Oats and mash

Welcome to the final blog of the year. But not the final blog. However time is ticking. Tic Toc Doc.

Brett’s back all healed, we set off for a quick jaunt down the Pan Americano, following a one block ride in the taxi from the bus station to the accommodation (thanks for the heads up lonely planet, one - nil to the taxi driver) we arrived in Caldera/Bahia Inglesa.

Caldera/Bahia Inglesa have been conglomerated as the one place. This is as each day consisted of a trip to the market for a fruit filled breakfast, the odd coffee and kuchen (German cake), a packed lunch consisting of fresh baked bread, avocado and tomato followed by a 12km (we just signed up for the Oxfam 100km walk in Melbourne, so the training had to begin) return walk to Bahia Inglesa from Caldera. Bahia Inglesa is a cheeky little secret paradisiacal beach on the north coast of Chile with no tourists. Don’t tell anyone. Hence we would lie on the beach till sunset, make the return walk and eat fresh fish and salad. Repeat X3 days.

Next was La Serena, not much to report, beautiful city, went for a run and we made a serious failure of a savoury pancake for dinner (note to everyone, lactose and fat free milk is bad for cooking, really bad).

The unfortunate news of the passing of Ellie, Giselle’s dog was received whilst in La Serena. RIP. May you and Manoochy play together in the sky! Love you lots.

Our next destination proved to be another little highlight to add to the collection. We found ourselves staying in a house to ourselves for the price of a hostel room in Pisco Elqui in the Elqui Valley. This valley is home to the Pisco grape and naturally many Pisco distilleries. Not just Pisco distilleries but gourmet everything, jams, cheeses, bread, chocolate, ice cream and best of all (in Brett’s opinion as Gis obviously hated the ice cream!) was the fruit. Fruit trees were everywhere. You could pick apricots off the trees that grew in the streets. This mix meant we feasted like ancient Romans, Giselle dropping grapes in Brett’s mouth as he sat on his thrown. In his dreams. The micro climate created in this valley which allowed such delights also provides clear skies and sun almost all year (which of course prompted a quick 18km walk in the sunshine just to further add to the training). This allows an appropriate place for star gazing and big sky observatories. A fun filled tour to the Mamalluca Observatory near Vicuña (another little village in the valley) allowed a gaze through multi million dollar telescopes to see the Moon, Jupiter and its moons, Mars and other constellations with excellent clarity. All in all a very successful venture.

Santiago was to follow. A trip through the metro with all our bags on in rush hour and then a good 1 hour wait after Giselle mistakenly told Barbara (our Chilean sister) the wrong street name we met up with our lovely Barbarita (baby in the tummy and all). Barbara is a friend that Brett and his family made while in Indonesia last year and who subsequently stayed with us is Melbourne when she was having her sabbatical year off. Barbara and her fiancé Daslav were extremely accommodating hosts allowing a week of normality for a backpacker with home cooked dinner, a comfy bed, healthy breakfast and a space to chill out in without other backpackers! The week entailed a great tour to a Santiago winery called Undurraga, picnics at local parks, a Chilean barbecue lunch, a night on the town, a walk to a view of all of Santiago and lots of tender loving care! A fantastic week was had and we thank our lovely hosts 1000 times for it! Oh and we forgot to mention the rule of the week....No English to be spoken until after 9pm! What a way to learn and further improve our Spanish, and hey we think it worked!

We bid farewell to our Santiagoan (think ´Anchorman´ we dare you) friends and settled into our ¨comfy¨ bus seats for the next 16 hours to a small island just off Chile called Chiloe. We arrived full of excitement to get the tent wet and bust out the trekking boots again. After a quick food stop over in the quaint and bustling town of Castro, we local bused out to a small fishing village called Cucao. Cucao did not disappoint and provided a daily downpour of rain, but alas this did not deter us! We set of nice and early and entered Parque Nacional Chiloe for a quick 25kms to our camping destination. For our first ¨carry everything on your back like a turtle¨ adventure it was good fun. What commenced as a breezy stroll along the beach, quickly increased to a steep and muddy climb up to a field in the middle of nowhere with not a sole in sight. We arrived at the open field and were at a loss as to where the path continued and so bush bashed our way down to the bottom of a hill where a deserted beach lay which would be our home for the night. Don’t worry guys we later found the path back up which was ridiculously clear from below just not so clear from above, riddle me that! We broke open the camping cooker and made our first delicious camp meal, consisting of quick rice and tea. A meal fit for kings we assure you! We managed to find our way to the only drinkable water source inside an old refugio (kind of like a refuge lodge but totally deserted) and post refilling drink bottles with the idea of returning later to gather more water, Giselle felt the door swing swiftly shut behind her. Great right? So yes, we were in a pickle! Luckily a few hours later two German tourists arrived asking for where the water source was, and upon explaining our misfortune with said door, they assisted us to break in through one of the windows. Thanks Germany. After a seriously satisfying night of rain thrashing at the tent we awoke to sunshine, made our oats and continued the quick 25km walk back to town.

