Ken's Travel Diary: September 2005

Final lot of pictures I hope

I'm now in El Calafate, and about to go into town to change some Chilean Pesos into Argentinian Pesos. I'm only here for tonight and then I'm off down to Ushuaia.

There are a couple of the guides from Explora in Torres del Paine who are here on their 5 days off, so I may bump into them down town. It's been another beautiful day today, and hopefully the weather will follow me down to Ushuaia!

The barbecue yesterday was incredible. You'll see from the pictures below the massive fire pit that the lambs were cooked in front of. There were empanadas, potatoes, salmon and fire-warmed buns. The Quincho where we were was a large wooden cylindrical structure with the fire pit at the centre and the roof sloping up to meet the chimney in the middle. When the fire was going the room was toasty hot and so it was necessary to have a cold beer or two to compensate.

Apparently the fire was started at 10 in the morning and the meat was roasted for 4 hours. Whatever they did with it it tasted superb. They also had a gaucho game which involved swinging a metal ring attached by string to the ceiling to the other side of the hut to try and get it to hook onto some nails in the wall.

I was addicted and was playing for about 10 minutes in which time I managed to hook it 6 times - apparently that's rather good because the gauchos seemed quite impressed!

Below are a lot of the pictures from the past 2 days.

After the sun had set, a mirror-calm bit of water reflecting the mountains

The sun setting over the Torres del Paine

Reflected mountains again

The gauchos cooking the lambs in front of the fire pit

Ditto

More pictures...

The view from the back door of the hotel yesterday

I'm king of the world!

In the entrance of the hotel

Up close and personal with an iceberg

Ditto

Ditto - see the grey bits where air pockets have collected water

Icerberg dead ahead!

More of the iceberg

Me drinking a Pisco sour with a bit of glacier in it

Up close to the Grey Glacier

Pictures...

On my hike yesterday

The Grey Glacier

Me with the bottom of Grey Lake behind me

Our picnic on the beach

Uhh...a waterfall.

Last day in Torres del Paine

Today is my last day here. We've got a big barbecue later and then I'm going horseriding again. I'm taking it relatively easy today after yesterday's 8 mile hike that I did over to the Grey Glacier. I have some incredible pictures from it, but unfortunately the connection has deteriorated to such an extent that it will not let me upload any pictures even after I have shrunk them down. I guess I'll be able to upload some from El Calafate tomorrow, so hopefully you'll be able to see the glacier and the icebergs I took photos of.

We set off at 8:30 after breakfast and took the boat over to the other side of the lake that the hotel is on. They dropped us off and there were 8 of us plus two guides that went. The first part of the hike was relatively flat, followed by a fairly steep section. The weather yesterday was perfect for the hike - it was fairly sunny, which made up for the biting cold winds that we came across now and then, and it was very clear so we could see the mountains all around.

On the way we stopped for lunch on a sandy pebbly beach by Lake Grey and had a very nice meal of asparagus/spinach soup, roast beef, krill (as in the shrimp that are eaten by blue whales) or vegetarian sandwiches, followed by brownies of muffins if you wanted them. I had a little doze on the beach and when everyone was ready we carried on. We saw a pair of woodpeckers on the way. The male is black but has a brilliant red crest on his head while the female is mainly black. They always stay in pairs and mate for life. There is actually another type of bird here, the name of which I can't remember, but the male and female look completely different, but they find a partner and stay together for life. Local lore says that should one die, the other will die very soon after of a broken heart.

The hike was quite challenging (especially as I'm about as fit as a dead parrot and for the last few days I've had a rather nasty cold), but it was well worth it and the views of the glacier were incredible. We eventually hiked down to the edge of the lake most of the way towards the glacier and were picked up by a boat which took us up to the glacier's edge. We saw up close the different layers of ice - the pale white colour of the more recent ice, to the deep blue of ice which has been compacted for hundreds of thousands of years to be completely free of air. While we were going along (at a reasonably safe distance) we heard this loud crack like a gun being fired. We looked back towards the sound and then noticed a few small lumps of ice falling off the glacier into the water. Then suddenly a large section of the ice wall sheared off with a thunderous roar and fell into the water, making a massive splash and sending a wave that was a couple of metres high out from it. From all accounts we were quite lucky to have seen a piece of ice that large fall off as it doesn't happen all that often.

