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Hi everyone,
The last 2 weeks we have spent travelling through The Lake District and Patagonia in Chile and Argentina. The distances are enormous, something we didn't really look in to too much before we came here. Anyone who knows Phil, can probably agree with me that he is not "a sitting on a bus for hours" kind of guy.
After a few days in Santiago we took a night bus, 10h or 789km, to Pucon. A beautiful Alpine looking town in an area with lakes, hills, green forest and Snow capped volcanoes. We were lucky with sunny weather. We did white water rafting one afternoon, it was great. Very fast rapids in stunning setting and we all fell in on the last rapid, no harm done though. You could climb a snow-covered volcano, but for some reason that was the last thing I and Phil felt like doing...after our little expedition outside La Paz.
So we moved on to the next place, Puerto Varas, a 6h bus ride. Sofia´s second cousin lives here and runs a hostel with her Chilean husband. It is called Compass Del Sur and it was really nice. Very Clean and had a Scandinavian feel to it. Great for me to speak some Swedish! Unfortunately the weather was mostly rainy…so we only did a small trip to check out the area around. On a clear day you can see 7 volcanos!!!
We took a 7h bus over to Argentina to Bariloche. This is a ski resort in winter time. In the morning we went for a run along the lake, for once we enjoyed some sunshine! The nature is stunning as most places in this area.
The day after...another 6h bus to Esquel. Nothing what so ever goes on in Esquel, you are in the middle of nowhere and the six hours on the bus were a pleasure of seeing barren landscape and a very straight road…so we were disappointed when we got there and we were debating trying to use our flight points to find a flight to Las Vegas for a break… joking…but we did dream about it. Funny to say this, but travelling can be a pain sometimes. By this time we were getting very tired of busses and we realised it was a 2 days bus ride on a gravel road to get down to El Calafate…1276km away. But we found out that once a week there is a small plan flying this route and it happened to be the day after. So we bought tickets in the morning and rushed of to the airport and enjoyed a 1.5h flight instead of the bus. What a joy!!! Better then Christmas!
Patagonia isn't really catered for backpackers. Everything is extremely expensive and some only accessible by car. But we felt that when we finally were down this south we might as well see all there is to see.
We decided to do a day trip to "Torres Del Paine" in Chile (most famous national park in Chile)…this trip we came to call "the trip of Pain" instead. We got on a bus at 6am and got back in El Calafate at 11.30pm. So what did we do all day? We spent it mostly sitting in the bus looking out at the barren landscape we are SO used to by now. When we finally reached the national park we did see the famous snow covered mountain formation in shapes of high towers, some lakes and a glacier. Lamas and Condors that are things we sort of see every day. It was all very nice, just not breathtaking. It was also so windy that you literally almost blew away as soon as you got of the bus…my hat did actually blow away and Phil had to run after and get it in a bush! This was a very expensive trip and we were disappointed again.
Day after though, we went the other way from El Calafate and entered the south part of "Los Glaciares National Park" We got to see an advancing glacier, Perito Moreno. Not many left in the world. Very, very cool. You stand on wooden balconies opposite the glacier and you see pieces of ice fall down in the lake, making hell of a noise. The glacier wall by the lake is 60 meters high and 5km wide. The glacier park has an ice cover of 600,000 hectars.
We also enjoyed a great time in the northern part of the same park. We took a 3h bus on a gravel road to El Chalten, tiny town in a valley with mountains around it. First day we did a great 3h hike in the evening. The sun only sets at 10pm, so you enjoy long long days here. We both have had enough of wearing hiking zip off trousers, fleeces, gore tex and hiking shoes…so Sofia did this short hike in a flowery dress and jeans and DG sunnies. Let's just say that everyone we met (dressed in fleece, zip of trousers and so on) stared at us and some almost fell over on the path. Following day we had booked in for ice trekking on a glacier. They also mentioned you had to hike to the glacier. What a hike!!! We stared the hike at 7am and finished the day hiking back into El Chalten at 5.30pm. We have done a lot of hiking, but never this many hours in one day. And the part just before reaching the glacier was more climbing then hiking. The 2h we had trekking on the glacier was cool, but you can't compare it to the 6088m mountain we climbed in Bolivia. Both of us flew up the little ice wall you had to climb with ice axes. The nature was amazing, the snow covered mountain massive called Fitz Roy was breathtaking. We were very happy with our trip here, well worth it!
Tomorrow at 4am we are catching a 24hour bus up to Puerto Madryn. Over 1500km, 100 miles away. That is the same distance as the lenght of Great Britan. We have to travel 4h south down to Rio Gallegos to be able to travel up. Great! At least we both have sore tired legs after all the hiking that might help Phil to sit still in the bus. Lots of Love S and P
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