Parque Nacional Torres del Paine

From Cerro Castillo it is 56 km to the entrance to the Parque Nacional, and it would prove to be one of our toughest days on the bikes yet.  We were exhausted, after 7 days with no rest, and we had another day of moderate head winds ahead, with mostly ripio.  The beautiful spires of the Torres, which we had seen from a hundred kilometres or more away three days prior, were hidden in clouds for most of the day, with fouler weather promising.  We started even earlier than normal to try and beat the winds, but today they winds got up early as well, by 8 they were already blowing in our faces, hard.  Peter, the other cyclist who camped with us, waited in town to try and catch a bus into the park – we wish we had joined him!

enroute to Torres del Paine

Strangely enough though, just when we thought we couldn’t handle the winds anymore, and had resorted to walking the bicycles on even the barest of hills and even many flat areas, the winds quited down in the afternoon instead of increasing.  Just as we feared the worst would come as we turned from northbound to east, we were treated to calmer weather, and herds of guanacos!

Guanacos everywhere... they are so beautiful

The population of guanacos – definitely our favourite animal so far – in the park has risen from about 100 to nearly 3000 in the past decade and a half, and they are everywhere! It is spring, so we saw them fighting for dominance, chasing each other, and rolling in the mud.

guanacos playing around

They are stunningly graceful when running and jumping cattle fences (far more so than the cow we saw get stuck when she tried the same thing), but they make the most ridiculous sounds!  We thought our day was made, but things improved even further.  The numbers of guanacos continued to rise as we entered a sheltered valley with hillsides painted completely pink by blossoming flowers.  We also saw a Patagonian skunk, which until this point we had only smelled – they have golden stripes rather than white ones.  The final few kilometres to the Refugio we were hoping to camp at passed beautiful lakes, and we finally arrived, utterly spent from our cold and windy day.

Things got even better when Marcos, the cook at the refugio and now are good friend, took us inside to warm ourselves, and fed us tortas fritas, like little donuts, with icing sugar on top.

Marcos, our good friend

Over the next 2 days Marcos took good care of us, bringing us cake in the morning when we were eating stale bread in the hallway while a busload of Dutch travellers ate the breakfast he had prepared them, trying to get us a free dinner (we didn’t figure out till later what was going on – he has extra food that would go to waste anyway, and he was sneaking behind the bi$%^y owner), and sending us on our way when we left with sweet bread for the road.

We splurged our first night here at Refugio Laguna Amarga, eating dinner with Dutch tour group.  It was the best soup we’ve ever had (unknown ingredients), a sort of Chilean shepherd’s pie, and an interesting, mostly flavourless dessert.

okay.. so the buns on the right... we stole from the dinner table so we could eat lunch the next day

We also were treated to a beer by a friendly Dutch fellow, who assumed we couldn’t afford one because we hadn’t ordered it as soon as we sat down.  They thought we had it so hard, having to sleep outside in our tent, when it turns out their steel bunk beds ($35 a night!) were uncomfortable and creaky, the walls thin so snoring kept them up, and it was cold in the huge refugio while we were toasty in our bags on comfy air matresses!

The next day was a rest day at the refugio, and we sat around reading and playing cards, happy we weren’t hiking, as the weather in the mountains was terrible.  Two lambs walked around our tent nibbling away at the grass and jumping hilariously off an old building foundation.

lambs hanging out

We took a nap and one of the silly buggers kept trying to climb onto the tent while we were in it, licking the plastic window in the fly and leaving muddy hoof prints on it!  That afternoon we went with Claus and Frank, a German couple staying at the refugio, to a waterfall 3km away in their rental SUV.

the waterfall

What a treat to cover ground that fast!  We ate our own dinner that night in the crappy camping kitchen building, which we smoked out with a fire to keep warm.

crappy cook shelter, but out of the wind

We left in the morning, sad to leave Marcos, but happy to be on the road in improving weather. The road was breathtaking, but equally hard.

