January 30 to El Chalten

Off I go, bright and early, to the bus for El Chalten; the gateway to the  Argentinian version of Torres del Paine, known as Parque Nacional Los Glaciers. I'm only going to be 60 km north of the top of Torres Del Paine as the crow flies, but the circuitous route around the various lakes and mountains took 7 hours by bus and we're in a different country.

My bus is one of those fancy double decker sightseeing specials and I get a window seat up top.  So what do I do - I immediately fall asleep for an hour!  Getting old, I guess.

First photo - our 10 minute rest stop about midway at the Hotel La Leona (nothing else for miles!).  All the buses are stopping here and the wind is just howling.  I saw 6 cyclists today - 2 couples and 2 on their own.  One of the couples was each towing a bob trailer (that's waaay too much like work).

View of the mountains as we get closer to El Chalten. 

We've arrived.  Here's a look down the main street.  My first impression of the town is that it looks like a sky village in the summertime, except this is their high season.  Lots of people around.

I chugged up one of the trails to the first viewpoint.  Here's the town from above.

Here'a look in the other direction, up the valley  (north) towards Lago del Desierto.  You can see bits of a dirt road on the left side of the valley.  

Laura, did you plan for us to cycle down this road?  The wind is still brutal, but at least it would have been at our back.

I'm in a fancy shmancy hotel room tonight.  Then it's 3 nights / 4 days 

camping in the park and one more night here before I go back to El Cafalate. 

 Last photo - I've never been in a hotel room with one of these before.  Perhaps you guys can do a little research on the web and find a manual for that thing :)

BTW - I bought a drinkable, but not great, bottle of red wine for about $2.  A guy could become a drunk if he wasn't careful.  I'm only going to have a glass or two and put the rest into a jug for the camp tomorrow.

Talk to you in a few days.

 

January - to Perito Moreno Glacier

Hi:  I told you I booked a trip to the glacier.  They pick you up in a bus, take you out there giving all sorts of commentary (in Spanish & English), and you have a great time.  Well, that's the theory.  It rained (gatos y perros) all night and I figured today would be a washout.   But the rain stopped just after breakfast, the day improved rapidly and it turned out very well.

 A shot of one of the other (gazillion) tour buses on the way out.  We are looking in a direction south of where today's glacier is - it's actually towards Torres del Paine, where I was last week.











More of the dry rolling countryside.  When they do get rain, the wind dries it out very quickly. 

Yikes!  Here's our full sized bus passing another full sized bus on a narrow winding road in the park. We survived.  I think they all know each other, so it is a bit of a game.

One of the first views of the glacier.  It is massive and is a confluence of (I believe) 5 glaciers up in the hills.  I took a ton of photos, but I'll only bore you with a few.

Facts.  This glacier travels 2 meters per day - a phenomenal rate (I don't know where this rates in the world).  The result is lots of calving at the toe.  All day long there were explosions and thunder as chunks of ice fell off, or the glacier was rupturing and stressing internally.



I didn't try to get a photo (or movie) of ice falling.  

This is a view of the left side of the glacier.  Note the narrow channel of water just between the main glacier and the chunk of ice on the other side of the channel.  The water is flowing quickly through here.

Regularly (every few years) the ice advances and / or collapses so as to block the flow of water.   The water builds up on the left side, flooding that arm of the lake, apparently as much as 25 feet deep.  Eventually, the water collapses the ice dam and things return to normal.

A view of the right side of the glacier toe.   This area is not stressed as much, so it has a much more regular form.  There were some spectacular "calvings" on this side as well.

 A closer look at the area in the middle of the toe, called the "Rupture Zone."  The forces on the ice must be enormous.

I took a picture of this print (in the men's bano if you must know).  It is old, but shows the later stages of a collapse, after the water has worked it's way through the ice dam.


That's it for today.  Tomorrow it is back on the bus to travel to El Chalten.  I stay one night in a hotel there and then head out for a few more days of hiking, hopefully to get some good views of Mt. Fitzroy.

On one of my earlier posts, some smart aleck implied that I might not be carrying a full pack.
To put that rumour to bed, here's a selfie of me in the mirror of my room.  See, I am lugging a full pack.
I bought a beer before I started writing this.  A one litre beer costs just over $4 Cdn.  And it's cheaper during happy hour ($3.50).  I shared it with the fellow working the desk.  The beer is fine, but the wine is superb.

Last night I had dinner at "Rick's" (no, not Rick and Sue's).  The hunk of grilled beef they gave me would normally feed Laura and I for two meals.  But it was good.

