World Wide Webbs

2017 South America – Patagonia

Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego

Monday 16th January

We are up at 5.30 am for a 6.00 breakfast before we are taken to the International airport for the three hour flight to Ushuaia.

We arrive in light rain and strong wind low mists covering the snow capped mountains above the city.

We go to our hotel where we book in and then walk up through the town to buy a roll at a small café. We eat this by the tourist office we go down to the quay to go out for a boat trip on the Beagle Channel.

 Down on the quayside we watch the birds that are new to us Dolphin Gulls, Giant Petrels and Steamer Ducks whilst waiting for our boat.

The rain stops and between the windblown clouds the sun is trying to peep through. The wind is so strong that the boat we are due to sail on has been cancelled and a catamaran has been substituted to take us down the channel to Lighthouse Island and back again.

Charles Darwin and Robert Fitzroy in 1833 had struggled for three days against the afternoon winds that blow eastwards along the Beagle Channel having to wait until night-time when the winds dropped before they could travel westwards through the Channel.

We board the catamaran and travel to an island just out in the channel from Ushuaia densely populated with Imperial and Rock Shags/Cormorants and the occasional Sea Lions which leaves a distinctive ammonic aroma in the air.

We then turn to the east and travel some ten miles between the low hills of the Channel the clouds lifting to show their snowy tops.

At Lighthouse Island there are a number of adult sea lions both male and female and loads of pups.

Heading back to Ushuaia against the wind is quite rough but tolerable.

In the evening we are taken by Marcelo to the Lola fish restaurant with a lovely sunset and view over the city.

Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego

Tuesday 17th January

A bright day and we are up for breakfast at 7am to get an early start at 8am. These early mornings are OK because we haven’t fully adjusted to the time difference yet.

We are joined by two young women guides from the Tierra del Fuego National Park who are to take us on a walk through the park this morning.

We drive out of Ushuaia westwards under a grey sky along a road that becomes a dirt track. We go into the park and are dropped at the beginning of trail.

Our five mile trail takes us through southern beech woodland where only the Guido (Evergreen Beech), Nire (Low Beech) and Lenga (High Beech) trees grow along with the shrubs Romerillo (Fashine Scrub) and Canelo (Winter’s Bark), used as part of sailor’s diet to offset scurvy.

Amongst the woodland are orchids (Dog and Yellow), bushy lichens (Old Man’s Beard and Chinese Lantern) and Quilineja (Almond Flower).

The most fascinating flora is the Indian Bread a fungal growth on the beech trees that provided a staple part of the Yaghanese (Fuegian Indian) diet. These were the native people of the area.

As the sun comes out birds appear amongst the trees, Austral Parakeets, Rayaditos, White-throated Tree Creepers and Wrens.

As we walk out alongside the Bay of Lapataia there are Steamer Ducks, Kelp Gulls and Upland, Kelp and Ashy-headed Geese.

We lunch on a gravel beach further along the Channel at the eastern end of the bay. It starts to rain as we have lunch so we eat quickly and move on.
Walking around by Laguna Negla and over into the Beagle Ensenada we see the middens of the early natives the Yaghanese who moved around in wooden canoes and hunted sea lions and mussels, the shells of which form the middens.

The Yaghanese disappeared when the Europeans arrived in the 1890s mainly of European diseases.

We finish our walk at the Post Office at the end of the world which provides shelter from the wind and rain and some interesting maps of the area.

It was a lovely walk with excellent guides.

Most of the party go on to an excursion to Harbenton to see the penguins.

It is another four hours driving whilst and we spend the time enjoying the city catching up on photos and relaxing.

We go up to the pleasantly busy local King Crab restaurant in the evening on our own as the others are not back and feast on crab.

Apparently the penguins trip was excellent so we are slightly miffed but can’t do it all and have twelve hours drive in the coach tomorrow ! They do however share their experience and photos with us.

Tierra Del Fuego – Punta Arenas

Wednesday 18th January

We have an early start on a cloudy wet morning. Instant coffee and a pastry for breakfast before we start on our way across Patagonia to Chile and the town of Punta Arenas.

We cross through the tail of the Andes that rise above Ushuaia and go from West to East across Tierra del Fuego to end in the Atlantic 100 km to the east.

We stop at the pass through the Andes before making our way to the desert town of Tolhuin where we buy our lunch at a large patisserie a meat and veg. selection of empanadas and then sit and enjoy a coffee.

Before shopping we have a short walk around what feels like a frontier town and spot a Chimango Caracara bird sitting on a fence post.

