Happy belated Thanksgiving

Yesterday Dave and I took a morning bus from Puerto Natales to the Punta Arenas airport and arrived in Santiago in the late afternoon. It is so hot here compared to down south - between 70 and 80 each day and the sun still doesn't set until about 8:30. It was more like 9:30 or 10:00 in Punta Arenas. I'm not sure how I will deal with the abruptly short days upon return to the U.S.
For Thanksgiving dinner we went to 'the most famous vegetarian restaurant on the continent' according to my guidebook. It was fantastic - no stuffing though...
Today we went up into some hotsprings in the mountains. It was a bit expensive and a bit less than what it was talked up to be. Nonetheless it was worth it to see the mountains in person rather than through the smog of Santiago. We enjoyed the drive up through the city and foothills. The Andes are huge and not far from the city. Still tons of snow up high. This is a skier's paradise.
The hostprings were just some clay pools in the side of a barren hill with guys at and 'entrance' asking for money to use them. Somewhat questionable, but warm and relaxing. I think we got burned between the sun and the hot water. We had to keep moving to cooler pools. They view was the best part of the day.
Well, things here are wrapping up. Tomorrow we will do some shopping and museuming in the city and then catch the plane for the red eye to Dallas.
A lot has been seen and enjoyed and learned in the last 40 days.
p.s. I got word that I can work for NPS during our week in SF!

El Chalten rules -remix

I thought I'd add to this one because I was rushed and had a poor internet connection...
We crossed the border on Saturday and ended the journey in El Calafate, Argentina. We had a rainy, whirlwind tour to the Glacier Perito Moreno in Los Glaciers National Park on Saturday afternoon upon arrival. People call this one the big brother to Glacier Gray that we saw in Torres del Paine. They are all part of this huge southern ice cap on the continent - the biggest outside of polar regions. We went on a boat to get close to the glacier and to get out of the rain which was actually snow only 1000ft above us. It would have been nice to see the glacier on a nicer day for the full effect of how far back into the the valley this thing goes, but it was still great. More time and the ability to sit still rather than dodging freezing raindrops would have allowed for more calving events. About every 1 or 20 minutes a huge chunk of ice breaks off into the water. It sounds like thunder and creates a huge wave in the lake. Surprising all of the lakes we have seen have few icebergs floating around for the amount that breaks off. They mush melt fairly quickly. Moreno Glacier is 20 stories high and is currently forming a dam at a narrow section of the Lake Argentina. After the water builds up on one side of the dam for a long enough, it eventually breaks under the pressue. That would be great to see. When we saw it there was about a 3m difference in the water level between the two sides.
El Calafate is super fancy and touristy. Lots of leather and fur stores and servicepeople that speak English. We left bright and early the next day for the highlight of Los Glaciers Ntnl Park - Fitz Roy!
El Chalten is this tiny little town in the middle of the north end of Los Glaciers National Park. It is also much less visited than the southern end of the park which houses Moreno Glacier. From town you can see Mt. Fitz Roy and huge granite towers similar to those in Torres del Paine, called Corre Torres. Our first day in El Chalten was completely bluebird - finally the rain stopped following me!!! Typically the Corre Torres are socked in, so the recommendation was to hit the trail with the views of those guys first. Every bus that arrives in town stops at the park visitor center where everyone gets a map and a briefing on the rules.
We had trouble finding a hostel at first because we didn´t make reservations. Luckily we ended up at a decent place and didn´t have to rent camping equipment. We have too much stuff to carry up a hill at this point in the trip! The downside is that we've been dealing with loud snorers each night. Private rooms are the new plan after El Calafate.
There are two main series of granite pinnacles here. The trail you hike up determines which ones you will see at the top. By now we´ve done three hikes and seen Fitz Roy from many different angles. The best part about this place is that we can just take off from our hostel and be on a great hike in minutes - and for free! There is also amazing vegetarian food here which was very unexpected because we are 70km down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. The bus ride was not fun. The town of El Chalten starts at this visitor center and ends a rambling 2 km north. For the amount of buildings and houses here the town is really spread out. It is all dirt road with fairly ugly quickly built structures, no ATMs (you must stock up on cash in El Calafate), about a dozen hostels and a fancy hotel on a hill at the end of town. Besides the great food, there are also cool artist stores and rather urbane clothes, jewelry, etc. Kind of weird but I bought a purse and necklace that look like they came from a boutique in the Mission from a shop in an Argentinian Ntnl Park.
Yesterday's hike was the longest, hardest and wettest, but the views were great. The very top of the summit we thought we were aiming for was inaccessible without an ice axe and crampons, so we settled for the view accessible using hiking boots.
It is just amazing here. Dave has met the local ski guide and is already planning to come back for some touring someday.
Now we are waiting to get back on the 4 hours on gravel road bus ride.

