As I said, we are now in Salvador de Bahia. Just to give you an idea, it used to be the capital of Brazil, so it is pretty big. We found a nice little hostel in the middle of the Pelourhino which is the historical center of the town and also the party center!!! ok, it is touristic but lovely and safe! The place is full of colonial buildings which are beautiful, loads of church and lovely cobblestoned street... wandering around here is great...

Pelo street, salvador

Sao Francisco church

So we enjoyed the Pelo (as the locals say...) as much during the day as during the night...: we went out with a few people from the hostel and followed for about an hour a percussion band. Everyone was dancing and the music was great, full of rythms... i can assure you that Brazilians know how to party and take over the streets!! We then sat down for a few drinks before going to a local party where I did enjoy showing off my samba and salsa talents!!! I got to meet a few great dancers (ola was one of them!!) and i did dance like crazy!!! It was amazing!!
We unfortunately don't have any pictures of the night, but you can just imagine a big samba and african party in the streets!!

Today, after a nice sleep... we found a capoeira class... it was also great. We are now feeling Brazil fully and enjoying its culture....!!! WE LOVE IT!

After that, a little nap in the hamac was very welcome for me...

Loads of kisses

agnes and ola

PS for mummy danielle: my feet are back to normal!!I will survive!!

written by  agnesola on July 11, 2007 from Salvador, Brazil
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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We are now gone from Salvador and we are in Lencois for some forest and trekking.

But before that, we visited thursday and yesterday more of Salvador. We started by going to Campo Grande, a beautiful park not so far from the pelo. And Ola got lost in a massive tree!!

Ola lost in a big tree, Salvador

Then we walked all the way to Barra, well known for its lighthouse and its fort (unfortunately we dont have any pictures!!! Soorry!). The water there was absolutely amazing and you could see clearly a few meters down... the blue-turquoise water was beautiful to look at! Anyway, that was the first time that we could see such a beautiful water... and of course we had nothing to swim with, so we went away!

Ready to walk for hours, we then walked all the way to the zoo of the town which was free (budget... budget!!). The zoo was quite nice but animals didn't have so much space... (well they never have in zoos!!!).

Yesterday was relaxation as we went to the beach a few 20 kms away from the town, the wter wasn't as beautiful but it was quite clear anyway... And I didn't get sunburnt!!! niiice!!

Ole looking at the sea, Salvador

More at the next blog entry!!!

Lots of kisses and i leave you with a picture of a traditionnal dress in Salvador!!

Traditionnal Dress in Salvador

Agnes and Ola

written by  agnesola on July 14, 2007 from Salvador, Brazil
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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DAY 1
We arrived in Lencois on Saturday after a night bus travel from Salvador. The town looked straight away very friendly and cute.

Lencois streets

So there we are starting our adventure by going to Pai Inacio, a mountain about 1 hour bus ride from Lencois. After arriving to the site, we hiked for about 15 minutes to enjoy

Pai Inacio, Chapada Diamantina, Brazil, ola on top

Pai Inacio, Chapada Diamantina, Brazil, sunset start

But that was only the start of a three day adventure in the Chapada Diamantina Park which is one of the most beautiful place in Brazil....

After going back into town, we had dinner and went sleep, all excited for the next few days coming...

DAY 2
After a night sleep, we left Lencois at 8.30 am to go to Cachoeira da Fumaca, a 400 m waterfall.
We went by bus for 2 hours until we picked up our guide, her name was Cris, and she luckily spoke english. Another couple of minutes until we stopped. Our guide explained that we were walking 6 km to the waterfall and 6 km back. one of these kilometers was walking 800 meters in elevation up a mountain. In total we were going to be 1400 m above sea level. So we started, it was quite steep but not to bad, as we went higher up the view just got better and better.

After we had walked up the mountain there was walking on plain ground, at one part we had to take of our boots and walk through kneedeep black water to cross to another side where we continued our trek to the waterfall. The surroundings were quite plain and apparently a long time ago they used to have cows up here.

We could hear the waterfall before we saw it. We were gonna see it from 2 places, first from the side, then on top. the view from the side was just incredible, the waterfall itself was not very strong but it was 400 meters long, which is quite enough to make it impressive, and the view on all sides are mountains! we had our lunch here, and I dont think any of us has ever had lunch with more beatiful scenery!