The journey from here to the Chilean border and on to the ferry crossing over the Magellan Straits is an endless desert of scrub grass and gravelly hills with occasional glimpses of the Atlantic lying on mud flats along the shallow coastline strip.

Occasionally we get a sighting through the rain and spray of guanacos and rheas or maybe even sheep and cows but for the most part there is nothing.

The ferry over the Magellan Stait from Punta Espora is a simple roll-on roll-off ferry a bigger version of the King Harry Ferry across the River Fal.

Loading is a chaotic process, but we are soon under way across a blustery strait with dolphins swimming alongside at one point.

Once off the ferry, it takes one and a half hours for the coach to reach our destination Punta Arenas . It reminds us of Smogen in Sweden on its outskirts.

The central square however has a distinct colonial feel in square with a simple white cathedral.

This is the town Finn’s Arboleta came from and we take some photographs to send to her. On the sea front where the former docks were there are old fish sheds decorated with graffiti, a new casino and a bizarre monument to Magellan.

In the evening we all eat together at a local restaurant that specialises in seafood although Marcelo’s crab was definitely past its sell by date ! The highlight of the town is apparently the Shackleton Bar which we miss out on visiting having left the restaurant a few minutes before the decision is made to visit. From the state some were in the next morning a good decision.

Punta Arenas to Torres del Paine 

Thursday 19th January
A quick and rather unpleasant processed breakfast leaves us with a few minutes to wander around the town before our journey northwards to the Torres del Paine (pronounced ‘painee’) National Park. Our first stop is the town of Puerto Natales that promotes itself as a gateway to the National Park.

We stop here for lunch and then explore the town getting some fresh fruit and nibbles paying by credit card. We are asked for our passport number and then have to sign the receipt which threw us a bit. I make up a number and manage a signature but it makes us wary as we do not have any Chilean pesos.

The town is on the edge of a lake with Black-headed swans and views of the mountains we are heading towards.

On our journey through the afternoon towards Torres Del Paine we stop at the Cuevo where the skeletal remains of a giant sloth had been found at the end of the 19th Century. Our model now stands in the impressively large cave which is a glacial feature made by the waters swirling down from the glacial edge.

On we go over rougher and rougher roads until we can see the mountains with their turquoise blue lakes and glaciers, one snaking through the mountains, getting closer and closer.We arrive at our hotel in the late afternoon. Cabanas del Paine is a series of cabins set around a restaurant next to a lake with a breathtaking view over the Torres Del Paine massif.

Ours was the furthest away and it felt a bit like camping so we are obliged to wash our clothes accordingly.

The sun shone and we sit beside the lake drinking beer, some in shorts!

A briefing and a plate of food you could choose from the buffet was great and we have a fun evening with Meiko and Marcelo.

From the window of our cabin we spot Southern Lapwing and some huge Hares.

Torres Del Paine

Friday 20th January
We have a good breakfast to prepare for the day’s trek into the Torres Del Paine. We are joined by Georges our guide for the next two days. After leaving our hotel with we have to register as we drive into the park and start the long journey around to the other side of the massif where we can follow a valley into the heart of the mountains.

The drive around is interesting we have stunning views of the lakes getting a brighter and brighter blue and then grey as we get closer to their source glaciers.

The track we follow climbs steadily and we see the llama-like guanaco’s grazing in small herds on the grassy hills usually with one standing on the top of a hill like a sentry. They are interesting small camel like animals which we become fascinated with the next day trying to get close up photographs.

We arrive at a large centre with car parking and accommodation where we leave our coach to start the trek. The first mile is along the track past the car parks and small hotels before we start to climb up to the valley we are to follow.

It is a popular trek and there are lots of people although at this stage reasonable well spread out.

Climbing into mountains is a good feeling and the steep zigzagging climbs. As it levels off we follow contoured paths along the line of the valley – very familiar. The views behind us are of the open grasslands over a wide plain and but in front of us the rawness of the mountain ranges is quite different.

As we ascend the first climb it is clear that several of our group are struggling. We get a welcome diversion having to go back down most of the path we have climbed to retrieve Janet’s glasses left on a bank where we have had a stop. We soon catch the group up.

At the refuge, down by the river, it is decided that some will walk with us to the foot of the climb up to the last Col by the lake and then remain there before making their own way down to the car park.

After continuing up the valley for a bit the path starts to climb more steeply through the trees before breaking out onto the scree that forms the base of the steep climb up to the lake.

It is very hard work uneven over and around large boulders and steep.

This coupled with lots of people climbing up and down at different paces makes it difficult.

