouds as we headed South. After taking a bus, we finally arrived in El Chaltén, a small town of 2000ish people at the foot of the Fitz Roy Range. Ended up staying in probably the crappiest hostel in town at the recommendation of two French girls that we had talked to on the way there, but we went out for our first decent meal in a long time that wasn´t carb (bread, pureéd potatoes, etc) + meat (sheep). Also, Mack and Justin have been sick for quite a while now, originating a little before we left from the estancia -- not sure how I dodged that bullet.
The following day, we did a quick day hike to see Mount Fitz Roy in the afternoon after spending the morning looking for a better place to sleep (found an awesome hostel about 2 blocks down the road). We spent a bit of time later that day debating how much longer to stay in the town, since we hadn´t yet seen Fitz Roy in all it´s glory (google image search it if you haven´t seen the mountain, it´s just incredible). Long story short, we decided to stay the next day which ended up being a rest day because of rain, and then got up ass-early (i.e. 3.45) the following day to do a 12k hike to get a nice panoramic view of Fitz Roy and surrounding mountains, including Cerro Torre. We had banked on the fact that the weather report had indicated good weather, and I think we got incredibly lucky because we got some ridiculous views of the mountain range (Mack may have some pictures up) just at sunrise and for about an hour afterwards. Unfortunately, we didn´t bring enough clothing and were all relatively cold, especially Mack, so we headed down after just an incredible view. Defintely a once in a lifetime experience, and incredibly lucky.
After the hike, we had some leftover rice and lentils at the hostel and left on a bus for El Calafate, which is SSE of Chaltén on our way to Torres del Paine. We decided to spend a day here, i.e. today, to go see the Perito Morreno glacier, which is essentially the only reason why this town exists. Way more touristy than Chaltén, and much more expensive. Unfortunately, we woke up early again this morning (we´re pretty tired at this point) and got to the glacier before sunrise to find that it was cloudy and rainy. Oh well. However, we did escape the $25 entrance fee by getting there early, which was awesome. We´re also hitting up an all you can eat place for dinner tonight, which is going to be awesome. On to Puerto Natales tomorrow, last stop before Torres. Until next time!
Check out Mack´s pictures.
So after our four days of waiting at the estancia to leave, we finally headed out at 5:45 in the morning to catch a bus leaving around 8 in Cochrane, headed to Villa O´Higgins. After staying overnight in the town in a hospedaje, we started on one of our more intense travel days of the trip, beginning with a bus at 8. We arrived at a dock at 8.30, and hopped on a boat going across Lago San Martin with some beautiful sunrise pictures (wish I could post pictures, but it´ll probably be a while until I´ll be able to get going on that again). We arrived about noon, checked out of Chile at a little carabiñero office, and crossed the border on foot on a 15ish mile hike that took us until about 6. Fortunately, we arrived just in time to check into Argentina and catch 7 pm ferry across the smaller and very beautiful Lago del Desierto, with a huge glacier on our right and Mount Fitz Roy shrouded in clouds as we headed South. After taking a bus, we finally arrived in El Chaltén, a small town of 2000ish people at the foot of the Fitz Roy Range. Ended up staying in probably the crappiest hostel in town at the recommendation of two French girls that we had talked to on the way there, but we went out for our first decent meal in a long time that wasn´t carb (bread, pureéd potatoes, etc) + meat (sheep). Also, Mack and Justin have been sick for quite a while now, originating a little before we left from the estancia -- not sure how I dodged that bullet.
