We are in San Martin de los Andes, which is the prettiest place we've been so far. Whoever called Bariloche the Switzerland of Argentina, hasn't been here. Everything here looks like it was ported directly from the Alps. Beautiful buildings, trees, flowers, everything. Very quiet, yet busy. Super weather as well. Did a couple of hikes yesterday and today, but only about three hours each. Got lost on one of them. The rest of the time was sightseeing or sitting at the beach or in our (beautiful) hotel.
We're about ten minutes outside of town, and up a hillside. Great views from everywhere in the place. Huge room, fantastic sitting areas. It's called Casona Delalto. Highly recommended, but you must have a car.
I found rice on the menu where we had lunch today, but I wanted a steak, and they wouldn't let me have rice with steak. It had to be potatoes. The guy must have been the Rice Nazi. "No rice for you!" So, still no rice. Lunch was good today. A break from the ham and cheese sandwiches that you get in every lunch box when you're hiking. Actually, yesterday we almost had pastrami and cheese wraps for lunch. Why almost? Here's another Gord Hiking Tip: When you stop to picnic in an area clearly marked "precaución área chaqueta amarilla !", which means "caution yellow jacket area !", it might be a good idea not to unwrap your cheese and lunch meat there. Unless, of course you want to be surrounded by every hungry yellow jacket for miles around.
This little Chevy is turning out to be not such a bad car after all. Lots of zip, and it handles the gravel roads well. Most of the cars here are Fiats, Renaults and Peugeots, with the odd Volkswagen thrown in. Must be the European influence. I'm guessing this is where most of the Germans that fled after WWII ended up.
There are no barbers in Argentina. Who knew? Men get their hair cut in women's hair salons or cut it themselves.
At the Copa, Copacabana - just listening to a little Manilow on Direct TV. Did I mention that I am loving not having any traffic controls? No lights, no stop signs, nada. Everyone just pays attention and is courteous. Slow down, and if no one is coming, then go. And pedestrians always have the right of way.
Back to Bariloche tomorrow.
Friday, 28 February 2014
Monday, 24 February 2014
Mid-point of the trip
I can't belive that we're already into Week 4 and are pretty close to midway in the trip. Where has the time gone? For sure, no moss has grown on us. We've managed to pack a lot into our time so far and we've had very full days. We have rented an apartment in San Carlos de Bariloche for the week so that we have extra space, a kitchen and laundry facilites. The idea being that we'd slow down for a few days near the midpoint of the trip, which we have done. It is totally against my nature and the evil voice in my head keeps saying "let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. But I promised Gord some downtime and we fire up the jets again on Tuesday when we head to San Martin de los Andes. We even watched the Men's Gold Medal Hockey Game this morning before we went out. GO CANADA GO!
Our apartment is very nice. It's a small, 2 bedroom condo that has a great balcony overlooking the lake and we're abut 10 minutes walk from the main dining, shopping, things to see area. We have rented a car so we can get around easily and we've done some self-guided trips and short hikes. More of the same tomorrow. The area is absolutely gorgeous. It's in the Lake District of Argentina and there is one lake after another, surrounded by mountains. It's a pretty big place (population around 100,000) so there is a lot to do. Way too many things for the short time that we are here. I feel like I'm scouting for a future trip back. There are loads of trails for all levels of trekking and lots of watersports. In the spirit of keeping things low-key, we're spending more time doing driving tours than hiking. On Tuesday, when we go to San Martin, we get to leave most of our gear in the apartment until we return on Friday.
We're just a few blocks away from an area that is chock-full of brew pubs. They close the streets in the evening and the pubs put tables in the streets. There is a bandstand at the end of one street and we've seen a band there for the past 2 nights. Pretty decent bands. The band last night drew a really big crowd who all knew the music and were singing and dancing in the street. It was worth being there just to watch the crowd. Here, and at some other social events that we've seen in South America, the crowds consist of people of all ages and everyone parties together. If they have kids, they bring their kids. It seems strange to me to see dozens of kids around 5 and 6 years old standing, running and playing in the street at 10PM amongst hundreds of adults who are attending a rock concert, many of whom are drinking beer and alcohol and are very much into the music. The open drinking in the streets is also foreign to me. It must be legal because it is common and there are no attempts to hide it. They sell beer in 1 litre bottles so even the large number of people drinking from giant beer bottles is amusing to me. It is all very matter of fact and I haven't seen any sign of trouble.
Backtracking to earlier this week, we went from El Chalten to El Calafate. El Calafate was probably my least favourite place so far. It wasn't bad - just not as wonderful as the other places and I think that one of the reasons was that our hotel was 1/2 way to Timbuktu and we had to take a shuttle into town. It wasn't a bad hotel and it had really nice views but I prefer to be where the action is. The town itself reminded me of Banff. Not the same demographic and nowhere near the number of people and buses, but the Main Street with the shops and restaurants was very much like Banff was when I was last there (quite a while ago).
We did a couple of special things there. First, we took a boat to a place called Estancia Cristina, which was once a ranch but the National Park was created around it so it was converted to a hotel. It is most definitely not a place that you'd stumble upon. We had to take a 2 hour boat trip to get there and it is well and truly in the middle of nowhere. However, just one mountain over, are the ice fields of Los Andes so we took a trip (in a 4 X 4) to the Upsalla Glacier, where several glaciers converge in the icefields and we hiked back through a canyon called Fossil Canyon. The hike was excellent and the canyon was loaded with fossils. We only got to see what was along the trail but it was very impressive. Mostly shells and small bones as well as imprints of small sea creatures in the rocks. If that was in Canada, I doubt that we'd be able to hike that trail. The other special thing that we did while we were in El Calafate was to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier. Not the biggest glacier but definitely the most imposing. We did an ice trek on it, too. It was shorter and less difficult than the trek on Viedma Glacier but still lots of fun.