After eating, and seeing a mountain rat!(tiny hairy little thing) we went to see the fall from the top. To get there we had to cross the actual river that makes the waterfall(cool). If we thought that the view from the side was good...this was ten times better. On the side and above the waterfall you could crawl out and look down on the waterfall and 400 meters down to the ground!!! This was such a rush! and so beautiful. We stayed there for some time just enjoying until we went back to the river we crossed earlier to bath. There is not many times in your life that you get the chance to bath 50 meters from where a waterfall plunges 400 meters down... the water was dark because of minerals and when you took some of it in your hands it was orange/brown. After drying in the sun it was time to get back before it got dark, the trek back was the the same but a bit quicker and we just arrived when the sun was going down.

This night we did not sleep in Lencois but in a town called Capao, in a very nice pousada where we had the best food so far in brazil!(the most common food in brazil is rice and beans....) we went out with our group after dinner and had a beer but then everyone was so tired so we went to have a nice sleep....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

DAY 3
Our first day going by jeep! bumpy!!! to go to where we were doing our trek there was red dirt roads with loads of holes and not very well built bridges, at one half of the group had to get out because it was to heavy, but we stayed in. As we crossed we could feel the planks of the bridge move...

Our 16 km trek through Vale de Capao started with crossing a river on some planks and stones(a lot of fun!) and then going upwards through the forest and then exiting out to a valley with breathtaking scenery, we were walking on a trail that we could see from the mountain we were on top yesterday.

We arrived to a small waterfall surrounded by lush trees and vegetation where we could swim and have lunch, the water here was freezing cold! but we went in anyway and it was very refreshing.

Then we hiked up another mountain on a 150 y old man made trail of stones where they used to transport cows up and down. We came to a where we could see the whole valley that we just trekked through, we stayed here sometime on the edge of the mountain just enjoying the scenery.
Then we bathed in another river thas was not as cold as the last one, these days are alot about walking and bathing!

The 16 km trek was definitly worth it when close to the end we walked down another stone trail with a spring flowing down it and we arrived just in time to catch an extremly beautiful sunset. All of us were a bit tired and today half the group left to go back to Lencois because they had to go back to Salvador. So now it was only 4 of us plus our guide Cris. At night we ate and had some beers and fell quickly asleep to be prepared for our last day...

DAY 4
The trek and hike yesterday were quite difficult, though really worth it... but today is meant to be an easier day...
It starts of course by a bumpy jeep ride through the red roads of the park (we are now used to it!!!). After a while in the jeep, we arrive at a river crossing without bridge that we will have to cross with the jeep. Just in front of us, we can see a big very old bus, almost stuck in the river!! It seems all normal for the brazilians that such a massive bus can cross a river, but it does seem quite crazy for us!! Anyway we cross the river also and arrive to the end of the road. We now have to walk!! The walk is not very long (about 45 minutes) and quite easy. It starts by the crossing of the river over stones (crossing rivers has been one of our main activity that day!!) and a wooden board. We then walked all along the river, where we learned that before being hills and rivers, this part of the park was actually the sea!! (a very long time ago of course!!). The guide explained that the movement of the tectonic plates made this area go up and the sea slowly disappeared. We could actually see that there was still some sand left from this period.

We also saw some carnivore flowers (quite pretty and looked quite inoffensive!!) and a lot of cactus from which the flowers come out at night..

Still following the river, we then arrived to a first waterfall...

But this was just the beginning. We then started to go down ladders and steep stones to arrive to a small canyon with a tropical "tarzan" feel to it... it is quite impressive and amusing as you realise how different the nature is from our own country...
We could see from there a waterfall that was going underground...

We then went even more down the stones full of green vegetation on it (because of the humidity from all the water surrounding) and arrived to a small lake of dark water (it looks really black from the top) which is linked to the main waterfall. That's where we realised that we had to swim to see the main waterfall of the area which is a 90 meters waterfall called Buracaõ (which means Big Hole).

It already feels amazing to hear the waterfall even if we don't see it and to see this lake in the middle of the canyon. The next thing to do is to jump 5 meters into the water and to swim to the waterfall... we feel so excited to do that!!
And JJUUUUUMMP!! ... youps!! it is always higher than we think!!

