Hello all
Here I am in Santiago Chile, arrived this morning after a 10 hour night bus from Pucon Chile. But to backtrack a bit, I think that I left everyone off when I was still in Valdivia (or en route to) after having spent 5 days hiking with Jill. Right after our hiking we headed out to the lovely coastal town of Valdivia. It was the perfect place to do laundry, get our bags sorted out, and see the sights. Valdivia was one of the last Spanish strongholds once Chile declared independance from Spain. There are old Spanish forts still standing on the banks of the rivers that flow into the ocean. They were so well placed and Valdivia was so well protected that the Chileans finally employed an English General to lead an attack to capture the city and its forts. Jill and I spent a day taking a colectivo (minibus thing) to a nearby town from where we got to hop onto small boats that took us to the various islands and ports where these Fort remains were. A very lovely day walking around the various ruins, and even watching students recreate the Chilean take over of the Spanish forts. Their reinactment (which takes place several times daily) included full period costume, and at the end, tourists, including me, got to have our photos taken holding swords to captive Spanish prisoners. Very fun.
Valdivia also has a vibrant little water front fish and produce market. When the fishmongers are cleaning their catch they throw away the innards to a group of happily waiting sea lions. The smelly but deliriously happy lions bob in the water all day long just waiting for the goodies to be thrown their way.
While in Valdivia Jill and I ran into and Australian couple who had been in our hostel in Puerta Varas. We had a few meals out with them before taking their lead and booking in a 4 day stay at a ranch near Pucon. Pucon is a small but very touristy town on a lake, that is backed by the awesome active, villarica Volcano. Jill and I arrived in town, where Alejandra from the Antilco(check it out online, just google Antilco) ranch picked us and the Australians up. The ranch was a 25 minute drive from town, on back dusty rocky roads. Over a suspension bridge whose sign read ¨Danerous bridge, no vehicles over 1 ton, all passangers must exit vehicle prior to crossing¨ Meaning that every time we went into or out of town we were supposed to all get out of the van, cross the bridge on foot, meet the van on the other side, then get back in. Which we did,....when we weren´t in too much of a hurry or there was a guard watching. If we were late heading places Alejandra or her boss Mathias would just drive over the bridge with the vehicle full, bridge squeaking all the way.
The 4 of us arrived at the ranch and got to settle into a shared cottage type building. Mathias´s wife (I forget her name) would make us delicious suppers and breakfasts each day, and we filled our time with so many things.
Our first afternoon at the ranch Jill and myself, Tim and Rania (the ausralians) caught a ride with some campers to Los Ojos del Carabuga, a series of waterfalls close by, from there we headed on to an afternoon at a nearby beach. We planned to have an early evening as we were booked in to climb the Villarica volcano at 7 the next morning.
Tim instigated late night card playing scratched the early evening idea which made our 5:30 wake up time a little painful. The 4 of us were embarrasingly relived when the guide in Pucon told us that the climb to the 2500 meter summit would have to wait for another day as the cloud cover would prevent any good views, and if bad weather moved in, we might have to turn back down the summit when half way up. Back to the ranch is was to spend a cloudy day playing cards, playing with the cats and dogs, geese, rabbits, pigs and horses. Picking raspberries off of the bushes, and climbing up to a small view point in the nearby hills.
Day 3 at the ranch was horseback riding day. Now the last time that I had been on a horse was 8 years ago when Jill and I rode around the pyramids when we were in Cairo. I was a little trepidacious, especially as these Chilean horses were obviously well fed, energetic, and seemingly a little more spirited than the poor skinny downtrodden rides we had appologetically ridded in Egypt. Lovely Alejandra showed us how to put our chaps on (with Mathias´daughter laughing at me the whole time) How to mount, dismount, and handle the horses. I was paired with a beautiful Pinto named Inca, and Jill rode a dark brown stuck up beauty named Canela (meaning Cinnamon in Spanish) Off we went, Jill and I, our Australian friends, and 2 Scandinavian people in from Pucon for a day, and headed off with our guide Pablo.