A small group reach the base de Las Torres by a glaciated lake, the surrounding rocks shiny and the three pinnacles of the Torres rising vertically into the sky.

As we eat our lunch viewing the huge mountain wall in front of us the cloud drifts across the top third.
We all have a good sense of achievement and eventually twelve of our group had made it.
The peaks were about 3,000 m high and we had climbed 890 mts.

After lunch we descended slowly, through the crowds and the clouds of drizzle that had started to fall, in fact we queued! It was not nice with people pushing past on the slippery steep path.

Eventually people thinned and it became less pressured and we got below the cloud and back into the sunshine. As we retrace our steps to the car park we find ourselves on our own as stragglers had been left behind and there is time to enjoy the flora and fauna.

The Magellan Orchid, the Condor, Torrent Duck and the Rufus-collared Sparrow are of particular note.

The group that had opted out of the final climb are waiting in the hot sunshine having drinks and ice creams.

It gets quite hot and we have to scrounge some money from Ricci to get a bottle of water as we have not brought any money with us.

We had spread out a lot and it was another hour before Marcelo and Georges appear with the stragglers weary but glowing with a sense of achievement.
The journey back to the hotel is subdued and we are all pleased to get back for a shower and a rest before meeting up for a beer and dinner.

Day 10 :Torres Del Paine

Saturday 21st January

Another full day lies ahead of us. This morning a trip to the Cuernos waterfall and this afternoon a zodiac ride down the Serrano River to a glacier.

The day starts sunny and bright but with a very strong wind.

On our way the waterfall which we had passed yesterday we stop at the Puente Weber viewpoint for a photo opportunity.

The Cuernos waterfall is very impressive with a huge volume of water forcing its way down a rocky defile throwing up spray to make a rainbow.

It is so windy we are not able to do the walk along the riverside so we drive out to another riverside point where we see torrent ducks.

It is just as we are getting to the river that Graham sees a huge pale coloured cat in a gully by the side of the road but is so stunned by the sight that he fails to shout out so no one else sees it. Marcelo and George agree that it must be a Puma.

We look at the waterfall and then return to the valley to see if it could be seen.
Graham and Marcelo look down in the gully but there is no trace.

As we drive around the clouds formations are white amazing all strange shapes and pattern.

We start to return to the Hotel for lunch but stop to photo hunt Guanacos and look at the roadside flowers.

Returning to the Cabanes we eat our packed lunch sitting by the river in the sun.

Our boat trip up the Serrano River starts from the picnic spot and we are met by our boatmen with a Zodiac inflatable boat and equipped with insulated coats and life jackets for our journey that is likely to be cold and wet.
Travelling along the Serrano is a very different experience, the river is flowing fast and the inflatable hops and bounces through the water.

At one point we reach some large rapids. We disembark and join another Zodiac below the rapids that takes us to the Serrano Glacier.

Once we reach the rapids we walk over the top to another boat and then we speed down to the Serrano glacier.

As we make our way up the wide meandering Channel the large Tyndall glacier is in view to the north and we see Upland Geese on gravelly islands in the river.

We soon pull up alongside a jetty where we disembark and walk up a walkway to near the foot of the glacier which was small but impressive, the vibrant blue cracks and crevasses wonderful even in the rain!

The lagoon contained the iceberg remains of the glacier’s calvings

As we leave we are given a Piscos bitter on ice to drink which is a nice touch.
It is raining off and on as we make our way back down river to the Cabanas where we have a buffet meal before going off to bed.

Day 11 : Torres del Paine to El Calafate

Sunday 22nd January

It is sad to leave the first place we have at last stayed for any length of time and where the views are so magnificent. What is to come however is eagerly anticipated. We pack and go off on our bus to the Chilean border where we are to change buses and drivers. We also have to say goodbye to our driver and our guide Georges.

The border control getting back into Argentine is as tedious as when we came into Chile. There is a souvenir shop/café where we go whilst waiting to go through customs. It is a bit of a culture shock after the isolation we have had over the previous few days. We have a coffee and resist the temptation to buy anything else.

Having crossed the border we descend back onto the Patagonian plain. The landscape is undulating and there are river cut, as well as glacial, valleys but it is all still fairly bleak and barren. Occasionally we see rhea or guanaco but in the main nothing.

We stop for lunch at a wayside café on a road junction some five kilometres further on where our companions queue for lunch whilst we buy a bag of crisps without queuing and wait to get a salad to share once the queue has gone. We pass the time looking at our phones following Arsenal beating Burnley .. just.

The weather is drier and warmer as we get back on the bus to drive to our destination for the evening El Chalten.