You know that your Spanish language skills need work when you order an Enchilada in a Mexican restaurant and you get lasagna. I'm still wondering why they serve lasagna in a Mexican restaurant. I ate it anyway. Aside from the Mexican lasagna experience, I'm not finding the food quite as bad as Gord has reported. Certainly, we've had some unmemorable meals but thay haven't all been bad. For me, the lousy food was in Chile. Also, anything in the realm of fast food is a waste of calories. I think that Gord is just missing some familiar components of his limited diet, like carbs. Maybe he's missing my cooking.........No, that can't be it.
When we're out on day long treks and tours, we end up eating a lot of boxed lunches, some of which haven't been great. Frankly, I am tired of eating sandwiches, especially ham and cheese, which is apparently the national sandwich of both Chile and Argentina. That's my biggest beef. I am tired of sandwiches but there are few options when you live in a hotel and have to pack lunch in the morning.
Lesson for the day: When you leave 2 pairs of perfectly good hiking boots stationed by the door and head out for the day wearing runners, do not later decide that a hike up a steep goat trail is a good thing to do. Getting back down that trail was quite a challenge without proper footwear. And, stupidly, as we were going up the trail, I kept thinking how difficult it was going to be coming down but, for some inexplicable reason, it didn't occur to me to turn back. DUH! Thankfully, we made it back without incident and can continue our adventures tomorrow.
Time for my beauty rest. Hasta luego.
New Week 4 photos can be seen here .
Our apartment is very nice. It's a small, 2 bedroom condo that has a great balcony overlooking the lake and we're abut 10 minutes walk from the main dining, shopping, things to see area. We have rented a car so we can get around easily and we've done some self-guided trips and short hikes. More of the same tomorrow. The area is absolutely gorgeous. It's in the Lake District of Argentina and there is one lake after another, surrounded by mountains. It's a pretty big place (population around 100,000) so there is a lot to do. Way too many things for the short time that we are here. I feel like I'm scouting for a future trip back. There are loads of trails for all levels of trekking and lots of watersports. In the spirit of keeping things low-key, we're spending more time doing driving tours than hiking. On Tuesday, when we go to San Martin, we get to leave most of our gear in the apartment until we return on Friday.
We're just a few blocks away from an area that is chock-full of brew pubs. They close the streets in the evening and the pubs put tables in the streets. There is a bandstand at the end of one street and we've seen a band there for the past 2 nights. Pretty decent bands. The band last night drew a really big crowd who all knew the music and were singing and dancing in the street. It was worth being there just to watch the crowd. Here, and at some other social events that we've seen in South America, the crowds consist of people of all ages and everyone parties together. If they have kids, they bring their kids. It seems strange to me to see dozens of kids around 5 and 6 years old standing, running and playing in the street at 10PM amongst hundreds of adults who are attending a rock concert, many of whom are drinking beer and alcohol and are very much into the music. The open drinking in the streets is also foreign to me. It must be legal because it is common and there are no attempts to hide it. They sell beer in 1 litre bottles so even the large number of people drinking from giant beer bottles is amusing to me. It is all very matter of fact and I haven't seen any sign of trouble.
Backtracking to earlier this week, we went from El Chalten to El Calafate. El Calafate was probably my least favourite place so far. It wasn't bad - just not as wonderful as the other places and I think that one of the reasons was that our hotel was 1/2 way to Timbuktu and we had to take a shuttle into town. It wasn't a bad hotel and it had really nice views but I prefer to be where the action is. The town itself reminded me of Banff. Not the same demographic and nowhere near the number of people and buses, but the Main Street with the shops and restaurants was very much like Banff was when I was last there (quite a while ago).
We did a couple of special things there. First, we took a boat to a place called Estancia Cristina, which was once a ranch but the National Park was created around it so it was converted to a hotel. It is most definitely not a place that you'd stumble upon. We had to take a 2 hour boat trip to get there and it is well and truly in the middle of nowhere. However, just one mountain over, are the ice fields of Los Andes so we took a trip (in a 4 X 4) to the Upsalla Glacier, where several glaciers converge in the icefields and we hiked back through a canyon called Fossil Canyon. The hike was excellent and the canyon was loaded with fossils. We only got to see what was along the trail but it was very impressive. Mostly shells and small bones as well as imprints of small sea creatures in the rocks. If that was in Canada, I doubt that we'd be able to hike that trail. The other special thing that we did while we were in El Calafate was to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier. Not the biggest glacier but definitely the most imposing. We did an ice trek on it, too. It was shorter and less difficult than the trek on Viedma Glacier but still lots of fun.
You know that your Spanish language skills need work when you order an Enchilada in a Mexican restaurant and you get lasagna. I'm still wondering why they serve lasagna in a Mexican restaurant. I ate it anyway. Aside from the Mexican lasagna experience, I'm not finding the food quite as bad as Gord has reported. Certainly, we've had some unmemorable meals but thay haven't all been bad. For me, the lousy food was in Chile. Also, anything in the realm of fast food is a waste of calories. I think that Gord is just missing some familiar components of his limited diet, like carbs. Maybe he's missing my cooking.........No, that can't be it.
