El Calafate

El Calafate was a lot of fun. We ended up staying for three nights because the tour we wanted to take - a four hour hike out onto Glacier Moreno - was booked for the second day, but the wait was worth it. We occupied ourselves for a day by wandering around a nature reserve with tons of birds.

Really nice.

The next day, Lara and I met up with Megan - a fun Kiwi - and we joined a bigger group out on the ice. We headed off at 7 in the morning and got back at around the same time in the afternoon. Glacier Moreno is the only glacier in the world that is not receding and outside of Antarctica and Greenland, it and some other glaciers around it are the third biggest glacier deposits in the world. Here's what the glacier looks like:

After getting off a boat, we hiked a pretty easy 50 minutes to the edge of the glacier and put on crampons - claw-like appendages to our shoes that let us walk around on the ice.

It is a weird sensation - it is impossible to slip with them on as long as you walk properly and point your feet in a way that your ankle is always perpendicular to the slope so you don't roll your ankle. After about an hour they are easy to use.

We walked around for almost four hours on the ice and it felt like another world. A couple of occasions we came across crevices that dropped down 30 - 70 meters. If they were wide enough to be dangerous, a guide would stand near it and shepherd us along. Other times, we'd walk right over them. Here are a lot more pics:

Great trek - loads of fun.

I'm now in Puerto Natales and will hike around Torres del Paine the day after tomorrow. If my blisters seem up for it, I'll do the full circuit which could take 5-10 days depending on the weather.

El Chalten

So I'm now in El Calafate after spending five nights in El Chalten, which is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. Here's a picture from a trail taken on the way back after a ten hour hike:

It's a tiny town created in 1985 to prevent Chile from grabbing the land in a border dispute. Only 600 people stay there year-round, it has a couple of paved streets, and the ATM works some of the time. And it is absolutely stunning.

My first day there I just stayed in the hostel because I arrived late in the evening after more than 30 hours in buses. The next day I took a three hour hike to Laguna Torres, a very easy stroll for the most part with beautiful scenery. It is interesting going for a stroll in this strong Patagonian sun - when you hit the shade, it drops 10 degrees or more instantly and wind gusts are intermittent throughout, so there is always a bit more variety in temperatures and weather sensations than I'm used to. Here are a few pictures of that hike:

Really stunning.

The next day, Lara and I hiked to the Fitz Roy, a mountain top that is gorgeous. It is an eight hour hike but we took our time and soaked in the views, turning it into a ten hour hike. Afterwards my blisters were acting up so badly that my hiking days were ended for about a week or so (we'll see), but it was worth it. Here are some pictures:

Really amazing.

The next day was overcast and my blisters were bad so I did nothing. The day after that I took a bus ride to Lago de Desierto and hung out on the beach for a few hours reading. Here's a picture of Lago de Desierto:

And, finally, a last meal of steak before heading out. Really, really good steak (Bife de Chorizo, medium-rare):

El Bolson

Tonight will be my fifth and last night in El Bolson. El Bolson is a small town nestled in a valley with beautiful mountains nearby and several rivers created by glacier water. It has long been a hippie Mecca and preserves that kind of vibe - great hand made arts and crafts and lots of organic foods. It also produces 75% of Argentina's hops, so the beer here is excellent.

My first day here I arrived in the afternoon so I didn't have time to do too much - just a 2k walk up a small mountain called "Cerro Amigo" with a good view of the valley. Here's a pic from the top:

The next day I biked a total of 40k with a Dutch girl named Johannah to Lago Puelo, which was absolutely gorgeous with pristine water. I went for a brief swim - it was nice. Here's a pic:

That was tiring enough. The next day I met up with a wonderful Scottish girl named Heidi and we went biking again to another spot with a nice view. At the top, the people who work there told us it would be an easy 40 minute bike ride to a nearby waterfall. They have either never seen that path or they lied through their teeth - after a vigorous and, for me, extreme two hour bike ride we made back in time to turn the bikes in. The next day we set off on a two day trek up to a mountain refuge in a place called "Hielo Azul." The main attraction is a glacier at the top. After a six hour hike up a pretty steep climb, we made it to the refuge. My life was flashing before my eyes but Heidi was just fine. The view was definitely worth it:

Towards the left of the tip right there there is a path up the mountain that leads to a small lake up at the top created by glacier water. Also, all of the water in that shot comes straight down from the glacier and it is colored a milky white with the minerals scraped off the earth by the glacier. We stayed at a small cabin overnight that was about 30m from where I took this picture (and where I got bit very badly by bedbugs) and climbed up to the glacier the next morning. That night, the stars came out and I can't remember ever having seen them so clearly- they were absolutely breathtaking. The climb the next morning was rigorous and steep over very rocky terrain - it took 3 hours total up and down over ground that was sliding underneath our feet. But it was a well used path that was just a bit tricky, so it wasn't much of a risk. A fall would have been some bruised, not broken, bones. At the end of it, in a crater at the top of the mountain-chain pictured above, there was this:

Here's a backward view at the valley from the top of the mountain before we descended towards the lake:

So, it was worth the effort. After that we climbed back down and hitch-hiked into town. I hadn't been so tired in a very long time.

Tomorrow I'm off to El Chalten.

Bariloche

Tonight will be my fourth and last night in Bariloche. The city is at the northern tip of Patagonia and sprawls around a bit around one lake and offers easy access to six other lakes surrounded by mountains on all sides - they never seem to end. It's gorgeous. Here's some proof:

Not bad.

It's been a blast - there is so much to do here and I didn't even come close to exploring it all, or even maximizing all of my days, really. But that's OK - I did enough. Day one I arrived late in the afternoon and it was the Superbowl, so I just walked around the city a bit before the game. The next day I walked up to a spot with a beautiful view in every direction and soaked that in for a while and met Ronaldo and Monan from Holland. We hit it off and went over to Colonia Suiza, which was a nice little beach with a view of mountains across the way. The next day I went rafting with two girls from the US. There were 18 rapids, all rated at 3 or 4. It was an absolute blast, despite some Russians on our boat who insisted on complaining the whole time and an Argentine guy who tried to push me off the boat with his paddle but missed and hit me square in the face. That was the first time I've ever yelled at anyone in anger in Spanish - very gratifying. Today I arranged my things for tomorrow - off to El Bolson to try my hand at camping. It's a good place to start slow.