Justine and Dylan’s Travel Blog

And to finish off our tour of Patagonia we did a final three days around Torres del Paine National Park, billed as the W (three day walks which on a map look like a W).

We had already done the Las Torres Lookout in almost perfect conditions, so did a walk around Lago Sarmiento and Laguna Verde instead (30kms all up), which was quite nice (although the highlight was probably the lookout over Lago Sarmiento and Rio Paine at the start of the walk…).

Had also done the Valle des Frances (French Valley, 27kms) on day 2, but were happy to do it again in perfect (although somewhat windy) conditions (remember me babbling on about the weather in the previous post?… yup, it was still good at this stage). It really is one of the best and most varied walks I´ve ever done with spectacular views at the end at the Mirador Condor.

Finally, day three was a walk to Lago and Glaciar Grey. This last day was a bit of a circus as most people in our tour group by this stage had grown tired of walking and wanted to catch the early catamaran back at 12noon. Not impressed as we were expecting one last full day (the short version, walk- and day-wise was NOT what had been sold to us), we ended up meeting the tour guides halfway and forced one of them to get up at 5am to accompany us to the Refugio Grey and back by 12noon. Well, we made it (23kms), but I´ve had more relaxing walks… Disappointing also as the weather was probably the best we´ve had during our entire stay in Patagonia (sunny, cloudless AND completely windstill) and apart from a more casual pace, we also missed out on going all the way to the third lookout (next to Glaciar Grey, instead of in front), which is apparently worth the extra few kms. Oh well, can´t win ´em all I guess, and leaves something for us to come back to… although might be a while :)

Overall still a great few days (80kms!) and am now totally content with leaving Patagonia. Couldn´t have had better weather, better views or nicer people to walk with. Other than a few days of flash-packing (meaning “backpacking” in a nice hotel) left in Buenos Aires, all set for the next part of our adventures in Vancouver, New York, London and Holland. Which will probably mainly consist of undoing all the good work (fitness-wise) from the last two months. Oh well…

Btw – haven´t been able to get the computer I´m currently sitting at to co-operate photo-wise, so will try to post some preview piccies again over the next few days…

So we started our final tour of Patagonia by visiting the Glaciares National Park for a second time. We´d done a little bit of it previously, but this time we did a full loop around the best parts of the park, with a bit of glacier walking thrown in at the end.

Well, I´m glad we went back. The weather was better, the parts we hadn´t seen previously were just as good as the ones we had and the glaciar walking (on Glaciar Grande at the base of Cerro Torre) was awesome.

The best part though was once again the weather. The first time I did the Laguna de los Tres walk there were low-hanging clouds and hail coming in horizontally on the way up. Needless to say we didn´t get the best views. It cleared up somewhat later in the day but by that stage we´d come back down and missed the views that Cerro Fitz Roy is famous for.

This time however, we were just plain lucky to be there during what the mountaineers in the area (and probably everywhere I guess) call a “window”. This is a (sometimes small) period of time during which the weather is good enough (mainly no wind) to go climbing up a sheer wall of granite (and you thought I was crazy). January had not had a window until the 15th of Jan… which happened to be the day after we arrived. It lasted the whole time we were there and then some (by the end of Torres del Paine a week later the weather was still glorious, absolutely amazing). As soon as I get technology at this end working I´ll show off some more with some photos

Anyway, apart from the usual sights (our walk was a loop from El Chalten to Laguna Capri, Laguna de los Tres, Lagunas Madre y Hija, Lago Torre, Cerro Torre and back out to El Chalten) we also did some glaciar walking, which was pretty cool. All that´s needed are some gloves and crampons on your shoes and you can walk straight onto it. Having guides and great weather (windstill!) probably made things easier, but still. The glacier we did was Glaciar Grande at the foot of Cerro Torre. This had the nice side effect of actually being able to walk several kms (not all on the glaciar) closer to the base of Cerro Torre for even better views of what would have to be one of the coolest peaks I know. Some ice climbing (only a few meters) after lunch as part of the glacier walking topped off a great day, which in turn topped off an amazing couple of days around Los Glaciares.

Well, all done walking around Patagonia. A combined 97 kms of walking in 6 days in Los Glaciares NP and 136kms of walking in 6 days in Torres del Paine NP (80 kms in the last 3 days… phew!). Fortunately there were a few rest days in there somewhere :)

Now we have a few days off here in El Calafate before we go to Buenos Aires, after which we move onto our “social part” of the trip, visiting friends in Vancouver, London and Holland. Looking forward to it. Might have to have a few cold ones though at this end in preparation.

Also moving into a room of our own tonight for the first time in a little while so looking forward to some spreading out and sleeping (in). Should also be able to sift through some more photos and post some more previews over the next few days.

Just thought I´d mention another highlight of our stay in Ushuaia: our B&B. As it turned out quite appropriately, named Tango B&B.

When booking it a while ago, as with most bookings, it was simply a matter of budget and bookability over the internet, cross-referenced with a few reviews from other travellers. Tango B&B looked like a great option based on these things so I booked it, figuring the Tango part was just a hobby of the owners or a funky name.

Turns out the owners take it a step further than that: the second night we (and the other guests) were invited to their “Tango night”. This consisted of him playing a whole bunch of Tango´s on his piano accordeon as part of a “history of Tango”, followed by some simple Tango lessons for beginners, all over a few glasses of nice red wine of course. Very cool. He did an awesome job on the piano accordeon (turns out he´d been playing for over 50 years, or since he was 5 or so, followed by a professional career as a player and composer) and the dance lessons were good fun too (although more laughs than serious dancing, especially after Justine had a couple of glasses of wine )

If ever in Ushuaia (hey, you never know), I can highly recommend it!