When we're out on day long treks and tours, we end up eating a lot of boxed lunches, some of which haven't been great. Frankly, I am tired of eating sandwiches, especially ham and cheese, which is apparently the national sandwich of both Chile and Argentina. That's my biggest beef. I am tired of sandwiches but there are few options when you live in a hotel and have to pack lunch in the morning.
Lesson for the day: When you leave 2 pairs of perfectly good hiking boots stationed by the door and head out for the day wearing runners, do not later decide that a hike up a steep goat trail is a good thing to do. Getting back down that trail was quite a challenge without proper footwear. And, stupidly, as we were going up the trail, I kept thinking how difficult it was going to be coming down but, for some inexplicable reason, it didn't occur to me to turn back. DUH! Thankfully, we made it back without incident and can continue our adventures tomorrow.
Time for my beauty rest. Hasta luego.
New Week 4 photos can be seen here .
Sunday, 23 February 2014
We have arrived in Bariloche
Michele has promised to write something tomorrow, so you're stuck with me again. Here goes:
Two guys go into a bar - well, not exactly. The two of us get into a boat and sit with two strangers. We start into the "where are you from" routine, which usually always ends with the Rob Ford punchline. Guess where they're from? Winterthur !!! The guy's dad worked for Winterthur for 20 years. What are the odds? (Apologies to those reading this who didn't work with us, since I'm sure you won't appreciate the coincidence.)
Size doesn't matter - if you're a glacier. We visited (and walked on) the Perito Moreno glacier, which is only the 3rd largest in Argentina, but is by far the most impressive.
BTW, Canada and the U.S. are the only two countries that pronounce it glay-see-ur. All others pronounce it glah-see-ur.
Southern Argentina has the biggest and fattest dogs you've ever seen. They are everywhere. And very well behaved.
Finally had a good Argentinean steak. Yum! Also a pretty decent burger. Still not any good pizzas, so I've given up trying. And still no rice.
We're now in Bariloche, which is like heaven. It was around 25C today, with little wind. No more layering and toques. This is the Switzerland of Argentina. Mountains, lakes, A-frame chalets, etc. And really cheap. The guy in front of us at the supermarket bought two bottles of local wine - 1.125 L each. Total price for both - $3.38 CDN. A litre of Hiram Walker whisky is $4.69 CDN. It's a wonder the whole country isn't stinking drunk 24/7. I had two pints of artisanal beer with dinner tonight for $2.60 CDN.
We have good Wi-Fi here also. About one third the speed of Rogers at home, but 50 times faster than what we've been getting.
Here's a hiking/trekking tip: Find the guy/girl with the nicest butt, and walk behind them. If you have to be staring at a butt all day, it might as well be a cute one.
Congratulations to the Canadian Olympic curlers for showing everyone how it should be done.
And thanks to J. Fox for the free Chile and Argentina offline maps on Google Play. Unbelievably useful. Way more detailed than Google Maps. We use them all the time on my tablet.
We rented some POS Chevy Classic for the week. Somewhere, my dad is not happy, but it couldn't be helped.
More photos and commentary from Michele tomorrow.
Two guys go into a bar - well, not exactly. The two of us get into a boat and sit with two strangers. We start into the "where are you from" routine, which usually always ends with the Rob Ford punchline. Guess where they're from? Winterthur !!! The guy's dad worked for Winterthur for 20 years. What are the odds? (Apologies to those reading this who didn't work with us, since I'm sure you won't appreciate the coincidence.)
Size doesn't matter - if you're a glacier. We visited (and walked on) the Perito Moreno glacier, which is only the 3rd largest in Argentina, but is by far the most impressive.
BTW, Canada and the U.S. are the only two countries that pronounce it glay-see-ur. All others pronounce it glah-see-ur.
Southern Argentina has the biggest and fattest dogs you've ever seen. They are everywhere. And very well behaved.
Finally had a good Argentinean steak. Yum! Also a pretty decent burger. Still not any good pizzas, so I've given up trying. And still no rice.
We're now in Bariloche, which is like heaven. It was around 25C today, with little wind. No more layering and toques. This is the Switzerland of Argentina. Mountains, lakes, A-frame chalets, etc. And really cheap. The guy in front of us at the supermarket bought two bottles of local wine - 1.125 L each. Total price for both - $3.38 CDN. A litre of Hiram Walker whisky is $4.69 CDN. It's a wonder the whole country isn't stinking drunk 24/7. I had two pints of artisanal beer with dinner tonight for $2.60 CDN.
We have good Wi-Fi here also. About one third the speed of Rogers at home, but 50 times faster than what we've been getting.
Here's a hiking/trekking tip: Find the guy/girl with the nicest butt, and walk behind them. If you have to be staring at a butt all day, it might as well be a cute one.
Congratulations to the Canadian Olympic curlers for showing everyone how it should be done.
And thanks to J. Fox for the free Chile and Argentina offline maps on Google Play. Unbelievably useful. Way more detailed than Google Maps. We use them all the time on my tablet.
We rented some POS Chevy Classic for the week. Somewhere, my dad is not happy, but it couldn't be helped.
More photos and commentary from Michele tomorrow.
Wednesday, 19 February 2014
Musings from Estancia Cristina
Here's how all conversations start down here:
Us: Do you speak English?
Them: Yes.
Us: Where are you from?
Them: We're from _____. (Usually England, Australia, U.S.A. or Germany)
Them: Where are you from?
Us: We're from Canada.
