Region de Magallanes

Stars and Mountains. Best flag.

Mi Cumlpeaños!

08/02/11 Happy Birthday Grace! Even though I'm super far away from home the day felt super special :)

Classic. One happy lady. Things!

Birthday Breakfast. With scrambled eggs. Favourite :)

Swing al Sur del Sur.

Shopping! Yes. Today I was allowed to shop :) I got some woolly socks for the chilly willies in the tent and a locally made necklace from these guys. Really friendly and make all the stuff right in the shop.

Chocolate everything!

Date Night en Puerto Natales :)

We reserved a bit of Lamb 'Asado al Palo' for the occasion. Yup thats the meat reserved, not a table... its just how they roll. Red wine went rather well :)

Too much Laaaaaaamb! (oh and a bit of beer too).

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee all the way home! (27 years of age)

Puerto Natales

07/02/11 Puerto Natales. A wee town sitting on a Fjord full of tin houses and random boutique hotels! We opted for a cosy tin house with a Grandma included who feeds you endless bread and cake for breakfast :) Also base for Torres Del Paine. Oooo :)

Tin House. No Grandma included with this one though.

We are at.

 When not drinking Tinto.

Cyclo Tourists

We keep bumping into Guillaume and Prado along the way. Our Favourite Cyclo Tourists :) We met them in Villa O'Higgins with a bunch of other cyclists. What a way to see this part of the world. We're inspired to go on a cycling holiday one day, maybe we'll stay with you guys in Bilbao! We're sad we didnt get a photo of Bryan but we're sure he's enjoying food somewhere ;)

Mint Condish

Southern Cross

07/02/10  Back in El Chalten we were awakend in the early hours by the meat sweats (we tend to eat a lot after walking and carrying minimal food ;) we saw the stars were out and John took his first pictures of Space!  This one shows the Southern Cross constellation. New stars down here!

Parque Nacional Los Glaciares

03/02/11  We went walk-about in the famous Argentinian National Park for 4 days.  The mountains and weather were amazing :) In total we coverd about 60km, including some steep climbs.

The stunning Fitz Roy range.  Right to left: Monte Fitz Roy 3405, Cerro Poincenot 3002, and Rafael 2482.  People climb them! Hardcore.

Cerro Torres 3102.  Awesome!

Mount Bounty lookalikey.

We climbed up to Laguna Los Tres, underneath Fitz Roy and the start of the complete ascent (we decided to leave that for another day).

 Laguna Los Tres

Windy up the top!

Glaciar Piedras Blancas. Its all about finding a good spot for lunch.  Bread and Jam :)

On day 3 we went off the classic trails and climbed up to a ridge.  I think we lost the intended route a little (scared off by the prospect of crossing ice) but picked a high point and just scrambled straight up!

3.5 hours up, about 1000m climb.  Feels good at the top :)

And that´s where we went!  When we got back down we discovered we´d left some chocolate and half a pack of biscuits on the hill.  John went back for them! Yeah Biscuits :)

Lamb Asado

This is the real deal, along with moustachioed man with flat cap and baggy trousers, drinking out of a leather flask.  Unfortunately we weren´t invited to partake. Boo.

Its Not Where You Go, Its How You Get There

31/01/11 In the summer there is a passable sendero through to Argentina from Chile. What a way to do it!

Ready to go! We were recommended trekking poles, so wittled some prototypes to see for ourselves.
Packs now weighing in at:
Grace: 14kg
John: 16kg
Plus 4-5kg on the front. Yikes.

Vamos!

Into the hills :) 15km track like this snaking up and around into a valley. Cross the border and then 7km winding through woods and over trees, bogs and rivers.

Holy Smokes! Its like finally seeing the Emerald City after walking through the wild wood! So lucky to get a clear view of Fitz Roy on the way. It looked, and still looks, unreal!  That´s where we´re headed!

The tent came up trumps again. Found us a pretty little spot by Lago Del Desierto in Argentina (whoop) and snapped up the view too! A.mazen

Sigh. Again. We slept gooooooood that night. Only another 17km along the lake the next day to go!

