Patagonia (2)

Sun December 9- No rest day today. Our Torres del Paine trek had gone more efficient than we had planned and now we had some additional time to do another trip! We would have liked to do the trek to Cabo Froward, but the many river-crossings in the cold and windy weather did not sound appealing. Instead we decided to go to Los Glacieres national park, across the border in Chalten, Argentina. We had been there in 2005 as well, really liked it, but since we had no tent we only did day-hikes to see the mountains Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. After breakfast, while Nancy's aunt did our laundry, we bought a bus-ticket and did groceries for the 4-day trip. In the afternoon we picked up our tent at the little outdoor store. They did an excellent job! The tent-fly was nicely sowed back together and the pole had been straightened! As good as new! :-) To celebrate our Torres-trek we went (back) to Afrigonia for dinner with Pierre, Ben, Daniel and Anne. After a great meal we ended our fellowship in the Irish Pub and at 2am we had to wake Nancy's aunt to let us back into the hostel.

Piedra del Fraile valley

Mon December 10- After a very short night we got onto the 8am bus to Calafate, Argentina. Pierre came with us as well! We arrived in Calafate around 2pm, bought our bus-tickets to Chalten and checked in at Hostal de las Manos (fine). Somehow we were very tired and went to bed early...

WIND !!!

Tue December 11- Day 1 Los Glaciares

In general a South American breakfast is meager, but the breakfast at Las Manos was the 'meagerest' of all... Two slices of white bread, jam and instant coffee. We left most of our stuff in storage in the hostel and with just our hiking gear we got on the 8 am bus to Chalten. Together with a ranger at the the national parks office we planned a 4 day/3 night route. After an empanada for lunch we took a taxi - together with Pierre- to the trailhead. We started our trek by going to Piedra del Fraile; a hut in a privately owned valley, just north of the national park (2 hour walk). It cost 100 pesos (20$) to just walk in the valley and it cost 60 pesos (12$) to camp at the hut, which includes access to the valley, use of cooking-shelter and even a hot shower. A very interesting business model... The camp at Piedra del Fraile is at the end of the tree-line (last place you can camp unless you want to get blown away.) We setup our tent next to the river, among the trees and behind a huge rock. A beautiful location and nicely protected from the wind.

Fitz Roy (North Face)

Wed December 12- Day 2 Los Glaciares

There were two nice day-hikes we could do from Piedra del Fraile; a long 1,200 meter climb to Paso Caudrada or an easy hike in the valley to Lago Electrico. If it had been a clear day we would have climbed to Caudrada, but since it was cloudy we went for the valley-hike (and then we would pack up and go to the next camp at Mount Fitz Roy). Pierre however did want to do the long climb, so we said goodbye. Despite the cloudiness the valley-hike was lovely; good views of Lago Electrico, the surrounding mountains, glaciers and the north-face of Fitz Roy. By noon we were back at camp, and as we were packing up Pierre returned! He had made it about halfway, but then the Antarctic conditions (bitter cold, snow, low visibility and hurricane winds) forced him to turn around. United once more, we hiked the 4 hours to the campsite Poincenot at the base of Fitz Roy. The campsite was fine, but unfortunately too cloudy for any good views of Fitz Roy.

Maurits and a glacier

Thu December 13- Day 3 Los Glaciares

Right after breakfast we hiked - still together with Pierre - the 1 hour to the Fitz Roy lookout. Fitz Roy was in the clouds, but the view was still nice. The weather was quite pleasant actually; high clouds, little bit of sun, no wind. Around 11am we were back at camp. We packed up the tent, it started to rain and in the rain we hiked to De Agostini campsite at Cerro Torre. We got to the very nice campsite around 3pm and for the last time in South America we setup our tent. We had a hot chocolate and went into the tent for a small siesta :-) The weather got much better and after dinner we hiked along Laguna Torre. With no wind at all it was very pleasant and Cerro Terro almost cleared. A beautiful last night in the South American mountains!

At the base of Fitz Roy

Fri December 14- Day 4 Los Glaciares

On a clear day the sunrise at Cerro Torre is beautiful! At 5am it was cloudy, so we went back to sleep... We got up at 7, had breakfast, packed up and hiked the 2.5 hours to the town of Chalten. We hiked mostly in the rain, but as we got to closer to the town it stopped. After enjoying a last Argentine empanada we took the 1pm bus back to Calafate. Back at hostal Las Manos we had a nice long hot shower. And then the hostel ran out of water! Actually, the whole town of Calafate had no running water! Somewhere something was broken but nobody knew what... Luckily we could still get water at the supermarket, where we also bought some fruit and veggies for a nice salad.

Maurits at Laguna Torre

Sat December 15- Now we really said goodbye to Pierre. He was going to the Perito Moreno glacier and we took the 8am bus back to Puerto Natales. It was very nice hanging out with Pierre - hopefully we will see him again in Montreal, Boston or somewhere in between! The bus ride back to Chile was uneventful. We arrived in Puerto Natales around 1:45pm and 45 minutes later we were in the next bus going to Punta Arenas. Around 6pm we checked into a very nice boutique yoga-hotel called Ilaia - a great place to relax!

We could almost see Cerro Torre

Sun December 16- It rained the whole day, we had a wonderful breakfast and in general we did not do much. We just relaxed in the hotel and mentally prepared ourselves for the 60-hour trip to Tasmania.

In a valley

Mon December 17- Our last day in South America! After another great breakfast we packed our bags and went for a walk through Punta Arenas. It was a beautiful day, crystal clear and pretty cold. It actually felt a bit like winter and the christmas trees did not seem so out of place. After lunch we took a taxi to the airport and started our very long journey to Australia...

Hawk

 

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