Them: Whereabouts in Canada?
Us: Toronto.
Them: Oh, you've got that crazy crack-smoking mayor !
Us: Yup.
Do you think that condors sit around hoping their friends will die, so that they can have dinner?
After being here for two and a half weeks now, it's becoming obvious that all food (with the possible exception of empanadas and bottled water) is better back home.
How is it possible to consistently make bread that instantly removes all moisture from your mouth? They have mastered the art here.
No one here serves rice. Never. What's up with that? It took me 50 years before I would eat rice. Now that I want it, I can't get it.
Our last hiking guide was a psychologist, today's was an architect. Maybe being a cab-driving doctor in Toronto isn't so bad after all.
What do Maple Leaf fans do when the Olympics are on?
Twice we have dropped into a cafe or restaurant, and watched the Canadian women curl on ESPN. Weird.
It's funny how quickly you can accept wearing previously-warn clothes.
Tilley underwear is indispensable when travelling.
Shaving daily is highly overrated.
I wish Joannie Rochette hadn't backtracked on her statements about Patrick Chan. She got it right the first time.
Us: Do you speak English?
Them: Yes.
Us: Where are you from?
Them: We're from _____. (Usually England, Australia, U.S.A. or Germany)
Them: Where are you from?
Us: We're from Canada.
Them: Whereabouts in Canada?
Us: Toronto.
Them: Oh, you've got that crazy crack-smoking mayor !
Us: Yup.
Do you think that condors sit around hoping their friends will die, so that they can have dinner?
After being here for two and a half weeks now, it's becoming obvious that all food (with the possible exception of empanadas and bottled water) is better back home.
How is it possible to consistently make bread that instantly removes all moisture from your mouth? They have mastered the art here.
No one here serves rice. Never. What's up with that? It took me 50 years before I would eat rice. Now that I want it, I can't get it.
Our last hiking guide was a psychologist, today's was an architect. Maybe being a cab-driving doctor in Toronto isn't so bad after all.
What do Maple Leaf fans do when the Olympics are on?
Twice we have dropped into a cafe or restaurant, and watched the Canadian women curl on ESPN. Weird.
It's funny how quickly you can accept wearing previously-warn clothes.
Tilley underwear is indispensable when travelling.
Shaving daily is highly overrated.
I wish Joannie Rochette hadn't backtracked on her statements about Patrick Chan. She got it right the first time.
Monday, 17 February 2014
Update from El Chalten
El Chalten is the trekking capital of Argenina and the whole town is all about trekking. In the off-season, only 1000 people live here but it's a beehive of activity right now and everyone is either trekking or mountain climbing or ice climbing. The trekkers are from all over the world and range from young back-packers to seniors' walking clubs. I didn't realize that there was such a large trekking culture. Live and learn, I suppose.
On Friday and Saturday, I did a couple of full day treks. They were both great but I was totally bagged on Saturday night.
We did an ice-trek on the Viedma Glacier today. We had to take a bus and a boat to get there. They pulled the boat up to the rocks (no dock or pier at all - just the rocks) we all clambered off the boat onto the rocks; and the trekking began. After climbing over the rocks for about 30 minutes, we reached the glacier, strapped on some crampons and off we went. It was really fun. Hard work, though. I had imagined that it would be fairly flat but there was hardly a time that we were on a flat surface. We went up and down hills, through valleys, into ice tunnels, alongside crevasses. It was really great fun and I'm really glad that we did it. We were on the glacier for about 3 hours and the time raced by. That is sure to be one of the highlights of this trip.
Our day of ice-trekking was quite a bit shorter today than the last couple of days so we ended up wandering around town and we stopped for dinner in a bar/restaurant that had Olympic coverage on th TV so we got to watch some of today's highlights, including some curling. Yes, they are showing curling highlights on Spanish ESPN. GO CANADA GO! Sunday is football (soccer) day in Argentina an I think that the other people in the place wanted to watch football but they very kindly left the Olympic coverage on for us.
We haven't seen a lot of the Olympics but we have managed to keep up with the medal standings and the curling standings. We've also been following the weather in Canada so that we can feel good about not being there. I'm not hoping for bad weather back home but it's nice to be reminded how much better it is here.
Tomorrow is our last day in El Chalten. Then we're off to El Calafate. As much as I like it here, it's the 1st major stop where I feel satisfied with the amount of time that we've had.
Gord is recovering from his cold but he very generously decided to share so I now have a cold. Curses! The schedule is packed for the next 4 days so there isn't a good opportunity for a down day. I will try to soldier on and hope that it passes quickly.
Some new photos can be seen here .
Cheers!
On Friday and Saturday, I did a couple of full day treks. They were both great but I was totally bagged on Saturday night.
We did an ice-trek on the Viedma Glacier today. We had to take a bus and a boat to get there. They pulled the boat up to the rocks (no dock or pier at all - just the rocks) we all clambered off the boat onto the rocks; and the trekking began. After climbing over the rocks for about 30 minutes, we reached the glacier, strapped on some crampons and off we went. It was really fun. Hard work, though. I had imagined that it would be fairly flat but there was hardly a time that we were on a flat surface. We went up and down hills, through valleys, into ice tunnels, alongside crevasses. It was really great fun and I'm really glad that we did it. We were on the glacier for about 3 hours and the time raced by. That is sure to be one of the highlights of this trip.