After going up to both the East and West sides of the glacier, we headed back down Lake Grey and the captain of the boat took us up right next to an iceberg that was floating around - actually ramming it slowly and keeping the engine going so we would stay next to it. Because of the sun and the fact the ambient temperature was a couple of degrees above freezing, the iceberg was constantly melting. There was water flowing down it and where there had been large pockets of air in the ice and these had partially melted, these made teardrop shape cavities in which the melting water collected, then overflowed and cascaded down the berg to the next pocket. The effect was a magnificent sparkling blue waterfall which we were close enough to touch. It's hard to describe adequately, but when I upload the photos tomorrow if I am able, you will see just how breathtaking it was.

Enough talk, I'm off to sit in the jacuzzi for an hour before I have to go over to the barbecue they're doing this afternoon.

K

Well, This place is absolutely incredible. When we were driving in yesterday, we saw all sorts of wildlife - Rheas (basically ostriches), Condors, Grey foxes, and llamas. The landscape here is amazing. It is sort of like the Lake District in England in that it has parts that are fairly flat and waterlogged, with low vegetation and so on, but then in the background there are massive snow-covered mountains and glaciers.

The hotel here is also incredible. From the outside it looks fairly unassuming as it is just white wood paneling, but inside it is really nice. There are lacquered pine wall coverings, on the ceiling etc. Everything here is included - wine, champagne, spirits, food etc, and you can choose what excursions you want to go on (also included). There is a small swimming pool, gym and sauna down on the edge of a lower lake, and an outdoor jacuzzi in which you can relax after a hard day's hiking or riding.

Yesterday we arrived at lunchtime and then had a very nice lunch. We were told there were two excursions we could do that afternoon. One was a long easy walk, and the other was a shorter, harder climb up to the top of a mushroom shaped mountain. I opted for the harder one, and we set off. It was a bit tricky, but well worth it, and there was a great view from the top. I built a couple of cairns at the top or the hill which will probably be blown over next time there are any gusts of wind, but never mind!

After the hike I went for a sauna and a dip in the jacuzzi, and decided I would try jumping into the glacial lake too. It was really cold (around 6 degrees celsius), but very refreshing. I'm probably one of very few people (stupid enough?) to go swimming this far South.

Today I went for a hike over by the Grey lake (so named because of all the things suspended in the water which make it look grey). A bit further up is the glacier, and there were a lot of broken off bits of ice that had flowed downstream. There were much smaller bits of ice broken off around the edge of the shore. Normally when you've got an icecube or any piece of ice, it's not completely see-through and there are air bubbles. Some of the ice at the edge of the lake was completely clear without any faults or bubbles. This means the ice was probably millions of years old!

We came back and had lunch, and the sky was really clear so I could see the Torres del Paine (towers of blue I think it means) across the lake from me. There were a few cloud patches clinging to the mountain like puffs of candy floss, and the bright blue lake was reflecting the mountains.

In the afternoon I decided I'd try horseriding for the first time in my life. It was a fairly easy route, with a bit of riding through the river, and some uphill and downhill. I tried a bit of trotting which was ok, but I think my backside is going to punish me for it tomorrow.

Anyway, I've managed to upload a few photos, and I'm going to see if I can get some more...

Me at the top of the mushroom mountain

The grey fox that came up to us

A Llama

Some more pics

Here are a few more pics which go with the spiel above about Torres del Paine

The view from my bedroom

The cairns I made in front of the Torres del Paine

Me in front of the icebergs and the glacier in the distance

Me on Facundo - my horse for the day!

Good evening once again

I went for a wander around Punta Arenas. It's really strange...after about 5 minutes walking around, it struck me that it had almost an identical vibe to Revelstoke. It's a relatively small town and it seems fairly laid back. The only difference being that everyone here speaks Spanish. It's really windy here, and fairly chilly (not a deliberate pun given that I'm in Chile), but it's easily bearable, and the town seems quite interesting.

There was some sort of parade this evening. I was sitting in the bar at the hotel here and then a marching band went by. A few streets had been cordoned off and I guess they did a little parade in the town square.

I actually have very little idea of what I ordered for dinner tonight, only that I had the best Crab Bisque that I've ever tasted, and that the fish I had in a creamy black pepper sauce was very nice.

Right, I've had to use yet another set of devious tricks to get the photos up this evening, so apologies for the ramshackle way I've uploaded them. Here are a few, with others below:

From the plane

Same

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Originally uploaded by kenigma.

