Gabi Part 2 (Patagonia)

THIS IS GABI!!!

First of all, Sorry for such a long blog!  It covers a total of 13 days.  I understand if you have to take a break and come back to finish it later.  It is a bit of a doozie..  It has actually taken many many hours just to put this blog together.

Someone caused this jump picture to fail... i wonder who it was... (sonja)

Day 6: Ushuaia, Argentina

                We began our descent into the Ushuaia airport a little after 8 in the morning.  Ushuaia is the Southernmost city in the world (not to far from Antartica).  The sun was just beginning to rise and as a looked out the window of the plane, all I could see was “COLD”.  It was snowing and everything was white.  Once of the plane, we got a taxi and made our way to the city center.  It was the first metered taxi I had been in while in South America, and man was it expensive.  We really had no idea of what we were going to do in this part of the continent, so we made our way to the information center to see what our options were.  There seemed to be many interesting things but they all seemed pretty expensive.

So next, we looked for the cheapest hostel that we could find.  We found one named Hostel Cruz del Sur.  It was a pretty cool place to hang out. Free computers to get in the internet, a kitchen, nice beds and oh yea AMAZING SHOWERS with HOT WATER!!  So we began doing some research and figuring out what we would end up doing down here in the south of the south.  We decided that even though we had just gotten here we were going to leave on a bus at 4 in the morning and begin our journey into southern Chile in hopes of making it to Torres Del Paine National Park.  Seemed like a good idea… So for the remainder of the day, we just walked around the harbor and taking some photos while freezing our butts off in the snow.  Then we did a bit of grocery shopping and made dinner before turning in for the night.

So yea there is snow everywhere

Ushuaia, The Edge of The World

Coolest Hostel Ever!!!

Crazy attack birds of the south

I liked this photo, Stranded boat in the harbor

Day 7: Buses – Strait of Magellan

                4am came very early.  We packed our things and went to the bus terminal to catch our bus to Rio Grande, Argentina.  We slept most of the way there and arrived before sunrise.  Me and Matthias were hungry so we walked around the sleepy town looking for something to eat.  Nothing was open.  We were trying our best not to fall down on the icy streets and sidewalk when we noticed a man walking into to a glowing light.  We hurried over in hopes that there might be food.  It was a bakery!  We quickly entered and began buying all kinds of amazing goodies.  We then had to hurry back to the bus terminal because soon our bus would be leaving for Punta Arenas. 

                The bus winded along the Atlantic Coastline for a bit.  Next thing you know we were crossing the Chilean border.  It is a major crime to carry fruits or certain other foods into Chile from other countries….  I asked the guy if my apples were ok and he said no and took them.  Well, Sonja had some pears in her bag and tried to get them through the scanner.  They caught her.  We feared that she was going to get arrested and that we would have to continue the trip without her.  So we pretended not to know her and made our way back to the bus where we could wait and see what happened.  Luckily for Sonja, the person who had to sign off on the situation wasn’t there so the allowed her to get back on the bus where we quickly made our getaway. 

                Next was a huge achievement of my life.  We were about to cross the Strait of Magellan on a ferry.  I think I may have been the most excited person there.  It amazed me to see the guys load all the 18-wheelers and cars and our bus onto the ferry.  We and Matthias pitched some ideas about making a video game about loading a ferry.  Once to the other side, we loaded up in the bus and continued our way to Punta Arenas, Chile.  We quickly booked our next bus trip to Puerto Natales, where we were hoping to figure out more about getting to Torres Del Paine.  Since we had a 2 hour wait, we decided to go to the grocery store and buy some fruit since all of ours was confiscated.  It was dinner time so we then went to a little restaurant and found us some hot bowls of Paila Marina. 

                We finally got on the bus for the final leg of this day long trip to Puerto Natales.  At first the bus was nice and warm.  Then it continued getting warmer and warmer until it had turned into a hot and miserable oven.  There was no way we could get any sleep and if I were to take off anymore clothes I would have been naked.  I was relieved when I could finally see the lights of Puerto Natales off in the distance.  Once in the terminal, we began asking about buses to the Park, but since it was the off season for tourism, there would be no buses for 2 days.  So we walked through the town looking for a cheap hostel.  It was really cold and there was snow everywhere.  Finally we found a room and turned in for the night.

