El Chalten & El Calafate - Argentina 2014

El Chalten, a 3 hour road trip from El Calafate through sparse barren land known as ‘The Steppe’, punctuated initially by a lake we had to skirt and a river we followed and criss crossed multiple times.  About 130 kms from El Chalten, we had made our first sighting of the already imposing form of Fitz Roy Mountain.

driving across 'The Steppe' - Fitz Roy in the distance

El Chalten is a quirky, eclectic, rustic, unpretentious little village situated at the northern end of Los Glaciares Nat. Park.  This little village, nestled between mountains next to a river with the imposing form of Fitz Roy Mtn. (3,405m) as the primary backdrop, was founded in 1985 as a result of a land dispute between Chile and Argentina.

El Chalten

Our initial late afternoon meander throughout the village uncovered a lot of construction underway, but most of the existing buildings were in some way unfinished, irrespective of whether homes or businesses.  Normally it was the 2^nd storey still to be completed in some way, so it was quite normal to say an operating business on the ground floor and a ladder going to an open window of the floor above.  We think there is some form of tax due when a building is completed, so they simply don’t.

Then there are the DOGS, many many dogs.  We had noticed the same thing in both Ushuaia and El Calafate, with lots of dogs of all different breeds, colours and sizes just roaming the streets.  They were all quite indifferent to us as we at times had to walk amongst them, but there’s just a lot of dogs.

After a very nice dinner at a wonderful little restaurant at the far end of town, we settled into our equally rustic hotel room.  There was little spare room, old eclectic fittings and both of us had to duck our heads as we moved around near the end of the bed, which was very comfortable.

Beep… beep… beep!  Why do we do this to ourselves, 7am, the alarm buzzing and pitch black outside.

With camera and tripod on backs, our warm red jackets on and Rob with her little torch in hand, we headed out to climb along a small dirt track leading to the top of a hill behind the Nat. Park building.  Should only take only take about 30 mins one way to the top we thought.

We had been told by the park rangers when we visited them the afternoon before, that the hill was the best place to view sunrise on both Fitz Roy Mtn and Cerro Torre (3,102m), so long as the weather was good and it was.

It is interesting climbing up a hill following a dirt track using the light of a small torch to show us the way and the frequent rocky obstacles.  At least we weren’t the only ones on the side of a hill in the dark, as we could see 2 other torchlights jiggling around above us about 15 mins ahead.

El Chalten from the hill, the sun starting to touch Fitz Roy

Slowly but surely, those beautiful red colours started to crawl their way down, not just Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre, but all the other mountains surrounding them.  So was our climb into the darkness worth it?

Cerro Torre on the left and Fitz Roy is obvious

Our climb down off the hill was a lot easier in growing sunlight and soon we were back in our hotel enjoying a good breakfast because we were going to need a good breakfast as we learned later that day.

Now the words ‘trekking’ and ‘hiking’ are not ones we use or consider very often, especially after the “its only a medium trek!” we did in Laos awhile back, which left us almost scarred forever.  But here we were in El Chalten, the trekking/hiking ‘capital’ of Argentina, so what are people to do after a 1hr return jaunt up a hill early in the morning, go hiking of course!

So with backpacks on and having found the bakery to buy our small lunch to take with us, we headed out of the village following the track towards our goal of Laguna Torre, which is a glacier lake near the bottom of Cerro Torre.

The Rangers had warned us that the first part of this hike was a fairly constant climb out of the village.  Now we don’t particularly like the words climb and tracks together, but here we were on our way into the mountains.

The track did level out, well sort of, actually occasionally, but we walked on through some really stunning scenery, the form of Cerro Torre jutting into the sky ahead providing the constant motivation to keep going.  We rested fairly frequently to catch our breath, take in the views or refill our water bottle form the many crystal clear streams.

on the trail to Cerro Torre

Being the time of year it was also meant that the colours of autumn were consuming many of the trees and shrubs, which surrounded us.  The track despite its regular undulations, wound its way like a snake through thick stands of small deciduous southern beech trees, around a lake of dead looking trees or followed a fast flowing river.  

At times we were in open country then just minutes later, thick 2-3m foliage brushing our shoulders, our track almost disappearing from view at each bend.

Cerro Torre and glacier surrounds

Then into view, almost surprisingly, came our complete eyeful of the jagged rock spire of Cerro Torre looming above the mass of glaciers feeding the lake at its feet.  What a stunning place to sit quietly, like the few others that had also reached this point, absorb the views around us and have lunch.

