Santiago, Chile

04/01/13

So our last day in Chile is spent in the capital Santiago. There is nothing really special about the city so we are just staying the 1 night. We arrived this morning after camping about 3 hours south of the city in a town called San Fernando. Everyone has been looking forward to the night here as it's our first chance to sleep in a bed for a while. Myself and Lisa spend a few hours walking around the streets, admiring the old buildings, visiting the central market, the river which looks like chocolate milkshake, climbed up a fort type thing in the centre to get a view of the city and also eating a couple of ice creams. There was nothing to rave about but it has given us a little bit of luxury i.e. a bath for the night.

Salta del Laja, Chile

02/01/13

We left Pucon with a trip to the hospital for Pete as he threw a plastic box into the wood rack and it bounced back and hit his face leaving a nasty cut which needed stitches. Thankfully all his teeth are ok and the doctor did a great job of patching his lip up. Whilst waiting for Pete I decided that it was a great idea to cut the bottom of my big toe open tripping over a huge bit of concrete. All ok- it's still attached, if a bit sore. We spent the day in beautiful weather. We think that it must have hit 30 degrees yesterday. Our stop for the evening was Salta del Laja which is a series of waterfalls. Some if us had a dip in a pool on the edge of the top of the waterfall which was fantastic, if a little scary for those watching from camp. Thoroughly enjoyable day! Thanks to Steve and Karen for the photographic evidence of my adventure.

Pucon, Chile

We had a long day of driving to get to Pucon in Chile. We left at 6am so that we could have photo stops along the way as we drove past lakes and volcanoes and further time was added to the journey after having our longest border crossing yet at nearly 3 hours thanks to long queues to get stamped out of Argentina and lengthy customs checks in Chile. We were keen to arrive in Pucon in good time as Pete was expecting lots of overland trucks to be headed here for new year as they head to Rio for carnival. We got a good camp spot but 2 Tucan trucks that arrived about 30 minutes after us are squished in next to the road.

Pucon is also an adventure sports town sitting on the edge of a lake and a few kilometres from the active volcano Mount Villarrica which is over 2800m high. Most of the group decided that climbing it was an excellent idea despite the fact that none of us had actually seen it due to it being covered in cloud!! We had another early start as we were picked up in a minibus and taken to an office to collect our gear. Crampons, ice axe, gaiters, trousers, jacket, a plastic sledge and what can only be described as a giant nappy. We got a chair lift up part way of the mountain and were faced with a pretty cloudy view above but the weather is so changeable that we decided to plod on. To get to the top we would have to climb another 1000m and it was expected to take about 4 hours. All the walking was on ice so the crampons and ice axe were necessary and it was all up hill. Most made it to the summit which was fantastic. The views over towards the town were great despite the fact it was all thick cloud with a couple of volcanoes poking through the top. Coming back down was the best bit. We slid on our bums down “toboggan” runs pretty much the entire way to the bottom which was great fun if a little scary! All in all everyone had a great day, the ones who didn't climb the volcano went zip lining or to relax in hot springs and after a siesta everyone was in camp to welcome in the new year

The road to Pucon

Bariloche, Argentina

We had a longer than expected drive to Bariloche in the lake district region of Argentina. Here are adventure sports galore. Some of the group have been white water rafting, horse riding, paragliding and on boat trips and hiking around the lake. I've had a couple of chill out days, deciding that I would do my rafting further north on the trip when the rivers are a bit more challenging to raft and the water is a lot warmer. The town is touristy but quite pretty and its been great to have WIFI- I've spent a lot of time in McDonalds!! We have had mild weather, which has been very welcome for lots of sitting around. As we have been camping lots recently we have been making meals using the truck kitchen and a few were missing the local Parilla's (basically a meat restaurant). Whilst in Bariloche we took advantage of the huge number of restaurants and went out for a group meal. It's amazing what you can get here, the steaks are huge. 400 grams is counted as small and most meals need to be shared. Some of the group decided that they would get meat platters which were about 4 times the meat you would need for a regular meal. As not really a steak eater I have been opting for sausage and chips which has been huge but a more manageable size. It's a wonder all the Argentinians don't die from heart attacks!! Next stop Pucon in Chile for New Year.

Feliz Navidad!! Los Alerces NP. Argentina

Los Alerces NP is our camping stop for 3 days over Christmas. We are located next to a lake and it's been very nice to chill out for a few days and I feel that everyone has appreciated doing not a lot. Christmas Day was great. We've been suitably fed and watered and I have to admit that it's amazing how much food you can cook over a fire. It was the first Christmas dinner I'd had with no roasties but my plate certainly wasn't lacking food and the crew and the cook group did a great job. The secret santas were unveiled as Pete dressed up as Papa Noel, Kirsten as a reindeer and Graham as an elf! Karen liked the gift I got for her and I was delighted with my present from Jeanne- a first 1000 Spanish word book and some lip balms. Boxing day presented us with some sun so we had washing lines everywhere and most just sitting around camp enjoying doing nothing. Myself, Francois and Tony had a quick dip in the clear lake waters. Cold but not as cold as some of the showers on the 'W'.