What a great feeling to swim in that dark but smooth water... we are now swimming to reach the waterfall... and there, after a 150 meters of swimming we see it... this impressive, powerfull, beautiful waterfall... it is difficult to explain how we felt but we did feel so lucky to have our eyes open on the beauties of the world. Feeling so small close to this massive water going down in the canyon... we are excited, impressed and I can still feel it while i am writing this few words....

WAAAOUOUHH, we scream and laugh and enjoy with all our heart... it is once in a lifetime experience and we know it... and we love it.

But it wasn't the end of the emotions as we followed the guide to go behind the waterfall, I stopped about 5 meters to getting there as I feel that it is difficult to breathe, and the water is so much that you can't really see much. But Ola did carry on and went behind this massive waterfall to touch it... and from what he says it was a real rush of happiness and amazement... well it is an experience!

We stayed a very long time there, just enjoying the view... but we had to go back and look at it from the top... Seeing it from the top is very impressive as well as you realise how high it is... a real pleasure when we plunge our heads down to see the bottom of the waterfall in which we were swimming just a few minutes ago...

Time to eat!! we reach another waterfall, smaller, but beautiful as well... and we sit down to enjoy a bit of food.

It doesn't take long for us to eat as we want already to jump again in the water and play with that smaller but still very fun waterfall... going behind, getting a massage from the water going down... we played maybe for 1h30 in the waterfall.... I feel so happy to be here, it feels great!!

The sunshine starts to go down and we know that we have to go... On the way back, we both feel sorry to leave, and we would love just to run back and see the Burracaõ waterfall again... but we know it is not possible! Who knows?? we might come back another time...

We have a long way to go back in Lencois, especially with the jeep. We arrive around midnight and went for a last drink with the guide, Cris. We are sorry to know that those three days are finished but very happy to have done it. Everything was very good as we saw beautiful things, the organisation of the trip was very good, and Cris our guide was extremely good, always smiley, very helpful when the roads and the hikes get hard, always ready to tell us about the mountains and the rivers as well as the brazilian life and cooking favorites: rice and beans ;)))

Time to leave, we are heading to sao paulo, decided to leave straight away for a smaller town called Parati.

We feel exhausted but so alive and happy...that was definitely the best experience so far and we will remember it for a very very long time....

Lots of kisses to all of you

Agnes and Ola

written by  agnesola on July 20, 2007 from Lencois, Brazil
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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We ended up in a little town north of sao paulo called Paraty. It is an old colonial town by the sea where restaurants, shops and houses are very well kept and decorated. Some of

We came at the end of a celebration of Santa Rita (they always have celebrations for a saint somewhere in Brazil...) which was nice because when there is a celebration they sell nice fruit cocktails in the streets!!

On our second day we Went with local bus to see a waterfall with a natural slide and a Cachaca distillery. The waterfall was not very impressive but the slide and surrounding forest was great. We both went down the rock which was the slide quite a few times: we are still kids when it comes to sliding down on water!!

In Parati when the tide comes in, the streets get flooded, unusual but very beautiful to

last but not least, one of the most fun things that happened in Parati was monkeys!!!
on our last night 8 little monkeys came around our pousada and we jumped on the occasion to give them some bread and try to touch them. They were very cute climbing down touching our hands and taking some bread! That same night was filled with very bad weather and lots of thunder and lightning, so we took the opportunity to make some mulled wine (glogg!) and spend the night outside under the roof!

thats all, now we are in Buenos Aires and starting our adventure in Argentina

With Love
Ola and Agnes

written by  agnesola on July 27, 2007 from Parati, Brazil
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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Just to start, we wanted to say that we receive all the comments that you write without any problem... and we read it!! It is great to see that a lot of you follow us. Unfortunately we can´t answer all of them as they are comments only, but you can create your own adress on blogabond and send messages (those we can answer!).
Anyway keep on sending plenty of messages and comments because we love to read them...

kisses to all of you.