Our trip back, whilst almost a rewind of the outward journey, was slightly different.  Our bodies were beginning to protest, ever so gently at the start and the need for rest breaks increased.  

We made it back to the village naturally but the walk back to our hotel seemed to take forever.  

Well it did take longer than normal because we stopped at one of the microbreweries for an ale and Rob did something quite different and probably not seen before.

So for those of you wondering, after our early morning hill climb, the Laguna Torre return journey had taken us 7 hrs to complete the 22 kms and to keep the description simple, at the end of it we were f****d!

We opted for a really simple meal that night; a shared vegetable soup and chunky lamb stew from a café very close to the hotel.  We got chatting to our waiter who spoke very good English, after 2 years working in NZ.  He told us that we were very lucky with the weather and that it was very out of character.  We also asked him if there were many animals in the mountains.  “Yes” he said, “there are lots of pumas, I saw one only a few days ago on the Laguna Torre track”.  The looks on our faces may have suggested we thought pumas were a bit of a myth so he went off and brought back the photo to prove it.  The long hot showers before dinner were helping but we were keen to see what our bodies wanted to tell us in the morning.

Well we didn’t feel too bad whilst having breakfast next morning, so do we do this hiking thing again and back up… yep!  So our plan for this day was to head out towards Fitz Roy to reach 2 locations, the Mirrador (viewpoint) and then the Laguna Capri.  Again this would mean a constant climb out of the village using a track at the far end of it and 6 kms to reach the Mirrador, then about another 1 km to reach the Laguna.  So off we went… again.

The climb out of El Chalten this time, whilst not steep was more constant and kept going for about 2/3rds of the 6kms.  The track wound itself once it leveled out a little, mainly amongst beech forest and the colours were great.  This hike actually seemed to iron out some of stiffness from the previous days activity.

the view as we climb out of El Chalten

So this time in front of us stood the magnificent Fitz Roy Mtn in all its abrupt glory as it did again when we reached the lake and surrounding autumn colours providing a stunning foreground to rise out of.

Fitz Roy Mirrador

Laguna Capri

So in 2 days we had managed 35 kms of, yes we will use THAT word, ‘hiking’ and we thoroughly enjoyed it because of everything that surrounded us as we took each step.  If you like to go hiking, try El Chalten and to think we almost decided not to come here.

In memory of the climbers who have died

We had one last walk around pleasantly quirky El Chalten, before heading back to El Calafate, and found a very very small Chapel of Austrian design called Capilla de los Escaladores, built in memory of all the climbers who have lost their lives here since 1953.

For more photos of El Chalten just click on the link below:

2014 - Hiking around El Chalten

Back in El Calafate

what a steak!

Don’t normally talk too much about food but we only had one night in El Calafate so enjoyed a fabulous meal to celebrate our time in Argentina.  Argentinian steak is simply excellent as was Rob’s superb lamb ravioli  accompanied by simple roasted vegetables, all just delightful.

Argentinian BBQ

Before checking out the next day and flying to Santiago, we did manage somehow to have yet another amusing experience.  We mentioned a bird reserve in a previous post, so we thought we would try walking to it after an early breakfast to try and get some shots of flamingos.

There is a short cut Cat & Cal showed us from the hotel down to the main street, which involves walking down some steps, through the bus terminal and then down some more steps.  When we got to the bus terminal, we went through the first door, through the terminal and when reaching the 2^nd door to go out the other side, were greeted by 5 dogs just sitting in front of the door.  We gently pushed it open, the dogs all looked at us, moved and we stepped outside.  All good so far.

Well it must have been those red coats of ours of ours we were wearing to stay warm, or something else, BUT those 5 dogs started walking with us and if we stopped, they stopped, if we walked, they walked.  No matter where we walked, down the next set of stairs, across the main street and off down the back streets, they stayed with us.

Darian and his 'mates'

Interesting!  To add to our experience, other wandering dogs would come out to either renew old friendships but others would come out to protect their territories.  At times there were 8-10 dogs circling us as we walked.  On a few occasions ‘our’ pack of dogs would all charge off to chase another dog or cat sitting behind some local residents fence and this would invariably mean that resident coming out and yelling all sorts of things in Spanish either at the dogs, us or both.

in the middle of the main street

Well we and our dogs did find the bird reserve and guess what, not a single bird of any description in sight so we re-traced our steps, our 5 dog pack faithfully keeping company until we reached the bus terminal and we were able to stop them getting through that first door.  What a relief, because we had visions of them wanting to join us at the hotel.

So we bade El Calafate and its dogs our final farewell and headed off to the airport on our way finally to Santiago, Chile via one night in Buenos Aires.  