Or so you´re reminded on just about any street corner, billboard, t-shirt, mug, souvenir and other otherwise blank surface. If it doesn´t say End of World or Fin del Mundo, then invariably it will be something like “Southern-most <insert product trying to sell to tourists>”. I´m thinking one last spot they could remind tourists is on toilet paper, perhaps with a slogan like “Ushuaia: the arse-end of the world”.

Anyway, with a climate to match (wearing winter jackets in summer is always interesting), you have to admit you do feel like you´re running out of mainland a little bit. With a harbour full of boats about to head off to Antarctica and a chain of mountains inland with snow on them at what I would guess be about 400m altitude (remember how it´s summer), it does give you the impression you´re in an interesting location.

We did a quick day trip to Tierra del Fuego National Park, which was nice, but a little overrated and had a few too many billboards (with “southern most… or end of…” bits). I´m guessing most places are going to struggle to impress me now I´ve been to Patagonia though.

Anyway, the highlight was probably us checking into a B&B for a few days and having a few the sleep-ins to help us recover from our recent hikes (think: our own bathroom, a double bed, a heater, powerpoints everywhere… all the mod cons we´d come to miss a little bit while camping or staying in hostels).

Unfortunately, the End of the World was also the end of our stay on the Dragoman truck after 7 weeks (all the way from Cusco to Ushuaia). We´ll defn miss all the friends we made on the truck and the whole “always something happening” atmosphere. Fortunately we´ve still got a few more adventures to look forward to, so I imagine we´ll cope. Over a few glasses of red wine. And perhaps a nice steak. Hmmm… steak.

The literature will invariably tell you this is one of the finest trekking destinations in the world and that it can get very, VERY windy. Well, consider both confirmed.

With the addition that while we were there, it rained on the days we arrived and left and there was glorious sunshine on the three days in between. Can´t help but feel that we´ve been very lucky again. And that coming back in two weeks time might be disappointing unless the weather pulls off another miracle Oh well, one way to find out.

Anyway, the walks we did included the compulsory Torres del Paine Lookout, a walk up the even better (far more varied, ie hanging glaciers, mountain streams, unspoilt forest, 360 degree views of an amphitheater including the other side of the Cuernos del Paine, etc, etc) Valle de Frances (aka French Valley) and a quick walk up the Mirador Condor with panoramic (insanely windy, could barely stand up!) views of the light blue Lago Pehoe. Awesome.

Well, it´s a glacier. A pretty cool one too (no pun intended). And it´s big. Very big. And they had some great wooden platforms where you could get fairly up close (but not too close, apparently ice launched at the crowds when the glacier calved had killed 30-odd people until they restricted access in the late sixties… wonder whether the last 29 hadn´t wished they thought of that idea a bit sooner) and get some great views.

Unfortunately the day we visited it was raining and a bus tour had been organised for us to visit it, which managed to stretch a 4hr activity (1.5hr drive there, 1hr of looking, 1.5hr drive back) out to 9 looooong hrs, including viewing platforms, scenic “treks” (200m), boat rides and photo stops. Live and learn. Although having a 10 second countdown up to the glacier first coming into view inflicted on us almost made up for it due to the “OMG I can´t believe someone thought of this” factor. I guess some days you´re just meant to feel like a tourist.

A quick preview until I put up some photos properly…

Us at Condoriri base camp (near La Paz, Bolivia):

Us on the Uyuni Salt Flats (near Uyuni, Bolivia):

Us on Lascar Vulcano at 5480m (near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile)… and yes, those are other vulcanoes in the background

Us at the Torres del Paine Lookout (Chile):

Happy New Year everyone! Sorry we didn´t do the sms´s, no coverage here on my (dodgy) international SIM card (even though we were supposed to). I guess/hope travel blogs these days are also an accepted form of wishing people well?

Anyway, apart from the usual eating and drinking (fairly standard operating procedure), I have to admit El Calafate (where we are now) did have one little twist: at midnight the sun hadn´t actually set yet fully (it was definitely dusk though, but still). A little odd, but pretty cool. Also a good reminder that we´re getting pretty far south now and well into summer. If only the weather would focus on the summer bit more than the far south bit  

So, looking back I have to admit 2007 was pretty good. Not often you´re lucky enough to get married and go travelling for a few months. 2008 has some expectations to live up to I´m thinking . Anyway, off to Torres del Paine National Park tomorrow, so if the weather co-operates, I´m thinking 2008 might get off to not too bad a start either…

One of the classic walks around one of the best national parks for hiking in the world. Hmmm. Unfortunately you need sun for all the postcard views… (low hanging cloud doesn´t do much for 3000m peaks )

Anyway, it was still a great day´s walking and we saw loads of cool scenery (glaciers, etc), the only thing I couldn´t help but be disappointed with was that it was hailing when we were at the highlight (Laguna de los Tres at the base of Cerro Fitz Roy) at 11am and the skies had cleared by 3pm. Did I mention the wind in a previous post? I thought say Scotland had some changeable weather, but this place really is something different. It does really make it an interesting exercise because even if you get up and the sky is clear, you still have NO idea what kind of day it´s going to be.

Oh well, the good part is that we´ll be back in exactly the same place, doing exactly the same walk, in about two weeks time on a separate trip (a trek of a couple of days, rather than just the day walk we did the other day), so fingers we can cheat the weather after all with our second chance draw :)

Now just need to catch up on some sleep and let the blisters heal (48kms in two days was just a little too much…) between now and then. I guess that´s what the truck is for