Torres del Paine

I wish I could just upload photos and not even try to describe this place. TdP is the most visited and most famous park in Chile, if not all of Patagonia. I know I´ve used a lot of superlatives during the blogging, but seriously... this place stunning. It isn´t very big, but it packs the most varied and amazing geology into its boundary. We kept comparing it to other places we had been if they were next door to each other - like if an Alaskan glacier was heading into Lake Superior in Yosemite Valley with the Tetons in the background. Actually even pictures won't give a good description because you can´t capture the different mountains in one shot. Dave described it best as before and after diagrams of what glaciers do to mountains. There are enormous, glacier-covered craggy mountains ...seriously huge! Then across the valley there are polished granite towers with different rock bands through them.
The park has a really nice trail system with refugios along the way. You can eat or rent a tent or shower or sleep in a bed in the refugios. It is very civilized. We opted for renting a tent and carrying our own food. We attempted to splurge on breakfasts but that only worked out well once. The box of wine and cookies that they stock at the refugios were quite welcome.
We hiked the part of the trail known as the 'W' because you start on one end and walk up and down three neighboring valleys. We actually did an abbreviated version because we are trying to squeeze in some time in Argentina in the next week too.
The first day we set out by boat to the west side of the park. We hiked up the valley to Glacier Gray. This was the first time Dave had seen a glacier that wasn´t on a slope up on top of a mountain. It covers an enormous valley and calves off into Lago Gray. We saw and heard one iceberg implode for some unknown reason. This glacier isn´t particularly active, so not much calving happened. The color was fantastic. Gray is a dudes name, not the color. It was aquamarine.
On day two we hiked back out the valley and along the shores of the biggest lake in the park (named after some slavic guy which can´t say or spell) to just beneath the Cuernos. These are incredible and one of the highlights of the park. The entire hike there was packed with vistas and waterfalls. Around every bend we were amazed. The Colorado Paine Grande is the enormous mountain (before picture) next to the Cuernos (after picture). The glacier on top of the Paine Grande was huge and pretty active. We saw and heard a bunch of small avalanches. The thing is that we were down hiking in essentially desert scrub looking up at avalanches. The park is in full springtime. Primavera! There were all sorts of wildflowers and birds and butterflies. I´m not sure how the butterflies manage to get from flower to flower because the winds are so strong! Gusts of 60mph were not uncommon and would often knock me around on the trail with my backpack acting as a sail. Which brings me to the bees. The bees around here could carry off small children. After experiencing the wing, I now understand why.
The evening of day two was fantastic. The second refugio was much nicer with an attentive staff and a nice common space inside. We rented a tent, made some dinner, bought our boxed wine and sat out on the rocky beach looking back at the Cuernos and the Paine Grande side by side. A condor was cruising around between the Cuernos. So nice.
On the third day we hiked to the end of the lake and up the last valley of the 'W'. This is the valley with the Torres at the end. Most people consider the Torres (towers) to be the ultimate reason for going to the park. Up for debate. I vote for the Cuernos. Much like the tourists, the clouds also seem to like hanging out by the torres. We couldn't see them at all that afternoon. We camped at another nice refugio right on the river as the temperature dropped. We woke up this morning to a good bit of snow coming down. No hope for an up-close shot of the towers with the snow storm. Bummer. It is kind of like missing Half Dome or El Cap if you are at Yosemite. We did get a good view of them on our ride into the park. Now and then we could make out their outline through the clouds. Oh well. We chalked it up to being very Patagonian. The spring turned to winter overnight. We didn´t see any sign of things clearing up in time to hike up to the base of the Torres, so we hiked out of the valley and caught the afternoon bus back to Puerto Natales.
We have so many pictures! We will try to edit them for your benefit before Christmas.
Tomorrow we leave for El Calafate in Argentina. Glacier Moreno and El Chaltan await.