Alors un peu en francais...
On voulait just dire que l'on recoit bien vos commentaires que vous nous ecrivez... et meme on les lit!! C'est super de voir que beaucoup d'entre vous nous suivent. Malheureusement on ne peut pas repondre aux commentaires mais vous pouvez creer votre propre adresse sur blogabond et envoyer des messages (ca on peut repondre!).
En tout cas continuez a nous envoyer des messages et commetaires parce qu'on adore les lire...

Gros bisous a vous tous!!

AND NOW THE BLOG!!

So we are now in Argentina... Second country of our trip!!
We arrive in Buenos Aires a little bit less than a week ago and stayed there for two days...
As we always do, we went around town seeing as much as we can...the Palace of Congress, the big avenues, a demonstration, political graffitis on the street walls, the little Big Ben lookalike... and many more buildings that we don´t really remember the names of!! We also saw the famous pink palace where Evita and her husband used to live and where she used to come out on the balcony and be greeted by the population!

At night we wandered in the touristic streets of Buenos Aires and saw a great jazz/ska band called Pollerapantalon! Check it out if you can!

On the next day, just before taking our bus to Puerto Iguazu, we quickly went to see the grave of Evita in the Cimetery where most of the famous people from Argentina are buried... The graves are absolutely beautiful (in their own way) and rivalise with great sculptures.

After those two days in Buenos Aires we took the bus (20 hours of bus) to go to Puerto Iguazu where we are now... It is the main city from where you can visit the Foz de Iguazu, which is the world biggest waterfall.

So we arrived yesterday, very early in the morning and after finding a place to stay at night, we jumped in the bus going to the foz...
We started to go to see a part of the falls called El Garganta Del Diablo which means the Devil's Throat. It is a kind of hole where a big waterfall goes down to and because it is so

Foz de Iguazu, Devil´s Throat 2

Falls From the side, Foz de Iguazu

Along the way, we saw many strange animals called capotis!

Capoti in the foz de iguazu park

We then went to see another view of the park from an island in the middle. After a short climb and a walk in the forest, you see one of the waterfall from the left side... but this view seems to be the closest you can get in the park... and it is beautiful...
The power delivered by the water when it splashes down is very very impressive...
You really don´t want to fall down!! It must be like being in a gigantic (and dangerous) washing machine!!!

After seeing all of those waterfalls, we went for a trek in the forest for about 7km return. It was a real pleasure to leave a bit the touristique part of the park (it is very touristique!!) and to be more in the nature. We heard and saw a lot of birds, we saw a Capivara which is the biggest rodant in the world (kind of mix between a big rat and a rabbit!)... but we missed to see jaguars who are supposed to live in those forest !! (they even give some leaflets at the entrance of the trek to tell you how to react if a jaguar sees you.... scary!!!)

After an hour of walk we arrive to a small waterfall (again!!!) very secluded... the water at the bottom was very clear but definitely too cold to swim in!!

We then return to the park, happy to have walked in the nature.

After a nice night of sleep, we are now getting ready for 20 more hours of bus to return to Buenos Aires, but we won´t stay there long as we plan to head for Mendoza in the wine region...

Love,

Agnes and Ola

written by  agnesola on July 30, 2007 from Puerto Iguazu, Argentina
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
tagged Argentina, PuertoIguazu and BuenosAires
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Our first impression of Mendoza was not very nice because the weather was dull and grey the first 2 days, but as the sun moves in it seems nicer and varmer.

They also have a very big park here in Mendoza which we spent half a day walking in and on a clear day like it was we could see beatiuful mountains all around the city.

Today is our last day here, we are waiting for the bus that leaves in 3 hours, we visited a nice food market today and spent some hours in the sun, reading books.

Our next destination is Bariloche where we will do some trekking and downhill skiing! it is just a 20 hour bus ride away...

And by the way, the system to upload pictures on this site is working very good again, so we have put alot of new pictures from Brazil. and mom(My mom, titti that is) here is a really beatiful plant that blooms in the winter here in Argentina, maybe something for Sweden, but I dont know the name of it...

flowers in the winter again

flowers in the winter

Lots of kisses, Bisous and puss o kram

Ola and Agnes

written by  agnesola on August 3, 2007 from Mendoza, Argentina
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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After wine and... well... mainly wine in Mendoza, we are now in Bariloche... in the middle of the Andes (I know, it sounds great, doesn´t it??!!).

