stepped out of the bus, FREEZING. It got worse soon after with some good snow falls! neat! At least the hostel and the town were delightfully civilized, so not a bad place to hang out for a few days. Headed out in the afternoon to do a hike, it was windy and cold I cant say it was that enjoyable to be honest, so returned to the hostel and remained there for a few nights eating massive steaks and good chocolate.
Well the snow didn't ease and the forecast showed no signs of it either, so we decided to head on to El Bolson. Again when you could see more than 50m the scenery was stunning but my hopes of arriving in a sunnier place where dashed when the bus headed through the last pass, with about 1ft of fresh snow on the ground and more falling.
We had a bit of trouble finding the hostel as its pretty standard in these countries that people want to help, and if they don't know they will just send you in some direction they think is right! GREAT! after numerous back and forwards we made it to the door, only to find the hostel was closed for the off season! but we were able to stay in the hotel. Again another night of steak, wine and chocolate. El Bolson is a really nice town founded by hippies and is totally smoke free and has been declared a nuclear free zone, fortunately for the inhabitants I cant see Ariva rushing to build a reactor here anytime soon.
To make up for the terrible weather we decided to try and find another hostel with some people in it. We took a taxi up to the most recommended one hoping there might be people there but after a 15 minute trip to nowhere we again found it was closed! I have never ever seen a hostel "closed" in all my travels, now 2 in 24 hours, the taxi driver then took us to the only other hostel in town which was BOOKED FULL. So there! maybe its not quite the off season. Anyway we took this as a sign along with the 2 weeks of snow in the forecast and jumped on a bus to Mendoza.
We got to play Bingo on the bus which was probably the highlight of the week and one of the more random things I have witnessed in my travels.
Mendoza is a nice town, friendly people and stunning weather. Apparently it rains for only a month a year here and then its sunny, sunny, sunny. This is just what I needed after a week in the snow. I had planned on doing a winery tour but the hole in my stomach told me that was a foolish idea, so did what I usually do I Argentina walk around aimlessly eating ice cream and chocolate (which I now know are just as bad as drinking for stomach ulcers).
After a week of really achieving nothing I decided to see Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas. I had heard it was an easy climb and close to town, both are pretty audacious claims. The bus strolled on for 3 hours till it dropped us off at Inca bridge, numerous times I thought I had seen the mountain, till on the last corner it finally popped into view, too which there was no doubt "fark , that's it" were my exact words. The day was beautiful but the wind was insane and freezing and being lazy and unprepared neither Sarah or I had appropriate clothing. We took pics of the Inca Bridge and then got the next bus back down. I was pretty over not really doing or seeing anything by now so in a brash change of mind decided to do Rio and Iguazu now , instead of at the end of my trip and got on the night bus to Buenos Aires and then changed for Iguazu because the direct gringo express was booked.
(Inca Bridge)Turned out alright and got to Iguazu early in the morning and went straight to the falls. After fighting through the hordes of tourists with all manner of electronic devices hanging from there necks, I made it to the Garganta Del Diablo (the throat of the devil) after walking on suspended gantry's over the river for 1km. Now this is impressive, no matter how many people try and describe it , or pictures you see there is really nothing like seeing this in the flesh. You are suspended directly over the top of the falls as massive volumes of water plummet into the abyss that from the mist and spray you cant even see the bottom of. The force is so massive, the spray reaches back up to the top of the platform and after a few minutes I was utterly soaked. I spent the rest of the day walking around the lower falls and although not quite as dramatic are certainly as impressive.
(Garganta Del Diablo)
(Garganta Del Diablo)
The following day I headed over to Brazil to explore the massive Itaipu power station. Until a few months ago the largest in the world at 14GW (or almost twice NZ´s entire power generation). It was a bit of an ordeal getting out there, with Brazilian transportation and border formalities not quite as efficient as I had hoped. But people are really friendly and helpful contrary to the popular belief that Brazil is full of gangsters and gun toting hoodlums. Just made it in time for the last Engineering tour of the day.