The following day, we did a quick day hike to see Mount Fitz Roy in the afternoon after spending the morning looking for a better place to sleep (found an awesome hostel about 2 blocks down the road). We spent a bit of time later that day debating how much longer to stay in the town, since we hadn´t yet seen Fitz Roy in all it´s glory (google image search it if you haven´t seen the mountain, it´s just incredible). Long story short, we decided to stay the next day which ended up being a rest day because of rain, and then got up ass-early (i.e. 3.45) the following day to do a 12k hike to get a nice panoramic view of Fitz Roy and surrounding mountains, including Cerro Torre. We had banked on the fact that the weather report had indicated good weather, and I think we got incredibly lucky because we got some ridiculous views of the mountain range (Mack may have some pictures up) just at sunrise and for about an hour afterwards. Unfortunately, we didn´t bring enough clothing and were all relatively cold, especially Mack, so we headed down after just an incredible view. Defintely a once in a lifetime experience, and incredibly lucky.
After the hike, we had some leftover rice and lentils at the hostel and left on a bus for El Calafate, which is SSE of Chaltén on our way to Torres del Paine. We decided to spend a day here, i.e. today, to go see the Perito Morreno glacier, which is essentially the only reason why this town exists. Way more touristy than Chaltén, and much more expensive. Unfortunately, we woke up early again this morning (we´re pretty tired at this point) and got to the glacier before sunrise to find that it was cloudy and rainy. Oh well. However, we did escape the $25 entrance fee by getting there early, which was awesome. We´re also hitting up an all you can eat place for dinner tonight, which is going to be awesome. On to Puerto Natales tomorrow, last stop before Torres. Until next time!
Check out Mack´s pictures.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
A couple more ...
So a few more pictures that I forgot to post a while ago. Here´s Justin and Mack with the fish that they caught the second day of fishing nearly three weeks ago.
A very happy Mack cutting up literally half of a lamb in a shack. This is pretty normal Chilean territory. One of the gauchos, Luigi, helped Mack with the first few cuts, and then left Mack to the rest. Made for a very delicious dinner. Bob Volpi would be proud.
Friday, March 6, 2009
A lot to catch up on ...
Since I haven´t posted in about two weeks, we´ll try a story by pictures, since it´s much easier for me to remember things with a visual aid.
Here´s the last camp that I reported about in the middle of Valle Guanaco, more specifically where Mack, Justin, and I tented for the week. Pretty nice spot, out of the wind and rain.
This is why we take out the barbed wire first (it´s the topmost wire on most fences):
Now we get to the epic part. Yesterday, we returned from a long five day hike up north briefly into Jeinimeni National Reserve. The trip consisted of three easy steps. Days one and two going north through a valley housing Río Los Aviles, day three going east in Valle Hermoso, and days four and five going down a valley housing Ríos San Antonio and La Leona.
Day one: So starts the journey into the valley. There was a old sheep and guacho path that was there (or at least supposed to be there) which we followed a good deal of the way. We actually started the day with a river crossing in really cold, rainy conditions, so we got a pretty slow start. After getting into the valley, we realized that we had to ascend a few hundred meters to get to a more hikable area following the path. Here´s a view from the top looking back into the Valle Chacabucco (Los Aviles on the right):
Once we got to the top, walking was pretty easy going for a while, despite the somewhat uphill climb. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we were all carrying about 50 pound packs, which made the hike significantly more difficult (food weighs a lot, and we eat more than the average person). We hiked through some plains-esque areas and topped out over a hill to this view (there was also a really incredible red mountain on the left, and you don´t get the scale of how big this valley is in a small photo):
Walking up and through the valley:
We vastly underestimated how long the hike would take, and with heavy packs, we didn´t quite make it to the first site where we were supposed to camp which happened to be a puesto, an old guacho residence. Too bad. Ended up camping on the riverside so that we could make a fire and easily access water. Also underestimated the amount of food that we had, which severely affected our moods until the fourth day when we were sure that we could gorge on more food without being negatively affected later in the trip.
Here´s the last camp that I reported about in the middle of Valle Guanaco, more specifically where Mack, Justin, and I tented for the week. Pretty nice spot, out of the wind and rain.
The following weekend, we did a short day hike up a peak called Tamangito (I believe I mentioned this in the last post, so I won´t elaborate too much). We had a great view at the top in all directions.