Weather improves as we keep making our way through the park

The winds were up as early as us again, and strong. We were heading due west today, and the day began with an expensive park fee ($30 each), followed by what we call a “good morning hill”.  Up, and up, and up we went, eyeing guanacos, ducks, and barrancas, a beautiful but odd bird, the whole time, with the Torres (Towers) del Paine almost visible, but the more iconic Cuernos (Horns) del Paine out in all their glory.  This road was the most scenic and beautiful of our trip so far, and the most gruelling as well – after 3 and a half hours we had gone only 23 kilometres.

amazing road

We stopped at a guardeparque, where we were asked if we wanted food, but we missed another opportunity for a home-cooked meal and Patagonian generosity. We thought there was food for sale at the ranger station, but in fact it was her home, and we would have had some lovely looking stew that had been prepared for the other park staff… we determined from now on we will risk appearing greedy in the future rather than be erroneously gracious or cautious and miss out again.  We hitched a ride with a family from Panama 2 km to a waterfall lookout we couldn’t be bothered to walk to in our state, trundled back to the bikes, and turned south for the last 7 km to Camping Pehoe.

salto chico waterfall

The Quernos

At Camping Pehoe we made a new friend in the camp maintenance man, who brought us a ridiculously huge load of firewood (we tried to burn it all but couldn’t) and showed us faces in the mountains.

our fireplace

We also ticked off 2 of the remaining 5 animal species we had yet to see: both the zorro chillo, a huge fox as big as Ted, and the huemul, the endangered Andean deer. (The remaining three are a type of reputedly numerous owl, the puma, which we hope not to see, and penguins, which are due up next!)

Big deer

We were joined at our camp site by 3 or 4 huge bus tours, including Das Hotel Rollende, a German “rolling hotel”, bigger than two semi-trailers, which promptly unloaded folding picnic tables upon arrival and hordes of elderly Germans began “doing their chores”: fetching water, cooking dinner, prepping tables, etc.  The last half of the hotel is a bizarre sleeping trailer, rows of tiny bunks with windows that seem more Japanese than German in design.  We watched a fabulous sunset over the Cuernos and Torres del Paine, marvelling at our good fortune with the weather again, cooked a pot of rice to mush over the fire to conserve our dwindling fuel supply, and trundled down to a fancy Parilla for a hot chocolate and another strange, flavourless flan dessert before bed.
The next morning leaving the park we stopped at the main Parque Administracion and got our passports stamped, biked 10 km of fast and easy ground with terrible serrucho, and were met by our good morning hill for the day.

stunning scenery

This one was mean, and had lots of bigger, meaner brothers hiding out back.  The road was lousy, but mostly empty, but the few cars we did see here were not courteous as the ones in the park: instead of busses slowing to 20km per hour when they approached, they flew by at 100.  The road was peppered with miradors (lookouts), so we got ample rests, and the day was mostly windless and sunny.

phenomenal!

About 40km in to our planned 70 km we happened upon an Argentine cyclist sleeping on the side of the road. He is the first biker we have met on this trip towing a trailer, and when we exclaimed at the amount of gear he had he said he may leave some food behind, as he was carrying enough for three days. He was heading the opposite direction from us, and we had brought five days and used most of it.  He also told us the road ahead was very hilly – poor guy didn’t know what he had in store: it was almost flat after the morning we’d had.  He’d stopped at an estancia a few k’s down the road and had been fed enough lamb and bread to necessitate the siesta – this is it! we thought. Here’s our chance! We raced ahead through steep road cuts, past a volcano with beatifully red-flowered flanks, and turned off the road up the estancia’s driveway.  We were met by a husky puppy and a woman with canines of the sort that inspired Vampire legends who invited us into the kitchen.  She gave us coffee and tea, and we spied the lamb in a huge tray on the open oven door.  She sliced up some bread for us, put the lamb in the oven and closed the door…. and that was the last we saw of it.  It seems our cycling friend had stuffed himself so well she didn’t see fit to give any more away.  Ah well, we tried, and our luck is on the rise, so we’ll wait!

Another 20 km and we started looking for a camp site. Getting tired, coming down a steep hill, Jenny started to wobble and I thought she was done for. She straightened out, I looked away, and looked back in time to see her stopping.  I thought she’d bit it after all, slammed on the brakes, and bit it myself – our first high-speed crash! Minor scrapes on the elbow, due to protection from 3 shirts, and we were off again.

nothing but a flesh wound

We decided that with only 25 km left to town, mostly downhill followed by flats and a change from ripio to asfalto, we’d suck back the PowerGels we’d been carrying since Canada, put on our game faces and go for it.  We stopped at the Cueva de Milodon, a huge cave famous for housing the bones of prehistoric giant sloths, and again at an Ethnohistoric park to take a picture of Jenny with the crazy masked and painted figures from aboriginal ceremonies we see on souvenirs everywhere here.

jenny and funny guy

Another oddity here: beside the Silla del Diablo, the devil’s chair, a huge rocky outcrop which would have made a beautiful campground and bouldering setting, a man was torturing a trombone in the worst way imaginable, in the middle of nowhere.