Was also really lucky as they had opened one of the massive spillways and water was pummeling over it, the pictures really don't do anything on the site any justice of scale, as its all just massive (196m high or 65 stories, 63 thousand cubic metres of water per second pass through it or 40 times the average flow over the Iguazu falls). We got to go inside the turbine room which makes the entire building vibrate as the massive units spin round 24 hours a day. I just managed to catch the last bus back to Argentina which was a relief.
(Spillway 1 Itaipu)
(Penstock Itaipu)
(Main turbine hall, almost 1 kilometre long)After another 24 hour bus ride I was a world away from the cold of the Andes in Rio De Janeiro. Booked myself into the nicest hostel in town although over 3 times the price of the equivalent in Argentina (like everything in Brazil) it was worth it. I figured out where all the good ratings had come from, now its one thing to have a good hostel with nice shower's etc etc but to really get the place full its easy. Employee nothing but really attractive women. Oh yes I liked this hostel, most people just hung around the bar all day, and then most of the night until the staff went to bed, it was that good.
Spent most of my time drinking tropical smoothies and lying on the beach. Rio is really what its cracked up to be. The beaches are stunning and during the week, largely empty, during the weekend though, they are comparable to a shopping mall car park on a boxing day sale. The city is just vibrant and alive, when the sun goes down ..... well a long time after the sun goes down the city really kicks into life. This is also perhaps the only cheap part of Brazil I encountered , drinking! and that is something to cheer about.
Now you can go hang out with all the Eurotrash in a disco and pay a 20 dollar cover charge and jam light sticks up your bum and dance round with a bunch of other Eurotrashies (they seem to love this) or you can hang out with the bar girls and go to a metal bar that has a 10 dollar cover charge for all you can drink. The street parties are great fun as well, although I felt hands in my pockets about 5 times, you have to think long and hard where to stash you money round here! I tell you.
On the second to last day I decided to go and see that stupid statue just so I could say i´d been there, and more importantly to say it was a pile of shit, and not worth being even in the list of sites considered for the new 7 wonders. RANT BEGIN!.
The whole idea of the general public being able vote on this is wrong to begin with. How can anyone say whether Persepolis is better than Petra for example if they haven't seen either of them, maybe they could pick a group of 100 people that have seen 90% of the world and they could choose. The only reason this heap of shit made the list was because a Brazilian telecoms company made it a competition for free minutes etc so all Brazilians voted for it.
The reason the original 7 wonders were wonders is exactly that, they were some amazing shit, you looked at them and wondered. The only wonder I have about Christ the Redeemer is how on earth its so shitty. Even the ruble left from the Temple of Artemis, one of the REAL 7 is far better than this, and then there are the Pyramids one of the REAL 7 and of all the stuff ive seen still probably the most "wonderous" thing on earth but no a concrete statue of christ built in 1930, thats better apparently.
Even the others that are on the new list with the exception of Petra are not the best in there class. Tikal is far better than Chichen Itza according to all who have seen both, and Macchu Picchu! the only thing wonderous there is how people could be so backwards only 500 years ago. Anyway ill calm down now.
Well my verdict after seeing it was its even less impressive in the flesh, its seriously overrated. The views from the top however are not (if you can avoid the hordes of retarded tourists lying on the ground trying to take pictures of it). The city really does have an amazing location, a huge natural harbour surrounded by white sand beaches and rock spires.
(Some concrete made in the shape of a man, hardly wonderous)
(Rio looking towards the Pao de Azucar and Copa Cabana beach)
Well after a few days I had, had enough of the heat and was ready to return to the snow (even if that was the case) so got on a 40 hour bus ride to BA. It wasn't uncomfortable in the least, if only all the world figured out if you made buses this nice people would actually use them. Also bumped into a mad Frenchman and Kiwi chick I met in Colombia and Bolivia on the bus so the time passed quickly. Had a few hours to spare in BA and with another unbelievable coincidence bumped into Sarah on the St and hung out for a bit until I took and even plusher bus back down to Bariloche.