Argentina has certainly provided us with some wonderful experiences.

Perito Moreno Glacier - Argentina 2014

Travelling by road on the 4hr trip from Torres del Paine to El Calafate was an interesting experience!  We were with our 4 Aussie travelling friends along with 2 UK ladies and a non English-speaking driver as we headed for the Argentinian border.

First we had to leave Chile so stopped at their border.  We followed the driver inside, handed over passports, got the correct stamps and climbed back into our mini bus, another empty mini bus parked behind us.  Then both buses travelled through no-mans land and stopped again at the Argentinian border.

Out we piled again and went through their processing of passports, got back into our mini bus, passed through the gates, the same empty mini bus also following us through.  After about a 500 mtr drive we stopped and had to get out of our mini bus, collect all our bags and load everything into the empty mini bus, all without any ability of either driver to tell us what was going on.  Then our new driver headed off with us towards El Calafate and our initial driver waved goodbye and headed back into Chile.

About an hour further down the road whilst driving through a small town with a major intersection in it, we were pulled over by a police roadblock and the driver was asked to stop near a large van surrounded by police and Federal officers.  Out we got again and had to take every bag of any description to one side of the van.  This van was a portable X-ray unit and every bag was scanned before we loaded everything back into our mini bus.  Again, no English used to help us understand what was required of us except stern gestures and very grim faces.  The rest of the drive however was uneventful.

The town of El Calafate is a true tourist location like Ushuaia and its claim to fame and focus is THE glacier – otherwise known as Perito Moreno, one of the largest glacier systems in the world, excluding Antarctica and Greenland.  This glacier is also directly connected to the Grey Glacier way back in Torres del Paine.  Perito Moreno Glacier was the primary reason we were in El Calafate, a very pleasant place to stroll around, nestled near a very large lake and associated bird reserve.

Our hotel was very nice and modern with a large comfortable room and bed, relatively good internet access and views over the lake, the reason we could catch up on some posts.  Down in the bar with the other Aussie travellers, we all re-acquainted ourselves with pisco sours as the sun set over the town.

sunset over the lake and El Calafate

By a sheer stroke of good fortune, Cat and Cal were also in town and were separately heading to the glacier early tomorrow morning to go walking on the glacier itself.  We caught up with them for dinner and heard about their trekking and camping throughout Torres del Paine, the rain, the very strong winds and other challenges.

The weather the next day was stunning as the 6 of us were picked up for our tour of the glacier, which essentially involves an 80 km drive to it and then advice on the very extensive walkway system used to allow everyone to get quite close to this very striking place.  The Perito Moreno Glacier is certainly extremely popular based on the sheer number of buses and people here.

First activity once we arrived within the national park was an optional boat trip to nearish the glacier face which lasted about 1 hr. and certainly provided us with a sense of just how big this thing is.  Actually it’s about 30km long, 5km wide and around 50-60 mtrs high.  Our boat looked very very small against this juggernaut.

the boats do look VERY small

Everyone split up once we finally reached all walkways, so we headed for one we hoped would get us the closest and give us a good view down the face of the glacier, hopeful like most people to hear that very familiar and loud ‘crack’ which signals calving occurring somewhere.

on the walkways along the glacier's face

It didn’t take very long… CRACK!  We madly looked along the face of the glacier in both directions and spotted a big blue shard of ice heading for the water below.  Up came the camera and click, click, click, other people pointing to the large splash that followed.

calving underway

For the next few hours we slowly made our way around the walkways and spent much of our time simply quietly watching and waiting.  This is not a receding glacier and in fact is moving quite quickly, up to 2mtrs per day, that’s right, per day!  The thing that grabs your attention constantly is the noise of this glacier.  It creaks and groans, then that cracking sound occurs quite frequently, not always associated with a calving event.  We certainly took a few photos of this very impressive place.

For more photos of THE Glacier just click on the link below:

CLICK HERE for more photos of - THE Glacier Perito Moreno 2014

On our drive back to El Calafate we also observed quite a few flocks of flamingos near the shore of the lake, which is something we will need to explore also.

Well we had come to the final day and night with our new Aussie travelling friends and they had certainly made the last few days very enjoyable when sharing stories of what we had all just seen as well as having a lot of fun.

Time to part company and for us to head to El Chalten.

Torres del Paine - Patagonia 2014

Aussies!! On the way to our hotel in Punta Arenas from the ship, we travelled with 2 other couples who turned out to be Aussies also going to Torres del Paine and then El Calafate.  We introduced ourselves; learned one couple is from Darwin (Di & Stewart) and the other from Echuca (Maureen & Dick).  Will be good to travel with some like-minded people.