We stocked up again on Christmas cake and chocolate again with 16 km left, and finished our day at over 100km, which we had planned to do in 2 days.  We rolled into town to beautiful skies, black swans in the Pacific Ocean, a strange sculpture of a huge hand rising from the ground at the beach.  After an expensive and only decent dinner (we have found cooking at hostels is better than eating out here) of barbequed lamb and obscene amounts of king crab, we tottered off to bed for our first morning where we could sleep in past 6 in 10 days. We are now staying at a wonderful Hostal, which doesn’t look like much from the outside but is beautiful inside, is relatively cheap, and has provided the best breakfast we’ve had since we left home – crepes!  Today was a rest day of blogging, eating and shopping, and tomorrow, off to Punta Arenas, where we’ll finally see those damned penguins.  The radio here is playing “Mr. Roboto” for anyone who cares – I’m rocking out over here.  Talk to you soon!

Chile bound

Huge hills, infuriating winds, majestic mountains, and abundant wildlife are the theme for the most recent segment of our little adventure.  We started with a beautiful campground in El Calafate,with more perros of course, including one little bugger named Filthy; the cutest, and dirtiest, dog around.

wonderful campground

Filthy made no bones about either climbing into our tent with Jenny and cuddling on her down sleeping bag, or being dragged out by the feet like a limp rag doll when we wanted him out.

filthy mcnasty

After an asado of chicken chorizos and tapa, from which Filthy caught the grease on his neck as he licked char off the ground, we rose the next morning to start our 3 day ride to the Chilean border.

After back-tracking the 30 km El Calafate is set off our highway, we began the looooong 500 meter climb out of the enormous glacial valley of Lago Argentina. 20 kilometres long, with no break in the hill, in fact. I took my shirt and leg warmers off, and at the end of the hill 2 and half hours later, we were both rewarded with applause from passing cars and busses, and I was rewarded with a brutal sunburn.

not the hill, but the pampas before the 20km hill

We passed a herd of guanacos,

El Cerrito construction site

and rode a further 40 km to finish our day at over 100km for the second time.  This was a rare windless day, and unfortunately so, as we would have had a tail wind, but at least our ears were spared from the endless whistling.  We slept at a construction site in the middle of nowhere, staffed by Miguel, a few others we didn´t speak to, a Chileno happy to have young company, and of course a perro and gatos. We popped our tent up under cover of what will be a snowplow shelter, watched a spectacular sunset with our talkative (and partially understood) Chileno friend, and were woken in the night by a meowing gato clawing at our tent.

We rose early again to beat the winds, which are usually calm until about 10 am, or even noon. This day they should have been coming from the side and slightly behind, but we got an anomaly and ended up with head winds for a fair bit of the day somehow. It is an odd sight to see grass and shrubs bent over into the wind, let me tell you.  We started the 70 km stretch of ripio of Ruta 40 that would be our day with a guardaganado (cattleguard) princess, and after 20 km thought our day might be fairly easy. Then the winds picked up, switched direction, and the road went from great to terrible, with mucho serrucho and loose rocks.

mucho serrucho

We met 4 swiss bikers who looked rather unimpressed with each other – they´ve been fighting headwinds for weeks since Ushuaia, and we were happy to only have to deal with it for a few days at a time.  The past week we have seen far more wildlife (other than cattle) than the rest of our trip, as guanacos and nandu, the lesser rhea, are all over the place here, and loads of Patagonian hare as well.

roadrunners

There are a ton of dead guanacos and hare as well littering the road.  The nandu, apparently the inspiration for Wile E. Coyote´s roadrunner, are amazing – both gawky and prehistoric in appearance, and huge.  They often blend into the sheep they are surrounded by, and take a keen eye to pick them out.  The wildlife provided just enough distraction to get us to Tapi Aike, a gas station and Estancia, where we camped by a stream with a Dutch couple, who shared coffee, tea and cookies.