The light blue of Lago Argentina is stunning and the mountains we are heading for are just appearing through the haze on the horizon. We stop at a view point but are more interested in the Caracara that is feeding out of a waste bin than the view across Lago Argentina.

In the afternoon we make a tea break at La Leona a café in the middle of nowhere with a story about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

We have a cup of Maté and buy a Patagonia Route 44 T shirt as a birthday present for Ben.

As we approach El Chalten we see the Viedma Glacier across the lake. This is where we are to be trekking in two days time.

We stop at another view point but the Fitzroy Massif we should be viewing is in cloud.  The wall of rock we had been approaching that seemed to have a dark stain reveals itself as an immense rocky hillside with forest on the top. The scale of the landscape is constantly playing tricks on us.

The yellow coarse grass that is such a feature of the Patagonian deserts is here and we hear how the sheep brought into the continent by colonists struggled to eat this coarse grass whereas the guanaco thrived on it.

On into the town of El Chalten which has a good feel to it. It is a new town only having been established in 1985 as the trekking centre of Argentina. Its focus on recreation and leisure gives it a buzzy care free feel which is not sophisticated but very pleasant.

It had the feel of a European mountain resort with lots of young people walking, camping, sites, feeding from a number of small supermarkets and having a beer in one of the many bars in the town.

We ate as a group in a busy shack restaurant which served superb steak and the pasta wasn’t bad either.

Day 12 : El Chalten

 Monday 23rd January
We get up early to start walking but it is raining heavily so the start is delayed until midday.

The rain eases by ten o clock so we go for a walk around the town seeking places to get food and cash and having a coffee in a nice laid back café near the hotel. Janet is looking for a pair of gloves for our Ice Trek tomorrow but with no luck. The town is on hold as most people are there to walk and slowly people start to appear on the streets and start wandering up onto the mountain trails.

We get going at midday with our two guides. We leave the town and climb steadily through lovely woodland with spectacular views over the enormous glacial valley of the Rio de las Vientas.

We walk up to the first level above the valley where the path makes its way through mature woodland. As we walk the rain stops, the clouds break and the sun comes out. We climb our way up to the view point overlooking the Fitzroy massif.

The views from the Mirador improve as we sit and eat our lunch. The group has become very spread out and it is decided that those who want to do the longer walk should go on and the others do a shorter walk back to the Hotel.

Relieved a group of eight us set off walking at a better rate than before. The going is easy with very little climb as we wind through the forest and out onto an area of stony scrub before reaching Campamento Poincenet, the base camp below the Fitzroy Massif.
Along the route we pass the Glacier Piedras Blancas and by the side of a stream I find a pair of insulated gloves for Janet to use tomorrow.

Because we started out late we are unable to climb up to the ridge below the massif but the air has cleared and the views of the mountains towering above us are amazing.

Camping at the base camp is primitive with cleared areas under the trees not looking particularly comfortable.

Environmental management controls do not allow you to wash in or near to the stream.

Here we find a Yellow Finch and Rufous-necked Sparrow on a log and a white swallowtail type butterfly on the path.

The route back takes us past Lake Capri from where we shift up a gear and strike out with Pauline and Janice making fast time on our descent into El Chalten.

We buy some food for tomorrow, have a shower and a swim in the hotel, before going out on our own for a meal at the restaurant we had been the night before.

It is a lovely sunny evening and the restaurant is empty so we feel relaxed as we head back to our hotel for the night.

Day 13 : El Chalten

 Tuesday January 24th

We wake to a crisp sunny morning. With some others of the group we walk down to Patagonia Adventures in the town where about 100 people board coaches to take us to the jetty at Bahia Tunel on Lake Viedma for our Glacier Visit and Ice Tek.

We are the only two from our group going on the Ice Trek so we get onto the smaller of the two boats at the jetty and sail across the lake to the foot of the Glacier Viedma where we disembark, put on helmets and make our way slowly in a group of about fifteen across shiny glacier worn rock to the foot of the glacier.

It is very windy as we cross the rock and the wind does not die down until we are on the ice. Along the way we have views of the vertical jagged wall that is breaking into the water with great booms.

Having descended steeply down metal ladders to the edge of the glacier we put on crampons and get a quick lesson in walking in them.

We walk slowly in a single file out across the glacier surface.     The colours and shapes are amazing.

The leaders are four in total. The chief guide clearly and simply explains the glacial processes and the features we are seeing.

There are three assistants who move carefully around us helping us over any hazards. There is also a photographer along with us taking photos he hopes we will later purchase and who helpfully recovers my glove when it blows away.

