6. Patagonia (12/15/07 - 12/28/07)

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Patagonia

See all photos of Patagonia (Argentina) --> Argentinian Patagonia

See all photos of Patagonia (Chile) --> Chilean Patagonia

After Peru, I flew directly to Buenos Aires, Argentina to catch an organized, two week tour through Patagonia. Patagonia is a region located in the southern part of Argentina and Chile that is home to endless beauty -- immense glaciers, snow-capped mountains, and beautiful rivers and lakes. If you see a postcard of Patagonia, it actually looks like that in real life.

It was my first organized tour of the trip, and I was glad to have someone do all of the work for me. For fourteen days we worked our way back and forth between the Argentinian and Chilean regions of Patagonia. There were twelve of us, all from English speaking countries: Australia, U.S., England, and Canada. As usual the Australian, Craig, was the life of the party -- smiling, drinking, laughing, drinking.

Out of the fourteen days, we spent about eight of those days on six or seven hour hikes. It was draining but worth the pain. There were glaciers, lakes, and rivers everywhere. The water was so pure, in fact, that we were able to drink right from the streams since it originated directly from the glaciers. The glacier water actually tasted better than the bottled water, so I stopped buying bottled water after a while.

To start off, we flew into El Calafate which was a town in the northern part of Patagonia. El Calafate looks like a ski resort in Lake Tahoe, California – nice cabins, cool shops and restaurants, people in their fleeces. We spent the day and night there eating our way to sleep.

Glacier National Park and the Morena Glacier

The next morning we took a bus to Glacier National Park which is home to the massive Perito Moreno Glacier, a 197 ft wall of ice that chokes off a narrow canal called Canal de los Tempanos (Channel of Ice Bergs). The southern continental ice field, the second largest on the planet (after Greenland's) is the source of all the area's glaciers, including Moreno, Onelli, Viedma and Upsala. Moreno Glacier moves down from a massive river of frozen water, and huge chunks of ice constantly crash into the lake waters below. Apparently, Moreno is one of the very few advancing glaciers left in the world. And it’s ENORMOUS -- 1 km (half a mile) wide and 60m (196 ft) high.

We all spent about an hour standing at various angles and locations along the glacier, waiting for a huge pieces of ice to break off and fall into the lake below. Unfortunately, I was always either turned around or walking uphill when something fell. But the sound of it was enough to make an impression. We also took an hour boat tour that allowed us to get up close to the massive wall of ice. The glacier was a great first impression of Patagonia.


El Chaltén and the Fitz Roy Mountains

In the afternoon we took a five hour bus ride up to the small town of El Chaltén, which is at the base of Glacier National Park. Hikers and climbers from around the world go here so they can trek around the park or try to climb the 3441m high Fitz Roy mountain. The Fitzroy peaks are an incredible site and spiral up into the sky from the third largest ice field on earth. We took two full-day hikes into the park, first to Laguna de Los Tres to really see Fitzroy up close and then the next day to Laguna Torre for a different perspective of the lakes, glaciers, and surrounding mountains.

Each night we stayed in the little town of El Chaltén, which is at the base of the mountains. Interestingly enough, the town was only created about twenty three years ago and is Argentina’s youngest town. The reason Argentina encouraged a settlement there was to claim the land before Chile. Only a few hundred people live there in the winter since it’s so cold and relatively cut off from other cities. However, it grows to thousands by the time summer comes around, and adventure travelers come from all over the world to hike up into the mountains.

Puerto Natales, Chile

After a few days in El Chaltén, we continued south along an unpaved road to the border of Chile and spent the night in Puerto Natales. Puerto Natales lies on the Seno de Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope Sound), named by a group of desperate early explorers. It used to have a big meat processing plant but now relies on tourism as its main source of income. The surrounding countryside of foothills and mountains are essentially the jumping-off point for a trek into Paine National Park.

As usual, instead of going to bed early we went out on the town. First to a pizza restaurant which was fairly mellow. Then to a karaoke bar which was not so mellow. Aside from the couple sitting at the bar, the six of us tourists were the only ones there. But if you had entered at any point, it would have felt packed. The night continued on with more singing than I’d wish to do in any one sitting. At about 1:30am we worked our way back to the hostel and left the next morning at 7:30am for our first trek through the park. Sleep deprivation continued.

Paine National Park

We spent the next two nights camping in the park (I actually wouldn’t call it real camping with all the luxuries we had) and used the camp as our base for a three-day hike along what’s called 'The W'. The 'W' is a part of a larger network of trails in the area around mountains, lakes and glaciers and is formed in…you guessed it…the shape of a 'W.' Each day we hiked one leg of the 'W' working our way from right to left. The hikes lasted about eight hours each day and was grueling at times but completely worth the pain. The scenery was gorgeous. Here's a quick video of a lookout point we hiked to on the last day, and the fierce winds we experienced there. They were so strong that they were blowing us backwards.

After about three days of hiking in the park and experiencing weather patterns that represented the four seasons, we were ready for a break. We spent the next couple of days working our way down to Ushuaia, which is, as the Argentinians say, the southern-most city in the world. (The Chileans disagree and say it's actually Port Williams). Personally, I stayed out of the debate. To get to the disputed "southern-most city" would take a whole lot of bus time. Our first stop was Punta Arenas (say that five times with a straight face) in Chile and was situated near the Straits of Magellan. Punta Arenas is actually a fairly large city for the Patagonia region with a population around 100,000. This is where we spent Christmas day and were lucky to eat at one of only a few open restaurants in town.

Otway Sound Penguin Colony

The next day we took an hour drive from Punta Arenas to Otway Sound penguin colony. The colony was the result of a successful protection program that had brought the penguins back to healthy numbers from a once endangered population. The penguins are usually there from October to April, with chicks hatching in early December. So, we definitely caught it during a good time of the year.


I've included a video of a little penguin waddling towards the ocean.

Ushuaia (The southern-most city in the world)

The next day we made our way to the province, or island, of Tierra del Fuego and eventually the city of Ushuaia, which is located on the shores of the Beagle Channel. Ushuaia actually means “the bay facing westward” in the language of the original Yamaná inhabitants. It used to be a penal colony for political prisoners as well as hardened criminals, but they got rid of it in the 1940s. Ushuaia is now a major tourist destination as well and the jumping off point for a cruise down to Antarctica. If you want to go down to Antarctica, this is the place you go.

We spent a couple of days in Ushuaia just recuperating, basically eating and sleeping. And we threw in a little hiking for good luck. One hike we went on was located at the border of Argentina and Chile. At one point we realized we had accidently slipped into the Chilean side. That's us to the left totally confused as to whether we were in Argentina or Chile at the time. At one point we figured we were in Chile and started heading back just to be safe. And it was true! We were, in fact, in Chile for a while. There was no border control (or dudes with large guns), so it was pretty easy to slip across the border and go back and forth at our leisure. The hike that day, as always, was spectacular. I knew I was going to really miss Patagonia.

Here's a quick video of me at the border of Argentina and Chile during the hike

And with that we wrapped up our two week tour of Patagonia and flew back to Buenos Aires for a last night on the town.


See next --> 7. Other Areas of Argentina
OR
See all photos of Patagonia (Argentina) --> Argentinian Patagonia
See all photos of Patagonia (Chile) --> Chilean Patagonia

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