Puerto Natales

Dave arrived on Saturday night - yeah!! He had a days worth of adventures in Santiago before getting down to Punta Arenas. Our very fancy and expensive hostel only had room for one night so we decided to come up to Puerto Natales and start planning our hike in the Torres del Paine National Park on Sunday.
Puerto Natales has incredible views of the Andes to the north with crazy glaciers and snowfields just past the fingers of ocean that wind through the islands to this mainland town - it is the endpoint for the cruise down the coast. Today a person from the hostel suggested that we hike to the top of the mesa that is behind town. Puerto Natales is literally on the flat southern side of the sound and the north side is jagged peaks - it is pretty crazy. She drove us to a nearby estancia (farm). We paid the family a bit to get through their land and for the tea and bread they gave us at the end of the hike. We hiked about 1000ft to the top of this gorgeous mesa. It looks like something out of Utah but then once you get to the top you are facing these insane glaciers and have a perfect view of the town. We hung out at the top for a while taking a million pictures during the crystal clear day. On the way down, the neighbors dogs got through the fence and were fiarly menacing. We ended up getting trapped up on the steep trail for a while until the dogs got bored with us and went back to their house. It was actually a little scary when I went from thinking that their tails were wagging to hearing the growls. Luckily they weren´t smart enough to follow the trail up the hill, so we just hung out about 200 feet above them.
We spent the rest of the day getting all of our supplies and bus tickets for the trip. Unfortunately the weather has taken a turn for the worst, so we might be staying in the refugios rather than tents during the trek. We leave tomorrow morning and will stay 3 nights, getting back to town on Friday evening. Saturday we leave bright and early for Argentina. I just can´t stay out of that country. It is so beautiful and cheap!! Dave is also a little baffled by the Chilean prices. We found a great veggie restaurant here but it is almost more expensive than those in SF.
El Calafate is the destination in Argentina. We will head straight for the Moreno Glacier on Saturday afternoon.
Blog to be continued then....