We rode through a Mapuche (native people of the area) land holding, learned how to trot(sore bum), canterand(even worse bum) and gallop (scary for me at first, but much better for the bum). Then up up up through the mountains. I have a hard time to approximate how far we rode, but we were on our horses for about 10 hours that day.......most of it in the rain.....most of the rain being heavy rain. Despite the rain, we had a fabulous time, I mean, once you are wet, what else is there to do but enjoy the scenary. Andes mountains, fully treed, steep trails with our horses (mine was the nicest), leading our horses up the most steep parts, then finally lunching in a clearing peppered with sheep under huge trees with monsterous canopies. The trees´ huge canopies were nice for breaking the rain while we lunched.
After lunch we headed down the same way, without a hitch it seemed....... until Tim´s horse reared up, put it´s ears back and had a bit of a freak out, once it had calmed down another horse took it´s turn having a fit. When it appeared that all had settled, and we got moving again, all of the horses, including my trusty Inca and Jill´s primadona Canela joined in the Melee. I must admit it was pretty scary, especially with my lack of horse experiance. I´m certain that experianced riders see this kind of thing all of the time, but for me it was a new experiance! Once it was all over, we saw that no one was harmed (Tim and Rania´s camera had gotten stepped on though) and had a chat. We thought that perhaps we had passed through a patch of horseflies or something that had bitten the horses, but our guide seemed to think that the horses had seen something in the forest, perhaps a puma. I like the Puma version, it sounds more exciting.
We arrived back at the ranch very late, due to the rain and fly-Puma scare, so were very happy to spend the evening in playing cards, comparing bruises on our legs, soreness of butts, and eating good food as a storm raged around us all night long. What a great day.
We spent the morning of day 4 at the ranch whining about our sore muscles (who knew you would use so many muscles when it´s really the horse doing all of the work). In the afternoon we headed out for an hour of easy white water rafting. A nice calm day after the previous day´s work. That evening though, we headed out with Alejandra to the Los Pozones hot springs. We got to spend the night sitting in pools of deliciously hot water while looking up at a southern hemisphere sky. So beautiful. So stupid.....we had to wake up at 5:30 the next morning to try the Volcano summit again.
Last day at the ranch. A very tired group of us headed out very early to suit up, (climbing boots, helmets, gaiters, ice picks, crampons, and dashingly matching neon green and black climbing suits) and head out to the Volcano. Our group, along with 200 or so of our closest friends took a chairlift (cheaters do win sometimes) to the closer start of the volcano hike(lessening the acent to 1500 meters from 2500 meters) We spent hours under the blaring sun as our concientious guides cut steps into the ice and snow for us to climb up up up to the top. The day was clear, the views were stunning, and our group moved at a comfortable slow but steady pace that all could keep up with. Very Enjoyable. After 4 hours of climbing, many hawk sightings, and 4 sunscreen reapplications, we reached the top. The top being the rim of the currently active volcano. It was spewing out sulfuric gasses that burned your lungs if you inhaled them, so the 4 of us made our way carefully around the crater to take photos and gaze in without damaging our lungs. The views were spectacular. The ride down was much quicker than the ride up as our thoughtful tour group had made sure that each of us carried what looked like an adult sized black diaper. Once strapped to our butts, this diaper type devise protected our oh so snazzy matching pants from abrasion. What type of abrasion you ask.....if you read about how Jill and I got down the last Volcano that we climbed, I think that you know already! Down we went, over 1000 meters on our butts in the snow. The number of people partaking in this means that the runs resembled water slide run and we had to use our ice picks to keep us going at somewhat safe speeds. YIPPEE!!! Do I ever wish that i had a silly saucer with me!
Back to the ranch after the volcano hike for the 4 of us to shower, then on to a night but to Santiago. Jill and I opted for the more comfortable cama (bed) bus but Tim and Rania took the budget travelers delight (upright seats for 10 hours through the night). WE´ll be spending a few days in Santiago together the 4 of us before Jill and I head to Mendoza and part from our travel buds. We had such a great time at the Antilco ranch I really have to rave about the staff and location, please, if anyone is traveling to Chile, check out the Antilco ranch near Pucon!