We made it to El Chalten on 1st Feb - that´s 5 months on the road!  Nice work :)

Sigh

30/01/11 Candelario Mancilla. At the end of the day you've just got the sun on your back (a novelty) and a turquoise lake to look at. Chuffed.

Saving gas. Note: this campsite was an obvious Asado spot as we discovered the remenants of a COW in a pit behind a tree. Hyde and hooves were all that was left to show for it. Errrgh.

 Waking up to Liquid Gold!

Patagonia Sin Represas

Patagonia Without Dams. This campaign is popping up everywhere throughout our trip in Chilean Patagonia. Its pretty complicated but in short, Northern Chile wants to use Patagonia's beautiful rivers and lakes as an energy source. This would then entail thousands of electricity pilons travelling 2415km across the amazing landscapes up to North. It also mean many people would lose their homes and livelyhood as the dams would cause the land to flood. Ironic as people were paid at one point to go inhabit the area and tricky because there is debates on ownership of water. It is amazing to see how passionate Patagonians are about this subject. We have seen books, films in the making, (a couple who travelled here 4 weeks by boat to make a film on the campaign) protests on horse back and this smaller more personal venture on our trip to the Glacier. These girls have been travelling to some of the most beautiful views to get photos with their banner. And all off their own backs. More info.

Glacier O'Higgins

30/01/11  On the way south from Villa O'Higgins into Argentina we crossed Lago O'Higgins and took a detour to meet the Glacier.  80m high!

Check the colour of that lake!

Cold, windy and icy.

Wow.  It really moves? Then we got served Whisky over Glacier Ice. Posh.

Villa O´Higgins

27/02/11  The dusty town with wooden buildings and corrugate roofs at the end of the road.  Like something from the wild west.  Where is everybody?!  We stayed for a few days as our boat further south was delayed due to high winds on the lake.  Luckily we camped outside of El Mosco, an awesome hostel.  There was a big kitchen/dining/chilling area, some really nice people and really hot showers. It was super interesting to meet other people in this place, each with their own crazy story of how they made it, it takes a little effort. One night we also ended up in a hot tub with rum. Hello!?

Villa O'Higgins.

El Mosco in the background. Excellent knit wear in the foreground.

Its a How! Get it? Or a Corse...

Wine in the evenings at El Mosco. The atmosphere here was mucho friendly and chilled :)

Asado

26/01/11 Asado is mucho popular in Patagonia, even with the happy campers. Steak, Lamb joints or whatever animal you can stick on a spike and cook over a fire. We burnt a couple of steaks on the fire in Cochrane, half way down our Carretera Austral journey.  Cheap and awesome (:

With Potato. Grrrrr

Carretera Austral

26/01/11 There's a section in southern Chile that has no roads.  The country gets too narrow and it's all water and mountains.  To reach the more southern parts you have to first cross into Argentina.  The Carretera Austral is the last road before this impassible area, and we travelled to the end of it, to the last remote town, Villa O´Higgins.  The road became a dusty track and the scenery was spectacular.  Unsuprisingly its a popular cyclo-tourist route, what a place to ride!

You shall not pass. Patagoniacat

Seen this style a few times.

Past illuminous blue green rivers.

Mi Casa Es Su Casa ...Y Mi Casa, Ella Viaje!

Since we last blogged we've stayed in a myriad of random homes:

We hit Puerto Montt for a late night stopover and found ourselves in a flat inhabited by several families. We slept in a room just off the shared kitchen and a shy cup of tea turned into an hours Spanish practice. We turned in at midnight just as one family sat down to their dinner :)

In Castro, the landlady of our Hospedaje apologised for her slightly wonky, higgledy piggledy, wooden house, with the words; "be careful, my house, it travels!"

Last night, we were totally stuck as our boat arrived at 1am, 12 hours late. With nowhere to stay at the harbour we boarded a random bus to the nearest town, Puerto Aysen. After passing the Prison, late night bars and a brothel we were again worrying about finding a safe place to put our heads down. Luckily, a family on the bus asked us if we wanted to share a taxi to Coyhaique (our planned destination) and in the end offered to let us stay at the Madre´s house when we arrived at 3am! PHEW. Plus she made us tea and Panitos (wee bread) con homemade Jam before we went to bed! Whatta woman, wouldn't take any money from us either. Que super linda :)!