Tapi Aike

They are in their fifties or early sixties, and on a year-long trip from Ushuaia to Venezuela. They have been cycle touring for 20 years, both have PhD.s, and had a lot more stuff than us.

Dutch couple

Their tent vestibule was bigger than our whole tent!  The fellow managed to arrange a sabbatical of sorts with his work, whereby he works 6 hours a week while on the road, and they still pay his pension and benefits along with his reduced salary – pretty amazing folks in general.

Our third day started with the usual 6 a.m. wakeup, and a decision to be made: ride into Chile at the nearby border corssing of Cancha Carrera-Cerro Castillo, or continue south on easier roads to Rio Turbio before crossing and arriving at the Chilean city of Puerto Natales.  The choice had been nagging us for days, as the difference meant either biking through the stunning Torres del Paine National Park, or renting hiking boots and backpacks from Puerto Natales and hiking the “W Circuit”, a 3-4 day hiking loop we had been planning on since the beginning of the trip.  We finally decided on biking the park, based on our experience with lousy rental gear in El Chalten when we have great stuff at home, being well prepared for biking and not hiking, and fearing our knees would not hold up well to the drastic changes in stresses, after one day of hiking crippled me for the next day in El Chalten (again, partly due to lousy boots).  We arrived at the Argentine customs post at about noon, where we were followed by a beautiful German Shepherd we named Gemma for the 7 kilometres to the Chilean customs post.

Gemma and Jenny almost in Chile

When Gemma wasn´t chasing Patagonian hares, she was trotting along at our side as if she´d been trained to.  We were in for a surprise at the Chilean side of things, as we arrived to two busloads of tourists, one Dutch and one Italian, mired in the bog of a Customs Agents’ strike.  We waited with Gemma for the next two hours, first for the border guards to return from lunch, then for them to process, slowly, 60 odd people in line before us.  They had to trick Gemma into their back office and hold her while we rode away into town, as she couldn´t cross the border and desperately wanted to stay with us.  The winds picked up to a gale-force, blowing huge clouds of dust along the road, and then the rain began.

Wind storm, wow!

We found out the only lodging in town was closed, but a lady at the big cafeteria-gift shop-restaurant told us to “go down the hill, turn right at the Monumento de Caballo (Monument to the Horse, a giant statue honoring the “loyal, strong companion of the pioneering gauchos“), left at the cattle ring, and find a house with a lot of cars and a big man named Raul.”  We did, and huge, red-faced, one-eyebrowed, cowboy-booted and beret-ed Raul, with a big knife slipped into the back of his gaucho belt, led us to his backyard and gave us a campsite beside the staff quarters for the gift shop.  His 4 year old son, in matching boots, came to play with us for the next couple of hours, and we found out later the women was his wife.  We met another Dutch biker named Peter, who joined us for the night at our campground. Peter reminds us of Kurt, as he had a tent barely big enough for himself, that he said he doesn´t believe is waterproof and wouldn´t stand up in the wind, and only a + 10 degree sleeping bag.  He sat around in flipflops and shorts while Jenny and I wore longjohns, fleec pants and rain pants, and slept with no shirt on while we slept in pants and fleece tops in our – 10 and – 20 sleeping bags.  He also planned on hiking the 40 km W Circuit in one day. Suerte , Peter!

Cerro Castillo is a crazy little town – only 700 people and no reason for toursist to visit, with on closed hospedaje, but beautiful wooden signs, in English, outside every building, a tourist office open until 10 pm, a library with free internet, but they had no gasoline until the truck came at some unknown time the next day, to the most bizarre gas station imaginable – one with no pumps.

gas station in cerro castillo

funny bread with patagonia stamps

We bought a Christmas cake to supplement our oatmeal, as we had a short supply of fuel for the park and may run out, a 1.5 litre box of wine (recloseable!), 4 beers, and enough pasta, rice and tuna for a few days, and in the morning, a la Parque Nacional Torres del Paine!