That´s all for now
Hugs to all
Me
Did you know.....
In most parts of Argentina and Chile, the sewer system is too delicate to handle toilet paper. Bathroom users, at home or in a hotel or restaurant, must place their used toilet paper in a garbage can, not the toilet.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Back in Chile
Hello everyone
Lots has gone on since my last entry. Last I wrote I think that my travel partner Geoff had just headed off and I was flying solo to El Bolson. I spent a few days in El Bolson enjoying a hotel room to myself (such luxery), visiting the regional market, hiking up to various viewing areas in the mountains, and exploring the sculptured forest nearby. I visited a cherry and strawberry plantation which also produces jam and preserves. Very interesting for me considering my parents´ own enterprise. I peered into the window of the production facility and got to see cherries coming straight from the field, going into a grimey pitting machine without being washed, then hauled along dirty floors to a processing facility where the doors and windows were all open, flies buzzed around lazily eating up spilled product, and greasy black fingerprints stained all of the machinery. Very different than the incredibly high standards of cleanliness that Mom always insists on in her production plant. I still remember her tucking me into bed when I was a kid and she always smelled faintly of bleach when she was in Jam production time.
From El Bolson Argentina I hopped a bus to Puerto Montt Chile. As was the case when Geoff headed to Puerto Montt, the bus was late, and our drivers conveniantly produced a friend of theirs....a woman who owns a travel agency and hospedaje in town near the bus station....they must make a good comission from this arrangement. The woman stops the bus and invites weary late travelers to stay in her hospedaje (like a b and b but cheaper), or in my case, she was my taxi service on to Puerta Varas, a smaller, nicer town nearby Puerto Montt, to meet up with my longtime travel bud Jill. Jill and I lived in London at the same time and spent some time traveling through the Middle East together years ago.
I arrived in Puerto Varas near midnight, just in time to catch Jill, head out for a bite to eat with her, and excitedly chit chat and plan the next leg of our journey! The next morning we decided to get supplies together for a 5 day, 63km hike through the puhayjay (don´t check my spelling) park. We spent the day checking out the city, getting banking sorted, groceries bought, those little last minute camping things found, etc. Made use of the kitchen in the hostel for lunch and dinner, so nice to do some cooking! Early the next morning bussed out to the town of Orsorno, and from there caught a collectivo to the trail head.
Once at the trail head we discovered first hand that the rumours of the giant attacking horseflies were true. Apparantly we had planned our hike right smack dab in the middle of their mating season. They live and mate for only 27 days...lucky for us to catch them at their height and see it first hand (silver lining, silver lining). The first several hours of our first day of hiking were incredibly exerting, not only because of the steep climbs and rough terrain, but swatting at those darned horseflies that surrounded us really works the arms!
Over the next 4 days we hiked around a volcano and through volcanic rock desert like dunes to hot springs, wading across rivers to get to geysers and fumaroles, and finally to the top of a volcano to peer inside its snow filled crater. Just 3 weeks prior to our hike a group of Israelies had gotten lost in the park when the weather suddenly turned and 3 meters of snow fell in the space of 2 days. Lucky for them they were rescued after 11 days.....lucky for us that some of the snow was still there making our decent of the mighty high volcano so much easier allowing us to slide on our butts a majority of the way down. As the snow had been there for a while, it had reached that grainy icy consistancy that snow tends to do....so sliding down on our bottoms may have been the expediant way to decend the mountain, but it was also the more abrasive way. Jill´s pants succomed to their injuries (they wore almost all the way through making them rather inapporpriate for further use) and had to be ditched when we got back to town in Orsorno....sigh.
It was so much fun to do a less touristy hike than the Torres del Paine trip. Don´t get me wrong, I loved the Torres del Paine hike, but it was so nice to have just 2 other tents at our camp sight each night, rather than the 40 to 60 in the Paine park. A great way to spend 5 days, Jill and I have now dubbed it out ¨Buns of steel¨ tour.