Have been meaning to bring this up before, well as this is a civilized nation all things are computerized and you can pick your seat on the bus and see what is occupied not etc. I make things a bit more fun by asking the attendant if any good looking women have bought tickets and can if I sit next to them, the always smile and then help me finding what is likely to be the best spot. So they scroll through the age etc and most importantly the look for what the recognize as wealthier last names till we find a suitable match. The few times it has worked the bus has been empty and they have simply moved seats much to my regret, well it almost worked in from Iguazu to Rio. Amusingly the guys from the bus station where infront of the bus giving me the thumbs up feeling very proud of themselves, but she left soon after at the border,but today, at last things were on my side.
I got on the bus and a smoking young Argentine sat next to me. I introduced myself and asked if I could practice my Spanish with her, yes she said. "Well ask me something then", so I said " are you single", this brought raucous laughter from the 3 rows behind me that were all listening in. Ha ha being trapped on a 24 hour bus rides ain't so bad after all.
Well Bariloche was more or less the same when I had left it, although you could walk outside without looking like you were going on an expedition to the South Pole. For some reason I really wanted to travel down Ruta 40, this is a kind of Argentine route 66 (well I was lead to believe) I had planned on hitching but at 5am with sideways rain and wind I decided to take the bus.
Now you can go along the nice new highway its cheaper, faster and you can take those nice buses but NOOOOO I´ll go Ruta 40 I decided. The first day was pretty fun actually, apart from the bus being filled with the most obnoxious and heavily retarded French I had ever come across. Now Pierre and company spoke only French and would ask the driver, shop attendants everyone only in French! and they give the English shit for that, sorry Francois ,Napoleon lost, remember, its Spanish or English here, shut it! They also took great pleasure in taking pictures out of the bus window of Mountains etc with the flash on, the height of intelligence. The scenery as we left the Lake District became more and more bleak until we finally reached the open expanses of Patagonia.
(About as interesting as it gets)I didn't know it then ,but I do now, Patagonia is defined not so much by a geographical border as it is by a natural phenomena WIND. Holy shit it blows from here all the way to Ushuaia, all day, all night, all directions. It sucks. We stayed the night in a little town on where the road changes from asphalt to the "ripio" or dirt road the route is famous for. I did get to see a few Road Runners, the birds out of the Acme Cartoon, that was cool but it wasnt enough keep me entertained outside of the 3 minutes it took for the first one to pass.
(Dirt roads to the horizon and beyond, well beyond)In the morning we set of again and it was dull from the start. Not helped at all by the Frenchies wanting to get a picture of everything on the roadside, including a horse, for f$%s sake have you never seen a horse! and off course from inside the bus with the flash on. On the plus side the spare driver (the road sucks so much they alternate every 4 hours) sat by me and we slated the Frenchies in Spanish which passed the boredom, as there was literally nothing to see, NOTHING
(Nothing, WOW! and this was pretty stuff)Now some people buzz out on this, but its not like the Nebraska cornfields "nothing", or desert "nothing", its ugly nothing and I couldnt stand it, let alone wait to get off. But we ended up being hours late as Jean Paul and company had to have a Cappuchino at every gas station along the way.
Finally at 11.30pm at night we rolled into El Chalten, home to one of the worlds most spectacular peaks Cerro Fitzroy. Well being jam packed with 2 week travellers all the hostels were booked so I took my tent and set it up in near freezing winds at midnight which was glorious fun. In the morning the area was covered in cloud but went for a brief walk anyway up into the hills and could hardly see my own hand for most of the time. This is more or less the usual 330 days a year.
(Mountain flowers when it stopped snowing for a few minutes)Met up with Sarah again in the morning and hung around eating chocolate and drinking red wine which was as awful as it sounds.