Our day of ice-trekking was quite a bit shorter today than the last couple of days so we ended up wandering around town and we stopped for dinner in a bar/restaurant that had Olympic coverage on th TV so we got to watch some of today's highlights, including some curling. Yes, they are showing curling highlights on Spanish ESPN. GO CANADA GO! Sunday is football (soccer) day in Argentina an I think that the other people in the place wanted to watch football but they very kindly left the Olympic coverage on for us.
We haven't seen a lot of the Olympics but we have managed to keep up with the medal standings and the curling standings. We've also been following the weather in Canada so that we can feel good about not being there. I'm not hoping for bad weather back home but it's nice to be reminded how much better it is here.
Tomorrow is our last day in El Chalten. Then we're off to El Calafate. As much as I like it here, it's the 1st major stop where I feel satisfied with the amount of time that we've had.
Gord is recovering from his cold but he very generously decided to share so I now have a cold. Curses! The schedule is packed for the next 4 days so there isn't a good opportunity for a down day. I will try to soldier on and hope that it passes quickly.
Some new photos can be seen here .
Cheers!
Sunday, 16 February 2014
A day of rest....for me
But not for Michele - she's off on another hike. I'm trying to shake a cold before it turns into something worse, so I'm resting and checking out the town of El Chalten.
Don't ever complain about your WiFi speeds, please. At home, the speed test gives a result of 18.59. Here, I'm getting .12. That's not a typo, it's 150 times slower. Yikes. Just took 45 minutes to upload 12 photos to Flickr.
Give thanks to living in Canada. Never really thought about it before, but no one really cares if you leave. Here, there are always two border checkpoints. One for leaving the country and then another for entering the next country.
Whoever invented hiking has obviously never seen a helicopter or an ATV. I'm just saying.
Went horseback riding, and it was good. A little scary coming down the mountain on a wet, slippery, rocky trail, but the horse seemed to figure it out. I assume he had a vested interest in not falling off the mountain either. Had a palomino that looked just like Trigger, so I figured I was Roy Rogers until the guide said I had the "Barbie" horse - I assume because of the blonde hair. Took a lot of the machismo out of it.
We're in El Chalten and experiencing what seem to be record temperatures. Went out hiking yesterday with a T-shirt, long sleeved shirt, windshirt and jacket. Got up to about 22C, windless and cloudless. Needless to say, we were overdressed for a 20 km hike up and down a mountain.
On the way down, we encountered a French woman who had fallen on the trail (on her face) and apparently broken her arm. Our guide had a radio and was able to radio the park patrol to come and get her and stretcher her out (about an hour each way). We heard today that she was treated locally and was on her way home to France. Lucky for her that we were there, because no one else seemed to have a radio.
Our guide is also a psychologist. Go figure.
Off to find somewhere to eat for dinner now. Tomorrow we hike for 3 hours on a glacier, in crampons.
The link to new photos is here .
Don't ever complain about your WiFi speeds, please. At home, the speed test gives a result of 18.59. Here, I'm getting .12. That's not a typo, it's 150 times slower. Yikes. Just took 45 minutes to upload 12 photos to Flickr.
Give thanks to living in Canada. Never really thought about it before, but no one really cares if you leave. Here, there are always two border checkpoints. One for leaving the country and then another for entering the next country.
Whoever invented hiking has obviously never seen a helicopter or an ATV. I'm just saying.
Went horseback riding, and it was good. A little scary coming down the mountain on a wet, slippery, rocky trail, but the horse seemed to figure it out. I assume he had a vested interest in not falling off the mountain either. Had a palomino that looked just like Trigger, so I figured I was Roy Rogers until the guide said I had the "Barbie" horse - I assume because of the blonde hair. Took a lot of the machismo out of it.
We're in El Chalten and experiencing what seem to be record temperatures. Went out hiking yesterday with a T-shirt, long sleeved shirt, windshirt and jacket. Got up to about 22C, windless and cloudless. Needless to say, we were overdressed for a 20 km hike up and down a mountain.
On the way down, we encountered a French woman who had fallen on the trail (on her face) and apparently broken her arm. Our guide had a radio and was able to radio the park patrol to come and get her and stretcher her out (about an hour each way). We heard today that she was treated locally and was on her way home to France. Lucky for her that we were there, because no one else seemed to have a radio.
Our guide is also a psychologist. Go figure.
Off to find somewhere to eat for dinner now. Tomorrow we hike for 3 hours on a glacier, in crampons.
The link to new photos is here .
Saturday, 15 February 2014
Just got to El Chalten
Today is a travel day for us. 13 hours from departure to arrival in El Chalten. We left the Hotel Las Torres in Torres del Paine (Blue Towers) Park this morning and were driven for 2.5 hours, until we'd been through both the Chilean and Argentinian immigration depots. Then we switched vans and were driven to El Calafate. The driver of the Argentinian van picked up a friend at the same time that he picked us up and he drove us all quite far out of the way to drop the other guy off. Then, to make up lost time, he drove at lightning speed while winding down through the mountain passes. I have no idea how fast he was going but that's a good thing because I may have had a stroke if I could have seen the speedometer. It's a long enough day of travel without adding in the fearing for your life bits.
