The 'W' trekkers (and a couple of Utrekkers!!)


So after Fitzroy and the Perito Moreno Glacier we headed further south along the famous Route 40 in search of more amazing scenery and glaciers!! We crossed the border for the third time from Argentina to Chile to a small town called Puerto Natales. Here we

The Chilean and Patagonian Flags

 had 3 hours to hire all the camping gear and get all the food that we needed for the famous 4 day W trek in Torres del Paine National Park. In that time we managed to get together a 2 man tent (which really just about fitted the 2 of us in to it - with our bags outside in a wee porch bit!!), waterproof trousers, gas stove, cooking pot, soups, cereal bars, noodles, pasta sauce, smash (yuk never again!!), powder milk & tins of tuna. We’ve never had to analyse what we bought at a supermarket based on its weight before!!!! But we are glad we did as we had to carry our house on our back for 4 days as well as all our food!!!!

The W trek picks up the Grey Glacier on the first day, the French Valley on the second day, the Lakes on the third day and the highlight of the trek, by far, was the Torres (towers) del Paine on the last day. The full trek is about 75km and 9 of us from the truck did the W (well 3 of us did the U and skipped a small bit in the middle!!). When you do the W trek you have the advantage of getting to Torres del Paine for sunrise and the views were so worth the 4am start and clambering for an hour up the final stretch in the dark. It was so cool walking up in the dark - all you could see in front of you and behind you was a snake of headlights leading the way!! When we got to the top and waited for the sun to rise the atmosphere was really cool. There was only about 50 people who had trekked up for sunrise and they were all there in their layers of clothing and sleeping bags waiting waiting waiting...

As you can see from the pictures the weather was nearly perfect for the sunrise and they reckon that only one in ten days is good enough to see the sunrise so we were very lucky :o)

 Myself and Tom at the Summit - the end of four long days trekking and very early in the morning but it was soooo cool!!



                                                  The sun just starting to rise...     Me & Tom with the sun just hitting the towers...

The sun rise on the towers was beautiful and the reflection in the lake just in front of it made it just amazing!!

All in all it was great fun getting off the truck and camping, sitting at a campsite after a greats days hiking & cooking with our little stoves, carrying all of our camping equipment, clothes and food every day whilst hiking felt like an achievement!! We met some cool people along the way and bumped into another Irish girl from Mayo who told us about her trip so far - she'd bumped into a guy in Quito, Ecuador who was riding his motorbike from his home in California to the end of the Route 40 in Patagonia!!!! She jokingly asked if he had room on the back for her and he said yeah and he had a spare helmet so off she went!!! How cool!!

It was pretty windy at the first view point!!   The gang taking a rest on a nice bridge!!

                                Beautiful nature....              The view from one of our campsites...

        Lunch with a view....and Tom stocks up on water from the mountain springs :o)

                           Trek Trek Trekking!!!                    Tom Packs up our tiny, light-weight 1 ½ man tent!!!

Ice Ice Baby!!!

The next few weeks of the trip were all about the ice ice baby!!! We spent the next few weeks travelling down through the absolutely stunning scenery of the Patagonia region of Argentina and Chile. This leg of the trip was fantastic as we got lots of time away from the truck and although there were some long drive days we stopped in most places for 3-4 days. The highlights of this leg were Cerro Fitz Roy in El Chalten, the Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate and of course doing the famous ‘W’ walk, a four day hike to Torres del Paine. As we drove south temperatures dropped and the layers of clothing became thicker (I had to buy a new coat as I came totally unprepared for this kind of cold!!) and the winds when we were putting the tents up were unbelievable!!! But it was worth it for the scenery we saw - it was truly awe inspiring!!

El Chalten - Los Glaciares National Park
El Chalten is a beautiful village set in the Los Glaciares National Park and was a great base for day hikes to unbelievable views of mountains, rivers and glaciers!! On the first day we left really early from campsite with Ian and Delwyn and headed to Fitz Roy, the highest range in the park and from the photos we had seen at the park rangers office, the most spectacular. After an hours walking in the morning sunshine we were at the first mirador and the views were breathtaking. After dozens of pictures and a cereal bar we hiked on for another 3hrs. The beginning of the hike was beautiful, the park was filled with beautiful rivers, bridges and stepping stones built from the natural wood, lakes reflecting the views of the mountains etc and only the last part of the climb to the top was hard, but when we got to the top the views of the glacier were spectacular. After spending some time chilling on top we headed back along a different route towards the second peak but the weather turned so we stopped for lunch in a sheltered spot and then headed back to base. We had done 10 hours hiking and so deservedly went for a beer in a local brewery pub …sound familiar!!! …but definitely not as nice as Bariloche!! 