Will try to get a post from El Chalten tomorrow.  Off to downtown, now. 

January 28 - Bus to El Calafate

Hi:
So today has three main features: crossing the border into Argentina, riding a bus for most of the day and arriving at El Calafate.

First, a view of the confusion at the bus station in Puerto Natales.  As soon as a bus arrives, everybody rushes it to toss in their packs.  Seats are assigned on the bus, so why rush?

Crossing the border, part 1: About 3 km from the actual border, we come upon the Chilean border post.  here, we get out, line up, they check our documents and we leave.  There is a scanner here for them to check baggage for those entering Chile.

Down the road we drive.  A couple of km along, there is a sign "you are now in Argentina."  Nothing in site, we keep on driving.




Then we come across the Argentinian border post (little brown shack).  Get out of the bus, line up and they check documents.  I get a bit more scrutiny to make sure I have paid the Reciprocity Fee.   At some point in the past Canada and Argentina started charging each other's citizens to enter their country.  I had paid it and I had the certificate.  The Dutch fellow beside me on the bus did not suffer this fee and was somewhat amused by it.

BTW, the power was out at the Argentine station - no lights, no computers, no passport scanners, etc.  Bad first impression.  The power lines to this station were down all over the place.  They may have a (non-functional) generator.  Why not a wind turbine? 


One of my first impressions of Argentina.
This side of the mountains it is rolling flat and dry.  We stopped at a gas station for a break. The Dutch fellow bought some cheese from a street vendor.  Great Cheese!  I wish I had bought some.  

BTW - Ian - I saw my first machete on this trip.  The vendor beside the cheese guy was selling them.  Want one?




Arriving in El Calafate - I am in a hostel up the hill.  Great staff (young and they speak English).  I am probably the oldest old fart in the place.

Downtown for dinner.  We are up on a hill and I can walk down these stairs to town.  El Caf is very prosperous and neat looking.  Houses are generally on their own lots, (not right against the street like Puerto Natales).  Tourism is definitely a driver here.

Main street - lots of trees, and lots of bustle.  Much better impression than the border.

A little market just off the main street.  

 Another view coming into town.  The houses are spread out more.  The main part of downtown is in a bit of a valley - this is a view of the other areas.

Nice house, eh?  Note the green lawn.  Apparently, the president of Argentina has a house somewhere in town.  El Caf is definitely on the up and up.

AS I told you I've booked into the hostel.  We're well off enough to not be dorm types, so I have a private room (I don't need a hair dryer in the next bunk at 0600 in the morning.

I've booked a tip to the glaciers tomorrow.  Will tell you all about it.

January 28 - Off to El Calafate

Hi:
I have a half hour to kill before I hit the bus, so I can do a short post.  I never got my Curanto last night, but the meal was good.  The restaurant was obviously a favouite of the locals as they trouped in and out all evening and many knew each other.

First photo.  This is of my B&B , Erratic Rock 2  (Erratic Rock 1 is a dorm style hostel downtown).

It's a nice place, good breakfast with lots of hot water.  It's a 5 minute walk downtown or to the bus depot.

Note the baskets out front - garbage cans.  The owners fill them up and the municipality empties them.  There was a garbage truck working the downtown streets at 930 pm last night.  Many of the stores do a split opening, with a mid day closure between 1230 and 3 pm.  I presume the point of these baskets is to prevent dogs from spreading garbage.  There are still lots of dogs all over the streets here.



Gas prices:  In Canuck pesos those translate roughly to $1.73 a litre for regular (93) to $1.78 for premium.  Diesel is cheaper at $1.40 a litre.

Time to head for the bus.

January 26 - Leaving Torres del Paine

Last night it rained on and off fairly hard.  Windy all night.  The fly on the tent beside me wasn't secured properly and slapped about excessively all night.  I actually had a reasonably good night's sleep.  Something to do with a shower and tiredness.

Here's the inside of the camper's cooking shack at breakfast.  I don't know what the story  is with the huge tub of food.  Whether it's a group that is camping here only and not moving or whether some poor shmuck has to carry it somewhere.

I did see lots of big heavy things that where going to be carried.  I took pity on one group of young Chileans who had all sorts of canned stuff and not can opener.  I opened a couple of cans before they injured themselves.

  I packed up and had time for a short walk before I got into the catamaran lineup.  Here's a view of most of Paine Grande.  The shower and toilet building is on the left (out of the photo), the left hand building is the camper's cooking shack, and the main building.

A couple of geese on the hill.  I couldn't get a shot of them as they flew off.