However the next morning something incredible happened, the sky cleared and the entire range was visible. I hiked up to the view point taking picture after picture on the way, and letting off many expletive's as well. This place is simply stunning. The pictures convey it a little, but this might even beat the Grand Teton to be my favourite mountain but ill have to think about that. I took a steep walk up to the view point under the spires, then to another glacier further down, just making it back to the town on sunset.
(Note condor in the top right)The next day I set out to the separate group known as the Towers with Sarah. After 10 hours hiking the day before and next to no exercise for weeks beforehand my body was in a sorry state and basically limped all the way there and back, smiling the whole way nether the less, its simply stunning!
Would have liked to stay and hike for a few more days but I had seen the main sights and my old body wasn't going to hold out for much longer, so seeing as the weather was good I decided to head for El Calafate and the Perrito Moreno Glacier. Had a last dinner with Sarah which turned p to be one of the best, utterly Delicious Eye Filet steak.
Then headed out to the Glacier the following afternoon, for some reason I decided to take the boat up the glacier first which was impressive but more or less the same as seeing it from the walkway. In the first picture those two objects on the lake are large two story catamarans!
(Glaciers, Blue!)Eitherway its a truly impressive sight as it winds it way down from the Andes and across the lake touching the other side. The glacier blocks of the other side of the lake creating a difference in water levels which is levelled by connecting streams under the surface, occasionally these are blocked and huge differences are created leading to stunning collapses when the water eventually finds its way through.
More than any thoer Glacier I have seen the noise here is incredible, as the walkway puts you meters from the centre of it. Every few minutes the air is filled with almighty cracks and crunches as the ice wynds it way into the lake. Every now and then slabs of ice break off into the water, creating huge splashes. I was lucky enough to capture a really large piece breaking off, a tour guide who happened to be there said he is lucky to see that once a month, so pretty content with my days work.
(Beginning of the ice collapse scroll thorugh)
Cleverly it is impossible to visit the glacier and make the bus to Rio Gallegos (hence other buses) in one day, so me being a cheap scumbag I wasn't going to pay for another nights accommodation so I booked the 3am bus to Ushuaia and slept in the hotel lobby.The Argentine Chilean border is a proper circus, Chile has frankly crazy restrictions on all kinds of goods from Argentina and vice verse, which is strange as both share easily passable land boarders in many places. It seems more or less to be about job creation and being a nuisance. Its even more ridiculous considering everyone is heading to Argentina again once they cross through Chile, and there is seriously nothing in between, so stupid. Anyway after throwing away more or less all my cooking supplies and waiting for a few hours we re boarded the bus and made our way to Tierra Del Fuego.
The bus has to cross the Straights of Magellan by boat so we got off and tried to walk into the howling winds. There was a fat little Gentoo Penguin on the shore, I managed to get a few pictures before the rest of the tourists spotted him. He didn't seem to fussed and they got closer and closer. I was sitting there thinking to myself "wait little fella they´ll get closer then take your chance", oh and he did (getting within a few ft of the penguin the stupid munters), unfortunately no fingers were lost but there were fat Frenchies scattering in all directions with a mad 2ft high penguin doing laps of the beach, frankly it made my day. The crossing was relatively calm and accompanied by dolphins most of the way, which of course set of another round of flash photography, then we were there the "land of fire".
I really cant think of a more inappropriate name for this place. It got that name, when Magellan passed through and the locals on the shore (who Darwin labelled the lowest form of humanity) had dozens of fires blazing away to keep warm (didn't help that they hardly wore clothes). The land of ice and wind is much more fitting. Its near on impossible to stand in places and when we again crossed the boarders it was a fight to make it into the offices, and I am being serious.
After passing through the magnificent Darwin range we wound down to the last stop in my trip south, Ushuaia. Ushuaia the furthest town reachable by road and according to them an nearly everyone else the southernmost in the world. This is kinda weird as it just isn't. Across the Beagle Channel (further south) is the Chilean settlement of Puerto Williams, but that is a swear word in these parts, if you pretend it doesn't exist it might go away! Its not even a small town when I passed it a few days later it must have over thousand inhabitants, but Ushuaia is the southernmost town in the world and don't forget it!.