The surface of the glacier and the views across it up through the snow field are unreal. It is like being in a natural history film. Walking on top where there are so many undulations caused by fissures, holes and where there are different gradations of colour from all shades of white/ grey/ blue, is fascinating. Sometimes we are walking on broad surfaces or just a narrow strip.
We walk for about an hour before stopping to sit on the ice and eat our lunch. We are offered an opportunity to ice climb the side of one of the shallow crevasses.

We initially decline but when we realise we will have to stand and wait whilst others do it we decide we might as well do it too. About a third of the group take part and it is great fun once are doing it but a bit daunting to watch and wait your turn.

The wall is 20 metres high and you are harnessed and given ice axes. It is quite hard as you have to bang in the ice axes, kick your crampons into the ice and pull yourself up on the axes.

Not easy but we both achieve it.
At the end before we left the glacier the guide gives us some very clear information about the volcanic ash that makes grey streaks across the surface of the glacier. The assistants meanwhile set up glasses of ice to drink, with Tia Maria generously applied, which was lovely.

We then make our way slowly off the ice and return across the windblown rock to the boat and back to El Chalten as we had come.

We have time for a quick shower and change before we go out for a group meal in the town.

Day 14: El Calafate

Wednesday 25th January (Finns Birthday)

We leave El Chalten first thing after breakfast, retracing our steps past La Leona café before turning westwards towards the City of El Calafate.

The landscape is monotonously similar but the journey is less than 4 hrs and with a mid morning break it is bearable. A stop along the way has the added interest of a Grey Patagonian Fox hanging around the litter bins.

In the city we go to a bakery where the local dogs grow exceptionally fat on the hand outs of customers as they leave. Here we purchase our empanada lunch some crisps from the shop next door and a cup of coffee.

We meet with our guide Georgina who tells the history of El Calafate as a crossroads for shepherds taking flocks of sheep from the foothills of the mountains to the ports on the Atlantic 300km away. As now there are many Calafate berry bushes growing here.

The juice of the berry helps to waterproof the sheep’s skins as well as provide food for travellers. A small berberis type plant with a bilberry size fruit, it is used in cream and ice cream.

Our coach takes us to the Perito Moreno Glacier, the largest glacier in South America held in equilibrium by the huge Southern Patagonian Icefield. It looms into sight around a bend in the road. The sight of the face of the glacier above the lake is awesome. It is only when you realise you are still three miles away you realise just how big it is.

 We are to take a boat trip around the face of the glacier before we climb up onto the headland that allows views over the whole of the glacier. The boat takes us up close to the 40 metre high ice wall that is the southern face of the glacier.

There is a respectful silence broken only by the noise of clicking cameras and the creaking and cracking of the ice.

Trekkers like ants on a Christmas cake give the glacier a perspective you cannot otherwise fully comprehend.

We go onto the headland to have lunch before wandering around walkways that offer views all along the eastern and northern faces of the glacier as well far back into the Ice field.

Information boards help us to understand the enormity of what we are looking at.

The glacier is constantly emitting creaks, cracks and rumbles, showing it to be a living thing rather than a sold block of Ice.

We observe calvings along the 70m high northern face, but miss most because you are warned after the event by the delayed cracking sound. We stare in wonder at the deep blue fissures along its crest.

In between the southern and northern faces, towering up to 85 metres in height, the glacier touches the headland beneath us where it rises to form an arch under which water flows between the two lakes. Apparently this periodically breaks with a huge explosive sound, but not today.

All too soon we have to leave and the contrast as we return to the wide flat glacial valley that runs eastward to the Atlantic is fascinating.

Returning to the hotel we prepare for our last meal together and presentation to Marcelo and a few beers to end off our time together, all very pleasant.

Day 15 : El Calafate

Thursday 26th January

We have the morning to ourselves before we fly back to Buenos Aires later on in the afternoon. So we go down to the lake to watch the birds. There are loads of birds – Flamingos, Black-necked Swans and Upland and white red beaked Geese. There are Night Heron, Coot, Southern Lapwing, Snipe, Steamer Duck, Grebe, Black-faced Ibis and Rayadito. We meet some of the others down there doing the same thing.

It is very hot as we make our way through the town. On our way we visit the National Park Centre arboretum and have lunch before going back to the hotel.

We leave El Calafate at five o’clock and make a stopover at Bariloche on the Chilean border arriving back at Buenos Aires City airport just before 10pm and are back in our hotel room shortly after.

We say goodbye to those who are leaving in the early hours of the morning and head off to bed.