Our brief time in Punta Arenas was spent walking its streets past very beautiful historical buildings and the back blocks.  We also enjoyed a Chilean speciality… the Completo or Chilean hotdog.

view over Punta Arenas

 A Completo comprises the bun, layer of chopped tomato, sauerkraut, sausage, mashed avocado and creamy mayonnaise on top, served on a narrow plate the width of the bun and a knife.  It sounds a little weird but it actually tasted good, especially when you’re trying it in a packed Chilean ‘hamburger joint’.

Next morning we joined our new travel companions for the 7 hr. road trip to Torres del Paine National Park, including a lunch stop at a sheep ranch where we were served more tender lamb, Chilean wine and other veggies.  Other tourists joined us at our table, 2 girls and a couple from Brazil and 2 video makers from Chile.  The conversation was fascinating, despite the mixture of languages and accents.

As our road journey progressed, we were all waiting to see our first glimpse of the Paine Massif, especially the Torres del Paine, sometimes called ‘The 3 Spires’ which is what the park gets its name from. With a setting sun, we did get a first tempting but cloud surrounded view of ‘The Spires’.

clouds teasing us with views of The Torres

Our hotel, Las Torres, is beautifully located near the base of one section of the massif with tantalising glimpses of ‘The Spires’ peaking out from behind it and the massif made the hotel look very small and insignificant indeed.  The hotel was very comfortable and located on the only remaining private land within the park’s boundaries.

hotel is little white strip bottom left of massif

Our alarm went of at 7am and we peered out our window, hoping we were in luck with the weather, which has a reputation for being extremely changeable and fierce at times.  It was still very dark but we could make out that it wasn’t raining or blowing a gale, but there was some cloud in the sky.

Why were we awake at this hour, simple, we wanted to try and capture the sunrise and its impact on ‘The Spires’.  With cameras and tripod we headed out with a quick stop at Reception.  We wanted to know about pumas (mountain lion type cats) being in the area as heard about during dinner.  When asked about pumas, the guy behind the counter, shrugged his shoulders, told us he knew nothing and then simply finished with… “good luck!”.

So off we went, walking off into the darkness, every little sound catching our attention, particularly one, eyes peering into the darkness catching sight of a man on horseback that loomed out of the greying sky and passed us.  After 30 mins walking, we found a place we thought would give us the best view we could get and simply waited for the sun to join us.

The effort and wait was worth it, first because of the great sunrise we got behind us and then as the sun made its presence felt, the change in colour which appeared in front of us on two of ‘The Spires’ themselves, the third unfortunately hidden from us.  

The whole sunrise inspired colour impact lasted a mere 3-4 minutes before the magnificent massif turned its natural light grey.  We count ourselves very lucky to have seen it based on what guides constantly told us about the weather.

By the way, we also learned over breakfast from our travelling companions, that the specific noise we heard on our walk out into the darkness was from a grey fox and it is a noise they make when there are puma around.

Torres del Paine is known to the Chileans at least, as the 8^th Wonder of the World.  A few facts first, it was created in 1959, has a surface area of 227,298 hectares and averages 155,000 visitors a year.  We engaged in 2 full days of wandering throughout the majority of the park by car, boat and foot.  We got close to the granite spires of Torres del Paine, the Cuemos del Paine, a massif of uniquely contrasting (grey & black) sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and the tallest peak of Cerro Paine Grande at 3,050 metres. 

The rustic boat ride, including a zodiac transfer from shore, took us across the Grey Lake and very close across the 3 faces of Grey Glacier, which happens to have some of the deepest blue ice we have ever seen.  

Cara Cara getting stuck in

There were also numerous animals in this park, some of them eating and some being eaten.

Torres del Paine is yet another place requiring adjectives to try and describe it.  Words like primitive, raw, huge, jagged, breathtaking, demanding and panoramic come to mind because of the profound impact the massif or the numerous lakes has on you, no mater from which location within the park you are observing it.  It also seduces you with multiple and unexpected scenes of serenity.

You will notice there are quite a few panoramic photos in the link attached below because this place naturally inspires this style of photography.

For more photos of Torres del Paine just click on the link below:

CLICK HERE for more photos of - Torres del Paine 2014

As a humorous aside, we did have a very funny experience one night over dinner with our new Aussie travelling friends.  A film crew from Channel Ten (Places We Go – Saturday afternoons) doing a feature on Chile and was seated at the table next to us.  We had noticed them doing filming the day before and again as we walked in for dinner.