So for those of you who are thinking, why Brett and Giselle, it sounds as though everything is going along swimmingly, you will thoroughly enjoy the next passage about our following misfortune. 

All sorted back in town we bused to the small port town on the island called Quellon in order to catch an overnight ferry back into Chile. As the sun set and things started getting dark we approached the Ferry company’s office only to find a small typed message in the window which translated basically said ¨Ferry suspended until further notice¨ thanks Naviera Austral, no explanation necessary or anything. We made our way to the Coast guards office and were told the ferry had crashed with something earlier on in the day and would not be going for up to 2 weeks. Ok, that’s a pain in the ass we thought but such is life at times...then the coast guard said ¨you might want to find yourselves a hotel sometime soon, this place would have to the most dangerous place in Chile after dark¨, Righto, thanks Mr. Coast Guard, we shall be getting the hell outta this place we think! 

Plan B was devised and set in motion. A quick bus up to Puerto Montt, some more on the spot planning and we landed on a bus headed for Bariloche, Argentina. Chao Chile! 

So in reflection the ferry mishap was kind of a blessing in disguise as it resulted in us arriving in the beautiful surrounding of Bariloche. While the town itself is not so geared to the backpacker budget, it allowed us passage the nearby National Park of Nahuel Huapi for our next trekking adventure.      

Refugio Frey on Villa Catedral was the first of our potential 2 night hike through the national park. A long, windy gradual ascent through forest, past gorgeous cascades took us to the final hour of steep, rocky trail and bleating sun before we arrived at the dreamy destination of Refugio Frey. An old wooden lodge built for hikers and climbers sits at the base of jagged snow capped mountain peaks, a peaceful glacial lagoon and a majestic view over the valley from which we just climbed. A very pleasing end to a reasonably tough day with our packs on our backs! Everything was just a little too comfortable! Instant mash potatoes cooked with a delicious packet pasta soup was a success (really, it actually was delicious!), amazing sunset witnessed and cheers to a successful day trekking, we hit the hay. Cue gale force winds all night causing our tent to shake, rattle and roll all night allowing for a very loud, head whacking sleep! Being warned off the second destination due to falling rock and snowy passes we made the executive decision to call it a trek and head back to Bariloche. All in all it was a good start to the Lakes District and Patagonian experience.

El Bolson was next on the agenda. Being the hippy region of Argentina, with a big artisanal market held three times a week. Basically it is hippies selling delicious home made treats such as whole-meal empanadas, whole-meal pizzas and whole-meal everything, oh and chocolate. Luckily for us we arrived on a market day and although there was some light drizzle and not all the hippies made it to the market from their gourmet farms there was enough for us to sample and subsequently purchase and naturally eat!

El Bolson is also famous for trekking. Cajon Del Azul (Blue box) is a famous one and so we decided to do it. This time just planning an out and back trek. Dressed for awful weather but being blessed with blue skies and sun we quickly stripped off and began our trek. First of the challenges were two suspension bridges which seemed as though they were built in the 1800´s. Each step which we both thought would be our last on to the wooden palings which were loosely nailed in, not nailed in or had completely fallen through were eventually passed and we could begin the ascent next to the glorious Rio Azul which had water flowing down from the mountains that was so pure and so blue that you could have sworn it was a movie set. A quick weather change (which has become a recurrent theme in this part of the continent) forced an even quicker change back to our foul weather gear. We decided that the rain added to the charm of the forest and after rocky passes, boulder climbs (with ladders, we aren’t that badass!) and another bridge crossing we made it to Refugio Cajon Del Azul. Welcomed with a hot mug of tea and the smell of freshly baked bread we were very happy campers. Campers we were so we left the warm surrounds of the inside of the refugio and set up camp outside! As we can’t get enough of walking we went for another 2 hour adventure through the woods and past the Nascimiento del Cajon which is where there is a short but powerful waterfall that pours in to the Cajon (rock wall like structures that give the place its name).

Persuaded by some other campers at the refugio to continue our trek onward to Hielo Azul we changed plans and added a second night to the itinerary! A better night of sleep this time and trusty old oats for breakfast, we bought a fresh loaf of bread (as we hadn’t planned proper lunch for a second day!) and set off on the next phase of what became a wonderful circuit. We were met with an exhausting 3 hour uphill climb (literally we were climbing at points with all four extremities!) being hugely encouraged by outrageous views of the mountain range in the distance and breaks for chocolate we made it to the top with a few losses of the trail. You have to keep an eye out for red and yellow markers on the trees and on occasion the trail is obscured by fallen trees and you are forced in to using hawk like vision to refind the trail. Luckily we are awesome so we got to a different refugio called Natacion close to our final destination. A quick lunch break with homemade cherry jam, a quick peak of waterfalls falling from a glacier to the back of the camp and a quick hour trekking downhill, and we arrived at refugio Hielo Azul. Welcomed again with a warm fire burning in the refugio, warm people and not so warm hands and toes we set up camp in a grassy spot by a pretty creek. We enthusiastically set out on yet another rocky scramble up to a mountain peak and a small glacier behind said peak, and after an hour of ghastly winds, steep and crumbly rocks we made it to the final section of the ascent. As we peered over the tops of the rocks we were saddened to find a huge dump of snow sitting comfortably across the next section of the trek. After a quick analysis we realized we were not adequately prepared and hung our heads in dismay as we began the descent back to camp. Tucked away in our tent for the night we were again kept in our place by continual rain all night, but alas managed to survive. We were fortunate enough that the final day was all downhill as if in reward for the previous days efforts and we easily made good time down to the end of the trek. We followed a sign leading back into town, (a short 7km walk) only to have passers by tell us we were headed the wrong direction. Doh! The friendly passers by gave us our first hitchhiking experience for 15mins up the road and we then managed the hail another car en route into town. We hopped onto the next bus out of town and arrived in nearby Esquel.

