The Real Patagonia

We were due to fly from Bariloche to El Calafate at 9.30am and, as requested, we diligently arrived two hours before departure time (this didn't seem unreasonable as boarding was due to start one hour before departure), only to find all the airline desks were closed and the lights in the departures hall were off. Once things finally opened up we set off on time. 

A slither of the turquoise lake from the airport tarmac

From the air we could see that El Calafate is surrounded for miles around by arid hills and valleys with the occasional turquoise lake. The town's main street consists of restaurants, tourist agencies, hotels, hostels and tourist shops. We had a quick stop at a local microbrewery for some beer and pulled meat sandwiches and then headed off to explore the lake. This was our first experience with the Patagonian wind and it was strong (this will be a reoccurring theme) and then returned for an afternoon nap! 

We found some wild flamingos hanging out in the shallow waters around the edges.

The main attraction near El Calafate is the Perito Moreno glacier which is located in the Los Glaciares National Park. Whilst anyone can pay to go into the national park only one company has a license to take people on to the glacier. The following day we joined a coach full of other tourists to head to the viewing platforms of the glacier. The initial drive to and into the national park along the edge of the lake was nothing outstanding, then you drive round a corner and suddenly the lake stops and turns into a wall of ice 70 metres high! It almost looks like a scene from Frozen.

We had nearly two hours to walk along strategically placed viewing platforms opposite the glacier where we took photos from every angle and sat watching the glacier as the sky changed and the sun caught different ice peaks. At the same time there were almighty crashes with echoes as parts of the glacier broke off and fell into the lake. We were told that the glacier is currently a constant size and is not shrinking as so many glaciers are. It is hard to describe the glacier with its irregular shapes and different shades of blue, it is quite mesmerising.

These are just a few of the many photos we took!

Can you spot the ice falling into the water?

We were then driven back to the small harbour and boarded a boat which took us across the front of one the glacier's faces and on to the other side of the lake where we would prepare to walk on the glacier.

The view from the boat

On the other side we had crampons strapped on and we walked on the glacier in small groups going up and down the ice humps. The ice appeared a deeper blue in the cracks and crevices. Unfortunately, the rain decided to appear at this stage and conditions became a bit damp, but they brightened up at the end when our group leader provided us with whiskey poured over ice freshly hacked from the glacier.

Strap on crampons to fit all shoe sizes 

The edge of the glacier 

 The view on the glacier

 One of the crevices

 Walking on the glacier

Refreshments!

 We didn't get back until gone 9pm. After all the ice and rain it was great to have a much needed hot shower!

- Jess

Bariloche: The Argentinian Lake District

After an enjoyable 3 weeks in Chile, it was time to head back into Argentina. Our destination this time was San Carlos de Bariloche. It's a nice town situated on a beautiful lake. The Argentinian lake district. We had a great airbnb with beautiful views of the lake out our window. We're also trying something different with this entry in that Jess got to pick all the photos and I got to tell the story around them.

The view from our airbnb!

Our goal was to do laundry here which turned into quite the experience! Our host was out of town and the guy that checked us in didn't know where the laundry room was. We finally found it but found out we needed tokens to use. A day later we had tokens but found out we didn't have the key to the room. That took another day. When we finally went to do laundry we didn't end up having enough tokens so we had the entire apartment covered in clothes for a night trying to get them to dry before we left early the following morning!

That experience aside, we had a lot of fun here. Our first day we set off to do some hiking out in Llao Llao. There was a bus that left from just outside our place that would take us out there. We bought our bus passes along with some pastries and set off on the road to Llao Llao.

How can you pick just one!

We built our own little circuit to hike using a variety of different trails in the area. The first walk was through the Arrayan forest, which was native to the area. It was a very twisted looking tree with a unique reddish-brown color which really made it stand out. The trail then had a path out onto a lake where we walked along the beach for a bit. 

Immediately regretting letting Jess pick the photos

Selection of shots from our Llao Llao hike

After completing the Arrayan pathway, we crossed the street and headed over onto the Llao Llao circuit, which culminated in a climb of cerro Llao Llao which offered beautiful views of multiple lakes in the area including Lago Nahuel Huapi, the one we can also see from our airbnb. It was a quick, steep climb but the views from the top were our brief glance of what was to come as we moved deeper into Patagonia. We also saw our first condor.