After leaving the trek and heading back into the less than scenic (slightly creapy actually) town of Orsorno, we are VERY happy to now be in beautiful Valdivia. Near the ocean, this town has a vibrant market on the warf where fish mongers feed sea lions their scraps, many museums, old forts from the 1800s that we plan to visit tomorrow, beaches, art galleries, and just an overall good vibe. A nice place to get laundry sorted out, stay in the same room for more than one night, have a few good meals, and take too many photos.
My Spanish is improving daily which is a good thing as very few people speak English. I really enjoy learning new words and phrases but have to be careful as my absorption rate seems to be between 2 and 4 words per day. If I try to learn more than that, I don´t remember any of them. Having been in Argentina for a good 3 weeks, I have to now get used to a different accent, and different words to describe things on menus! It makes for some interesting ordering, out of curiosity, Jill and I ordered a side order of Salchichas to see what they were (the waitress described them as meat, about the legnth of a knife, orange in colour), we were curious....and we got a side order of.......2 boiled hot dogs....no buns included. :) That got lots of giggles out of us.
Hugs to all
Erin
Lots has gone on since my last entry. Last I wrote I think that my travel partner Geoff had just headed off and I was flying solo to El Bolson. I spent a few days in El Bolson enjoying a hotel room to myself (such luxery), visiting the regional market, hiking up to various viewing areas in the mountains, and exploring the sculptured forest nearby. I visited a cherry and strawberry plantation which also produces jam and preserves. Very interesting for me considering my parents´ own enterprise. I peered into the window of the production facility and got to see cherries coming straight from the field, going into a grimey pitting machine without being washed, then hauled along dirty floors to a processing facility where the doors and windows were all open, flies buzzed around lazily eating up spilled product, and greasy black fingerprints stained all of the machinery. Very different than the incredibly high standards of cleanliness that Mom always insists on in her production plant. I still remember her tucking me into bed when I was a kid and she always smelled faintly of bleach when she was in Jam production time.
From El Bolson Argentina I hopped a bus to Puerto Montt Chile. As was the case when Geoff headed to Puerto Montt, the bus was late, and our drivers conveniantly produced a friend of theirs....a woman who owns a travel agency and hospedaje in town near the bus station....they must make a good comission from this arrangement. The woman stops the bus and invites weary late travelers to stay in her hospedaje (like a b and b but cheaper), or in my case, she was my taxi service on to Puerta Varas, a smaller, nicer town nearby Puerto Montt, to meet up with my longtime travel bud Jill. Jill and I lived in London at the same time and spent some time traveling through the Middle East together years ago.
I arrived in Puerto Varas near midnight, just in time to catch Jill, head out for a bite to eat with her, and excitedly chit chat and plan the next leg of our journey! The next morning we decided to get supplies together for a 5 day, 63km hike through the puhayjay (don´t check my spelling) park. We spent the day checking out the city, getting banking sorted, groceries bought, those little last minute camping things found, etc. Made use of the kitchen in the hostel for lunch and dinner, so nice to do some cooking! Early the next morning bussed out to the town of Orsorno, and from there caught a collectivo to the trail head.
Once at the trail head we discovered first hand that the rumours of the giant attacking horseflies were true. Apparantly we had planned our hike right smack dab in the middle of their mating season. They live and mate for only 27 days...lucky for us to catch them at their height and see it first hand (silver lining, silver lining). The first several hours of our first day of hiking were incredibly exerting, not only because of the steep climbs and rough terrain, but swatting at those darned horseflies that surrounded us really works the arms!
Over the next 4 days we hiked around a volcano and through volcanic rock desert like dunes to hot springs, wading across rivers to get to geysers and fumaroles, and finally to the top of a volcano to peer inside its snow filled crater. Just 3 weeks prior to our hike a group of Israelies had gotten lost in the park when the weather suddenly turned and 3 meters of snow fell in the space of 2 days. Lucky for them they were rescued after 11 days.....lucky for us that some of the snow was still there making our decent of the mighty high volcano so much easier allowing us to slide on our butts a majority of the way down. As the snow had been there for a while, it had reached that grainy icy consistancy that snow tends to do....so sliding down on our bottoms may have been the expediant way to decend the mountain, but it was also the more abrasive way. Jill´s pants succomed to their injuries (they wore almost all the way through making them rather inapporpriate for further use) and had to be ditched when we got back to town in Orsorno....sigh.
