No hablamos mucho espanol: March 2012

So, as I (Gordon) type this quick little update from an industrial town in south Chile by the name of Punta Arenas. The town is quite rough around the edges, but you can find some nice walks if you stretch your legs a bit on the outskirts of the town, but it is purely a stop over (which has been prolonged due to timetables) as we make our way further south. We´ll give the town a bit more attention when we do our next, more comprehensive, post.

That said, we are trying to work out what our route is from here. For those of you that are interested, this is our dilemma.

Firstly, as we are this far down, we feel that we are this close to Ushuaia, etc that we need to get down there; but which way.

Check out a company called Transbordadora Austral Broome. They run a 38 hour ferry from Punta Arenas to Puerto Williams on Isla Navarino. The ferry ride looks amazing as it takes you through fjords, along the Strait of Magellan and through the Beagle Channel. This would also allow us to trek the island (a 5 day, somewhat tricky in places, trek that is exposed to the elements). After the trek, you can return to Ushuaia by a 40 minute, very expensive, boat ride (or try to hitch a lift on a yacht doing the crossing, very hit and miss, but is the preference) and then head back to Torres del Paine from there. We want to do this, but a recent blog from some trekkers in January, stated that they had already had some snow blizzards. The weather here is notoriously changeable and this is what makes the decision hard as once you're on Isla Navarino, getting off is also expensive and infrequent, so really you want to do the trek to make it worth your while.

The alternative is to get the ferry across from Punta Arenas to Porvenir and travel to Ushuaia and do some local kayak rides (and trek Tierra del Fuego) or try to get from Ushuaia to Puerto Williams and get a long haul ferry back to Punta Arenas in order to head north to Torres del Paine that way.

The other point that was made to us by other travellers, who have done Tierra del Fuego, is that if you are trekking the Torres del Paine and Fitzroy areas, that it is not worth the hassle and expense going south as you will only see the same thing.

As we say, dilemma. We are off to get some more info tomorrow morning which means one more night in Punta Arenas. Think it´s time for bed...the walk today in the local national park seems to have wrecked us!

Fingers crossed for tasty weather on Isla Navarino!

A quick blog before we head into the abyss, that is, the end of the world...

We last left you in San Martin when we were about to do a 5 day trek in Parque Nacional Lanin, yet it did not quite pan out the way we had planned (completely and utterly my, that is Susan, fault.)

We hopped on yet another local bus (these have been the biggest adventures as are predominantly local and alot of maté is consumed) and added another rickety, dirt road to our repertoire. We meandered along the Lago (lake, but i'm sure you know this!) Lacar for a couple of hours and came across the one-horse town of Hua Hum, home to the crazy man in the woods, Alexis, who you will meet shortly. When entering a national park, it is compulsory to register with the local Guarda Parque (Alexis is one of these), after a few formalities we hiked 4 km to our campsite, which was nestled in the western corner of the lake, an idyllic setting. We can't fail to mention our friendly, furry companion from the afternoon, a white dog who we met at the information kiosk, who followed for the entire day on our hike. After a surprising successful first attempt at pitching our new home, a cup of tea and a sandwich later, we set off on our way towards the thermal waterfall (La Terma). The route started with an 8 km dirt road walk through the woods, which hugged the edge of Lago Queni. We needed to take our boots off to cross another (FREEZING!!!) river, which then led us to the start of a 4km walk through an evergreen forest towards our final destination. This is where we were warned about the hornets, viscious little buggers (see last blog). At this point I first noticed a pain in my ankle, but pressed on to la Terma.

***intermission (tea/whiskey/cracker break?)***

We arrived to what initially appeared a muddy pool and were somewhat disappointed, until we walked further up to be greeted by 3 large thermal pools and a thermal waterfall laden with semi-naked, overweight gentlemen! A coy moment later, once they had gone, I whipped off my outer crackers (now don't get the wrong idea, all decent) and, by this stage I was already covered from head to toe in mud and grime from slipping down the mudbank, so thought what the hell and jumped in. A thermal waterfall shower later, we made tracks before twilight, only to really start noticing the pain in my ankle. One of us walking, the other hobbling, the third barking in anticipation, we reached the Park Guard's house at the end of the trail (but still 3 hours from the campsite) in the hope that he could give us a lift back to the campsite.

Now this was the night we really got to know and appreciate the locals fully! A friendly family, who were staying with their friend, Alexis, the Park Guard, greeted us and invited us in. It was 5 star treatment from then on! A warm maté, a stool next to the open fire (with knickers hanging from the mantle!), and everyone fussing about the first aid book, and their patient, moi! They put in a call to the real Park Guard, who was back in Hua Hum with his family, but he agreed to collect us within the hour. 2 hours later, and he still had not turned up, so the family shared their hearty chicken spagetti and wine with us and eagerly exchanged stories and emails in our Spanish and their very local dialect. We discovered that Javier played the symbols in the army, Santiago, a taxi driver and his wife and 2 girls, Pilar and Tatiana who enjoyed dancing for Gordon. 3 hours later, a thud at the door and in stumbled a sozzled, confused-looking elderly gentleman, who clearly did not know whether he was coming or going and who was completely incomprehendable, so we just nodded 'si, si, gracias.' We were a little concerned that this man, who was utterly intoxicated, was going to drive us home, and were planning our escape route! Luckily the actual Park Guard (introducing Alexis) came in a few minutes later. Thinking that we were going to make a move, Alexis proceeded to cook up some fish (Gordon was tricked into believing it was chicken when he tried some, and I accidently told him it was fish, oops!) An hour and a half and some cheap, nasty wine later, Alexis looked at us, and we looked at him, and he stood there gawking in a rather uncomfortable way at me. FINALLY we jumped in his looney truck, and pouring with rain, he raced us back to the campsite as if in the world rally championship, and boy were we happy to see our tent!

Due to my ankle, we had to pack up the next day and en route to Hua Hum, we bumped into another local Park Guard (this one was 100% more sane than Alexis) and informed us that the last bus of the season was leaving at 8pm, which scuffered our plans to camp for one more night. We had an informative chat with him about the Park's history, the local Mapuche indigenous people and the struggle between them and the government over land rights, as well as the advice about the wild boar and hornets (!be warned!) We did not feel like hanging around for the bus, so we luckily got a lift with a couple from Buenos Aires, Veronica and Mateus, again great Spanish practice, and very nice locals.

We spent the night back at our hostel in San Martin and the next morning, took a 4 hour bus along the breathtaking Ruta de la Seite Lagos (Route of the Seven Lakes), which included some stunning colours in the lakes and forests, and cemented our decision to return here in a month or so once we have been down south. We spent 2 days in the town of San Carlos de Bariloche to find our bearings and plan our route to Tierra Del Fuego.

Now we will leave you to tuck into our home made super empanadas!