A views of the lakes from atop cerro Llao Llao

 After completing our little circuit we returned back to our place to have some dinner and plan out our next day. We decided to take a hike up to refugio Frey. This was the first hut in a network of trails which created a multi-day trek in the area. The trailhead for this route was actually at the ski resort of Catedral. We caught another bus out front of our place and headed off. Given that it was the summer, there wasn't too much going at the ski area. It's always interesting to see ski runs in the summer when there is no snow. 

As a twist on our refugio Frey hike, and to make it more of a loop than out and back, we took a gondola and chair lift up to the top of the ski area. A short walk later, we found ourselves on the top of the ridge line, scrambling through rocks with a deep valley off to our right in order to approach refugio Frey from the backside. After a couple hours of blazing our own trail through all the rocks on the slope, we had to then scramble down a very steep section from the top of the ridge to a beautiful lake formed from snow melt. Once we reached that part, we had to then scramble down a steep set of rocks to reach the second lake. 

Looking back towards Bariloche from atop the chair lift

A sample of our scrambling and lakes towards refugio Frey

A panoramic view from the ridge looking down into the valley below

Don't look down!

When hiking it's important to pack only the essentials! Like a guitar.
This also shows how steep our descent was into refugio Frey

Refugio Frey was at the opposite end of the second lake. Once we reached there, we found a couple chairs in some rocks outside of the wind and set down for a nice lunch overlooking the lake. On the cliff face just off to our left was a climbing area so we were able to watch some climbers trying to scale the cliff faces as our lunch entertainment!

Refugio Frey. No signs of Lannisters or Starks

Our view from lunch

After lunch we refilled our water from the fresh mountain water tap and set back towards the resort. Our decision to use the ski lift was a good one as the trail out was a bit more traveled and a little broken down in some spots with makeshift bridges holding things together. We managed to make the bus back into town without much delay (they only ran once an hour).

The valley on our way out

 After we got back, we cleaned ourselves up (after doing the previously mentioned laundry) and set out to see what Bariloche had to offer for dinner. It turned into a mini bar crawl with Bariloche's finest local brews. Our first stop was Manush. I had their red lager and IPA, while Jess had the honey ale and pale ale. All were delicious and we paired them with a huge plate of fries (chips) smothered in ham, cheese and chives. I think we set the trend that night because after we had them we looked up and saw three other tables eating them too! Dinner followed at Bachmann with another great red and some BBQ ribs! After a filling dinner, we set off to see if our clothes had dried so we could pack for our early morning flight down to El Calafate.

-Nick (words) & Jess (photos)

Automatic Man, Manual Woman

Apologies in advance. It's been a week since we last updated the blog, but we've been a bit busy hiking if you haven't seen either of our facebook pages. That has lead to an abundance of photos being taken. Coupled with not great upload speeds on the wifi in Patagonia, we're about 150 photos behind that need uploading.

As you can see from the title, this post is all about driving. Our trusty car deserved it's own post after it got us through Chile for two and a half weeks! I am the automatic man. I will admit that I've never driven a manual car, not even in video games.  While Jess is a master of the clutch, the steering wheel just happened to be on the wrong side. 

Our trusty Mazda 6, which was an upgrade! It was also bigger than most parking spots.

For any of you pondering a Chilean adventure, having a car is a great way to get around. While the larger cities offer a good bus service, the freedom of the car really lets you explore.

The main road that spans Chile from north to south is Ruta 5. It's a well traveled, well paved road with quite a bit of tolls (hopefully that go for maintenance). Exits are clearly marked and the signage is frequent and applicable. Gas stations are all accompanied by nice bathrooms and ample food options. There are 3 brands: Copec, Shell and Petrobras. There are always big signs telling you how far you have to the next one. While they typically end up about 100km apart, you always know when the next one is. They also pump your gas for you! In case you're not a fan of gas station food, there were always plenty of options, even right on the side of Ruta 5! People would have these little shacks on the side of the road selling bread or fruit or empandas. They would attract your attention with a ridiculous amount of flags leading up to their stop so you could see it in the distance. The people would be waving flags as well as you got closer.

Roadside food stands

As you get off the main roads into the back roads, it becomes a little more interesting. While very fun to drive, we lost GPS on my phone quite a bit which lead to a few missed turns but we always managed to get back on track. Occasionally you'd end up on a gravel road, especially going up into some of the parks for our hiking.