Crabby in Punta Arenas

Not sure if it was my 30 hours of travelling or the fact that Dave doesn´t arrive for another 11 hours....
Thursday I took an 18-hour bus ride from Puerto Madryn to Rio Gallegos in Argentina. Again I had the seat near the baño. Nice. About 2 hours into the trip the bus pulls over next to two stranded trucks full of people. I thought how nice it was that the driver was giving them water for their radiator or otherwise helping out. The next thing I know a band of wild gypsies/hippy cult members pour onto our bus. There were at least two adult females with several children and a 12 year old girl seemingly doing all of the work. One man went upstairs to the nice part of the bus and left the rest of us to endure his dirty, half-clothed progeny. The babies were screaming and running all around the bus. They were adorable once you could see them through the filth. It was an olfactory and auditory nightmare. The noise was on top of a Bruce Willis shoot-em-up movie on full blast in Spanish. Luckily they got off the bus around midnight and we could all sleep.
The bus station in Rio Gallegos has the worst facilities of any that I´ve been in. I had a 4 hour wait for my next bus and the town was too far and rainy to walk to. Luckily I have learned to stock up on food because the kiosk had only candy bars and warm soda. Okay, here is my gripe. In both Chile and Argentina the people are fairly rude and everyone eats tons of sugar. Every little shop has ice cream, chocolate and candy but finding anything like an apple is impossible if you aren´t in a supermarket. If I never eat ice cream again it will be welcome. Granted some of it is amazing. In El Bolson they were artisans of the helados, but Nestle bars and chocolate between every meal is just too much. No wonder they don´t get hungry for dinner until 10pm. I was about done with people cutting in front of me like I don´t exist and bumping into me once I got on the second bus.
This bus ride was great despite more unruly children. I´m glad my neices and nephews are so well behaved :) Earlier in my travels I was befriending little dudes, but currently they seem to be my nemasis. Hopefully my relationship to the niños improves.
The ride went through wide open grassland with some small ridges and rolling hills. It was so vast. Very Patagonian. I finally know what a bunchgrass prairie is supposed to look like. There were also lots of sheep grazing near the road with their little baby lambs chasing behind them. So cute! The grassland started to mix in with small wetlands and some trees the closer we got to Punta Arenas. I think we either have to go further north or east to get to mountains again.
Now I am in Punta Arenas waiting to get into our nice hostel. I really bit the bullet to save money last night with my hostel selection. I met a South African guy with the craziest South American adventures of biking through the Andes and ice climbing with unskilled guides in Bolivia, so it was at least entertaining.
Poor Dave is also in the middle of a 4 plane trip. He is currently killing time until his plane leaves Santiago this evening. I hope he goes to the hostel where I stayed(and where he is supposed to retrieve my sunglasses) to relax a bit. They speak English too.
Not sure if we will spend two nights here or push on to Puerto Natales and start planning our trek in Torres del Paine. With all of the sitting and ice cream, I am ready to start hiking again!! He is calling the shots in terms of our plans from here on out since he only has two weeks.
p.s. Dawn, the penguins I saw in Argentina and the species down here are Spheniscus magellanicus, Magellanic penguins.
p.s.s. The thing about people being rude is on a macro level. The overall society is pushy and the service workers are unfriendly (maybe similar to NYC?) but individuals are really pleasant. In fact, I just met a local guy at a vegetable stand who used to live in Texas and wanted to discuss U.S. policy while choosing pears. He is fine with Iraq. According to him, if we didn´t go in China would have... hmmm. He didn´t seem too familiar with geography in that he was describing this future plan of China as simply a border expansion.
p.s.s.s. Why is the song 'Whats going on?' by 4 Non-blondes still played on any station in the US or abroad? This is the 5th time I´ve heard it on my trip.

Penguinos

How weird are these birds? I love them. I could have stayed at the colony all day and night.
Unfortunately I took the same tour company and the bus broke again!! The drive to the colony was quite far and hot, but well worth it once we arrived.
The penguins lay their eggs on land just up from the beach. Some of the sorryer guys end up in some real estate up to 2km from the water. It is such a bizarre scene to drive through scrubby desert and look out of the window to see penguins under the shrubs in their nests. The lay their eggs in a small depression on the ground or in a burough. Some shrubs have up to 4 nests underneath, other nests are pretty well spaced out.
I was expecting a sea of black and white wobbling to and fro, in and out of the water. This time of year the eggs are just beginning to hatch so the birds are mostly sleeping in their nests. It ends up being less a sea of black and white and more a dotted landscape of them. There was at least one chick that hatched today, but the mother was too stubborn to get up from off the baby while I stood there and stared at her for a half hour. Their were some hanging out in the surf. One area served as the penguin freeway with constant wobbling traffic back and forth. I think the freeway headed to the undesirable neighborhoods in the back.
So cute.
The weird thing was how close we were able to get to them. You could literally man handle them if you were a moronic tourist with no respect - which according to the guide some people are. Some researchers are comparing this colony with other secluded colonies to see if all of the people wandering around impacts them.
The more exciting part of the day for the locals was the thunderstorm. I am starting to worry that the rain if following me. It didn´t start until after we left Punto Tombo and it is always cool to see a thunderstorm in the desert.
Tomorrow I leave for Rio Gallegos - last stop before Punta Arenas at the southern tip of Chile.

