First of all in case some of you are wondering we are no where near the earthquake in Chile, as we are already down in Patagonia... secondly apologies for the long absence but the last few days we have stayed in little places with no access to Internet.. so what have we been up to.. in Pucon we finally got lucky on our last day for climbing the vulcano. we left at 4:30 in the morning to get there before all teh other groups start the climb. it was a bit scary at times at initially it was pitch black and not all of us were provided with head torches. The climb was probably the steepest thing that I have ever climbed! whilst the first part was all loose rocks we had to put on our crampons after a while and zick zack up on the ice. Up there the views were really rewarding though. We were a bit under time pressure because we had to make it to Puerto Montt in order to catch the night ferry.... once we got to Puerto Montt we were however advised that the ferry had been cancelled due to bad weather.. some last minute emergency accomodation ahd to be found which ended up being quite cool actually... we stayed with this family who had a massive house.. it was simply funny as suddnely our entire group was split out in their living room and kitchen.. they were really sweet and adorable and I loved the ´old fashioned´interior with the little stuffed animal dogs over the TV.... it was nice because it sort of gave you a little flavour of the chilean family life... Since we had to wait until the evning until we could take the next ferry we now had an entire free day.
so we went to a really nice National Park nearby with a waterfall and vulcano... we cooked lunch next to a beautiful lake and simply chilled out. In teh evening we caught the ferry and arrived next morning in Chaiten... Chaiten is pretty much a ghost town as a vulcano erruption in 2008 caused a river to divert and flooded the entire town. We then found ourselves in the Chilean Lake district.. it reminded me a bit of Scandinavia.. lots of forrest and lakes as well as wooden houses. quite pretty. we arrived in a little place called Puyuhuapi where we stayed in Cabanas which are little guest houses.
We were supposed to stay in Puyuhuapi for 2 nights but due to the ferry we lost a day there. The next dya we left early and visited another natioal park where there was a nice little lake and a glacier (Colgant glacier)...about an hour from there we had another stop and went for a walk in what our gudie calls ´the magical forrest´ where we had another wonder. At night we arrived in a place Coihaique which was a bit of a bigger town. we all went to the supermarket and I was walking back to our hostel with another German girl and our Irish guide when haha I dont know how we managed to we got lost.. it was so hilarious as none of us rememberd the name of our hostel or the street in which it is located(it was the guides first time on this trip)so after a while of wondering around when it was also starting to get darçk we decided to get into a taxi.. we were just laughing the entire way and I think the taxu driver must have been quite amused when all we could say was that it is a Cabanas place which is red and white.. but we did get there in the end...
The following day was a looooooooooong driving day but the scenary was AMAZING. we were sitting on top of our truck ( there are seats available up there) and took in the breath taking views of lakes, mountains and the more dry surroundings... the plan for the day was to cross the border into Argentina but at the border point the argentinian offical was a pain in the butt and decided to not let us cross... so we had to drive all the way to another border crossing ( it was a veeeeeeeeeeery long day) and then were able to cross there.. we ended up bushcamping in something that looked a bit like a desert.. but we had a lovely barbecue out there and the star filled sky and super big moon were simply beautiful... The moon was shining so bright that it would cast a little circle in the desert.
We had a very early 6:30 start as we had to make up for the distance which we were not able to cover the previous day. it was a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long 12 hour day on the truk until we arrived in El Chalten.. ( but again super beautiful scenary)..
El Chalten is a trekking heaven and the weather the last 2 days was perfect for it ( after all that rain and cloudy weather after Santiago) So yesterday we went on a 7 hour trek for 24km with beautiful views of Fitz Roy which again is a breatk taking mountain range.. will try and post some picis very soon.... It was a mega tiring climb as it went up quite a bit.... The view point gave us a Panoramic view of the entire mountain range. today we went to the Fitz Roy range another 25km hike... and now I am simply exhausted.. we have tomorrow to recover when we drive down to El Calafate to look at the Perrito Moreno glacier. After that we cross into Chile again to do a 4 day trek the famous W and then finish in Ushuaia on the 8th...I cant believe the trip is almost over... but all good things must come to and end.
Just posted some Chile and Argentina pics which you can find at : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40522&id=272900519&l=0b574663b1
I hope you are all well