An update:   Jennys coat repair job.   Whoohoo!

supra bond and tent fabric

Ruta 40

The sun was shining, it was hard leaving the most amazing mountains we have ever seen, especially when you can see them.  Leaving El Chalten, we had 225km to El Calafate, only for a town stop to pick up groceries, and visit a ferreteria for some glue and duct tape to finish fixing jennys coat.   The plan will be to head tomorrow to Peurto Natales which is 240km and should roughly be around 3 or 4 days, as long as the wind cooperates.

leaving El Chalten

We had 90km of tail wind leaving El Chalten, until we hit the junction for Ruta 40.  Before we took a break for lunch at noon, we had already biked 60km.  When the wind is on your side, boy can you go the distances.   Along the way, we came across, armadillos and parrots.

Armadillo

Today was a special day, we knew that Berta and Tomi would be arriving in El Chalten the next day, so we made a little sign in the rocks, ¨hola Berta and Tomi¨   !

our rock greeting for berta and tomi

We also were getting a little bored of the flat terrain, and desert surroundings that we had a little too much fun with the new highway attractions…..

chris and his new wheels, no more biking!

After turning onto Ruta 40, we hit a wind block.  We were barely moving for about 25km until we reached an Estancia, La Leona.   We were not sure if you could camp there, but it turns out they have just added a campground to their services.   We were welcomed by many dogs, geese, sheep, and kitten.

La Leona Campgroundone of the funny signs in Patagonia, and notice the desert background

We planned an early start to beat the wind, since wind picks up in the afternoon, but we met some nice Italians whom were bikers at home and wanted to give us advice on Peurto Madryn (where we will be going on Dec 1 roughly, for 7 days of biking around Penguins and the coast ).  We had a very slow start, we were on rippio and the wind in our faces.  It felt like it took forever to go the 73km we travelled that day.  We also met a couple ¨cycling nomads¨from England that sold there house and everything inside, quit there jobs and flew to Ushauia to start biking until there money ran out.. Families,, see we are more sensible than that!

It was a bit of a challenge to find a camping spot that night and we were to pooped to battle the 40km of head wind in the afternoon that we would be facing to bike into El Calafate.   But, we lucked out, one of the best camping spots we have had yet.  Chris tried to build a fishing rod, with barbed wire for the hook, a stick for the rod and he found some fishing wire.  No luck, it was rice or pasta for dinner.

It is brilliant, we always carry a menu of food, oatmeal for breakfast, salami, cheese and bread for lunch, and heres the kicker… we splurge at dinner,,,,…. rice   OR   pasta… sometimes we even have different types of pasta… we are high rollers in the evening time.

We had a relatively uneventful ride of 40km into El Calafate today, and the wind wasn´t too too bad…

Oh except, we hit 1000kms early this morning. We have been cycling for over 1000km now.

1000km odometer

I must add we met a crazy guy on a bike, JEFF from Victoria BC.  He has been on his bicycle for 2 years now, he has nothing left at home, and has cycled from canada to here.  What an incredible guy,  it turns out this is the guy we emailed while doing our research for this trip to find out where we should cycle tour in South America.  He had told us Ecuador, but we had decided to go to Argentina because it would be easier… well it turns out, we like hills and mountains better than we like the wind… i am sure Ecuador could have been easier. ahhaha….

Jeff. the crazy guy on a bike

The Guanacos

Tonight, we will splurge, as our campground has a bbq pit, we are going to have an asado and some vino roho.

El Chalten, Land of Giants

El Chalten is home to the immense granite spires known as Fitz Roy (Chalten to the locals) and Cerro Torre.

Dinner with Fitz Roy

Chalten roughly translates to “smoking one”, as streams of vapor and cloud rise from its face nearly all the time.  These two mountains are incredible, and are only the centrepieces of a range of jagged spires, cascading glaciers, and huge ice fields that rise from the flat pampas, at an elevation of just 300m, to over 3000m.  The Torre is one of mountaineering´s and alpinism´s crowning jewels, a perfect pillar of stone on the edge of the Southern Patagonian Icecap and normally shrouded in dense clouds.  It was on the day of our arrival as well, of course, with the luck we´ve been having, but the weather was set to change.