Peninsula Valdes

My day was like a real life version of Jack´s favorite show "X-treme Animals". The Peninsula Valdes juts into the Atlantic and has been compared to an embryo on the Mother Argentina. Look on a map and you'll see why.
I took a tour to the peninsula which got off to a rocky start with the car breaking down. We drove through rolling desert with low shrubs and lots of open space. On the drive we saw guanacos (wild llamas) and lesser rheas which sort of look like ostriches. Then we got on a boat and saw Southern right whales in the southern bay. The mother whales deliver and nurse their babies in the bay. We saw at least 4 or 5 pairs. One mother had the baby on her back and every time she came up for air, it was a mess of fins and tails that were hard to figure out. They were very curious and the boat was able to get close - probably too close for marine mammal protection standards.
The next stop was Punta Norte on the peninsula which I was anxious to hurry through in order to get to the penguins. Punta Norte is mostly known as the hang out for elephant seals and sea lions - both of which we have plenty of in CA, so I wasn´t too impressed. There were not many of either left on the beach. Two sea lions and a few dozen juvenile elephant seals. It is also known as the only place where Orcas come ashore and grab baby sea lions for lunch. This is not the right time of year for that behavior, but we were there at high tide just in case. We were on a cliff with a great vantage point of the beach and surf. All of the sudden we realized cliff that there were a bunch of orcas very close to the shore along with a mother and baby Southern right whale. Turns out the orcas were trying to wear out the mother and eat the baby whale. According to the tour guide, they only eat the yummy parts of the baby and then leave it to die. Not to mention the orcas are about 1/5 the size of the baby, so they definitely needed the whole team to take this 1 month old down. In the end, it didn´t seem that they succeeded this time, but it was quite a captivating 15 minutes. One of the orcas was a baby with the mothers and aunts likely teaching him how to hunt.
Oh, the other cool thing was armadillos running all around the parking lot! They are like pesky dogs begging for food but in a very bizarre reptile meets a pig kind of way. They are hilarious. I have some great pictures.
We did finally get to the penguins, but the big news will be tomorrow when I go to the biggest colony outside of Antartica.
There is also a great Ecocenter here which is a science museum with a big library that has a reading room shaped like a lighthouse. From the top you can see the town, bay and peninsula. The hostel is nice - I finally made some friends again.
4 days until Dave arrives!!!!!!!!!!

Bariloche

The weather has gone from cold and drizzly to full fledged summer in the past day or so.
On Friday I went on the boat trip that I wrote about. It was really beautiful. I am so glad that I didn´t pay the $160 to do the boat-bus tour from Puerto Varas because the tour I did on Friday was essentially the Argentinian end of the same tour for $15. Granted I was one of the few people under 50 on the boat, but it was nice. We stopped in an area in the ntnl park for a short hike up to some waterfalls and then the boat went across to the other side of the lake for lunch. I ended up taking a trail around the lake instead of getting back on the boat. It was fantastic and not as wet as people had warned.
The sun came out for the boat ride back home. Pictures do not do this place justice.
Yesterday, after little sleep do to a log-sawer in my room, I went by bus to El Bolson. It is a town about 70 miles south of here and is known as the hippy capital of Argentina. It is a 'nuclear free zone' and has a great artisan fair every Saturday with booths taking up several city blocks. I went in search of crafts and soy protein. I left with only crafts. I am still getting used to the siesta deal and couldn´t get any soya burgers at the time that my stomach was asking for them. Cocina closed. Oh well. I am getting my share of cheese on this trip with my primary options being pizza, pasta and empanadas. Good thing the veganism went out the window years ago. It is actually not that hard to be veggie in Patagonia as long as you aren´t looking for variety.
The bus ride to El Bolson was definitely the highlight of the day. The entire ride is jaw-dropping. There are ridges running north-south and every saddle and east-west drainage is a different color of rock. Gray, green, slate, orange, tan.... Then the lower slopes were bright green and packed with shrubs and small trees. Every now and then would be a hole in the greenery and the earth opened up into a waterfall. I may have missed ski season and I may be too early for true summer, but I am definitely here during the peak waterfall season. They are everywhere!!
Today I pretty much just walked around town and took a gondola ride up a hill with a view of town, the lakes and mountains. There were some small hikes at the top. I have pretty much seen all sides of this town. The boat ride on Friday left from the western-most point which has an exclusive hotel. The bus ride went past lakefront homes that must be owned by the elite of South America. Most were new with super modern architecture and beautiful grounds. Often the house was somehow built into the hillside or otherwise included in the scenary. The way out of town to El Bolson yesterday went through the exact opposite end of town with little shanty houses and tons of garbage and dogs.
I upgraded myself to a private room in the hostel last night after the snoring incident. I have a 13 hour overnight bus ride to Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic Coast tonight, so I figure I could afford one night of luxury in the top floor, private bath, double bed suite for $20. No seriously. $20.
I am looking forward to penguins and whales in Puerto Madryn. It is only the Atlantic coast. I am also looking forward to making some friends. I´ve become a bit of a hermit in Bariloche. I was really lucky to geniunely like the first few people I hung out with in previous towns. I think it spoiled me because the people at this hostel are not doing it for me.