In Punta Arenas

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In Punta Arenas

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In Punta Arenas

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In Punta Arenas

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A picture from the plane

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A picture from the plane

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A picture from the plane

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A picture from the plane

Hello from the end of the world

I´m in Punta Arenas at the end of the world, and I´m about to go wander around town a bit. I do have an internet connection at the hotel, but it doesn´t seem to be a very good one, and I can´t get the photos I took from the plane to upload properly. Hopefully I´ll be able to do so later tonight, or failing that from Torres del Paine tomorrow.

K

In Santiago, and there's a bunch of pics

Sorry for the lack of updates in the last 2 days, but it has been a bit hectic. I left Cusco around 4:30 on Thursday I think it was. The flight was a bit delayed, so I was worried about catching my connecting flight in Lima. I made it in the end, so it wasn't a big deal, and got into Santiago at about half past midnight. Got to the hotel around 1:30 and found out I was being picked up at 7:40 the next day. So much for a nice sleep!

Anyway, back to Cusco - before I left, I went and looked around the Temple of the Sun/Monastery of somebodyorother. Basically this Incan Temple of the Sun was there for a long time, then the Spanish Catholic Conquistadors barged in and said "Right, that's enough of your 'orrible Pagan stuff" and built a Catholic monastery on top of the temple. I guess they couldn't demolish the temple as it was so well built, so they were forced to leave some of it intact within the monastery. Pics of that are below.

Santiago is like Toytown I have come to conclude. It has the most bizarre combination of low-rise two story dwellinghouses right next to a 20 story office block. While Lima was mostly low-rise from what I saw, Santiago has lots of brand new, strangely lego-like buildings, along with a few you could swear are based on those large wooden blocks with half-circles and so on that are in Noddy's Toytown. It seems like a lively cosmopolitan city, and I had no qualms about walking for half an hour over to meet a new friend for dinner after dark (although I was lazy and got a taxi back). In contrast to Peru, Chile seems to be highly Westernised, with Burger Kings, Starbucks, Pizza Huts, TGI Fridays, and much to my amusement, a Hooters!

My first day trip from Santiago was a wine route trip, where we visited 2 wineries, had lunch somewhere and went to a museum. The wine started flowing sometime around 10 am, so by the afternoon we were somewhat tipsy. There are a few pics below of the wineries. The museum we went to was a fairly unimposing one from the outside, but its facade belied its true size. It was basically a Chilean history musem, with exhibits ranging from fossilised ammonites and amber-encrusted insects, to Andean jewelery and historic carriages and motor cars. There was easily enough stuff in it to keep you busy for a full day, but unfortunately we only had an hour there. Still, it was a good stop off.

The second day trip which was today, was over to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar over on the coast of Chile, West of Santiago. It was a beautiful day today (as have been all the days I've been in South America with the exception of one of the early mornings at Machu Picchu), and the drive over was nice, sitting under the air conditioning in the bus, while being bathed in sun through the window. Valparaiso is a fairly poor city, but it contains the Senate/Congress/Parliament whathaveyou building, a bizarre building which kind of reminded me of the big transport ships in Tron (classic 80s cheese film for those of you who don't know it).

There's the Chilean senate building...no wait!

It is interesting in Valparaiso, it's a city on 42 hills, and there are 15 working funiculars which transport the local populace up and down at a cost of 150 Chilean Pesos (about 15 of our New English Pence). There are no rich or poor areas, and as we had pointed out by our tourguide, they live side by side. There was a beautifully designed house which was attached on one side to a large shack of cobbled together corrugated metal painted lime green.

Viña del Mar is a bit more upmarket and it is quite reminiscent of a South of France resort town, with beautiful but expensive beachfront properties. It apparently has a very lively nightlife, and the beaches were stunning. The sea is fairly cold all year round, going from 7 degrees C in the winter to a maximum of about 13 in the Summer. This is because the currents run from Antarctica up to the coast of Chile, so the water can never really get warm. Despite this, there were a few hardy souls who were wading and even jumping right in.

It's now 10:30 in the evening, and because it's taken me so long to upload all these pictures, I'm probably going to stick to room service and get an early night, rather than try to venture out elsewhere.

Tomorrow I fly to Punta Arenas and I'll be there for one night before going to Torres del Paine for 4/5 days(I think I'm getting that the right way around). I'm not sure what internet access I will have if any, so don't be too surprised if I don't update for a while. I'll try to obviously, but it may be beyond my control.

Ta-ta,

Ken