(Ushuaia harbour)They both however, are freezing, with polar winds blowing of the sea that never gets above 6 degrees Celsius in the heart of summer, delightful!. I was nice being back in a town with actual shops etc though and went back to chow down on humongous portions of meat yet again. In Argentina its possible to have steak for breakfast steak for lunch and steak for dinner, frankly its glorious and decided to treat myself in this style as soon I would be in Chile whose claim to faim is fruit, uggh!.
Somehow I had got confused and thought the famous penal colony was in the nearby estancia at Haberton so booked a cruise bus package as public transport is more or less non existent on the island. This was an awful idea. This was re-iterated when I turned up 30 minutes early to get a seat and was the last person to board, this means one thing PACKAGE TOURISTS, yuck!, In protest I sat on the deck in the wind and rain (had the gear for it) as we headed out to sea. Fortunately conditions were a little rough and most were vomiting after a few minutes much to my amusement. We spent about 2 hours circling a pile of rocks with a few birds and some seals on them, honestly! I was like somebody had spotted a Blue Whale or a Dodo, and off course all with flashes blazing.
(Puerto Williams real Southernmost city in the world, see told you it exists)
Finally the boat got going and we headed to a Penguineria, the boat beached itself and the hordes rushed to the front snapping away wildly. The penguins weren't fussed lying on the rocks thinking to themselves "idiots turn your flash off", after that we made it to the estancia and a few of us who were taking the bus back, got off.
(Magellanic Penguins, Bofered? No)Now it was announced 30 minutes before to get ready to leave but as the boat left , one person was still on board that needed to be with us (after it had left again), I´ll give you a guess where he was from ........ you got it France! well done. Now Pierre wasn't all there I suspect but this doesn't mean we need to be nice to him.
Anyway I cant really talk, it was at this point I realised this was a sheep farm and not a penal colony , GREAT, just what I need to see coming from NZ! We did go for a walk and learn about some of the aborigines that lived there (all have been evicted from the island of one entire group from existence), and to be honest from the description I got , I kind of have to agree with Darwin.
(Estancia Haberton)There was a really interesting marine museum where dozens of beached mammals had been cleaned an displayed. We then got a tour by a biologist of the plant, including watching the boiling down of a dead Whale, I can assure you it wasn't pretty. Even worse, when an animal has been rotting for weeks they have to leave it in a barrel with water for a year, when she removed the lid enclosing a dead sealion half the group started dry reaching, it was awesome. Argentina is possibly the only country on earth where even Biologists look like models, I liked the tour a lot.
(cooking some Whale bones)The bus ride back was a living hell and served me right for doing a tour, we took pictures of some trees ,
(Tierra Del Fuego, Windy!)some beaver dams (the navy introduced them for hunting, but they don't have the right food so the pelts suck, with no predators they have taken over the island) and then some husky centre. This was the worst, we all to sit down and hear about huskies and the Iditorod race for an hour. We got to watch a video of the Olympic torch being taken from Ushuaia by huskies to which Pierre asked "did they go all the way to China on sleds", I could help myself and said "you f$%kn retard" in English and although the group was 99% Spanish they erupted into laughter, I mean seriously. The group then looked at .... you guessed it dogs for a bit (apparently they have never seen them before) while I sat in the bus contemplating the imminent extinction of humanity.
I had been trying to get on a boat to Antartica as Ushuaia is the last stop South and often the have cut price fares. I managed to find a 20 day trip for 70% off (still 4000 us) but would have missed my flights home. Also I was only really interested as I was there, I kinda think people can go and trash everywhere else, Antartica should really be off limits to people who have no scientific interest there (that includes most nations who build bases more of less for the imminent land grab in the future). Anyway after numerous attempts trying to find a discounted 10 day trip I gave up and went to the maritime museum that is based in the old penal centre.