We got up early again, but Michaela’s legs were feeling it from the previous day (still feeling the injury from Pucon!!) so she chilled out in the sunshine and shops while the 3 of us went for more hiking. The first part of the hike went through a woodland where you could apparently see a lot of Magellanic Woodpeckers, unfortunately for us they must have been sleeping that morning!!!  We added a pic of one that one of the others had caught on camera later that day!!! After failing to see woody woodpecker we headed onto the mirador point to view the Torre mountain range and the lake in front of it. We just hung out there admiring the glacier up close and had lunch.

The best thing about the park was that it was so natural and it felt so untouched, little bridges were made out of natural trees and any trees that had fallen were just left there to decompose with time. Minimum human influence had been put on the creation of the paths and it was so hard to believe that it cost nothing to enter the park as the views were priceless!!! And the marshmallows at camp when we came back weren't too bad either!!

El Calafate - Perito Moreno Glacier

The next day we were back onto Amber and headed to another small village, El Calafate. It was a great town for shopping for hiking gear and Michaela badly needed a warmer jacket!!! After a days shopping,

finally success, as always in the last shop we visited!! So we were now set for a visit to the Perito Moreno Glacier. It is 5km wide and 60m high and its one of the few glaciers that is still moving, at about 2 m/day. It was mesmerising to watch and listen to. The size and bluish colour was dazzling to look at it. Some small pieces fell off when we were there and the noise was so loud. I can’t imagine what it would be like when a large chunk falls off. In 2006 a large bridge that had formed in the glacier feel down and it would have been AMAZING to see and hear...heres a link from youtube showing the beginning of the collapse!!! http://www.youtube.com/watchv=BDHayMS33MA&feature=related.

We took a boat ride quite close to the glacier and thankfully no big bits fell off when we were on it!!!!! Its hard to take a photo which does it justice but it will remain in our memory for a very long time.

    

 

Bariloche - Beautiful Lakes, Mountains…..and a Brewery Pub!!!

So Bariloche was a beautiful little town surrounded by mountains and clear blue lakes!! The scenery was stunning as we drove into the town however the weather was crap!! It rained and blew a gale most of the time we were there and so our initial plans of hiring a bike and cycling round the lakes was scrapped!!
 

Luckily for us there was a gorgeous little microbrewery about 5mins from the campsite were about 10 of us spent most of our 2 days in Bariloche!! It was a beautiful pub filled with memorabilia and bottles of beer from different countries around the world. Tierna would have had a field day in this place with the amount of stuff lying around!!

It had loads of Guinness and Murphy’s souvenirs (apparently the owner had visited Ireland and loved it!) and one of the 7 beers that they brewed and bottled in one corner of the pub was a dark black stout just like Guinness or Murphy’s (better not offend the Rebels by only mentioning Guinness!!). We tried a taster of all 7 home brews and for me the cider was the best and Tom liked the Pilsen and the Negra Irlandais.

So we would have been quite happy to stay there just for the beers and peanuts but then the very friendly waiter produced the food menu!! Oh my god they did a steak and mushroom pie and a chicken and bacon one!! To be fair when I’m at home this wouldn’t get me too excited but by now we are so sick of rice, pasta, chicken and chips and cheese and ham sandwiches that the thought of a pie with mushy peas, caramelised onions and chips was too much to resist!!!!!! Who cares if we have already organised camp dinner (in the rain!!) we’ll just eat both and splash out!! The pie came out and we were practically drooling on it!! Gorgeous golden pastry mmmmmmmmm!!!

So enough of my over excitement about the pie…after the second day in the pub we decided we at least had to get the bus into town and see it before we left the town only having seen the inside of one pub!!! It was quite nice and they had loads of chocolate shops were you could see the chocolate being melted in those big churners and then made into sweets and bars :o) Tom managed to resist the chocolates (just about!!) but went for their second speciality - ice cream!! They had every flavour you could think of and they all looked gorgeous :o)

So that was our 2 days in Bariloche - Beer - Pies - Ice-cream!!

A Week of Contrasts - The Easy Life in Argentina and Extreme Adventures in Chile!!

The Easy Life in Argentina - Mendoza Wine Tours

After our chill out days on the Estancia and having had a small sample of the wine tasting it was off to Mendoza for more chilling and to visit the vineyards themselves and really taste some wines!! We arrived there late in the evening to our campsite and Tom’s group had to rustle up something quick for everybody. His mother would be proud of him as not only did we all have a great pasta dish, a strawberry & cream sponge cake was produced for dessert. Vanilla essence in the cream, yummy!!!

Mendoza is a laid-back, chilled out town, great for coffees, cakes, terraces and people watching and is obviously most famous for its vast wine production!! The fact that it is a desert town with very little rain is surprisingly the main reason why wine making is so successful in the region. Because there is no natural irrigation most of the water has to be pumped in from the snow melts of the Andes and is completely controlled meaning no surprise big rains before harvests!

