It was nice but we just didn't get time to enjoy it properly. In all the times I've travelling I don't think I've ever seen stuff so busy. Maybe I just don't travel in high season so often but planning and booking in advance is not a thing any of us like to do. It's a pain in the ass cause you never know how long you want to stay in a place. A few people thought this was ridiculous when I said this but its just too much work to plan all sorts of stuff when on the road this long. It's nice to just wake up in the morning and decide if we want to go or not, hop on a bus and then go to whatever hostel has been recommended to us. Argentina in summer is a very different case. Everything needs to be planned out and everything gets booked up way too quickly. In Bariloche I spent over 5 hours two days in a row trying to organise stuff. Trying to figure out how many days we need in each place, then when we find a hostel we liked just to find out it was booked up. Then also we wanted to do a tour around the lake district but car rentals were booked up. Buses out of Bariloche were then booked up but also accommodation was booked up in Bariloche. So we just kept meeting dead ends. We liked it and had a good few nights out there and ate so much steak and choripan and eventually we found a 30 hour bus out of there down Ruta 40 (A mostly unpaved dusty highway in the middle of nowhere) to El Chalten in Patagonia.
We had heard the same story about things down here been booked up as well. People sleeping on floors of hostel lobbies and in cars. Also people who got stuck because the ATM's were empty of money so they couldn't pay to leave. Even if they could the buses were booked up and they couldn't even pay their hostel bill. This seemed to happen to a few people so we made sure we'd plenty of money coming down here. Ruta 40 was some trip. Into the middle of nowhere. Mostly desert and shrub style scenery but freezing cold. At one stop we dared Nick to run down this mountain strip off and swim across this freezing cold river. Been from Perth and he'd only travelled in hot countries this was probably the coldest he'd ever been but it was funny and he came out 300 pesos richer because of it!!
El Chalten is a small little tourist town developed in the 1980's for people to go hiking. We managed to get ourselves accommodation even though 6 of us crammed into an overpriced room with three beds on the first night. Being down south the weather had changed immensely and was freezing cold. The second day there we decided to do a hike to Fitzroy. I had been told by my doctors to stick to towns and cities and not to do any hiking at all. My arm was still in a sling and even though the bone was fixed it was still weak. I had been planning on not doing the hikes because of this but in fairness I figured I could just as easy fall in a town as on a mountain. Bariloche has lots of steps and hills and stuff. And on hikes down here most of them are just paths leading you up mountains. Nothing like in Ireland where you really have to find your own route and practically climb at some stages. So with one arm I went for the hike up to Fitzroy. Again been down south its great cause it doesn't get dark till 1030 in some places so we can start stuff pretty late if we like. We had a big group. The pictures will tell all from this hike but let me just say it was incredible but tough going. No longer used to hiking and altitude and been taking it easy for the last few weeks because of the hand. I'd say if I'd have done this hike after Peru I would have flown up it!! The following day was another long day of planning stuff and trying to figure out what we were doing. I then left with two Dutch girls to El Calafate for another hospital check up while the others stayed for another hike.
All these hospital check ups I'm learning a lot more Spanish medical terms. But still so much gets lost in translation and it took me 3 hours to sort out this short visit to take some stitches out. Apparently I was waiting aimlessly at the start which one person had told me to do when I should have gone to see some doctor first to get referred to a tramatologist. Such a pain in the ass. So most people come to El Calafate to visit the Glacier Perito Moreno. Its amazing but such a rip off. They charge 100 pesos which is about $25 for an hours bus ride. Then another 100 pesos just to get into the glacier park. And all facilities and stuff close at 630, they kick you out at 730 and then the bus doesn't leave until 830. So we were there hanging around in the freezing cold and rain waiting for the bus. A lot of us just waited in the bathroom reading a book trying to warm up. This was probably the coldest I'd been in months. And also it was the first little bit of rain I'd seen since around Mid October I'd say. We've been so lucky with weather and even in Patagonia we've been lucky with it just getting the odd shower here and there!! Anyway the glacier is impressive. Its huge. And its size and scale is so hard to see in photos. There were huge chunks of ice crashing off and splashing into the water below. From where we were they looked small but the sound of it was louder than any thunder I've heard and it was also delayed by a few seconds just showing how far we actually were from the glacier even though we felt so close. It is 30km long, 5km wide and average height above the water is 74 metres. So picture this when looking at the photos!!
I don't know was it the cold or something I ate but I ended up getting so sick that afternoon and didn't recover for four days. Couldn't keep any food down and was so weak. We got a bus back to Chile a few days later to Puerto Natales and we were trying to organise stuff for a five day hike. I was so not fit for going but luckily we all decided we needed an extra days rest and this gave me the change to recover properly. Again another hike I wasn't sure I should be doing with only the use of one arm but decided to chance it anyway. Unlike in Peru where we had porters and donkeys to carry our stuff we had to carry everything ourselves. Tents, big sleeping bags fit for -6 degrees, stove, 5 days of food and all sorts of water proof clothing. It was Torres Del Paine we were hiking, the W circuit its called and weather can be very very unpredictable snowing, raining sun etc.
The first day was a short enough hike and weather was sunny but winds up to 55kmph going around steep mountain edges with 15kg on our back. We got to camp and then hiked up to see the Torres. The second day was a killer. A long days hike with our bags in wind and rain and sun. Having to change our clothes every few minutes. I was wondering why people submit themselves to this. The others all seemed to enjoy the second day but I hated it. The main reason I don't live in Ireland is the rain and this reminded me of just hiking around Kerry or somewhere. Couldn't see the attraction at all. But then the third and fourth day came and I totally changed my mind. We were able to leave our bags at camp both days and it was like been back in summer. The hikes were incredible. Stunning mountains, lakes, snow, glaciers etc. We can drink the water from anywhere as its so clean and fresh and here we were filling our water bottles out of freezing cold rivers. Day four was my favourite and there were points where we stopped for a few hours just to enjoy the view which was incredible. It was also scorching hot so we could lie out in tshirts at some stages. We had ended up walking somewhere between 70 and 80 km in the four days. It was a relief to get back to town on the 5th day though and make some proper meals and have a proper sleep. Plus my hand was getting so much better now that I was able to cook again for the first time in a month so made some massive burgers like 250 Grams each with veg and a few other things. Was great to get some proper food in us and relax in the warmth.
This was our third and last time in Chile for a while. We had spend just about one month in Chile in total and it was unreal. Had not heard too many stories about Chile in the past apart from how expensive it is but it was definitely up there with some of my favourites in South America. From here we got a bus to Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego and the end of the Pan-Am!!
No comments:
Post a Comment