Austral Patagonia : Back to the Andes
Once the welsh period of our Argentinian trip ended, we resumed our road through southern Patagonia to spend some time between El Calafate, El Chalten and Puerto Natales. This time, the whales and the penguins should not hold center stage but mostly sharp mountains and their surrounding glaciers.
So we are back one more time on the Andes but around here the situation is quite different from what have seen in Peru and Bolivia. While in these countries we were at an altitude between 3000 and 4000 meters and in a very dry atmosphere that can transform, in a matter of minutes, the surface of you lips to a cactus-like skin, in Austral Patagonia the mountains do not exceed 3000 meters high and the area is one of the biggest worldwide drinkable water reserve. It even rains or snows several times a day. But the wind is the most difficult thing to bear : blowing all the time and freezing every inch of your body that is not covered. It is so strong that sometimes you can loose your balance. Hopefully our technical outfits that make us look like bags of potatoes help resist these rough weather conditions.
The area has some great landscape ready to be explored. We started with the city of El Calafate which is the gateway to the Perito Moreno glacier. It is one of the little few in the world that is not backing up. It is quite impressive seeing this huge monster (170 meters high and 5 kilometres wide) spit an iceberg in the surrounding lake while doing a huge noise.
A 4 hours bus ride to the north took us to El Chalten, the self-proclaimed Argentina's capital of hiking which main attraction is the “Cerro Fitz Roy”. This mountain is known for being one of the hardest to climb in the world. On average there is one attempt each year, while the Everest is climbed by dozens each day. Lacking motivation for this kind of achievement, we managed to hike 45 kilometres spread over 2 days, which gave us the opportunity to reach the Fitz Roy base and to see the glaciers, the lakes and the vegetation that surrounds it. Obviously, our Parisian body, that is used to walk only to the next subway station, decided to retaliate by being stuffy the next day. But it was an easy one compared to the Colca Canyon hike that we did in Peru. El Chalten was also our first dorm experience. It is true that it helps to come across people, even if a Dutch declared chemical war to the whole barracks and a German guy practised for the snoring world cup 'till his wife woke him up.
We finished this little tour of Autral Patagonia by visiting the “Torres del Paine” national park while staying in the city of Puerto Natales in Chile. This area is Chilean equivalent to El Chalten. A little bit discouraged by the bad weather and a little bit bunted by what we have seen in the Argentinian side, we chose to do a day tour to see the highlights of the park instead of hiking.
During this stop in Chile, we had also the chance to enjoy a fine dinner with Sophie and Philippe, the Belgian couple we came across several times during these last months in South America. We learned that evening that in their country roasted chicken is served with stewed apples. It looks weird but Bea tried it and found it quite good. Anyway, it was the last time during this trip that our roads crossed. As their trip around the world is ending, they need to start going toward the northern hemisphere to be in Brussels beginning of December.
In our case, we have to go southbound to reach the “Tierra del Fuego” and Ushuaia so we can see how the “end of the world” looks like.
Karim
So we are back one more time on the Andes but around here the situation is quite different from what have seen in Peru and Bolivia. While in these countries we were at an altitude between 3000 and 4000 meters and in a very dry atmosphere that can transform, in a matter of minutes, the surface of you lips to a cactus-like skin, in Austral Patagonia the mountains do not exceed 3000 meters high and the area is one of the biggest worldwide drinkable water reserve. It even rains or snows several times a day. But the wind is the most difficult thing to bear : blowing all the time and freezing every inch of your body that is not covered. It is so strong that sometimes you can loose your balance. Hopefully our technical outfits that make us look like bags of potatoes help resist these rough weather conditions.
The area has some great landscape ready to be explored. We started with the city of El Calafate which is the gateway to the Perito Moreno glacier. It is one of the little few in the world that is not backing up. It is quite impressive seeing this huge monster (170 meters high and 5 kilometres wide) spit an iceberg in the surrounding lake while doing a huge noise.
A 4 hours bus ride to the north took us to El Chalten, the self-proclaimed Argentina's capital of hiking which main attraction is the “Cerro Fitz Roy”. This mountain is known for being one of the hardest to climb in the world. On average there is one attempt each year, while the Everest is climbed by dozens each day. Lacking motivation for this kind of achievement, we managed to hike 45 kilometres spread over 2 days, which gave us the opportunity to reach the Fitz Roy base and to see the glaciers, the lakes and the vegetation that surrounds it. Obviously, our Parisian body, that is used to walk only to the next subway station, decided to retaliate by being stuffy the next day. But it was an easy one compared to the Colca Canyon hike that we did in Peru. El Chalten was also our first dorm experience. It is true that it helps to come across people, even if a Dutch declared chemical war to the whole barracks and a German guy practised for the snoring world cup 'till his wife woke him up.
We finished this little tour of Autral Patagonia by visiting the “Torres del Paine” national park while staying in the city of Puerto Natales in Chile. This area is Chilean equivalent to El Chalten. A little bit discouraged by the bad weather and a little bit bunted by what we have seen in the Argentinian side, we chose to do a day tour to see the highlights of the park instead of hiking.
During this stop in Chile, we had also the chance to enjoy a fine dinner with Sophie and Philippe, the Belgian couple we came across several times during these last months in South America. We learned that evening that in their country roasted chicken is served with stewed apples. It looks weird but Bea tried it and found it quite good. Anyway, it was the last time during this trip that our roads crossed. As their trip around the world is ending, they need to start going toward the northern hemisphere to be in Brussels beginning of December.
In our case, we have to go southbound to reach the “Tierra del Fuego” and Ushuaia so we can see how the “end of the world” looks like.
Karim
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