Welcome to the Strait of Magellan

I'm at the Strait of Magellan!!!!

Ferry on The Strait of Magellan

Another Paila Marina!!!

Day 8: Puerto Natales, Chile

                We slept in until about 10:30am.  It was very cold and had gotten down to 18 degrees Fahrenheit last night.  The water in our room froze and had to use a bathroom in someone else’s room down the hall.  After eating some fruits and bread for breakfast, we went out to see what we could plan for our trip.  Everywhere that we went, people told us that there was no transportation to the park since it was the off season and that the roads were covered in snow. Also they said that snow was waist deep in some places around the park.  That’s not what we had been hearing from everyone else southwards who said that there was no snow in the park….  Finally we found someone who was willing to help us plan our trip even though she thought we were crazy.

 We planned out a 6 day loop of hiking around the park.  We rented tents, sleeping mats, and a cooking kit to help us survive.  We almost didn’t rent the cooking set but I was able to talk the others into it.  We scheduled our transportation in a private vehicle and then went to do our grocery shopping for the trip.  We would have to take all of our food with us since there are no stores and most of the facilities on the park were closed for the winter.  The grocery store didn’t have bags, so we talked them into letting us borrow the shopping cart to take everything back to the hostel.  We then relaxed and cooked some dinner before packing our packs and going to sleep.  It would be our last night in a room for 5 nights.  I found myself praying that we would not freeze to death on this trip because, well, IT WAS VERY COLD!!! 

Me and my Shopping cart.  I looked like a hobo walking around

A weeks worth of Camping Supplies

Day 9: Parque National Torres Del Paine, Chile

                We woke up early in the morning and stumbled out of the hostel to meet our driver who was going to give us a lift to the park and hopefully pick us up when we were done.  The ride through the valleys was breath taking.  The sun was beginning to rise behind the mountains and everything was indeed covered by snow.  Even the road was solid white, with no pavement showing at all.  It was about a 2 hour drive but it was amazing because the car had an amazing heater.  Our driver (Guido) was actually a tour guide so he gave us some advice and told us to call him if anything changed.  We had no way to contact him so we just told him we would see him in 6 days.  We left Hosteleria Los Torres around 11am and began our trek towards where we would camp for our first night.  It was a little cold and everything was covered in snow.  The mountains were so beautiful.  Eventually, after trying to stay on the trail, we arrived at Lake Nordenskjold which was full of picture perfect views.  The water was an amazing bluish color and it was surrounded by snow peaked mountains.  I could have stayed there for hours. 

At least the next 6 hours of our journey, involved trekking through the snow alongside the lake.  Oh and did I mention that neither of us were prepared for trekking in the snow. I was wearing a pair of worn out tennis shoes which the soles were coming off and were worn slick on the bottom….  Finally we reached our campsite.  At this time of the year the days were only about 10 hours long, so you had to walk as much as you could in the daylight and then prepare for a blistering cold night.  We were all still in awe of the beauty that we had just witnessed over the past 17km of walking.  Our first night we were going to stay in Campo Italiano.  It was deserted so we decided to pitch our tents inside the cooking shed for some added warmth and protection.  We cooked some tomato soup (Tomato flavored water) for dinner.  Next we were beginning to get very cold, so we took off our wet socks and pants and climbed into our sleeping bags.  It was still snowing a bit outside and it continued to get colder and colder.  I would have to say it was a miserable night.  It was so cold (well below freezing), the ground hurt, and I kept getting woken up by the sound of avalanches.

Road to Parque National Torres Del Paine

Starting our Trek!!

Can't believe the scenery

Action Shot!

So Beautiful

Some Trails were solid ice

Day 10: Torres Del Paine

                I was so happy to finally see daylight because there was no way I could lay there in that tent any longer.  We got up and had pan con queso for breakfast before beginning our trek into Valle Frances.  We heard that the valley was closed but Guido said it would be ok.  We began our walk up the valley and were automatically taken by the views of the sun rising.  The snow began to get deeper and deeper as we trekked on.  Some places were over knee deep but it typically averaged around 10 inches deep.  My knee had began hurting me early on and I knew it was a matter of time before I would be hobbling along.  The deep snow really took it out of me.  Pero, Vale la pena!  It was extremely beautiful and we managed to see quite a few avalanches coming down the other side of the valley.  Good thing we weren’t on that side…  the further we trekked on the more difficult it got and we knew that we would have to turn around eventually and make our way back down so that we could make I t the next camp where we would stay the night.  So after about 2.5 hours of walking we decided to turn back because the trail was becoming harder and harder to find and it was too difficult without the proper gear.