The car can get a bit dusty after those gravel roads

On the back roads you also have to watch out for animals! We saw horses (even saw those on Ruta 5), ducks, dogs, spiders and even chickens crossing the road that we stopped for!

Parking was very easy. Most of our places offered parking but in the few that didn't, street parking was easy to find. In the main parts of town, street parking was similar to large cities where they would have attendants that would come around and either have you prepay for the time or they would put tickets under your wipers and you'd pay at the end. The larger cities also had garages you could park in. In the small towns, parking was free but they had old ladies that would watch your car for you for a tip of a few coins. Overall, all you had to do was find the big E (parking in Spanish is estacionament).

While the Chilean drivers were all very courteous, they certainly did have some interesting behaviors. The first is that they are terrible at merging. Even though they have ample roadway to merge at speed, they'll drive to the end of that runway and just stop, waiting for a huge gap in traffic to pull out. Their other interesting behavior was with left turns. In the cities, it's not an issue as most time there is either an arrow or each direction gets their own green. On the country roads if they wanted to turn left off the main road, they'd flash their hazards, pull over to the right, let traffic behind them clear, then turn left. I'm sure the guy that did that in front of me was shocked when I just went ahead and turned left before him!

We even learned how to read the car manual in Spanish! We had an indicator light come up right towards the end of our journey that was just a wrench (spanner). Jess decoded the manual to realize we had driven so many kilometers that the car was due for an oil change and tire rotation!

All in all, we did just around 3000km (~1900 miles) on our journey from Santiago, up tho the Elqui Valley, then back down to Puerto Varas. It was a great time loading up on car snacks, listening to random Chilean radio and just seeing the country.

-Nick

Livin' la vida local!

After getting our adrenaline fill in Pucon, we made out way down even further south to Puerto Varas. It's a smaller town on Lago Llanquihue with a view of not one, but two volcanoes! (One of which went off last year). It also has quite a German influence like most of southern mainland Chile. 

Volcan Osorno on the left and Volcan Calbuco on the left (which went off last year)

While the story of Puerto Varas is nice, the story of how we ended up here might be even better (I thought so). When we were planning this region we knew we wanted a couple of nights but really didn't know where to spend them. And then in October while out in Colorado, we were out with some friends of mine, Brent and Kate. We told them about our trip and come to find out Kate went to high school with a guy, Chester, that started a brewery in Chile. Turns out it was in Puerto Varas so we decided that was the place to stay!

Thanks Kate! (and Brent too!)

To add an even more entertaining turn of events, when we were looking for places to stay in Puerto Varas, we came across a cabaña that was available. It looked perfect for our stay so we booked it. In reading some of the reviews, there was mention of beer brewing and the name Chester so we sent a message to our host asking about the connection. It was their place! This was six degrees of Kevin Bacon happening in real life. 

We knew a trip to the brewery had to be on the schedule at some point but with good weather on arrival, we set out to explore the town first. We visited a park right up the street that offered great views of Osorno.

Osorno from across the lake

Then we walked down in to town for our traditional grocery shopping to get breakfast items. We walked along the lake for a bit and then decided to take an hour lake cruise to see the town from the water as well as a get a little closer peak of the volcanoes.

Puerto Varas from the water (which was incredibly clear)

After the boat trip, we were hungry and ready to eat so we stopped at Mesa Tropera, a restaurant that was built out over the water. The had put windows in the floor so walking towards the back of the restaurant you could see the water beneath you. It had a very lively atmosphere and we had some delicious food and drink.

Friday was a low key day. It was raining most of the morning so we took our time getting up and going. We got a text from our air bnb host, Jenny,  inviting us out to the brewery for a lamb BBQ. Sounds like a great way to see a brewery. We scrapped what plans for the day we hadn't made yet and decided to head to the BBQ. Before heading out we needed to scope out the bus station for our departure on Sunday since there is no central bus station here. We got that sorted then picked up some veggies for kebabs to take to the BBQ and headed out.

The lamb goes on.

Chester Beer was the site of the BBQ. It's a small brewery out on a farm, with perfect views of volcan Calbuco. It was too cloudy to see it today, but it would be nice on a sunny day. It was an awesome evening. We got to talk with both Chester and Jenny as well as meet all of their friends. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. They all stopped by to introduce themselves. We truly felt like locals just hanging out. The beer was fantastic as well. It was flowing the whole night and I was able to sample all four of their beers and they were all fantastic. I really enjoyed their IPA while Jess was a big fan of their summer ale.