It was so much fun to do a less touristy hike than the Torres del Paine trip. Don´t get me wrong, I loved the Torres del Paine hike, but it was so nice to have just 2 other tents at our camp sight each night, rather than the 40 to 60 in the Paine park. A great way to spend 5 days, Jill and I have now dubbed it out ¨Buns of steel¨ tour.
After leaving the trek and heading back into the less than scenic (slightly creapy actually) town of Orsorno, we are VERY happy to now be in beautiful Valdivia. Near the ocean, this town has a vibrant market on the warf where fish mongers feed sea lions their scraps, many museums, old forts from the 1800s that we plan to visit tomorrow, beaches, art galleries, and just an overall good vibe. A nice place to get laundry sorted out, stay in the same room for more than one night, have a few good meals, and take too many photos.
My Spanish is improving daily which is a good thing as very few people speak English. I really enjoy learning new words and phrases but have to be careful as my absorption rate seems to be between 2 and 4 words per day. If I try to learn more than that, I don´t remember any of them. Having been in Argentina for a good 3 weeks, I have to now get used to a different accent, and different words to describe things on menus! It makes for some interesting ordering, out of curiosity, Jill and I ordered a side order of Salchichas to see what they were (the waitress described them as meat, about the legnth of a knife, orange in colour), we were curious....and we got a side order of.......2 boiled hot dogs....no buns included. :) That got lots of giggles out of us.
Hugs to all
Erin
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Long haired hippies
| Hello everyone. Here I am in Escuel Argentina. My travel bud and I arrived a few days ago and we´ve spent one day mountain biking to a nearby lagoon (where my travel bud got a flat tire and had to push his bike all of the way home) and a day heading into the parque national de los Alcerces. Basically a huge treefilled park with multiple lakes. We spent the day catching a boat to the far reaches of the park where entry is only permited with a guide. We and 90 of our closest Argentinian friends who are all on summer vacation followed the guide around looking at the massively tall straight, and slow growing Alcerce trees. Our group consisted mostly of Portenos (people from Buenos Aires) on vacation. Argentinians are much more touchy than Canadians are and many teenage couples, accompanied by their parents, spent the entire day kissing and making out under the watchful eye of their parents....very different than in Canada. The entire group was also incredibly fond of posing, Vogue or GQ style for endless sets of photos in front of the trees, and on the boat ride over. Very fun to watch. The trees that we saw were enormous. The oldest one that we saw was estimated at being 2600 years old.....if only it could talk. There are older ones in the park but they are on islands restricted to those doing research on the trees. Sounds good to me, the safer the better. My travel bud headed off this morning for Chile to catch his flight home, I´ll be anxious to hear how he made out as his spanish is non existant and his charades are rusty. Hopefully the travel gods will be with him. As for me, I´m heading out to El Bolson, this afternoon. The only town in Argentina declared to be a nuclear free zone. From what I hear, I´ll be eating lots of granola and tabbouleh and yogurt, and perhaps dancing around a fire with my hair in dreadlocks. A few days of R and R in the hippy town of El Bolson before heading to Puerto Varas to meet my friend Jill who will be traveling with me for the next month. There is a national park very close to el Bolson where there was a forest fire a few years ago. The local artists slowly started in on their work and carved most of the burned tree trunks into works of art. I´m looking forward to meadering my way through acres of sculptures. Hope that all is well in Winnipeg! Erin |
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Glaciers and La Routa 40
Hello Everyone!