                My sneakers were pretty much the worst shoes for the hike.  Basically I had no traction whatsoever and fell about a bajillion times.  With my knee hurting every step I took, it was actually easier to fall down and slide down certain parts of the mountain on my back.  I was in agony basically.  Eventually, I caught up with the rest back at Campo Italiano where we sat down and had lunch.  We collected our gear and then made our way around the lake to the next camp at Paine Grande, where we set up our tent for another freezing cold night.  It was a pretty nice place and they allowed us to use their kitchen for cooking some food and heating up some water for tea.  Also we got pretty lucky because they allowed us to chill in a room that had a wood stove to warm up and dry out all our soggy shoes and clothes.  We walked about 18km this day.

                There were actually a handful of people staying at the camp this night.  There were 2 Americans from California who came down to do a bit of trekking.  Also there was 2 Chileans, an Asian guy with his guide, and Jorge a park ranger.  We all sat around talking about traveling and about life for a long time.  I think we were all avoiding going back out into the cold for as long as possible.  So we finally made our way back out to the tent around 10 or 11 and settled in hoping we wouldn’t freeze.

Sun rising, lighting up mountain peaks

Canned Clams  SO GOOD!!!!

All i could think was WOWWW

Camping arrangements 

Day 11:  Torres Del Paine

                We got up in the morning and made our way into the lounge where I immediately began working on getting a fire started.  We scrounged a little breakfast together and began to eat.  The others slowly began to make their way into the room.  The Asian fella and his guide decided to give us their leftovers because they had too much.  We pounced like wild dogs.  After eating our fill, we prepared for a long hike to Glacier Grey.  It was about a 24km hike there and back.  We left our belongings at the camp and only packed our day packe because we would be returning to the same campsite for that night as well.  We made a quick pace since we didn’t have our heavy packs, which was a great relief for my knee.  After a bit of walking we came along side a lake and in this lake there were many blue icebergs floating about.  I had never seen an iceberg before and I was shocked at how blue these were.  I mean like a deep dark blue.

                We continued hiking until we could see Glacier Grey off in the distance.  We weren’t there yeyt but we could already tell how massive it was.  It seemed as if there was no end.  It took us about 2 more hours of walking before we actually reached the face of the glacier and man was it blue.  SO BLUE.  We climbed up onto a small cliff where we could sit and stare at this marvelous piece of ice and sit on some warm tea.  The clouds above slowly lifted and it was possible to see all the mountains that bordered the glacier and to see how full they were of snow.  Fue muy Impressionante!!!! So with the day halfway over we turned around and made the 4 hour hike back to camp.  I ended up with a few blisters but nothing major.  Just drained them and I was ready to keep going. 

                We made our way back inside by the fire where we ate dinner and sat around with our fellow travelers talking about everything under the sun.  It was pretty amazing to sit around and talk to total strangers in the middle of nowhere.  I think that may have been one of the best things about the trip.  Other than all the amazingly beautiful nature.  Eventually, we went back out into the cold and crawled into our tents.  We knew we had a short hike the following day so we had no rush to get going in the morning.

My first Icebergs

Glacier Grey. SO BLUE!!

This just caught my eye on the way back

Day 12: Torres Del Paine

                The night was extremely windy and it rained a bit.  It woke me up many times during the night.  I felt like I barely slept at all any of this trip so far.  We finally came out of the tents around 8am and made our way in to start up the fire.  There was no wood so I made my way outside to find some firewood and get it going.  So we again prepared breakfast and again were invited to have some of the Asian guys breakfast.  Turns out he was from Singapore.  He was a pretty interesting guy and I wish I could have gotten to know him a bit more but he kept more to himself.  We started the day off very lazily and just relaxed and slept on the table by the fire until noon.  We then packed up our tents and belongings and said farewell to all of our new friends.

