The road to Chalten and the Fitzroy Massif, a view over the town and the view of the massif from town.
So - what's the difference between Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia?
- different country
- different currency
- accent is a little more Italiano (they say "Cho" instead of "Yo" and "Ciao" instead of "Adios")
- ALFAJORES!
An alfajor is basically a Tim Tam on steroids - it's a round chocolate biscuity-cakey thing, traditionally with layers of dulce de leche in between the biscuits and the whole thing covered in chocolate. Comes in "double" or "triple" layers, they are a very traditional Argentinian snack (available absolutely everywhere) and are a chocolate lovers dream come true.
Oh...and the mountains are pretty impressive as well! Anyway, I digress. The trekking....
One of the great things about booking our "W" trek was the opportunity to tack on a 5-day extension to explore the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares in Argentina, which includes hiking the Fitzroy Massif around the small and rapidly growing town of Chaltén and the Perito Merino Glaciar, just outside the "touristy-but-charming" (my new term) town of Calafate.
We left the Eco-camp in Chile very early in the morning and were joined by a Swiss couple, Andy and Brigitta who were with another group of trekkers for the "W" in Chile, but were the only couple joining us for the Argentinian extension.
It was a full day's travelling, crossing the border to Argentina, changing buses in Calafate (frantically using these hours to look for new boots and/or duct tape) and arriving in Chalten by about 10pm at night.
I'm introducing a new segment here, called "Boot Watch". On the final day of trekking Las Torres in Chile, my 8 year old, trusty, never-fail Timberland boots sort of developed a crack in the sole. Calafate, being a very touristy town, only had boots at absolutely outrageous prices (US$200 - 300). As such, I figured I would try and keep my boots in good enough shape to get me through the remaining week we had in Patagonia.
Day 1: Cerro TorreBoot Watch: After failing to find duct tape in Calafate, and an early start, I thought that I'd take my chances as the sole on my left boot was flaking but staying attached to my boot and the right boot had a decent crack, but the sole still looked fairly secure. The day's hiking wasn't supposed to be too challenging, so I figured I'd take a risk and not try to do any repairs. After our long day travelling the day before (ending with fantastic pizza dinner at a place in Chaltén called "Patagonicus"), we started our day early to hike up to Laguna Torre and a view of Cerro Torre or "the Tower".
Andy, Brigitta and I and our guide, Victor - born and lived his whole life 'round ChaltenIt's very hard to sum up the mind-clearing, beautiful experience of the simple act of hiking up a trail to a mountain lake, however it was a beautiful clear day for the walk, wasn't too steep and the surrounding landscape of Patagonia is truly, magically sublime.
A male woodpecker, we saw on the way up to Cerro Torre
When we arrived at Laguna Torre (the lagoon), fed by Glaciar Torre (the glacier), Cerro Torre (the mountain) was a bit obscured by cloud, however the tower became less obscured during the return journey, following Rio Torre (the river - get the naming convention here?), then back down the valley (probably Valle Torre, but I can't confirm this) to Calafate.
Having lunch on the moraine at Laguna Torre, Cerro Torre is obscured behind me
Cerro Torre, finally coming out and some of the amazing clouds we saw that day
One of the highlights was watching a female torrent duck riding the rapids of the river, looking for river weed (it's main diet). It was amazing how this little duck floated along, anticipating the rapids and going over the cascades, just like a tiny little kayaker!
Peak hour traffic in Chalten as we were coming back into town.Day 2: Cerro FitzroyBoot Watch: My punt on the boots yesterday wasn't a good one, as my left boot now looked as bad as my right one did the day before. The crack in my right boot now extends all the way from the toe to just before the heel. Luckily, found some duct tape which I "skilfully" applied around my boot in an attempt to hold the sole in place.
We were looking forward to hiking up to Fitzroy Base Camp; this is the place where many climbers set out to scale Cerro Fitzroy, the highest mountain in "these parts". We were going to hike up the Fitzroy valley, cross over and then climb up the rocky moraine (debris left by previous reaches of the glaciers) to Fitzroy Base Camp and the Laguna de las Tres (named such due to the lagoon being fed by three different glaciers), affording a fantastic view of the mountain and the glaciers.
That was supposed to happen.
The day started out OK, a bit cloudy, very windy (not unusual in Patagonia) and the occasional spatter of rain, however nothing very serious. As we crossed the valley, the weather started to turn from an occasional spatter to a shower. After we started up the moraine it became a drizzle... another hour and you really couldn't call it anything except rain; constant, steady, soaking, bloody rain.
The mountains and glaciers on the way to the base camp
Some relatively tame falcons near one of the campsites.
As we scrambled up the moraine, the least promising sign was that everyone making the descent while we were climbing were so wet it looked like they had taken a dip in the lagoon and said in no uncertain terms that it wasn't advisable to go up today. However, not knowing when we would next be in Argentinian Patagonia, we kept going.
The view from the top, we've been told, is breathtaking. It certainly was breathtaking for us as we confronted gusts well in excess of 100kph, rain that was flying sideways into out tightly shut eyes and a dim view of the lagoon with the mountains completely obscured.