Our dinner was progressing well along with a few local cocktails (Pisco & Calafate Sours) and we again noticed we were being filmed from a distance enjoying ourselves.  A little later when the laughter at our table had begun to increase, a waiter came up to us and asked if we would mind reducing our noise a little.  Reason, the Aussie front man was interviewing the owner of the Hotel right behind us.

Well then the fun really began and whilst we did reduce our noise, we started trying to make the cameraman laugh, gave the interviewer wind up signals out of camera shot, all of which cause our waiter to retreat to the furthest wall from us and crack up with stifled laughter.  With his interview over, the front man thanked us and told us he also found the whole thing very amusing.  Their show goes to air supposedly sometime in June this year.

Torres del Paine really is a place of striking place of raw natural beauty!

Southern Patagonia - Argentina to Chile- Sailing 2014

With the Captains greeting and safety drill briefings out of the way, the MV Stella Australis departed Ushuaia and back south down the Beagle Channel towards the Drake Passage, our destination being the famous Cape Horn.

The ship and our cabin is very comfortable, including large multiple lounge areas complimented by large sink into leather lounges and a dedicated dining room.  We will be on board for 3 nights.

The overnight journey was very smooth as was the soft voice over the intercom waking us up at 6:30am requesting us to be fully dressed, including life jackets, in the briefing room by 7am.

The plan was to land by zodiacs on Cape Horn itself!

The ship manoeuvred into a small bay about 300 mtrs from the landing spot below the 160 stairs we would need to climb in order to reach the lighthouse constantly warning all ships of the dangers of ‘The Horn’. 

The 160 steps and lost seaman memorial above them

Another briefing the night before on Cape Horn shared there is believed to be almost 10,000 sailors who have met their ends whilst trying to ‘round the Horn’ in the days of sail.  Sometimes it has taken some sailing ships due to very bad weather, almost 3 months, just to get around this spot.

Cape Horn and lighthouse

So we waited and waited and waited, all 83 passengers on board keen to actually step foot on Cape Horn and meet the Chilean family of 3 and a dog, ensuring the lighthouse is always working.

Unfortunately due to the prevailing winds and rough seas, the Captain took the decision that safe zodiac landings were not possible.  Damm!  So the ship backed away from this little bay and moved back out to sea, despondent passengers returning to their cabins to stow all their gear.

The ship had approached Cape Horn from the north side and would normally return back again into Patagonia via the same route but the Captain made another decision and one that does not usually occur as we found later.

He headed south briefly and we actually ‘rounded the Horn’!

the proof!

Fantastic… as this is an opportunity that doesn’t happen very often anymore once the Panama Canal opened.  So our first breakfast on board was enjoyed in the knowledge of what had just occurred.

Our ship was now heading back north and past Ushuaia, bound for the narrower waterways of southern Patagonia and hopefully, weather dependant, zodiac landings ashore.  The MV Australis is a very comfortable way to go sailing around these waters and the service aboard is excellent.

So during our trip over the next few days, apart from enjoying great food, Calafate Sours and multiple educational briefings, we made 3 zodiac landings at:

Wulaia Bay – here we visited a site Charles Darwin also spent time in, studying the local aborigines known as the Yaghan who were not well treated once the Europeans arrived.  We chose to climb a small mountain to get great views of the bay.  Joining us on this climb was a very sprightly 80 yr. old call Anne, quite inspirational, considering how wet and slippery the track was.

Aguila Glacier – with the ship anchored in a fairly narrow channel with small pieces of floating ice in it, surrounded by tall snow capped mountains.  Once ashore we walked the shoreline whilst light rain and mist kept us company, following an inlet to the foot of the glacier.  The glacier whilst quite small had the classic blue colour scattered within its jagged face.  Some of the plants along the shoreline also looked like an assortment miniature bonsai.

Magdalena Island – Magellanic penguin time again after a pre-sunrise landing and here there were thousands of penguins to enjoy either lining their burrows with plant matter, squabbling with each other or getting ready to head to sea whilst keep a wary eye open for the lion seals from a nearby island.  The sunrise over the island helped finish off the MV Australis experience for us.

early landing ashore

Having enjoyed a very comfortable trip and associated experiences over the last few days, our ship, with the help of 2 small tugs, moored itself for our departure in Punta Arenas, Chile.  The ship and its staff were very good, but it was now time to spend time on land again and continue our wander further north to Torres del Paine.

For more photos of Sailing Southern Patagonia just click on the link below:

CLICK HERE for more photos of - Sailing Southern Patagonia 2014