When I left off I think that I had just finished our 10 day hike in Torres del Paine and was heading back to El Calafate Argentina. Back we did go, spending new years eve day on a tour to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. It is part of a huge ice pack that straddles the Chile Argentina border. The ice field is the size of Israel. HUGE. WE spent the day taking a boat to within 300 meters of the glacier face, watched huge chunks of it fall off...which looked very small when they fell, until we took into consideration that the face that they are falling off of is 20 stories high.... The thing is just massive. Apparantly every 2 to 10 years depending on the weather, an ice jam builds up in the lake that holds the berg, the water builds up on one side until it forces the ice out. The last time this happened was 2005 and huge thunderous pieces of the berg fell off all day long, they make a very explosive sound when they break off and hit the water, so I imagine that it was very impressive.
From El Calafate, we booked a bus ride to Perito Moreno the town (14 hours away) all on a gravel road. The bus had air vents on the roof of the bus that were open, and with every bump dust, and sometimes water, and sometimes mud came flying in....I was quite comfy and didnt mind too much, but my poor travel bud was not impressed in the least....and spent most of the trip and that evening....and the next morning....in a funk.
The next day off for a tour to Cuerva los Manos. A 3 hour drive from the town the site holds 9000 year old cave paintings. Paintings of hands, and people hunting guanacos (wild llamas). I hopped into the front seat by the driver for the ride and made a new friend. By the time that we were back in Perito Moreno I had learned a lot about the local governments, his job, how the tourist industry works, agriculture in the area, how the school system works....and so much more. I just love how Argentinians are so patient with me when I toture them with my questions and poor Spanish. As I didn t want to spend another night in Perito Moreno I asked the driver if he could bring me to los Antiguos, another town about 40 minutes from Perito Moreno. He did, gave me a guided tour along the way, brought me to a hotel where the owners own a cherry orchard, and just charged me a few translations of Spanish into English, a beer and a plate of appetisers!
Today I spent at the cherry farm of the hotel owners! I got to pick some cherries, learn about how the industry is regulated, made lunch with some friends of his who stopped by, had my first go round with the Mate gourd (see below), watched his son shoe a horse, played with puppies and a cat and some chickens, fed the pigs and the horses. What a great day!
Tomorrow we head back on the dusty bus, good thing that people are washable! On to Esquel where there are impressive forests filled with a sequoia type tree. Ill spend some time there hiking and such, and my dusty travel bud will be heading back to Canada. Once he s off I will start to head further north and into Chile where I will meet up with my longtime experianced travel pal Jill!
MATE
Mate is a very popular hot beverage in Argentina. From the yerba Mate plant, it is a bitter tea like drink that contains way more caffein than Coffee. It is a shared experiance drink as a gourd , or cup, is filled up with the dry mate leaves that look like tea, then the cup is filled with water, and the contents are drunk through a metal straw that has a filter on the bottom of it. When one drinker has drained the liquid, more water is added and the cup is passed to the next person.
Take Care
Erin
When I left off I think that I had just finished our 10 day hike in Torres del Paine and was heading back to El Calafate Argentina. Back we did go, spending new years eve day on a tour to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. It is part of a huge ice pack that straddles the Chile Argentina border. The ice field is the size of Israel. HUGE. WE spent the day taking a boat to within 300 meters of the glacier face, watched huge chunks of it fall off...which looked very small when they fell, until we took into consideration that the face that they are falling off of is 20 stories high.... The thing is just massive. Apparantly every 2 to 10 years depending on the weather, an ice jam builds up in the lake that holds the berg, the water builds up on one side until it forces the ice out. The last time this happened was 2005 and huge thunderous pieces of the berg fell off all day long, they make a very explosive sound when they break off and hit the water, so I imagine that it was very impressive.
From El Calafate, we booked a bus ride to Perito Moreno the town (14 hours away) all on a gravel road. The bus had air vents on the roof of the bus that were open, and with every bump dust, and sometimes water, and sometimes mud came flying in....I was quite comfy and didnt mind too much, but my poor travel bud was not impressed in the least....and spent most of the trip and that evening....and the next morning....in a funk.