Laguna de los Tres backed by Fitzroy Glacier and Laguna Sucio. The mountains are usually seen behind them. Steph and Victor hiding behind a rock from the gusts and driving rain
Ah well, the weather in the mountains is unpredictable and as such we had to wait until we had made our descent to get a decent picture of the mountain.
This did teach us a good lesson in terms of carrying the right gear as we had to borrow many items of dry and waterproof clothing from our friends, Andy and Brigitta (who were very well prepared). Just because you haven't worn your spare jumper and rain coat in the 10 days of hiking you've done previously, is no reason not to carry it this one day.
We holed up in our favourite pizza joint, Patagonicus, that night enjoying the exceptional margarita pizza and hoped that we wouldn't have a cold and wet hiking experience again in the near future, particularly for our hike the next day.
Day 3: Rió Electricó and Vallé Fitzroy
Boot Watch: Amazingly, my boots got through yesterday, however the cracks had started to widen. Even with the tape reinforcement, my right boot had cracked all the way through the middle, with just the toe and the heel holding the sole on to the leather upper. The left was cracked completely down on the inside, however the outside was intact. I re-duct-taped them today, in anticipation of getting through the final two days without having to get new boots. If only I could have found a priest to bless them...
My taped up boots and the bridge that was the start of our last day's hike
After yesterday's difficult and rain-sodden hike, it was with some relief that we saw fair weather for an easy hike up to "Refugio Piedra Failes", a climbers' camp amongst some beautiful beech forests, following the Rió Electricó and good views of Cerro Electricó and the back side of Cerro Fitzroy.
Cerro Electrico
Notice this face of Cerro Fitzroy is completely iced up - from the rain we experienced the day before
A hare that we saw sitting by the trail
You can see from the photos why Fitzroy was originally thought to be a steaming volcano as the wind hitting the ice creates the effect of the mountain constantly "steaming". It was a beautiful day and a great easy hike to finish off our time around the Fitzroy Massif.
We left that night on the 6:00pm bus for Calafate, looking forward to see one of the natural wonders of the world, the Perito Merino glacier.
Day 4: Calafate and Perito Merino Glacier.
Boot Watch: My boots were definitely giving up the ghost and needed re-taping once again, however I let myself feel the "hope" of getting through today. It was with some confidence that I was ready to face the day of easy paths and boardwalks around the Perito Merino glacier.
The Perito Moreno Glacier ia a 60m-high relic of the Ice Age, creating a unique geographic event approximately every three or four years. As it advances, it pushes out across the surface of the lake, cutting the lake into two separate sections. As water pressure builds up on one side over the years, the glacier eventually explodes open with a torrent of water and a fury of calving icebergs.
When we were heading to the glacier, our guide was telling us that the glacier was currently fully acrossed the lake and, on the southern side, the lake had risen over 8m it's usual level!
We headed out early to the glacier, to try and beat the crowds. On the way out we noticed lots of kites and falcons sitting on the fence posts by the road. We were told the reason for this is that many hares during the night become victims of roadkill, the birds then feed off them during the day (being a bunny sympathiser, Steph was horrified at this).
Once we got to the glacier, we took a "private hike" around the northern side of the glacier. It was great to see the massive structure without the constant crowd and no rush. The Moreno Glacier is constantly moving, calving, and crackling an incredible sight and sound at any time.
This is where the glacier has "rammed" into the opposite side of the lake, effectively damming the southern side.
A view of the northern side of the glacier, note the boat in this photo which gives you an idea of the immensity of the glacier.
We then continued on to the footbridges area, joining the hordes of tourists and taking a brief break for lunch, overlooking the northern face.
Around 2:00pm, we headed over to the southern side and boarded a boat that takes crowds up to the face of the glacier (although not breaking the 300m legal permissible distance), allowing us to see the glacier up close and personal.
It was also possible to see groups hiking on the glacier, below. They were just dots on the massive river of ice.
We returned to Calafate that afternoon, elated that we had finished our Argentinian excursion on a fantastic high from seeing this amazing wonder of nature!
That night, it was with profound sorrow that I made the decision to send my boots off to the next plane, via a ceremonial trip to the hostel garbage compacter. They had gotten me through 8 years of skiing and sporadic hiking, and the last couple of weeks of intense hiking, with nothing but duct tape to keep them together over the line!
Days 5-6: The Trip Back
We caught the bus from Calafate to Puerto Natales in Chile, overnighted there then another bus to Punta Arenas, where we had a mad dash to the "Zona Franca" in town (Duty Free area of Punta Arenas) to see if I could find replacement boots, unfortunately we just couldn't find anything that I wanted.
We then boarded a 5pm flight on Sky Airlines to Puerto Montt, Chile - marking the end of our Patagonian adventures. We will definitely have fantastic memories of Patagonia and the natural beauty of the place.
The view of the sunset from our hostel window.
Kyle´s highlight of Puerto Varas (and food of the week).... hotdog (pancho) completo.
The biggest burrito in the world that I had at a little Mexican place in Ancud. (Could have fed a famly of 4!)
Our first sighting of the little cuties....