                We began our hike up a steep mountain alongside the lake on our way to the campsite called Carretas, which was only about a 3 hour 10km hike.  We saw a very rare deer and also many wild horses in the meadows.  Once we arrived to camp we were again the only ones there.  So we prepared our tents and relaxed before it got dark.  We took out our little stove and made some mushroom soup. This day marked the one year anniversary of the day when I first met all the Germans at our house in La Paz.  It was sad knowing that soon it would all be over.

Chillin' in the common room after breakfast

Patagonia Flag with a Patagonian Backdrop

Rare Deer

Wild Horses, Notice the ones far off to the left...

Day 13: Torres Del Paine

                The night had been another freezing cold night, but by then had just been another normal night.  I realized that I hadn’t had a shower in over a week now and I was beginning to smell funky.  We had a quick breakfast and packed up our gear before trudging out another 18km before bedding down at Camping Pehóe where we would camp that night.  By now the scenery was their but we didn’t notice as much since we were just focused on getting to our next checkpoint and taking our heavy packs off.  Turns out it was very expensive to camp there but it was the only place around to camp.  We set up camp and then hiked up to Mirrador Condor.  There were no condors like we had hoped but it was an amazingly beautiful panorama of what we had already hiked the days before.  This day was the official half day of our GABI trip, so once on top, we celebrated with a snickers bar.  After soaking it all in, we made our way back down to the campsite.  I attempted to start a fire in the pit hoping it would put off some heat but the wood was damp and it began to drizzle.  So it seemed as if we would spend our final night in the wilderness freezing again.  So we again warmed up some soup under our shelter and then went to sleep.

Standing atop of mirrador condor. to my right is a lodge on the island

Day 14: Torres Del Paine

                This sounds like a reoccurring theme but the night was freezing cold.  At some point during the night, the drizzle turned into snow and everything was covered in a light white dusting.  We ate a little bit of bread and set off on the final leg of our hike. Our goal was Pudeto where Guido would meet us at 2 in the evening.  We arrived in about 2 hours but the whole time it was snowing and drizzling rain.  We set our things under an awning and began to hike up a trail towards the waterfall because we had plenty of time before Guido would show up.  The waterfall was very powerful and it got me wondering how amazing Iguazu Falls in Brazil would be.  We would be there in just under a week.  After staring at the waterfall we made our way back to Pudeto to wait on Guido.  On the way back we saw a grey fox hunting mice.  I’m not sure if he noticed us but we basically just watched him hunt for about 15 minutes.

                We got back to Pudeto and sat around waiting for Guido.  This day we walked 11km, so in total for the 6 days we did right around 100km.  A guy who was there invited us in to have coffee.  It was funny because just 10 minutes earlier Sonja had said that she wished he would invite us in for coffee.  So we went in and had coffee with the nice old guy and got warm.  Eventually, Guido showed up and we said farewell to the old man and went to load up our gear.  We slept the whole way back to Puerto Natales.  Once back, we said so long to Guido and went to return our gear that we had rented.  We then purchased some bus tickets to Punta Arenas and grabbed some groceries.  While in the bus station I decided it was timed to retire the pants I was wearing because I had been wearing them for the past 15 days and they were getting a bit holy, not to mention they stunk.  So I took them off, rolled them up, and gently tucked them into a trashcan.  We arrived late night to Punta Arenas and walked to a hostel where we would stay a couple nights.  It was a nice little place but the best part was I finally was able to shower.  And man was I dirty.  I had to wash myself multiple times to get clean.

Large Waterfall. I stood at the edge so you could get a size reference

Grey fox hunting mice. See the tail hanging out his mouth?

Yep its and Emu

This is called a "Guanaco".  very common in Patagonia

Day 15: Punta Arenas, Chile

                After breakfast, we went to the harbor to find penguins.  Matthias really wanted to see penguins while we were in the south and after a while I was eager to see them as well.  So we went out in search but were without luck.  We did see this interesting bird that resembled a penguin but it wasn’t an actual penguin.  So we continued to walk around the city until we stumbled across the main square.  We were trying to figure out why there were so many military people and police around.  Apparently it was some special day and the military was having a special march with music and formations.  It was interesting to watch as they raised the flag and sung the Chilean National Anthem before marching out of the square and down the street. 