Somehow, and thank God, we made it to El Calafate on time at 2PM. We had 4 hours to kill before our bus to El Chalten departed so I decided to find a laundromat and get our laundry done. It costs a fortune to get laundry done in San Pedro de Atacama ($5USD for a pair of pyjamas - I kid you not!) and at Los Torres (even more costly than in San Pedro) so I've only been getting socks washed and have been washing underwear in the sink. (That Tilley, quick dry underwear is worth owning). I just couldn't bring myself to pay those ridiculous laundry fees so I figured that I'd do our laundry while we waited for our bus. You know, make use of the time that would otherwise be wasted hanging around until the bus arrived. The best laid plans..... Siesta is from 1-4PM so most of the businesses, including the town's 3 laundry operations were closed. AARRRGGGGG! But somehow, things eventually work out. We arrived at our hostel in El Chalten, where they offered to do all of our laundry for the equivalent of $5 USD. YAY!
So, about Torres del Paine....The park is beautiful and the hotel was fantastic. Our hotel is at the base of a magnificent mountain and there are quite a number of trails right outside. It looks rustic and unimpressive from the outside but it really was very nice. We took a guided tour to see the towers (the iconic peaks that are the centre-piece and namesake of the park) one day, starting on horseback. Yes, not only did Gord agree to get on a horse again but he actually seemed to enjoy it this time. We rode up the trail for 2 hours, which is about 1/2 way to the towers, and then we walked the rest of the way. The trail is steep and difficult and it was made worse by rain. So when we got close to the towers, all of the people that were coming down told us that they couldn't see anything up there and it was really slippery so we decided to turn around before hiking up the final gruelling section of he trail. Riding the horses down the steep and now slippery trail was quite an experience, too. Enough so that a couple of people in our group were on a horse for both the 1st and the last times on the same day. In the end, we didn't get up to the base of Los Torres but we had some great views of it from other, more distant vantage points.
Luckily, the weather improved after that one day of rain so we did some other interesting hikes and day trips. I can't say enough about how beautiful the area is and how fresh and clean the air is.
The only real surprise was our total inability to communicate with the outside world. Claims that there is WI FI at the hotel, or anywhere else in the park, were overstated. As far as I know, WI FI was completely unavailable except for about 10 minutes on our 3rd day. When we found out that the WI FI was up, we ran back to our room to get the ipad and tablet and, by the time we got back to the lobby, where "the service is always much better", it was down again.
Oy ve! I give them credit for finally having it back on our 4th day. The truth of the matter is that it wasn't a huge inconvenience for us; it seemed to be big deal for some other people, though.....
On the shuttle between Punta Arenas and Los Torres, we were with 5 other people from the U.S., Australia and England. We all hit it off and spent lots of time together while we were there. I think that our time together will make some of our Torres del Paine memories really special.
So, here we are in Argentina now. It's much warmer here than it was on the east side of the mountains - and a lot less windy. I think that's just because of a brief, unseasonable warm spell but I'll take it even for just a few days. It was windy everywhere we went in Chile. Funny story: 2 days ago, I was walking along a trail at a high point and in a gale force wind. A gust came from behind me and blew me forward about 20 feet before I was deposited face 1st on the ground. No damage to me and no photo evidence of my graceful landing.
Gord has come down with a cold so he's feeling under the weather. It sucks to fell poorly when you are away from home. Hopefully, he feels better soon and, in the meantime, I hope that he keeps his germs to himself! More on that next time.
Somehow, and thank God, we made it to El Calafate on time at 2PM. We had 4 hours to kill before our bus to El Chalten departed so I decided to find a laundromat and get our laundry done. It costs a fortune to get laundry done in San Pedro de Atacama ($5USD for a pair of pyjamas - I kid you not!) and at Los Torres (even more costly than in San Pedro) so I've only been getting socks washed and have been washing underwear in the sink. (That Tilley, quick dry underwear is worth owning). I just couldn't bring myself to pay those ridiculous laundry fees so I figured that I'd do our laundry while we waited for our bus. You know, make use of the time that would otherwise be wasted hanging around until the bus arrived. The best laid plans..... Siesta is from 1-4PM so most of the businesses, including the town's 3 laundry operations were closed. AARRRGGGGG! But somehow, things eventually work out. We arrived at our hostel in El Chalten, where they offered to do all of our laundry for the equivalent of $5 USD. YAY!
So, about Torres del Paine....The park is beautiful and the hotel was fantastic. Our hotel is at the base of a magnificent mountain and there are quite a number of trails right outside. It looks rustic and unimpressive from the outside but it really was very nice. We took a guided tour to see the towers (the iconic peaks that are the centre-piece and namesake of the park) one day, starting on horseback. Yes, not only did Gord agree to get on a horse again but he actually seemed to enjoy it this time. We rode up the trail for 2 hours, which is about 1/2 way to the towers, and then we walked the rest of the way. The trail is steep and difficult and it was made worse by rain. So when we got close to the towers, all of the people that were coming down told us that they couldn't see anything up there and it was really slippery so we decided to turn around before hiking up the final gruelling section of he trail. Riding the horses down the steep and now slippery trail was quite an experience, too. Enough so that a couple of people in our group were on a horse for both the 1st and the last times on the same day. In the end, we didn't get up to the base of Los Torres but we had some great views of it from other, more distant vantage points.
Luckily, the weather improved after that one day of rain so we did some other interesting hikes and day trips. I can't say enough about how beautiful the area is and how fresh and clean the air is.
The only real surprise was our total inability to communicate with the outside world. Claims that there is WI FI at the hotel, or anywhere else in the park, were overstated. As far as I know, WI FI was completely unavailable except for about 10 minutes on our 3rd day. When we found out that the WI FI was up, we ran back to our room to get the ipad and tablet and, by the time we got back to the lobby, where "the service is always much better", it was down again.