The whole point of taking the catamaran back (besides that you don't have to walk) is to get some long distance scenery shots.  However, everything was pretty much in fog, so they aren't worth looking at.




OOPS!  Miss-fire.  Is this like selfie suicide?












The catamaran at the other end, loading the next group.  I'm waiting for the bus.

A shot of some Guanacos from the bus.

The final map.  I traced my route in yellow.  You can see why they call this the 'W' route.

Normally, the 'W' ends at about the end of the glacier, so you can see what I did with my extra 2 days.  Somewhere between 85 and 90 km of walking, I think.

It's January 27 right now.  I've spent the day in Puerto Natales, writing this up, cleaning up gear and wandering about town.


I'm heading out for dinner now.  Tomorrow is get on the bus for the 5 hour ride to El Calafate in Argentina.  Not sure when I'll be able to do more posting.  Perhaps late tomorrow or the next day.  

January 25 - Starting back down

That's pretty much the end of the scenery pictures, but I took some shots on the way back to Paine Grande where I was going to catch the Catamaran the next day.

Here's a shot of Campamento Paso.  No beer here.

The ranger's cabin is on the left, the cooking shack is on the right (open to the other side) and the bano is on the right.  Someday I may show selected people (with strong stomachs) the inside of the bano.

 I've packed up and hit the trail for a roughly 20 km hike today.

This bush an interesting growth one it, the brown that you see.

Berries on the way down.  Looks like a relative of the cranberry.  I chewed on one and spat it out.  Not much taste and kind of chewy.

Next bit of botany - looks like a relative to honeysuckle, but don't trust my guessing.

The front entrance to Refugio Grey.  No beer today, but I did quaff a couple of orange Fanta for the sugar hit.

Now here's a cute, but slightly scary shot.  Check out the cute little kid between her parents.  Note the size of Dad's pack.  In addition to her pack, Mom has a 'kid carrier' slung to the bottom of it.

They were leaving just as I arrived at RG and had a half hour head start.  It didn't long to catch up to them on the trail.

I don't know when (if?) they made it the next 10 km to Paine Grande.

 Just south of Refugio Grey the wind came up with a vengeance.  Until now I had not really had to contend with the famous winds of Torres del Paine.  It was a tailwind, but strong enough to blow you and your pack around, so you had to be careful.

This is a small lake north of Paine Grande.  You can see how the wind is whipping up the waves in a very short distance.

Fire damage along the trail.  There were remnants of many fires all along the trail.  No wonder the rangers are very cautious.

A couple of shots of the tent city at Paine Grande.  The wind is still strong - you can see how some of the tents are deformed by it.

I managed to get my tent up without embarrassing myself.  There was some entertainment watching others, though. 

My tent, centre, with the back side of the Paine Grande building in the background.  This is early in the afternoon.  By the evening they were side by side all around me.

As it was, I was too late to get into one of the sheltered areas in the lee of the hills.

The lineup for the evening Catamaran back.  They were overloaded and made an extra run.

The next post winds up Torres del Paine.

  

January 24 - to Campamento Paso and Beyond

I told you before I started that I planned to go to Campamento Los Guardos.  However, that campsite is closed, so on I went to Campamento Paso, a couple of hours further up the trail.

A suspension bridge on the way up.  

Close up of the toe of the glacier.  The glacier calved a few minutes before I took this picture - you can see the debris spreading out.













On the way, here's a gully with some ladders.  They use metal ladders here (good idea) with nice new rock bolts into the rock.  

ASAR Rope people - this is not an approved anchor!  These ropes were used to secure the hand line at the bottom of the first ladder.  I've seen better!

 A shot of the whole glacier looking north.  It is enormous.  Sometime I'll check the size on Google Earth

 Unfortunately, I met this Search team with their dog.  I believe they are looking for a missing Argentinian man.

Close up of a side glacier across the valley.  Note the dirty streak in the middle, caused when two glaciers join together.  The streak is the side of one of the branches.









So, I got to Campamento Paso and set up camp.  I was told if I proceeded on up the valley and climbed up the pass (Paso John Gardner) above the treeline, the views would be splendid.

Just so I could get some good pictures for you folks, I decided to do it.

I dragged my butt another 3 km., climbing another 500 vertical meters to an altitude of 1000 meters.

Here is a 4 shot panorama of the glacier, left to right.

Then I slogged back to camp.

Here is the final map.  I made up to about where I noted "PJG."  I was actually still 200 vertical meters below the highest point of the pass, but the view was good from anywhere above the treeline.