Bariloche is a very nice town surrounded by mountains on one side and a beautiful lake, massive, on the other side named Nahuel Huapi.

lake bariloche

Arriving at the top was amazing (even though we had snow to the knees for the last 50 meters) because of the breathtaking view... seeing the lake from the top is absolutely beautiful...

beautiful hawks

After enjoying the view for quite a while, we went down through the same way, enjoying to almost roll down in the snow (I said almost!!).

Back to the hostel, we got ready for the next day...

It was really funny to go down the slopes and also it was great to stop and see the view: from the mountain, you can see the lake of Bariloche and a very long part of the Andes. As the weather was beautiful, we got to see the Chilean part of the Andes!

above the clouds again

Ola of course is much better than me at skiing, but I have to say that I was not as bad as I thought!! AND... he fell down twice while skiing and I did not fall!! (well I did but without the skis on!! I know it is ridiculous!!)

Today, after a long night sleep (skiing IS tiring!), we decided to go to the llao llao parc to walk. It is about 25km of Bariloche. We happily discovered a beautiful forest which had quite the appearance of some

Llao llao forest, red trees

Well, that is all, we are extremely happy to have done that because it wasn´t in the original plan, but it was really worth it...

Next stop is El Bolson, two hours drive from bariloche...

Lots of freezing kisses from the Argentinian mountains!

Agnes and Ola

written by  agnesola on August 8, 2007 from San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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El Bolson has a very nice handicraft market, which we visited on Saturday, and after that

Sunday was spent with sleeping for a long time, then wandering around before we took the bus to the national park of Lake Puelo, it is suppose to be very beautiful to walk around, but we only had time to walk for about 5 min before the rain started pouring down.
The lake has a very promising backdrop though, mountains on all sides and apparently

That is pretty much it, We are now waiting to take the bus to our next destination which is El Calafate, some 30 hours away. We should be there on wednesday afternoon. There is apparently some gorgeous glaciers there...

We miss you all.

Bisous, puss och kram and kisses.
Ola and Agnes

TRADUCTION "ENGLISH TO FRENCH" OFFERTE PAR MAMAN DANIELLE !!!
BLOG 18 : Quiet stopover arrêt tranquille

El Bolson, Argentina
Nous sommes maintenant à el bolson situé à 2 h de bariloche. C’est une ville très tranquille où nous avons apprécié de ne rien faire mais l’ennui commence à se faire sentir et donc nous partons aujourd’hui. El bolson a un très sympathique marché artisanal que nous avons parcouru samedi et là, nous avons pris un bon chocolat et une grosse tranche de gâteau ! nous avons trouvé un bowling dont les boules n’avaient pas de trous et avaient une taille de moitié par rapport à la taille normale des boules. Il y avait 3 essais pour faire tomber les quilles. Nous nous sommes bien amusés !!
Nous avons passé une bonne partie de notre dimanche à dormir et puis nous sommes allés nous promener avant d’aller prendre le bus pour nous rendre au parc de lake puelo. La promenade n’a duré que 5 min avant que la pluie ne tombe à verse. Le lac est entouré de montagnes et normalement on peut aborder la côte chilienne avec un bateau. Au lieu d’en faire le tour, nous avons passé une heure dans un café à boire un bon thé chaud.
Là, nous attendons le bus pour notre prochaine destination qui est El Calafate, à quelques 30 heures d’ici. Nous devrions y être mercredi après-midi. Là-bas, il y aurait des glaciers magnifiques…
We miss you all. Vous nous manquez tous

written by  agnesola on August 13, 2007 from El Bolson, Argentina
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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We are now in our final destination in Argentina; El Calafate. A small village surrounded by mountains and lakes. The main reason we went here was to see the glaciers, but more about that later.

We live in a very nice hostel and have a room to ourselves and the hostel has a lovely view of the lake. On our second day here we went for a long walk along a bird sanctuary close to the shore of the lake, there is alot more birds during summer but we saw some pink flamingos which were quite cool and then we walked along the rocky shore until the sun set and it started to get very cold...

Yesterday, on our third day we had booked an excursion to see the Perito Moreno glacier, and also afterwards to walk on it. First we arrived at the glacier to view it from balconys

south side of perito moreno

After 2 hours of watching it was time to get on to next thing, walking on the glacier...