Two weeks ago, we headed out to a new camp much closer to the Argentinian border. It was actually a pretty ridiculous place. We spent our nights in an actual house with running water and a bathroom, and for that matter, a kitchen (with the normal, but slightly nicer, wood stove). Unfortunately, the work there was much more difficult than the fence pulling that we had previously encountered. This time, the fence had 7 or 8 wires going across, 2 being barbed, and many of the wires were so old that the plants had grown well over them (note that all the plants here suck). We also had far fewer people working in the group that week, about half what we were used to, so progress came very slowly. Fortunately (and unfortunately), I spent one day in Cochrane taking care of bus and plane tickets, as well as food and money for our future travel plans. While the work was horrible that day (i.e. through dense forest), Mack and Justin were lucky enough to spot a pygmy owl in the woods and get some really great shots from probably 10 feet or so away. Very mad that I wasn´t there.
After four days or so working, we took a day off and did a quick day hike to Lago Chico, which was about 2 or 3 hours to the south and was supposed to have a great view of the larger Lago Cochrane. The weather turned sour quickly after leaving and by lunchtime, it was raining quite hard. We decided to eat and turn around. Naturally, by the time we got back, the weather was great, so we sat down before we got back, build a rock wall to stop the wind, and had a few beers. Here´s the new ad for Cristal:
This is why we take out the barbed wire first (it´s the topmost wire on most fences):Justin, Mack, and I after a hard day at work inside the kitchen of our ridiculous house enjoying sopapillas (bread fried in animal fat, mmmm):
Now we get to the epic part. Yesterday, we returned from a long five day hike up north briefly into Jeinimeni National Reserve. The trip consisted of three easy steps. Days one and two going north through a valley housing Río Los Aviles, day three going east in Valle Hermoso, and days four and five going down a valley housing Ríos San Antonio and La Leona.
Day one: So starts the journey into the valley. There was a old sheep and guacho path that was there (or at least supposed to be there) which we followed a good deal of the way. We actually started the day with a river crossing in really cold, rainy conditions, so we got a pretty slow start. After getting into the valley, we realized that we had to ascend a few hundred meters to get to a more hikable area following the path. Here´s a view from the top looking back into the Valle Chacabucco (Los Aviles on the right):
Once we got to the top, walking was pretty easy going for a while, despite the somewhat uphill climb. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we were all carrying about 50 pound packs, which made the hike significantly more difficult (food weighs a lot, and we eat more than the average person). We hiked through some plains-esque areas and topped out over a hill to this view (there was also a really incredible red mountain on the left, and you don´t get the scale of how big this valley is in a small photo):
Walking up and through the valley:We vastly underestimated how long the hike would take, and with heavy packs, we didn´t quite make it to the first site where we were supposed to camp which happened to be a puesto, an old guacho residence. Too bad. Ended up camping on the riverside so that we could make a fire and easily access water. Also underestimated the amount of food that we had, which severely affected our moods until the fourth day when we were sure that we could gorge on more food without being negatively affected later in the trip.
The next morning, we woke up to the tent being completely frozen over. We also didn´t get any sunlight until about 11 since the valley is north-south. The sun makes a huge difference in how warm you are at any given time, the air is most always cold. Anyways, we headed from our camp mostly up a dried up riverbed until the end of the day. We booked it, trying to make up for the time that we had lost the previous day from our lack of disciplined hiking.
After passing through a bunch of dense forest, we came across and slowly walked over a huge boulder field through to another forest ...
And finally ended up in our destination, Valle Hermoso. The sun was just setting by the time we arrived, so here is basically the only shot we had time to take before needing to cook dinner and set up camp.