The next day off for a tour to Cuerva los Manos. A 3 hour drive from the town the site holds 9000 year old cave paintings. Paintings of hands, and people hunting guanacos (wild llamas). I hopped into the front seat by the driver for the ride and made a new friend. By the time that we were back in Perito Moreno I had learned a lot about the local governments, his job, how the tourist industry works, agriculture in the area, how the school system works....and so much more. I just love how Argentinians are so patient with me when I toture them with my questions and poor Spanish. As I didn t want to spend another night in Perito Moreno I asked the driver if he could bring me to los Antiguos, another town about 40 minutes from Perito Moreno. He did, gave me a guided tour along the way, brought me to a hotel where the owners own a cherry orchard, and just charged me a few translations of Spanish into English, a beer and a plate of appetisers!
Today I spent at the cherry farm of the hotel owners! I got to pick some cherries, learn about how the industry is regulated, made lunch with some friends of his who stopped by, had my first go round with the Mate gourd (see below), watched his son shoe a horse, played with puppies and a cat and some chickens, fed the pigs and the horses. What a great day!
Tomorrow we head back on the dusty bus, good thing that people are washable! On to Esquel where there are impressive forests filled with a sequoia type tree. Ill spend some time there hiking and such, and my dusty travel bud will be heading back to Canada. Once he s off I will start to head further north and into Chile where I will meet up with my longtime experianced travel pal Jill!
MATE
Mate is a very popular hot beverage in Argentina. From the yerba Mate plant, it is a bitter tea like drink that contains way more caffein than Coffee. It is a shared experiance drink as a gourd , or cup, is filled up with the dry mate leaves that look like tea, then the cup is filled with water, and the contents are drunk through a metal straw that has a filter on the bottom of it. When one drinker has drained the liquid, more water is added and the cup is passed to the next person.
Take Care
Erin
Friday, December 29, 2006
Back in town
We arrived back in Puerto Natales yesterday afternoon after over 100 k, 10 days, 1 change of clothes, and 3 showers in the Andes. What a hike. I am so very very very proud of myself. My knees are sore and may never be the same again, but the experience was worth every second of it.
The Torres Del Paine circuit that we hiked encompases a variety of microclimates in the Torres del Paine park. We really lucked out with the notoriously rainy unpredictable weather. Only our hike in and Pack out days were rainy, the 8 days in between may have had rain at night (which my new tent kept out very nicely), but our days were mostly clear, sunny, and bright. We got to see chunks of ice calving off of glaciers that have been there for thousands of years, nearly got blown off of mountain sides by winds that I thought only exisited in the movies, saw orchids, and daisies stubbornly growing in the wild conditions. The views of mountains after 4 hour rocky climbs made the packs seem lighter and my knees less sore. All in all, an amazing hike that I would love to do again.....just not right away.
My travel partner and I have splurged on a hotel type room with a private bathroom that includes a small bath tub! Very exciting. We plan to eat a few very good meals today, before heading back to El Calafate in Argentina. From there we will visit the glacier park, hike on some glaciers, then take a long bus ride, or a short plane ride, depending on what we can find, to Esquel, further north in Argentina, before heading back into Chile where I will send my current travel bud packing back to Winnipeg, and meet my next travel but Jill for flights of fancy through central and Northern Chile. If the rest of my trip is as good as the last 3 weeks have been, I´ll have had my cake and eaten it too!!!
Hope that everyone had a fabulous holiday season. Maybe it even matched mine, with my being in the Andes for both my birthday and Christmas! Great views to wake up to on Christmas morining!
Hugs to all
Erin
The Torres Del Paine circuit that we hiked encompases a variety of microclimates in the Torres del Paine park. We really lucked out with the notoriously rainy unpredictable weather. Only our hike in and Pack out days were rainy, the 8 days in between may have had rain at night (which my new tent kept out very nicely), but our days were mostly clear, sunny, and bright. We got to see chunks of ice calving off of glaciers that have been there for thousands of years, nearly got blown off of mountain sides by winds that I thought only exisited in the movies, saw orchids, and daisies stubbornly growing in the wild conditions. The views of mountains after 4 hour rocky climbs made the packs seem lighter and my knees less sore. All in all, an amazing hike that I would love to do again.....just not right away.
