Back in Cusco

After 3 days more of travel I’m now back in Cusco. My jinx with buses continued when the service from Santiago broke down in the Atacama desert. We roled into Arica 41 hours later and 11 hours late. However the episode did give an interesting insight into group dynamics. While the woman passengers harried the driver over the delay the men busied themselves with scavenging water from passing traffic. I sat and watched the shadows grow longer.

My neighbour for the trip was an estate agent who was intent on selling me a property. Granted they were cheap but then they were located in the desert and crammed into large estates with the same design and colour. When in Chile function always triumphs over form.

I’ve now booked my flight home in time for Easter so you can ready the red carpet and I’ll try not to be too miserable. With any luck Malu will be joining me in London to study English. We’ll just have to see how the visa application goes.

Stopover in Santiago

I’m drafting this posting as I sit in one of Santiago’s central parks with conquers falling around me. I’m escaping the heat of the day as I wait for my evening bus north to Arica. Santiago is considered by many a poor cousin to Buenos Aires but I like it. The centre is more compact, has many green spaces is less humid in summer and students offer free hugs (“abrazos gratis”) in the street. I feel a little guilty for not working through the itinerary of sites provided by tourist information but there is little time to see beyond what I visited before, particularly since the museums are closed today. I do have a favorite restaurant in mind for dinner so I hope it’s open.

Puerto Varas

I’ve just spent the past two nights in Puerto Varas, a pleasant city on the shore of Lago Llanquihue. I had planned to travel directly to Santiago but it was the end the school holidays when I arrived from Chaiten and all transport was booked up. Our bus driver, who lives in Puerto Varas, kindly gave a group of us a lift. The perfect snowcapped cone of Volcan Osorno and the shattered cone of Calbuco dominate the landscape here. With the return of blue skies I was able to get a closeup view from the lakeside beaches at Ensenada and Petrohue. Sadly my camara battery went flat so I wasn’t able to capture the best of the views.

Carretera Austral (Chaiten)

The heavens opened as I pitched my tent. There was heavy rain interspersed with incredible torrents of driving rain and that is how it stayed until I left two days later. The highlight of the area is Pumalin Park which is formed from land owned by the creator of North Face clothing. With the weather as it was I opted for a day tour which took in the main walks and vistas. The park forest clings to the sides of impossibly steep valleys and is so humid, verdent and diverse. When my guide arrived wearing rubber boots and oil skins I knew I was in for a wet trip. My Gortex “waterproofs” stood no chance and I was wet through but surprisingly warm by the end of the day. Check out http://www.parquepumalin.cl/content/eng/index.htm for some great dry views. Dinner was local salmon in the company of a French couple and the group of Israeles who after a second day without a lift finally paid for a bus.

Carretera Austral (Puyuhuapi)

The fishing village of Puyuhuapi was billed as the best place to stop en route to Chaiten. The guide book wasn’t wrong. It’s located at the head of a fjord of the same name and has thermal springs and Queulat park closeby. I hitched a ride to the park to see the hanging glacier Ventisquero Colgante. The driver of my ride to the park was a fishing guide during the summer and a builder during the off season. He was taking his children to Coyhaique to buy school uniforms. Hitching is a fun way to see this remote area and to meet the locals. You need some luck, a bit of patience and preferably a small backpack. On my return ride from the park I passed a group of Israelis who failed to get a ride north and ended back in Puyuhuapi.

Carretera Austral (Coyhaique)

Jeff and I took a day to rest and plan… or rather eat and drink.We stumbled upon an empty restaurant and dined on succulent emu and local beer. Our second day in town proved to be more productive. We did a day hike in Reserva Forestal, I reserved a seat on a bus heading north while Jeff plotted a more scenic route by hire car.

The road to Chile and the Carretera Austral

We left El Chanten with the sun shining and were welcomed to the town of Puerto Madryn by a stunning sunset.The dusty 10 hour bus journey along route 40 will soon be forgotten.

The following morning we took a bus across the border to Chile Chico. You aren’t permited to carry any vegetable or animal products into Chile so I said goodbye to my “English tea” and powdered milk but stopped short at my cotton boxer shorts.

A ferry then took us across lago Buenos Aires to where buses were waiting to take us the final stage to Coyhaique. A local apointed himself as my guide for the bus ride and proceded to poke me in the ribs each time we passed a mountain or lake. Unfortunately for my ribs there’s a lot of mountains and lakes in this part of the world. I have now joined the Carretera Austral, the road comissioned by General Pinochet that will take me north to Puerto Montt.

El Chalten and Mount Fitzroy

Upon entry to El Chalten, the park ranger informed us that we were lucky. Lucky that we had missed the three preceding weeks of sunshine and the associated risk of fires in the park. Lucky is not how I felt as I trekked through driving rain the following day to setup camp at De Agostini by Lago Torre. Wearing trainers and a windstopper, Jeff was probably feeling even less blessed. We opted not to hire a stove but a friendly New Zealander, Andrew, brewed up tea and shared his hot dinner.Thankfully the rain didn’t last. The clouds lifted to some degree the following day to give a glimpse of the panorama we had seen as we had approached El Chalten by bus.

See trekking map.

El Calafate and the Perito Moreno glacier

Two bus rides and 27 hours later I finally arrive in El Calafate. There was very little to entertain the eye en route other than thistle scrub, dust and Steven Seagal. A game of eye spy would not have lasted long. The main industry on the Patagonian step is sheep farming although the land is so arid it takes 3 hectares to support a single animal. One wonders why the ever present wind isn’t harnessed for more than just the occasional water pump.

I’ve now met up with Jeff, an American I first met 8 months ago in Quito. Today we visited the famous Perito Moreno glacier, the biggest in the South America and one of the few advancing glaciers in the world. The frontage stands at 60m high and 5 km wide which is an impressive sight up close. Occasionally there’s a dull roar and snap of cameras as a section of ice breaks off into Lago Argentino (see below). There’s something magical about glaciers that I will never tire of.

Yet more penguins

Just returned from a trip to Punto Tombo to see yet more penguins. The highlight of the trip was to be a boat trip to see the local dolphins which have beautiful black and white markings. Sightings of the dolphins are almost guaranteed…. when the boat isn’t cancelled due to high winds as it was today. Pehaps I jinxed the trip by buying postcards of the dolphins in advance. The wind did save us from worst of the penguin colony’s pungent aroma and gave us more time to enjoy our Welsh tea in Gaiman.

Yesterday I did reef and wreck dives in the bay of Puerto Madryn.  The marine life isn’t as varied as the Caribbean or as spectacular as the Galapagos but it was worth the effort… my fellow Argentine divers were certainly entertaining.

Tomorrow I head back to the mountains at El Calafate to meet up with Jeff, an American I met on a bike ride in Quito. We hope to do some camping as we work our way north through Chilean patagonia.