                Afterwards, we walked across the city and went to the same restaurant we had been to before to eat another Paila Marina with clams.  I was definitely taking advantage of all the fresh seafood I could manage to eat while we were near the sea and could get it fresh.  After eating we went to find a internet café where we could inform our families that we were still alive and also let the hostel in Ushuaia know we would be back the next evening.  We went and did a bit of grocery shopping and then returned to the hostel to get some sleep.

Old piers in the Harbor

Raising the flag

The Military

Day 16: Punta Arenas, Chile – Ushuaia, Argentina

                We woke up and had breakfast before getting on to our bus that would take us to Rio Grande and then finally Ushuaia.  I’ll spare you many of the details since this day was basically the same as day 7 but in reverse.  We crossed the Strait of Magellan again and then the border of Chile into Argentina.  We arrived back in Ushuaia around 9:30pm and directly headed to Hostel Cruz del Sur to get our rooms for the night.  We then went out and walked around the city looking at what it had to offer before heading back to our beds.

Day 17: Ushuaia, Argentina

                In the morning we took a short bus ride to “Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego”.  It was only 12 kilometers from the city so it didn’t take long at all.  After arriving, we soon realized that it didn’t even compare to Torres del Paine.  We walked around following some interesting tourists for a while, but it wasn’t very exciting.  But then, we took a trail alongside the lake that goes towards the Chilean Border.  It was an old untouched forest with many dead trees laying and decomposing on the forest floor covered in mosses.  It was a little ERIE, but pretty cool to experience.  Eventually, Felix and I arrived to the border of Chile where there was a sign that said not to cross.  So, like responsible people, we crossed to take some cool photos.  We then went back to catch the bus on its way to the city.  Matthias stayed in the park a little longer so we used the opportunity to go around and look for a birthday present that we could give him the following week.  Afterwards, we made our way back to the hostel and hung out before going to sleep.

Cool Forest in Tierra del Fuego

Same Forest

Strattling the Chilean-Argentinean border

What does it say???

Day 18: Ushuaia, Argentina

                This would be our final full day in Southern South America.  Our goal was to conserve a little bit of our money so that we would be able to have some when we arrived in Brazil.  Plus, we were pretty exhausted from all the traveling we had been doing lately, so a nice chill day was within reason.  Basically, we did just that. After breakfast, we just chilled around the hostel preparing for Brazil and getting our packs ready to leave in the morning.  I began getting a little bored, so I began working in the hostel, varnishing new beds for the other hostel they were planning on opening up soon.  In return, they gave me a discount on my room expenses.  I kept receiving job offers to stay and work for a while but it was all of a sudden.  I felt like I needed more time to think about it, and now after thinking about it I ask myself why I didn’t just stay for a while longer… 

                 At 1pm, we went down to the harbor to catch the boat for our harbor and Beagle Channel tour.  It was really fun.  First on the tour, we went to see the Sea lions, which was epic because the males are HUGE and have like 12 babies mamas.  But they did smell pretty rank!  Next, we cruised over to see the lighthouse (farro), which was extremely beautiful.  We then went to an island in the channel where we were able to get off and walk around for a bit and take photos.  The first mate, who I think may have had a crush on Sonja, let her drive the boat.  Everyone feared for their lives!!!  We were scrambling around the boat searching for life jackets and safety equipment preparing for the inevitable.  Thankfully, we finally made it back safely to shore.

Big poppa with his babie's mamas

I think they are ugly.  Cool... but ugly....

NOT PENGUINS

Light House in the Beagle Channel

Sun going down behind Ushuaia

S.O.S.... Sonja is driving!!!!

                For dinner we went out in search of a restaurant that had King Crab.  We found one that had a tank in the front with live crabs that you could pick just like at Red Lobster.  These crabs were GIGANTIC!  I had never seen crabs of this size in my life. They were bigger than most household cats or small dogs.  I ordered the Cetolla al Parmeseano.  It was very delightful and I was stuffed to the brim.  We ended the evening with a slow walk around the city and then back to the hostel where we settled in for our final night in Patagonia.

King Crabs