We arrived in town by bus at noon in the pouring rain, put our handlebars and front wheels back on the bikes, and made our way to the free campground at the southeast end of town, about as far from the trailheads and amenities as you can get, but across the street from the Guardeparque and information centre.

our free campground

We snuck back to the bus station/hostel and made like we payed to be there so we could sit inside from the rain and play cards for a while, then moved to a cafe. We met people in both places who told us the weather in the mountains was horrendous, there was nothing to see, and it looked like the trip here would be a bust.  FItz Roy had been visible for just 4 hours the day before, the first time in two weeks, and the Torre had not made an appearance for nearly a month.  The next morning we headed to a gear rental store all the same, rented boots and a backpack, and headed into the hills. We had a glimpse of rock and snow through clouds, and everyone in town oohed and yipped and grabbed for their cameras at every hint we might get a foggy picture of nothing in the mist.

chris blowing away in the wind

We hit the wrong trailhead in the morning, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the long connection between the two main trails turned out to be the nicest walk. The town was bathed in sunshine, but the mountains were still covered, as dozens and dozens of trekkers, young and old (and really old!) made their way into the hills.  The access here is amazing, as the mountains rise out of the flat lands, and the first good lookouts are only an hour in, and the foot of the glaciers only 3 or 4 hours from town.  We hiked through a gorgeous forest of lenga trees for a few hours after looking at nothing but fog from the Mirador Cerro Torre, and emerged to horrendous winds of near 100km/hr, with gusts well over.  The winds are like a physical force, battering your ears at all times, lifting walls of water off the lakes, and pushing you around as you walk. There were times when we were each literally knocked backward three steps while trying to walk against it.  We were told later by some Israelis (who took the ferry to Chile Chico with us) that they saw a big man, around 200 lbs, picked up off his feet and thrown almost ten feet.

A side path brought us into the climbers´camp, where we spoke to two young climbers, around our age, who were setting off that morning at 3 am to climb Fitz Roy, as the weather was supposed to improve for the next few days.  They have been climbing just 6 years, and have already tried to summit Fitz Roy, without success, in the past.  We picked up a stone to carry home with us and set off back to town, exhausted.

Rio Blanco, Climbers camp

The next day, our bad luck got worse. As we were debating on staying over night in the mountain campgrounds, dayhiking, or leaving, Jenny got up from her chair at our favourite little cafe and panaderia in town to talk to another traveler we pegged as Canadian. As she pushed her chair back it ended up pressed up against a wall heater, and in no time a huge hole had burned through, from the armpit to the waist, and 6 inches across, zippers and all.  Rain jacket number two was ruined, and it was all beginning to feel like too much.  The family that runs the panaderia (two generations work and live there, with a new grandbaby ato start the third generation!) called a friend from a gear shop, who is also a cyclist it turns out, who in turn took the jacket to his close family friend who is a tailor.  By 9 that night the coat had a nice, new patch, of slightly less durable and waterproofness, but a little thermarest glue and some scotchguard, and she´s good as new, with a nice scar as well!

jennys coat after repair

We decided to hike again the next day, and we lucked out!!

The Torre and its babies

The Torre reared his head for the day, and we were treated to spectacular views of the object of so many of our mountain books and climbing magazines.  We fell asleep laying by the Lago Torre, listening to waves lick the icebergs that had calved off the Glacier Grande.

Jumping for the sun!

trying to be a good photographer... kinda crappy thoyep!

When we returned to our campground, which, it turns out, has the best views in town of the mountains, we met a Phillipino cyclist named Bam, who excited and inspired us about our cycling to come, and ate dinner at a secluded picnic table, watching the sunset on the mountains.  The lady at the rental shop had told us to see the Torre was a gift, and it truly felt like a gift of a day, especially after the trials we had been though in the past week, and the stories of travellers camped out for a week without a hint of mountain views.  We left El Chalten the next morning with the wind at our backs, rumballs and macaroons from the panaderia on our bikes, and views of the towers for over 150 km in the bluebird skies. Suerte escaladores!

Perito Moreno tries #1 & #2

We woke up early in the morning to try and bike to the Perito Moreno glacier. It was already pouring rain and the weather forecast was horrible. We decided to give it a try anyways. We had 5 dogs follow us an easy 20km, which we named Leonard, Sam, Nancy, Tito and Jacques (but he spells it “Jock”). 

just a few of the dogs on route to Perito Moreno

When it turned from heavy rain to heavy snow, lots and lots of snow, (like 2 inches on the ground in 10 minutes) it was time to turn around. We were freezing, and we had another 20 km to go before the first area with any shelter, as we were biking through the pampas with only low shrubs and no trees, and the wind was horrendous. 

the wet, the snow, the miserable

 We lost Sam (chasing Patagonian hares) and Nancy (she kept going to the glacier), but Jacques and Tito came back with us as far as where we picked them up, and Lenny came with us all the way back to the hostel, where he stayed overnight with the dogs in the yard! The next day, we took a bus instead to go to the glacier since there was supposed to be one good day of sun, we wanted to make sure we got there on a good day.