The museum is outstanding in both the setting and in the exhibits. The maritime section is set in a restored section of the prision and runs down one of the five massive wings. Then there is a wing dedicated to those who were sent here, mostly the lowest section of Argentine criminals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the ones that for various reasons didnt or couldnt get the death penalty and of course political prisoners that always seem to end up in forsaken places such as this. They were put to physical labour working in the surrounding area developing the foundations of the town today.
Back them Ushuaia might as well have been another planet and the journet from Buenos Aires took nearly a month, shackled to a boat nearly the entire time. It was so isolated that prisoners could basically move freely during the day like the Gulags in Siberia , escape almost certinaly meant death via starvation or hypothermia. There was infact only one definate escape from a group of political prisoners that recieved help from Chile seeing as they werent real criminals. One section of the prision has been left unrenovated to show how it looked then (although heavily decayed) and its a miserable place indeed. I spent around an hour looking into the cells, the decaying floorboards and taking pictures freezing cold the entire time (in what they call summer)
With some difficulty I escaped Ushuaia on another full day bus ride to Puerto Natales, the base for trips to the famous National Park, Torres Del Paine. Now weather forecasts don't count for much here but when they are terribly bad I am prone to trusting them, so I hung out in the hostel for 3 days while polar winds and snow battered the area. Although its not Argentina, Chile kinda "gets it" as well. Seeing as people go hiking here the shops sell ..... hiking food ! like dehyrdated fruit, pasta meals etc (Bolivia take note you dispshits this is how you make money!) which made getting ready vastly easier than anywhere else. I had to go on Wednesday as I wouldn't make my ferry North otherwise and it was with great relief that I was met with blue skies and warm winds as the bus made its way to the park to complete the famous W circuit.
Now I´ve get the bitching done first this place is expensive, ridiculously so. They know that if you come all the way down here your going to pay it, as well. They claim that the money goes to all Chilean Parks but being South America I suspect it goes straight to buying some fancy warship etc (or some shiny new medals when Pinochet was in power, you get he picture) I have utterly no proof of this but its South America and that's just how it works. Anyway after paying $30 US for the monopolized bus, I then payed $30US for park entry, and then another $22US for a 30 minute boat trip to the trail head! to make things even crazier this doesn't even include access to all campsites, over half of which are run by private companies and charge around $8 a night. Furthermore these private campsites feature Refugio's that offer a bed in a building for around $70 US a night with meals which makes the park a hit with those that have no right to be here. If you don't like the outdoors and camping its simple, stay in London or NY or whatever city you come from, easy (feel pretty strongly about this, its not Yellowstone). I have no problem with building big resorts outside the park and you can ferry bus loads of gapers in each day, but they have no right to stay here. One day its a Refugio, then you have cabanas(started already), then hotels(one just built), then you need housing for staff etc, etc and soon enough you don't have a park anymore.
(something I will hopefully never see again, hopefully)Right that's the bad side I had to get it out of the way, next onto one of the most scenically stunning places on earth.
At took the boat across the lake and hiked up over a ridge towards the Grey Glacier.
The wind here is insane (it always is here) the wind vane at the lodge read 70kph more or less constantly, it was far stronger when I approached the summit. It wasn't a problem however as when you reach there, the glacier is in plain sight as is the Southern Tip of the Patagonian Ice Field, the largest non-polar ice field on earth. You simply cant get any idea of the scale of it from pictures, its truly massive. 
(Glacier Grey and the Patagonian Ice Field)From here its a sharp descent to the lake and a hike to a private campsite, complete with a store, hot showers and other shit that doesnt belong here. I was far from impressed so walked on up above the glacier to a free campsite. This was more like it, trees silence (excluding the occasional cracks and crunches of the glacier) and stunning views. Went to the lookout over the glacier at sunset which was unreal, its huge, utterly huge. A Jandal blowout (don't wear jandals rock climbing people) led me to slide 20ft down a bank but other than a few scrapes all was well, and a lesson learned.
