Gone with the wind

Buenos dias! Another week in Patagonia has passed. Probably this week was meant to show what weather in Patagonia is capable of ... sun, rain, snow, wind and storm. But first I still have to show some pictures left from last week's visit to Perito Moreno. Some breaking off ice chunks :o)

My last day in Calafate I spent on a daytrip to Glacier Upsala. Nice boat trip through icebergs close to the front side of the glacier, 4WD ride up a mountain with a great view on the glacier and finally a hike through the so called fossil canyon back to the refugio. Truly amazing landscapes!

Well, the pictures might look kind of "peaceful" but just imagine taking the pictures with a wind of 7-8 Beaufort. I knew Patagonia was windy ... but that it is that stormy I didn't know.
Monday I moved on to El Chaltén, a little hiking village close to Mount Fitz Roy. Beautiful scenery though I only got to see Fitz Roy the first day. The remaining days this shy mountain preferred to hide behind clouds. Oh yeah, before I forget to mention: it was windy as well ... very windy ... and it rained and snowed ... we got to experience pretty much all of the flavors of Patagonian weather. Nevertheless, every now and then the sun came out and revealed the beauty of this part of the world. Though I am kind of glad that I still am a nice-weather-hiker and do not sleep in little tents on a mountain when there is snow and storm.

Now I am back in El Calafate and I am waiting for my flight back to hot Buenos Aires tomorrow evening. Summarizing my time in Patagonia I have to admit I expected it to be slightly different. I wasn't aware of the fact that Patagonia is close to being a desert, except for the beautiful national parks. Well, they call it "estepa", but it's not far from being a desert. In combination with the wind most parts are quite hostile to living. The biggest impression which is left is it's huge emptiness.

Besides nature Patagonia has to offer more. I was warned already before that it might be difficult to obtain cash ... and so it was. After having had a lucky punch upon arrival in Calafate my wallet dried out very quickly. In combination with a nation wide cash problem (in Argentina people apparently prefer to have their cash at home and not in the bank, because the dont trust their banks for good reason) all the places down here dried out completely. No more money in banks or ATMs. Strange feeling. Never had that problem before. So back to plastic money, but unfortunately not all places and hostels accept that. I hadn't known how restrictive it could be to be bound to plastic money. Too many places just dont like credit cards here. Going for dinner can become a long walk and buying a bottle of water is a true challenge! Well, after 9 days without cash-rich-ATMs I finally got lucky again ... it feels so good to have cash again :o) Makes life so much easier.
While Argentina is facing cash shortage, Chilean Patagonia decided to go on strike. Something about gas prices. Borders are closed by protesters and tourists are trapped ineither Chile or Argentina. Luckily I crossed the border already last week. I probaly would not have been able to catch my flight tomorrow. First I was a bit disappointed that I didnt get to go to Ushaia, but now this proves to be sheer luck ... I would not have made it back from Ushaia either. Chaos in Patagonia ... I just hope my flight tomorrow will be ok!
If things go well I will be in Buenos Aires again from Monday on and will be sweating in the heat for another week before I will leave to New Zealand :o) Hasta luego, Stefan

The end of the world

Hola chicos! Feliz Año Nuevo! Ok, pressure is growing so I have to write some more lines. I got a bit lazy during my Xmas break. So what happened? After some more or less sunny days in Viña del Mar I visited friends in Santiago de Chile for Christmas and New Year. After the Christmas family celebration we once again left for some days to the beach. Back in Santiago I used my free time to do lots of sports ... that felt good :o) I am regaining the weight which I lost in the Andean countries :o) New Year's Eve we spent in Santiago ... but they didn't have fireworks :o( The other striking difference was that there weren't any completed wasted people around ... I kind of missed that ;o)
Well, I can't remember the last time I started the New Year on January 1st ... but it was great to do so since I had a flight to Punta Arenas that day. Flying across the Glacier National Park with amazing view on Patagonia's glaciers from the air I finally made it to Patagonia. The end of the world. I love it :o)

After a short visit to Punta Arenas I moved on to Puerto Natales, the gate to Torres del Paine, a fantastic national park in the Chilean part of Patagonia. Impressive mountains, blue lakes and wonderful valleys. Unfortunately, I didnt have enough time to do the full hike around the mountains (as I didnt have time for many other things during my trip), but still I did some great hiking in the park. I will certainly come back! It's fantastic!

After Torres I crossed the border and made it back to beloved Argentina. Finally I am able to understand people in the street again. I still don't know what language they are speaking in Chile ;o) I think trying to learn Spanish in Chile is like an attempt to learn German in Switzerland ... pretty fruitless ;o)
So yesterday I arrived in El Calafate in southern Argentina. What makes this place worthy? The glacier Perito Moreno. A huge glacier ending in Lago Argentino. I visited it today. Absolutley amazing! Being a good tourist I started my day with a boat tour to the front of the glacier to admire the breaking off ice chunks. Well, there wasn't much breaking off at that time. To compensate us for that a huge chunk of ice all of a sudden came up from the deepness of the lake pretty close to the boat. That was scary. We expected things to drop down and not to pop up out of nothing! Luckily things which are already in the water do not produce large waves ... otherwise we would have gotten pretty wet. It was like a submarine popping up right next to you.

The rest of the time at Perito Moreno you normally spend standing on some balcony and watching the glacier waiting for some big chunks to break off ... and I got to see a lot of those! Fantastic day! And it's damn secure as well ... ice chunks only destroy balconies at night ... like 2 days ago ... and then the balcony (or better what's left of it) is quickly closed ... because it is dangerous ;o)

Sunday the next glacier is waiting for me. Upsala glacier. It's even bigger than Perito Moreno :o) Monday I will move on to El Chalten, the hiking capital of Argentina at Mount Fitz Roy! Hiking days!
Hasta luego!