Not all that much needs to be said of Esquel, it was a quaint little town and involved a 3 hour day trek up for panoramic views of the close by mountain range, and a trip to Trevelin. Trevelin is a town about 30 mins away by bus and is an old Welsh settlement, which consequently has super suave tea houses. Needless to say we had the high tea. Four pieces of cake, sandwiches, scones, jams and bottomless tea and coffee later we left as happy campers in need of a good afternoon siesta!

Finishing our stint around the Bariloche area we boarded a bus that would be our home for the next 25 hours while we followed the Ruta 40 (notoriously unpaved and notoriously BORING!) down to El Chalten. With our butts resembling the shape of the seats we gladly checked into Hostel La Comarca in the tiny and beautiful town of 3000 people that is also tucked in nicely amongst the Fitz Roy Ranges.

A few days relaxing and then we set out for our biggest trek thus far to Mount Fitzroy and Cerro Torre. This beautiful area is all the more special as all treks are accessible by walking straight out of town, are relatively flat and short (roughly 3 hours between each camp) and allow views of the jagged snowcapped mountain peaks of the Fitz Roy Ranges as well.

We began by heading to Mount Fitzroy first, and set up camp at the base of the famous mountain. A little concerned by the dark and thick cloud coming over from the left we made the steep climb (noticing a theme here at all?) up to the Laguna de Los Tres, a beautiful glacier lagoon surrounded by Mount Fitzroy. We had roughly 10 minutes for a few happy snaps before the snow storm we had seen coming earlier forced us away from the crystal lagoon and back down to camp. We huddled with our new South African friends and played cards and finally lay our heads down to sleep in the minus 3 degree temperature.

The snow settled thankfully by the morning and we made our way to another glacier and lagoon nearby our camp. The final 20 minutes of this walk was of course ¨a rocky scramble!¨ but well worth every climb given the proximity we achieved to the glacier and lagoon. Absolutely mesmerizing.

Next stop Campemento De Agostini, a pleasant 3 hour trek from our first campsite, situated next to the beautiful flowing river and a hop skip and a jump away from an even bigger glacier and lagoon. Yes, we are well aware of how spoilt we are sounding. We made camp and did a quick check of the lagoon only to find views restricted by mist and cloud. Dinner of instant mash potatoes again and we gladly slid into our sleeping bags for a well earned nights sleep.

With legs full of excitement we trekked along a ridge that runs alongside the lagoon and reached a spot with giant views of the glacier and a peek at Cerro Torre. Sadly the clouds were not in position for us that morning and we got sneaky views of the mountain peaks and not much more.

We arrived back in town in record time as the final day trekking was more or less flat and with satisfied hearts returned back to our humble hostel. (Luckily we did a day trek a few days after to an amazing viewpoint and you’ll all be pleased to know we got panoramic views of the entire mountain range including the dear Cerro Torre).

Of course Christmas was to follow and with a little planning we had a rather special day in Southern Patagonia. The Fitzroy Ranges chose to put on a good show and gave us the clearest views we had had all week. What better way to spend Christmas than eat all day right? So we started with homemade blueberry pancakes, a cheese and salami platter for afternoon tea and then roast chicken, chips and salad. Given the gorgeous sunshine we placed a table out on the side of the road and watched the afternoon pass by with a bottle of wine to ease the pain of being away from family. It worked.

So next on the agenda was El Calafate and the GIANT Perito Moreno Glacier (please please Google it, the pictures will explain it much better than we can!). Basically it is a huge glacier that is considered ´stable´ due to the fact that it is advancing at the same rate that it is decreasing. Also due to this, it means at times huge pieces of ice break off and come crashing down into the water, creating not only a visual splendour but also thrilling to the ears as well. We treated ourselves to a full day trip which involved getting up close and personal with the glacier. Crampons and all we strolled on the glacial ice, viewing crevasses, small lakes where the ice has melted, a deep sink hole and just general amazingness. We finished the tour with a ¨whiskey on the glacial rocks¨ and went home happy with the day.

An exciting side note was a moment of ¨small worldliness¨ as we met Brett’s cousin Ash and her husband Leighton for dinner one night in El Calafate. Luckily the two of them just so happened to be in the same town in the same country on the same night we were. Thanks for dinner guys!

And so we are off to Chilean Patagonia, Puerto Natales for the W TREK!!!! Feliz año nuevo!!