Had a scrumptious meal of tuna surprise (2 minute noodles, tuna, cheese) and offered my stove to a hard Aussie (Tim) who was hiknig without a stove and hence warm food. Had a good chat and passed out. It didn't rain during the night but the weather was far from good, taking away my enthusiasm from hiking to the pass and hence looking over the ice field. From here we hiked back to the ferry dock and continued along towards Campamiento Italiano.
The wind was so insane that I saw someone get blown over, and came pretty close several times myself. This campsite being on the main section of the "W" was far more popular and the facilities disgraceful. I would hate to the see the other parks if this is the flagship, and made me seriously doubt the allocation of the profits. The toilets were all overflowing and as most people hiking here being highly inexperienced had crapped in and around the water supply! lovely! this made for a fun 5 minute hike whenever one wanted water free from cholera. The camp attendants answer was to go to the private site down the road, helpful!. Also met up with two friendly yanks form the hostel and had a full dinner crew which was good experience, even if I was eating lentils and rice (Tuna suprise sounds delicious now doesnt it)The following morning I got up at 5am crawled out of my tent down to the bridge just to see if there was a chance of the famous red sunset, and yes , yes there was. I thought of going back to tell the others at the campsite, but it just couldn't stop looking at it, unreal. To make things better the day was blue sky and windless (unheard off).
There is another unusual feature of this park and that is the part for which it is named after and famous for is not the highlight. The highlight is 2 hours hike from where I was, the Valle De Frances and I was about to have it on a bluebird, windless day! Even people at the campsite fail to realise this and so it was Tim, the Yanks and me first on the trail up to the view point. The views just got better and better, and they had started out stunning!.
Even the beech forest is stunning and we were without the Refugio crew who seldom venture far up this trail as its not on the front page on their Lonely Planets. Soon enough we reached the top, words are pointless and the pictures don't do It justice but here they are anyway.
Seeing as we only had a short 2.5 hours hike to the next site we decided to try and make it to what appeared to be a pass and hiked up over snow for 2 hours and found nothing but more hiking up and up, It wasn't a waist of time however the views were just unreal. On the way down we raced through the snow thoroughly soaking our boats and occasionally sinking waist deep.
It was a bit of a hurry in the afternoon as our 6.5 hour day had become 10 but we made it on sunset to the only option, a private campsite by the Lake. Not impressed at paying $8 (which I tried to avoid paying all night) I decided to make it count and took an hour shower that I figured to be worth $8, I wish I had a waterproof book then I would have been in there all night. Was only enjoying it thinking of the gas it was burning away and therefore their money.
By now my treasured cargo pants were ripped in 9 places, one rip stretching from the knee to the ankle and I drew a few looks from the poofs in the Refugio sipping Chardonnay (I shit you not), a group a Germans were pointing from inside and having a giggle, I must have been a great surprise then when there were staring at my arse 5 seconds later from 4 metres away haha. The next day was supposed to be a murderous 8.5 hours up to the highest campsite so Tim and I set out at first light, it was however a beautiful hike and took us just over 6 hours to reach the high camp, underneath the Torres (Towers). The campsite in contrast to the other had an excellent caretaker and was a great place to pass time as the sun dropped behind the mountains.
We got up at 4am to try and get a glimpse of the red sunset on the towers which happens every now and again. I got lost somehow on the trail up and ended up running through beeThch forest in the dark ending up on a ridge alone some way from the actual viewpoint. This ended up being a benefit as the others couldn't make out the red clouds behind the towers which were unreal. We only got a little glint of light on the towers before it faded but it was enough for me and the end of a very successful and utterly magnificent hike.
When I got back to town I was gutted to learn my ferry had been cancelled due to technical reasons! Well I wasn't going to take a bus that's for sure. I was going to fly to where the ferry stopped at Puerto Montt and continue by bus, but I'm over it now, so its a flight all the way the Santiago then home via LA.
Just for the record I took 147 buses from Mexico City down to get here and im not taking another.
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