Awesome – in the original sense of the word.  We approached the glacier in a huge, crowded catamaran, struck by the size and colour.

Glacier from the catamaran

The Perito Moreno Glacier is roughly 60 metres high, and advancing at 2 metres per day in the middle, and about 45 cm per day on the sides. 

Massive

 Every few years (last in 2004) it completely cuts off one arm of the enormous Lago Argentino, creating a huge buildup of water that eventually breaks through the ice wall with a massive explosion of water and ice.  We were so fortunate to have seen the glacier, as for days before us people from the hostel keep returning from their tours saying they barely saw anything and got freezing cold and wet instead. 

Tranquility

We saw a few big chunks of ice crash into the water, and the roar of the splashes are tremendous.  Unfortunately someone named me put the camera into “blue” mode by accident so many of our pictures are quite dark and funny-coloured – oh well!  We sat for hours just staring and listening from the walkway, about 50 metres above the ice, and watching condors soar below and in front of us, their feet dangling strangely. 

At lunch we bumped into a few fellow Canadians…  There was fellow Browntowns… in case you don´t know.. thats Brantford… and my mother works with this doctor.. yeah Brantford, you better represent!

We wish we had been able to camp at the glaciar as we had planned, as hearing the creaking and falling ice from our tent would have been magical, but seeing it, and returning warm to our hostel and a bottle of vino tinto was magical enough!

Now, to El Chalten, home of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre!

dunno really...

our shortcut

1 ferry, 2 bus rides and 3 days of biking later, we are in El Calafate.  I know what you are all thinking and I do not care! We are supposed to be biking, and now we are hitchiking and getting on buses, well…. we decided with the amount of time we have left, we want to make sure we see and do everything we want to, and by cutting out many boring days of biking in between the exciting stuff, we will suceed!  And gosh darn it, we are happy for it.   We are biking south from here, but still being able to do some treks and save some time for relaxing at the end.   The carreterra austral was our plan and we really wanted to go there, but unfortunately because we are still in low season, the ferry only runs once a week, and we didn´t want to risk spending many extra days in the empty village waiting for the ferry.

There, its been said…. now.. i will explain the good stuff.

We left Cohaique, and had a beautiful easy ride for about 45 km, in the sun with the wind at our backs (amazing! you can coast uphill!), and at this point, we started to go up.  We biked for another 20km and it took 3hrs since it was all uphill.

Cerro Castillo Campground

We stopped when we got into the Cerro Castillo National Park, and camped at once again another beautiful campground – BC Parks has some catching up to do.  It was closed, which means we get to pick the best site, so we gathered wood, started a fire, and made veggie curry.  It was almost like we were at home camping.

Rainy Pass

After a wonderful peaceful sleep, we finished the 1120 m mountain pass in the pouring rain.  We had brutal headwinds, so that even downhill you´re pedalling hard in granny gear and only going about 8 km/hr. We finally wore our heavyduty rubber gloves and hemet raincovers though! We knew we brought them for something. The descent was a 6km downhill and I believe it was the coldest day on a bike ever.   And yes, Agata, colder than the chilko challenge.

our cold descent

On the way down the hill, we stopped to warm the hands, and came across 4  Chilean men on a roadtrip, standing and shivering in the rain, drinking a giant beer.  They offered us beer, we refused  it but then the situation kicked it up a notch. They gave us Jack Daniels to warm our bellies.  And that it did.

drinking with the boyz

We biked the rest of the way, maybe 60km into Peurto Ibanez where we were catching a ferry ride to Chile Chico the next day.

ferry ride to chile chico

self explanatory

After the 2hr ferry, we biked across the border and into Argentina once again.  Into Los Antiguos, Argentina.

Los Antiguos is a quiet little village where we experienced a horrible night in the tents.   We had our first lonely asado, missing Berta and Tomi of course.