The real Patagonia

I guess by most definitions I have been in Patagonia during the majority of my trip. Even the island of Chiloe is considered Patagonia in a strict geographic sense. But not until I drove over the Andes yestereday did I really feel like I was here. The simple bus ride up and over the Chilean side and into the Argentinian side was amazing. I took tons of pictures from the bus window! I luv the digi cam JV and CJ!! I am currently in Bariloche which is another resort town on a lake. It is gorgeous. To the east is dryish shrublands due to the rain shadow but huge mountains are immediately to the west. I keep making annoying California comparisons, but seriously it is a lot like driving over Tioga pass and ending up on the East side of the Sierra Nevada.
People were right about it being cheaper. I had a big meal of pasta, a big salad and half a bottle of wine for dinner which came to about $5.
The only bummer is that they had a huge snow year. They are no longer skiing but there is too much snow still around to hike to some of the peaks nearby. Rafting and such summer activities will be in full swing in a couple of weeks. It actually snowed for a few minutes last night. I now look like an idiot wearing my brand new 'Bariloche' sweatshirt in Bariloche. Kind of like Tim buying a Rolling Stones t-shirt and throwing it on over his other clothes at the concert last week :)
Today I am going by boat to the other end of Lake Nahuel Huapi and then hiking around to another glacial lake. All of this, including the town of Bariloche, is in Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi.
I am meeting more Americans here than I had been in Chile.
Bush is here too, so apparently this country is a fave for all sorts of Americans.
Most everyone I meet understands that those of us that travel abroad in such a manner as I am tend to like the man about as much as they do. So mom you need not worry about anti-Americanism directed towards me in the next few days. And you also don't need to worry that I will be joining the protest because the Summit is a good 1000km from here.

Dia de los Muertos

You know how some holidays, like Thanksgiving some years, take on that surreal, never-ending quality with the holiday over and yet the day still going? That is how today feels. It is a national holiday in Chile. Dia de los Muertos. Where everyone goes to the family plot at the cemetary with flowers and has a picnic. In Mexico (and the Mission) it is a big party with a parade, and you pretend that you are living it up with your old amigos and family members. Here it is a bit more somber. Due to the holiday, no tours were heading to the national park. Instead we caught local buses to Dalcehue which is a small town north of here. Then we took a ferry for a 5 minute ride over to a smaller island ending in the tiny town of Achao. We mostly walked around, went to a market, bought some things made of wool and had lunch. A tsunami wiped out a good bit of this town and others in 1960 but some of the wooden churches survived or were restored. The alerce trees I mentioned earlier were used to build all of the famous structures - churches and houses in this area. Many of them are now national monuments.
Today started at 9am which wasn´t a problem for me because the owners of my (previous)hostel have a midnight curfew. I thought the woman said that curfew was at 2:00 (dos) but she apparently said 12:00 (dose). So my mistake, I´ve learned to ask for clarification in 5 different ways. But that meant a short Halloween of watching the children walk around getting candy and an even shorter time at the bar. Last night was apprently one of the few lively nights per year with a salsa band and everything but I had a curfew... My friends had other plans and stayed out until 5am.
Halloween here is mostly the same. Kids dressed up looking for candy. I saw some broken eggs on the street this morning... apparently that is universal. No devil´s night - solamente en Detroit.
Another weird thing about Chile is that you continuously run into people. A woman from Holland introduced me to a group of locals trying to speak English at dinner. I kept running into them last night and this morning. Then we saw one of them on our bus after the ferry ride in the tiny town of Achao. She lives there.
My new Italian friend, who my Seatle buddy met at his hostel, is a big whig Marine Ecologist in Italy. She is old, but very cool. I´m off to meet her for dinner and talk about science :)
If the weather is terrible tomorrow, I might skip the tour and hop a bus to Bariloche.