Cueva de los Manos “Cave of the hands”. Argentina

We left Ushuaia and headed north. We had to cross into Chile to then head back into Argentina again. We had a couple of long drive days and some bouts of dodgy weather before stopping in the middle of nowhere in order to visit the Cueva de los Manos, in English the cave of the hands. Most of us woke up to a lovely sunny day and decided that the 18km walk over and into a gorge to visit the cave was a great idea. The other group members who wanted to treat their feet to a rest got a lift in the truck to the cave. The scenery was great but the sun hot so we were happy to see the truck parked half way up the gorge.

The caves are a UNESCO site and most of the art in them is approximately 8000 years old. There are paintings of guanacos but most are negative prints of left hands suggesting that the locals were right handed as they placed their left hands on the cave wall and blew natural paints through a tube and onto their hand creating a negative. It was interesting to see how all the art has been interpreted but i'm a bit skeptical as to the genuineness as some of it looked very 'new'.

Magellan Straits to Ushuaia, Argentina

We headed off for a couple of long days drive from Torres del Paine, heading south towards the Magellan Straits on our journey to Ushuaia right at the bottom on Argentina sitting on the Beagle Canal. We bush camped on the southern side of the straits which were crossed in 20 minutes with a simple drive on drive off ferry. We had another long day driving as we crossed the border from Chile into Argentina to get to Ushuaia and the Tierra del Fuego region. The region is full of forested, but snow topped mountains and the drive was pretty smooth until we got held in a traffic queue due to protesters blocking the road.

Ushuaia is known as 'the end of the world' and is quite a touristy town due to the amount of cruises on the Beagle canal and also to Antarctica from here. I wasn't interested in the Beagle cruise as it's been pretty cold here and the thought of sitting on a boat for 4 hours looking for sea birds and sea lions wasn't really taking my fancy. Most of the group did the cruise though and really raved about it. I've spent my 2 days here just mooching and munching around the town. The weather's not been fantastic but good considering where we are in the world. I've been pretty happy doing not a great deal and chilling out. You can't do something everyday!

Next we are heading north (for the meantime), stopping for a couple of bushcamps, one of which in Chile before heading to the Lake District region of Argentina and hopefully some fractionally warmer weather! Mikkel is headed to colder weather though as he has left the group for a couple of weeks after finding a "cheapie" trip to Antarctica last minute. We are all very jealous!!

Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

11/12/12

We headed south toward the border with Chile, stopping for a very wet and windy first bush camp along the way. The Chile border was pretty simple, they just scanned our luggage looking for fresh produce and dairy. We headed to Torres del Paine National Park for 5 nights. Most of us had plans to hike the famous 'W' track. This track takes 3 nights/4 days and covers 70 odd km's. Myself, Terry, Lesley, Keith, Neil and Graham were camping the track so we carried all out camping gear and food with us. Everyone else decided to stay in dorms and have their food included. The track was beautiful and the views amazing as we saw glaciers, jagged peaks, rivers and waterfalls. The finale of the trek was seeing the granite Torres. It was a steep scramble up hill to see them. We left at 3.30am to get to the top for sunrise, and the torres were covered in a little cloud. Others got perfect views by heading up later in the day but whatever the view I think everyone was glad to finish the 'W' and still have toes attached!

El Chalten, Argentina

07/12/12

We left Calafate and headed 4 hours north to El Chalten also still in Los Glaciers National Park. I'd love to say the scenery was amazing but I actually slept most of the way!! The weather was awful when we got there, lots of wind and rain but we still managed to head out for a short walk. El Chalten is one of the trekking capitals of Argentina so most of us dug out our boots and went for a hike. On the 1st day we headed for a 7 hour long walk to see Glacier Grande. It was pretty spectacular scenery, if a little windy. The next day I headed out my myself to walk to see Mt Fitzroy. It was a relatively flat walk past beautiful lake Capri. It was eventful though as I saw 4 woodpeckers, a condor, a mini avalanche and a bolt of lightning

Pete and Graham rocked into town with perfect timing on the last day, just as we were eating tea. They looked shattered after surviving on minimal sleep after picking up the truck in Uruguay. As a celebration we all had a few drinks in the local micro brewery before heading south the next day