Canada, your campsites need some work

And,  finally we were camping at a campground where there are other campers….. and these campers were on there graduation trip, so it turned out to be, a 5am party night.  At one point in the night, out of a dead sleep, one of the bugger kids shook our tent and scared the shit out of us.  Chris ran out of the tent and chased them away.   GRRR…

eggs breakfast

We then bused from  Los Antiguos to Rio Gallegos where we got another bus to El Calafate.  In total, it was 27hours of transit time…. But now we are here….. ç

We leave tomorrow on our bikes to Perito Moreno Glacier, we hope to camp near the glacier.  This glacier is one of the only growing glaciers in Patagonia, and is massive.  Stay tuned for the photos.

This is our motivator. We needed a team turkey mascot.. and the first photos were robbed from us... so we made another one... Ted gets us through the tough biking days..

our first bike lane

Coyhaique, cerrado

After debating whether to make another night of pasta and akwardness eating in the hospedeja, we decided we could afford to have dinner with the rest of the working men.  Our dinner was fried egg patties of some sort, milanesa beef, salad and soup.  

la cena with our new friends

 During our dinner, we mentioned to one of our new friends that we were heading south on the Carreterra Austral, so  were they….

 It was brilliant, we loaded up the giant cement truck and got a ride 80km south on hilly gravel roads.  

Before I go on, I have to make mention that we met Hector (Tito) from Valparaisa, Northern Chile and we instantly became best buds.  He is one of the kindest man I have ever met.  We spent the dinner evening chatting and drinking juice, but with the dictionary of course.

 

Here is Tito.

 

 

Arrived in V. St. Lucia and started the Carreterra Austral.  We spent that night camped out in a crappy bog tucked away from the highway after passing several really good campsites.  oops… The next day was brilliant, biking through a microclimate rainforest through Quelat National Park.  We had rain all night long.

our campground in Quelat National Park

This one is for you, Dad and Super Duck

At our campsite

Chris getting our rhubarb

This last picture shows Chris pulling apart these stalks.  We watched many locals park there cars and load them up with these rhubarb like plants and we asked if we could eat them.  Apparently you just chew on them.. Extremely bitter but ok perhaps if you added sugar.  We may boil them,, who even knows but we picked some up. 

halloween costume.. oct 31

wow whoa we wow whoa

This next day was even more super.  We got into the town of Puyuhaupi at around 11am, and everything was cerrado, as it was a holiday.  One again, our bank cards didnçt work, and they wouldnt take visa.   We left once town again.  After seeing a hanging glacier and approaching a large mountain pass at about 5.30pm, we jokingly stuck out our thumbs.  We were looking for a camping spot, but a 45 year old couple drove by and stopped.  They had seen us hours before and felt bad because it was cold and wet.    Apparently we were looking like quite the sad sob story, so they picked us up.   They had a brand new hauling ass truck that we loaded our bikes and climbed the mountain pass in style.   This man was a fast driver, but it mainly was this kick ass truck that we still dont know what kind it was.   Instead of being let out at the top of the pass, where we were going to get out and look for a camping spot, he offered us a ride all the way to Coyhaique.    Excitedly, we took it.  2.5 hours later we were in Coyhaique looking  for a spot to sleep.

 Coming into town, we came across 3 Vestas wind turbines.  I bet there are 80m high and they are approximately 8km away from town.  It was absolutely breathtaking.  Go Sea Breeze Go..

Vesta Wind Turbines

The next day, again everything was closed… but the banks accepted our debit card, and the restaurant accepted visa.   We had the most amazing dinner.  It was lamb, calamari, salad and a bottle of wine for cheap.   We spent the day wandering around and watching king lines, a climbing video with a chilean climber.  This fellow, asked us to go climbing today with him, he is mainly a sport climber but it seems like it would be pretty fun….. we will see if we have time….

We had lamb pizza and papa fritas for dinner.   We tried pisco sours, drink of choice in Chile.   I was not impressed, then we ordered a beer to share… it was bigger than a jug at home, and we had to share it with some other travellers. 

Tomorrow we leave on the road south.  We have no idea where we are going yet, because we do not know if we will have enough time to go as far as we would like,, we may have to get on a bus…… if we didnt have to wait for our passports, and if we werent so damn interested in everything, we could cover the distance by bicycle no problem.. but we want to see and enjoy everything…….

Giant Mate structure.. wierd