Day three. Walked most of the day over dry riverbeds in Valle Hermoso. No signs of much life, and certainly no paths to be seen. Pretty drab day overall. Once we reached a large lake called Lago Verde (it was quite green), we had one hell of a time going up and then down a 300 meter pass between two mountains to get around the lake. A view looking back at the valley:
A view of Lago Verde and Valle Hermoso at the top of the pass:
Mack and Justin had thought that we were headed for a puesto for the night, so after a really long day of hiking over rough terrain, we de-panted and took the plunge into a relatively high river (Justin actually sacrificed himself first, pretty cold crossing the river three times). We couldn´t find the puesto anywhere, so instead set up camp next to another river that we crossed the next day.
After passing through a bunch of dense forest, we came across and slowly walked over a huge boulder field through to another forest ...And finally ended up in our destination, Valle Hermoso. The sun was just setting by the time we arrived, so here is basically the only shot we had time to take before needing to cook dinner and set up camp.Day three. Walked most of the day over dry riverbeds in Valle Hermoso. No signs of much life, and certainly no paths to be seen. Pretty drab day overall. Once we reached a large lake called Lago Verde (it was quite green), we had one hell of a time going up and then down a 300 meter pass between two mountains to get around the lake. A view looking back at the valley:
Near the pass next to Lago Verde:
A view of Lago Verde and Valle Hermoso at the top of the pass:
After descending from the pass, we walked on another dry riverbed for the rest of the day to reach another lake.
Mack and Justin had thought that we were headed for a puesto for the night, so after a really long day of hiking over rough terrain, we de-panted and took the plunge into a relatively high river (Justin actually sacrificed himself first, pretty cold crossing the river three times). We couldn´t find the puesto anywhere, so instead set up camp next to another river that we crossed the next day.
Day four. Got up early and made really good time since there were a ton of great paths along the Rio San Antonio. At this point, we were still headed slighly uphill, as the river drained into the lake from which we had come. We crossed the river about 20 or 30 times that day (thank god for the Keens):
Most of the day was spent in either forest or areas where the river had caused all the trees in the surrounding area to die:
We finally reached our destination, a smaller green lake but pressed on as we had made really great progress that morning. We also started to eat more food, which raised our spirits considerably.
Day five. Woke up really early because we needed to be at the bottom of the Valle Chacbucco for a pickup at 7 pm and we didn´t want to be late. Río La Leona is actually owned by a small farmer, so most of the land this day was relatively uninteresting, plus it was pretty dark when we made the vast majority of our progress. You probably can´t tell in the picture below, but the shaded area at the bottom is where the sun has not hit yet, and the ground there is frozen solid.
Farmland.
At the end of the hike (yeah!). A view all the way into Argentina to the west.
So it´s late and I´m tired, this post is done for now. But to let you know how tired I really am, I have been sitting around all day today resting my weary muscles and got completely fatigued afer doing abs, situps, and walking up a little hill to look at the progress on the Thompkins´ house. Sad. Good prep for Chaltén and Torres del Paine. Until next time ...
Most of the day was spent in either forest or areas where the river had caused all the trees in the surrounding area to die:
We finally reached our destination, a smaller green lake but pressed on as we had made really great progress that morning. We also started to eat more food, which raised our spirits considerably.
Day five. Woke up really early because we needed to be at the bottom of the Valle Chacbucco for a pickup at 7 pm and we didn´t want to be late. Río La Leona is actually owned by a small farmer, so most of the land this day was relatively uninteresting, plus it was pretty dark when we made the vast majority of our progress. You probably can´t tell in the picture below, but the shaded area at the bottom is where the sun has not hit yet, and the ground there is frozen solid.
Farmland.
At the end of the hike (yeah!). A view all the way into Argentina to the west. So it´s late and I´m tired, this post is done for now. But to let you know how tired I really am, I have been sitting around all day today resting my weary muscles and got completely fatigued afer doing abs, situps, and walking up a little hill to look at the progress on the Thompkins´ house. Sad. Good prep for Chaltén and Torres del Paine. Until next time ...
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