Oy ve! I give them credit for finally having it back on our 4th day. The truth of the matter is that it wasn't a huge inconvenience for us; it seemed to be big deal for some other people, though.....
On the shuttle between Punta Arenas and Los Torres, we were with 5 other people from the U.S., Australia and England. We all hit it off and spent lots of time together while we were there. I think that our time together will make some of our Torres del Paine memories really special.
So, here we are in Argentina now. It's much warmer here than it was on the east side of the mountains - and a lot less windy. I think that's just because of a brief, unseasonable warm spell but I'll take it even for just a few days. It was windy everywhere we went in Chile. Funny story: 2 days ago, I was walking along a trail at a high point and in a gale force wind. A gust came from behind me and blew me forward about 20 feet before I was deposited face 1st on the ground. No damage to me and no photo evidence of my graceful landing.
Gord has come down with a cold so he's feeling under the weather. It sucks to fell poorly when you are away from home. Hopefully, he feels better soon and, in the meantime, I hope that he keeps his germs to himself! More on that next time.
Thursday, 13 February 2014
.....And we're back.
But only momentarily. We've been off the grid for a few days, since the hotel we're staying at in Torres Del Paine relies on a satellite feed for their telephone and internet access. It can easily get disrupted by weather, and such has been the case. Now their server is down, but the manager's office has access. Fortunately, they have a common use PC that connected to the manager's Wi-Fi feed at one time and they didn't delete it, nor did they do a good job at protecting the password. So here we are, at least for a while. We'll post something tonight if we can keep the connection.
Sunday, 9 February 2014
Greetings from Punta Arenas
It's already the end of Week 1 and it's been jam-packed, exhausting and awesome. We started out with couple of 1/2 days in Santiago that we spent walking, people watching, checking out the markets and street entertainment. We've been to Santiago before and we hit the highlights back then so we were happy just to check out the plazas, markets and pedestrian streets, of which there are many. We arrived in Calama by Monday evening and had recovered from the overnight flight from Toronto.
We toured the world's largest open pit copper mine, which is the key to the existence of Calama. Everything there is king size. I felt like I was in a cartoon. The mine is 1200 meters deep and trucks as big as our house are being loaded by equipment that dwarfs the trucks! Most of what we saw was so big that I couldn't fit it into a photo. It was an interesting experience, for sure.
Then we were off to San Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama Desert, on the high plateau of Los Andes. The actual town of San Pedro is just a tourist trap and we only spent enough time there to have a couple of meals and exchange some money. The main attraction for us was the desert and we were not disappointed. Of course, the scenery was spectacular and varied quite a lot from place to place. We hit some aptly named places like La Valle de la Luna ( Valley of the Moon) and Valle de la Muerte (Valley of Death), which reminded both of us of the backdrop for some scenes in Star Trek tv shows We also visited several massive salt lakes and salt flats and places with lots and lots of sand - massive sand dunes 300 feet high, all with Los Andes as a backdrop.
A number of places that we went to were over 4000 meters. Jogging not recommended. We climbed a couple of massive sand dunes and even going at a slow pace, you get winded. It gets windy and cold up there, too. My face has been thoroughly sand-blasted and any time that I spent on my hair in the morning was pretty much wasted.
The most memorable thing for me was the salt lake in Tebinquiche. It looks like a vast field of snow and ice on a plateau beneath the mountains. We could walk right out onto the lake and the water was only about an inch deep but I still had visions of falling through the non-existent ice. There were almost no people around and we had a picnic lunch sitting beside the lake. There were no other people there and it felt totally isolated and it was absolutely silent. No wind, no rustling of grass or trees (there aren't any grass or trees) no traffic, no birds, no animals and no other people. I don't think I've ever experienced silence like that before.
And then Gord reached into his bag of Doritos......
We could have spent an extra day or 2 there. We didn't have time to do all of the things that we had on our list. One of the things that I wanted to do was sand-boarding. We saw someone doing it. You have to climb up the sand dune with board in tow in order to get to the top. It's a long way up and a tough climb through the sand. Having climbed a few big dunes already, I can appreciate the amount of energy that it takes to make it uop to the top so I think that I probably would only have done a couple of runs anyway. Alison, my chiropractor will be happy to learn that I missed the opportunity to wipe out in yet another way.
We spent today travelling south to Punta Arenas in Patagonia. It's the start of our 3 weeks in Patagonia, which was the original premise for this trip. (Patagonia is on the long list of places on my Bucket List). We just overnight in Punta Arenas and on Sunday morning, we go to Torres del Paine. The adventure continues......
Here's the link to the photos of the trip.
We toured the world's largest open pit copper mine, which is the key to the existence of Calama. Everything there is king size. I felt like I was in a cartoon. The mine is 1200 meters deep and trucks as big as our house are being loaded by equipment that dwarfs the trucks! Most of what we saw was so big that I couldn't fit it into a photo. It was an interesting experience, for sure.
Then we were off to San Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama Desert, on the high plateau of Los Andes. The actual town of San Pedro is just a tourist trap and we only spent enough time there to have a couple of meals and exchange some money. The main attraction for us was the desert and we were not disappointed. Of course, the scenery was spectacular and varied quite a lot from place to place. We hit some aptly named places like La Valle de la Luna ( Valley of the Moon) and Valle de la Muerte (Valley of Death), which reminded both of us of the backdrop for some scenes in Star Trek tv shows We also visited several massive salt lakes and salt flats and places with lots and lots of sand - massive sand dunes 300 feet high, all with Los Andes as a backdrop.