The party getting started

Our skewers meet the BBQ, Obama's redemption stout and Chester and I pose for a shot

While the lamb served as the main food course (and the kebabs were a hit too!),  the horseshoe tournament served as the main entertainment. This was just a practice tournament for a larger event they had coming up, but the competitiveness was there. Jess and I entered as The Nomads but were quickly dispatched as Jess had never played horseshoes and I hadn't thrown one in 20 years since the Rudemiller renuions!! The tournament went into the night with the playing field being lit by one light and the rain started falling as well!!

The lamb being served

Dedication to the game. Measuring the closest shoe in the rain

Overall it was an awesome time getting to hang out like locals at a backyard BBQ, especially when the backyard happens to be in the back of a brewery. We said our goodbye and headed home after a late night of fun, food and new friends.

Saturday was a tough morning to get up but we had to bite the bullet as we needed to part ways with our trusty rental car that had been our companion for over 2 weeks and 3000 km on all sorts of road. We'll certainly miss the convenience and flexibility of a car. It was a great way to see Chile. After returning the car we headed back to Puerto Varas and since the weather was supposed to be nice in the afternoon and raining at night we went for a walk along the lake to the other end. We had to get our 10,000 steps in for the day! On our way back, we stopped for a great ice cream sundae at Cassis. We first stumbled upon one in Pucon and had a delicious dessert there after dinner one evening. They've got a bit of everything sweet but also some savory. We'll stick to the sweet.

There's always room for ice cream

All in all, it was a great time in Puerto Varas! The weather was mixed but when the sun was out, it was easy to get a sunburn (got my first big one on Saturday). There's also something ominous, yet beautiful about living in the shadow of a volcano. Sunday we head back to Argentina for a couple days in the Argentine lake district before flying down to Patagonia.

-Nick

The Queenstown of Chile

After a 6 hour uneventful (I slept for the parts navigation was not required) drive we arrived at our hostel in Pucon. The temperature had dropped 14 degrees Celsius/30 degrees Fahrenheit in the course of the journey and it was time to put some trousers on.

Hostal Rio Libre

Pucon sits in the shadow of the Villerrica Volcano (which last erupted in March 2015), but due to the clouds we couldn't see the volcano. We did see signs as to where to go in the event of an eruption and they tested (we think - no one jumped up and ran out the room) the warning sirens at midday on the Wednesday.

Low risk areas in the event of a volcanic eruption

Pucon reminded us of Queenstown on New Zealand's south island. It is a town on a lake with a beach, a boating area and is full of agencies offering adventure sports from white water rafting to canyoning and quad biking to climbing the local volcano. In between the agencies the streets are packed with restaurants, bars and cafes. The town hosted many Chilean holiday makers as well as some international thrillseekers! The weather wasn't looking good enough for volcano climbing so we signed up for canyoning the following afternoon. 

Sunset in the bay (but still no sign of the volcano)

Wednesday started wet and even colder and I had to resort to a thermal top (this is not a good sign for when we head further south and will be camping). Just after lunch we headed off with 4 others to our canyoning adventure which started in a changing shed in someone's garden a short walk from the canyon. The canyon was created by volcanic lava from an eruption many years ago (we still couldn't see the volcano) and cut a beautiful windy path through the rocks with lush green giant leaved vegetation springing from all directions. The sun started to come out and peaked over the top of the rocks and provided some warmth (the water gushing over the falls was freeeeezing) and even a small rainbow appeared. We walked down the river and along the way we repelled down a 12m waterfall, were winched down another waterfall, zipped wired down another and used a further fall as a water slide. You never quite knew what you would find around the next corner! The experience ended with a changing shed in someone else's garden and a drink on their deck surrounded by dogs, cats and chickens.

Nick elegantly repelling down a waterfall

Jess' turn

The group in action

The beauty of the canyon

After cooking dinner in the hostel we headed out in search of a sweet treat and discovered Nick's culinary highlight of the trip so far - an ice cream sandwich with freshly baked cookies and a layer of nutella. Delicious!

Ice cream sandwich

On our final morning we woke up to clear skies and sunshine and headed off to find the volcano. We didn't have to go far! We walked out of the hostel front gate and immediately saw the enormous smoking volcano! It really was an impressive sight. Our mission complete we were ready to move on to our next destination.

Volcano Villerrica 

The bay with the beach & the view from our room in the hostel on the last day and the other cloudier days 

-Jess