Mendoza produces 70% of Argentina’s wine and Malbec is it’s most famous export. About 600 wineries in the region export their products and they say their best is Malbec but they also export good Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and I tasted a really nice sparkling white wine (their version of Champagne). I sound like I actually know what I’m talking about here!! To be fair Tom appreciated the wine tasting much more than I did as I don’t really like red wines but they had enough sparkling whites to keep me happy and cool in the hot summer sun!! The best was one called ‘New Age’ (only $5/bottle!!) so if anyone sees it at home you know what I want when I get back!! :o) Its got a very cool picture on the inside of the label :o)

So aptly the first winery we visited was called Familia di Tommaso….the vineyard was obviously calling Tom!! It was a small family run vineyard and one of the oldest in the region. The girl taking the tour was really nice and knew so much about the wine industry in Argentina. Her English was fantastic and she had a great sense of humour. She showed us around the vineyard explaining how the wine was processed and how each got its different flavour. We saw the French Oak barrels and she explained that most wineries used them 5 times but that in this winery they only used them 3 times to keep the oak flavour strong and the price of the wine depended on whether the grapes were left in there for ½ yr or a year. She also explained how they added other spirits to the dessert wines to give them their flavours like cognac or whiskey. At the end of the tour came the tasting and we did a lot of glass swirling, looking at dregs, sniffing, describing and finally drinking (no-one seemed interested in the last step of spitting!!). We tasted some Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and some dessert wines. Tom reckoned the best was definitely the Grand Reserve (that means its been 1yr in the barrel) Malbec!!

We went to another vineyard called Vina del Cerno. The staff weren’t as friendly and we didn’t get to taste such a wide selection of wines but this is where I found the really nice sparkling white so I was happy :o) 
 



The gang looking merry after the wine tours and heading out for dinner in town!!


Extreme Adventures Chile - Climbing a Volcano in Pucon

So after so much chilling and wine tasting it was time for some hard work and extreme adventure!!! After another border crossing, a quick skip through Santiago (not much to write home about!!) and another day on the truck we arrived in the Chilean town of Pucon. A small town overlooked by a huge snow capped volcano, Villarraca. We arrived knowing that a group of about 16 of us wanted to climb the volcano but had been told that it was going to cost about $45,000 Chilean Pesos which is about $90 which we felt was way too much money to climb a volcano in Chile especially if we had a group of 16!! So we went bargain hunting!! I managed to get a deal with one company to take us up the volcano, provide all snow gear for climbing, 3 guides, some beers and cookies when we got back, take us on a bus to a 4* hotel with some hot springs and then take us back to town for $38,000 wohoooooooooooo I love bargaining!!! The other truck had a group of around the same size and were paying $45,000 just for the volcano hike, gear and guides!!

View of Mt Villarraca from Pucon town...

So now that we had our bargain it was time for the hard work!! It was an early start as we put on all our snow gear at 6.30am and the weather wasn’t looking fantastic!! But they say that you can never tell with the weather - it can be raining in the town and sunny on the volcano or raining in the morning and sunny 2hrs later!! Bit like Ireland, they can have four seasons in one day!! So we hopped on the bus and hoped for the best!!

When we got to the foot of the volcano Rodriguez gave us a quick guide on how to stop using your ice pick if you fall down the volcano and how to use your ice pick when your walking!! He then gave us the option of taking the chair lift for the first part which was on ash or walking the whole way - obviously we went for the hard core walk all the way option!!! The first part was tough as it was walking on the

volcanic ash so it was 1 step forward 2 steps back and by the time we had walked 10mins we were stopping to take layers off as it was roasting!!! After about 1hr 30mins of walking on the ash we hit the snow which was a bit easier to walk on for a while until we got up over a ridge and the wind (gale force!!) hit!! Anyway to keep a long story short...the winds were fierce, the climbing was hard and both my groins were killing (no clue why they pulled but it hurt!!). A lot of the group was struggling and about 1/3 of the group turned and went back down with one of the guides. I was in pain but I soooooo wanted to get to the top so I kept going but eventually had to give in too and head back down :o( I was totally gutted but couldnt walk another step!!! I was about 1/2hr from the top and I could see it but there was no way I was going to make it up there never mind have the legs to get myself back down!! So I turned, crying!!, gave the camera to Tom and headed back down the volcano with my personal guide, Fernando!!!

The views from about half way up - the sky cleared literally for a few seconds!!

Tom made it to the summit through gale force winds, snow and tough climbing. As you can see from the picture the view wasn't spectacular and apparently the smell of sulphur would have knocked you out but the feeling of getting to the top was great!!! :o)

Anyway as Roosevelt said..."It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed." and so I console myself or as Henry Ford said "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently." i.e. next time take the advise of the guide and take the lift up the first part!!!


When we got back to base the cookies and beer, beside a burning log fire, were perfect and then off to the hot springs....totally relaxing, totally luxurious and totally deserved!!!