A number of places that we went to were over 4000 meters. Jogging not recommended. We climbed a couple of massive sand dunes and even going at a slow pace, you get winded. It gets windy and cold up there, too. My face has been thoroughly sand-blasted and any time that I spent on my hair in the morning was pretty much wasted.
The most memorable thing for me was the salt lake in Tebinquiche. It looks like a vast field of snow and ice on a plateau beneath the mountains. We could walk right out onto the lake and the water was only about an inch deep but I still had visions of falling through the non-existent ice. There were almost no people around and we had a picnic lunch sitting beside the lake. There were no other people there and it felt totally isolated and it was absolutely silent. No wind, no rustling of grass or trees (there aren't any grass or trees) no traffic, no birds, no animals and no other people. I don't think I've ever experienced silence like that before.
And then Gord reached into his bag of Doritos......
We could have spent an extra day or 2 there. We didn't have time to do all of the things that we had on our list. One of the things that I wanted to do was sand-boarding. We saw someone doing it. You have to climb up the sand dune with board in tow in order to get to the top. It's a long way up and a tough climb through the sand. Having climbed a few big dunes already, I can appreciate the amount of energy that it takes to make it uop to the top so I think that I probably would only have done a couple of runs anyway. Alison, my chiropractor will be happy to learn that I missed the opportunity to wipe out in yet another way.
We spent today travelling south to Punta Arenas in Patagonia. It's the start of our 3 weeks in Patagonia, which was the original premise for this trip. (Patagonia is on the long list of places on my Bucket List). We just overnight in Punta Arenas and on Sunday morning, we go to Torres del Paine. The adventure continues......
Here's the link to the photos of the trip.
Friday, 7 February 2014
Random thoughts
- If you buy new glasses and go to the trouble of ordering special sunglasses from the U.S. because they are the only ones that will fit, it's a good idea not to leave them in your desk at home.
- Chileans don't eat Chilean sea bass. It's not on the menu anywhere.
- Tourist Spanglish works great in tourist resorts and areas. Not so much in little out of the way villages.
- But the Google Translate app is fantastic.
- Santiago is the hot dog capital of the world. Not the good smokies or sausages, but the old fashioned Maple Leaf Weiner tube steak. There are at least 2 hot dog emporiums on every block. One of them is ranked 49 out of 1,223 restaurants on Santiago by TripAdvisor. And it deserves the ranking. The toppings.…...
- If a sand dune has drifted across the highway and you have to hit it at speed to get through it, it's a good idea to have you your window closed. Trust me on this one.
- There are no car washes in San Pedro de Atacama. See above.
- If you buy an apple in Chile, cross into Bolivia, and bring the same apple back into Chile, they will confiscate it at customs. Those customs people must love fruit.
- If you're in a food court in a mall in Chile, and you just know your Spanglish isn't going to work, so you order a "numero dos" combo and point to the picture of what you want to make it easy, it will still take 10 minutes to get your point across. And all you wanted was a hot dog and fries with Diet Coke. Which they call Coca Cola Light and it tastes like Dr. Pepper.
Thursday, 6 February 2014
Day 4
Apologies for no Day 3 post, but we were on an astronomical tour and didn't get home until 1:30 A.M. Likewise, today was packed full and we're just getting ready to crash for an early morning tour.
In short, Monday we went to the Chuquicamata mine in Calama, drove to San Pedro de Atacama, then went on the astronomical tour. Today we did a self-drive tour that included the Altiplanicas lagoons.
We'll fill in the blanks on the next post, which could be tomorrow, but maybe not until Friday when we get some downtime. And get a chance to go through some photos.
In short, Monday we went to the Chuquicamata mine in Calama, drove to San Pedro de Atacama, then went on the astronomical tour. Today we did a self-drive tour that included the Altiplanicas lagoons.
We'll fill in the blanks on the next post, which could be tomorrow, but maybe not until Friday when we get some downtime. And get a chance to go through some photos.
Tuesday, 4 February 2014
Day 2
Hola from Calama, Chile! We arrived here around 5:30 on a flight from Santiago. Didn't see much on the way in but desert, desert and more desert. The activities start in earnest tomorrow with a trip to the Chiquicamata mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world. From there we drive to San Pedro de Atacama for a late night astronomy tour.
The flight to Santiago was uneventful, albeit 90 minutes late. The hardest thing was trying to find somewhere to eat on a Sunday. Apparently it's just not done. The Hotel Panamericano was quite acceptable and ideally located for a 1 night stay. Right in the midst of many historical buildings and pedestrian walkways that are very vibrant.
Couldn't post yesterday because the wifi at the hotel was very weak. We could receive email, but not send. Quite odd.
Starting tomorrow, you may see posts from two different authors. T. Turquoise is Gord and Michele will post under her own name.
Saturday, 1 February 2014
T minus 1 day - 1 more sleep!
It seems that there is a problem with the link to our itinerary when you are using an iPad or other tablet. They can't handle the length of the text in the link. If you are having a problem, try clicking here instead. It's just a screenshot, but you'll get the idea.
Our first glitch occurred yesterday when it was discovered that the car we had rented for exploring the Atacama Desert had been mistakenly rented for March, not February. Fortunately, we caught it before we left and had time to rectify the problem. When we asked Avis to change the dates, they informed us that the rate had gone from $81 to $820. !!!!! Needless to say, we found a different solution. Interestingly, the rate today for the same car at Avis has dropped to $556. Just bizarre.
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