My travel partner and I have splurged on a hotel type room with a private bathroom that includes a small bath tub! Very exciting. We plan to eat a few very good meals today, before heading back to El Calafate in Argentina. From there we will visit the glacier park, hike on some glaciers, then take a long bus ride, or a short plane ride, depending on what we can find, to Esquel, further north in Argentina, before heading back into Chile where I will send my current travel bud packing back to Winnipeg, and meet my next travel but Jill for flights of fancy through central and Northern Chile. If the rest of my trip is as good as the last 3 weeks have been, I´ll have had my cake and eaten it too!!!
Hope that everyone had a fabulous holiday season. Maybe it even matched mine, with my being in the Andes for both my birthday and Christmas! Great views to wake up to on Christmas morining!
Hugs to all
Erin
Monday, December 18, 2006
Puerto Natales CHILE
Here we are in Puerto Natales Chile! Today we will be getting supplies together for our early morning start tomorrow for the 10 day Torres del Paine Cirucuit. I ´m very excited. Because we´re doing the long trek when most tourists only have time for the 4 day, we have to organize a food drop at the halfway point as everything is pack in, pack out. Works for me, I was a little worried about climbing mountains with 10 days worth of food on my back....along with the tent, sleeping bags, etc.etc... This works!
We flew into El Calafate on the 16th, spent a night, then caught a bus across the border to Chile and our current residence. Much cooler than Buenos Aires, thank goodness, so we have finally been able to order hot chocolates instead of iced cream....The hot chocolate if fabulous. Hot milk with melted gobs of chocolate in it that you can stir around to blend in...yum. Nights in the mountains will be cold, near freezing, and the winds off of the glaciars there are notoriously frigid....as any wind off of a glaciar would be I expect. So I´ll be packing in some powdered mild and Milo (hot chocolate mix) to warm me up along the way. WE´re very much looking forward to hitting the Andes and heading into some seclusion.
I´ll report back in 10 to 12 days or so!
Hugs to all
Erin
We flew into El Calafate on the 16th, spent a night, then caught a bus across the border to Chile and our current residence. Much cooler than Buenos Aires, thank goodness, so we have finally been able to order hot chocolates instead of iced cream....The hot chocolate if fabulous. Hot milk with melted gobs of chocolate in it that you can stir around to blend in...yum. Nights in the mountains will be cold, near freezing, and the winds off of the glaciars there are notoriously frigid....as any wind off of a glaciar would be I expect. So I´ll be packing in some powdered mild and Milo (hot chocolate mix) to warm me up along the way. WE´re very much looking forward to hitting the Andes and heading into some seclusion.
I´ll report back in 10 to 12 days or so!
Hugs to all
Erin
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Buenos Aires last day
Today was our last day in Buenos Aires as we plan to head out to Tigre tomorrow. The past few days here we´ve really put on the miles motoring around town. We´ve seen the balcony from which Eva Peron gave her famous speaches, the widest street in the world (16 lanes, fun crossing that one), tango in the streets, meandered through leafy parks where hired dog walkers hold onto up to 15 animals at once, went to the zoo, cooled off in museums and spent the requisite amount of time in cafe´s watching the stylish Portenos walk by. What a city. All of that and we´ve so far avoided stepping in dog doo....of which there are plenty in the streets.
Tomorrow on to Tigre which is a river front city off of which there are tropical islands that you can take a boat to, and picnic on. One day of not pounding pavement before we head off to Patagonia to walk countless miles in the mountains. Truth be told, I can´t wait to get out of the big city, and into both more rural and more temperate climes.
Hugs to all
Next stop....Southern Argentina!
Erin
Tomorrow on to Tigre which is a river front city off of which there are tropical islands that you can take a boat to, and picnic on. One day of not pounding pavement before we head off to Patagonia to walk countless miles in the mountains. Truth be told, I can´t wait to get out of the big city, and into both more rural and more temperate climes.
Hugs to all
Next stop....Southern Argentina!
Erin
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