Babsi & Conrad

¡Hola a todos!

It´s been another month or so. Trying to capture the beauty of Patagonia meant a lot of criss-crossing between Chile and Argentina. But let´s start from where we were last time: Santiago de Chile.


Market in Santiago

Following a couple of days in Chile´s capital we spend almost a week in Valparaiso, a colourful old harbour town.

Back to school was the motto here, as we tried to learn as much Spanish (or 'Castellano' as the Chileans prefer to say) as possible. We had very good classes in the heart of town but obviously it takes a bit more (time) to become confident in a new language.

Homework time - late at night in our hostel room

After a week - with a little more Spanish in our brains - we were ready to see what Patagonia is all about. We took an overnight bus down south to Pucon, a resort town beautifully situated between Lake Villarica and the active (steaming) but glacier- covered Volcán Villarica.

Pucon / Chile

We decided to spend a few days trekking the so-called "Travesía Villarica", which leads around Volcán Villarica and then towards another iconic peak of Patagonia, Volcán Lanín, marking the border between Chile and Argentina.

Nothing big but beautiful wildlife on the Villarica Traverse

With perfectly sunny weather we enjoyed five amazing days far away from civilasation. Most of the days we didn´t see anybody and had peacefully situated camping spots along the trail.

Sunset at the foot of Volcán Villarica

Volcán Villarica - steaming landmark of the Araucaria region

Trekking towards Volcán Lanin in the distance

Waking up at sunrise is well worth it here!

Another day, another lake, another sunrise, different but not less spectacular

From Pucon we crossed the boarder to Argentina. Not much of an highway but after a couple of hours on very rough gravel road we reached the boarder post - literally in the middle of nowhere.

Boarder betwenn Chile and Argentina near Pucon

San Martín de los Andes and San Carlos the Bariloche were our first stops in Argentinian Patagonia.

Trekking near Bariloche

Unfortunately bad weather meant that we had to finish our trekking trail near Bariloche earlier.

Waiting for better weather in the mountain 'refugio' [but we didn´t wait long enough...]

We used the extra day in town to plan our remaining time in Patagonia and figured out that we somehow have to speed up in order to get all the way down south and up to Buenos Aires again and still be able to do all the things we wanted to do. This brought a 5 day boat trip from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales back on the agenda which we previously ruled out as we intended to take the overland route.
Looking back now, we are very glad that we took the ferry down south along the Chilean coast. Not only near to perfect weather but also the remoteness of these waterways and watching dolphins, seals and even whales was well worth it and we also enjoyed the carefree and delicious dining services on board.

Puerto Montt - fishing town

Puerto Montt - ready to board the ferry

Local supply chain for the outer islands - our Navimag ferry in the background

The only way to get to Chile´s southern Provinces without leaving Chile´s territory: Navimag ferry

Sunrise on board of the 'Evangelistas'

Captain Barbara in charge of the navigation

Being a fairly low key cruise-ship with lots of travellers, the atmosphere on board was very relaxed and friendly: passengers were allowed on the command bridge at any time and we spent a lot of time there following the captain's manoeuvres.

Lazy days on board: spotting wildlife, enjoying the scenery and simply hanging loose

A group of whales passing by

As if the journey wasn´t fascinating enough for the first three days, we actually did a little detour into one of the fjords and visited the giant Glacier Pius XI. calving into the water.

Enourmous Glacier Pius XI.

After 4 days on board we finally arrived in Puerto Natales. This town is almost dominated by travellers who all get ready to head into Chile´s most celebrated National Park: Torres del Paine. We weren´t any different and - after spending one day trying to get ride of minor fever and also recovering our sense of balance, which got a bit confused after spending a few wobbly days on the boat - we headed off to the Park.
We spend seven days hiking around and in-between the Torres del Paine massive - and although we didn´t see much sun, we were glad it didn´t rain much either.
These are a few of the pictures we took along the trek:

Grey Glacier from Paso John Gardener

Grey Glacier

Grey Glacier - calving into Lake Grey

Cuernos del Paine

Big backpacks - but they did get lighter every day!

Torres del Paine National Park

Dinner time before it gets too dark (and we too tired)

The Torres del Paine up close at sunset - unfortunately the famous sunrise the next morning wasn´t very famous (cloudy)

It´s just a step to your right ...

Torres del Paine National Park

Punta Arenas, the only major settlement along the Strait of Magellan, was our next destination. Perhaps our expectations were too high, but the town wasn´t really that interesting nor impressive. Bad luck, as there wasn´t even an onward bus and we were stuck there for another day, on which we actually did discover some beauty.


Punta Arenas and the Magellan Strait

Chilean navy flag hoisting ceremony at noon

"Easy access" cementary in Punta Arenas

Trash littering the suburbs - luxury cruise liners visiting downtown

No surprise we didn´t get tickets for the bus on "yesterday" ;-) ...

From Punta Areanas (Chile) we eventually took a bus to Ushuaia (Argentina) - which also meant we left mainland South America and entered what locals here refer to as the end of the world: Tierra del Fuego.

Crossing the Magellan strait

On the short but rough crossing of the Magellan Strait we were patroned by dolphins surfing the boat´s bow wave - and some people got soaking wet when looking for the dolphins:

We are now, 20 March 08, in Ushuaia, which - for Argentinians and most tourists - is the southernmost city in the world as well as the 'fin del mundo' (end of the world) altogether. However, just a short distance South of here and across the Beagle channel sits the little naval base town of Puerto Williams, which Chileans claim to be the southernmost settlement with permanent residents. Superlatives aside, we want to go there for yet another trek (Los Dientes de Navarino), on which we´ll cross 55º southern latitude (southernmost ... haha). Lacking any market competition (corrupt authorities?) the only boat company offering the short boat trip across the channel (and border) is ridiculously expensive. We were lucky and met a french sailing crew who offered us a ride across to Puerto Williams on Saturday, which is their first stop on a 2-month journey back to Europe. We will be quicker than them - arriving in Europe in less than a month ...

Stay tuned!