We walked around for about 1 and a half hour before getting close to the finish, there they had wooden tables set up with whiskey bottles and glasses (nice) and we drank

Ola drinks whisky on ice

Today we are doing very little and tonight we are going to spend some money on a nice restaurant
and some nice wine.

On monday we move on to Chile, from where we are staying it is only a 5 hour bus ride away...
We couldn´t put more pictures on (bloody internet!!) so we will try again in chile!! sorry!

Lots of Icecold kisses to everyone!

Ola and Agnes

VERSION FRANCAISE !
Nous sommes maintenant arrivés à notre destination finale : El Calafate, un petit village entouré de montagnes et de lacs. La principale raison de notre arrêt ici, c’était de voir les glaciers mais on vous en racontera plus un peu plus tard.
Nous logeons dans une auberge très sympa avec une chambre pour nous tout seuls et l’auberge a une vue magnifique sur le lac. Pour notre 2ème jour, nous avons fait une longue promenade le long d’un sanctuaire pour oiseaux en bordure du lac. Il y a beaucoup d’oiseaux l’été et nous avons vu des flamands roses. Nous avons marché le long de la côte empierrée jusqu’à ce que le soleil se couche et il commence à faire très froid…
Hier, pour notre 3ème jour, nous avons réservé une excursion pour aller sur le glacier Perito Moreno. Impressionnante la taille de ce glacier qui fait penser à un paysage lunaire de glace. A 4 reprises, la glace s’est brisée du glacier et est tombée dans l’eau dans un bruit de tonnerre avec des craquements et puis la chute. La glace à l’avant du glacier a environ 350 ans et elle progresse de 2 mètres par jour. Sa hauteur est de 60 mètres au dessus de l’eau et s’étire sur 180 mètres sous la surface de l’eau.
Après 2 heures de contemplation, il est temps d’aller faire autre chose : marcher sur le glacier…

Nous nous y sommes rendus avec un bateau et avons retrouvé nos guides pour aller sur la crête de la glace équipés de crampons. Les condors planaient au dessus des falaises. Là où la glace est la plus dense, la couleur est d’un bleu profond. C’est très beau. Nous avons vu d’énormes trous qui se remplissent d’eau en été mais avec les mouvements du glacier, tout cela change. Là où nous marchions, rien ne tombe donc c’est sécurisant mais de saison en saison, la glace change de forme. Marcher sur un glacier qui est là depuis des millions d’années est plutôt impressionnant et difficile à raconter. Nous avons vraiment eu beaucoup de plaisir.

Nous nous sommes balladés pendant environ 1 h et demie avant d’arriver au point d’arrivée. Là, il y avait des tables en bois avec des bouteilles de whisky et des verres (chouette) et nous avons bu avec de la glace du glacier (cool !). Pour aller récupérer le bateau, nous avons traversé la forêt où il y avait un bon nombre de gros arbres à terre. La raison en est qu’il y a une centaine d’années la glace a avancé sur ce secteur et a mis les arbres à terre. On peut voir sur les rochers également les marques de la glace. Une chose amusante pour nous, les Suédois : il y a un glacier appelé le glacier Upsala qui a pris ce nom après notre ville universitaire d’Uppsala. Je ne connais pas la raison exacte mais c’est amusant…
Aujourd’hui, on ne va pas faire grand chose et ce soir nous irons dépenser un peu d’argent dans un restaurant sympa et boire un peu de bon vin.
Lundi, on part pour le chili où nous allons rester quelques temps. Ce n’est qu’à 5 heures d’ici en bus… on n’a pas pu mettre plus de photos (sacré internet !) et on réessaiera au Chili ! désolés !
Lots of Icecold kisses to everyone! Plein de bisous gelés à tous !

written by  agnesola on August 18, 2007 from El Calafate, Argentina
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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As you might imagine, we are now in Chile and we have been there for about a week. We arrived in a town called Puerto Natales quite far south of the country... The main activity in this area is to visit the Torres Del Paine National Park, very very well known for its trekking.

So as soon as we arrived, we got everything ready (gaz, food, clothes...) to spend 5 days in the nature...

We left on wednesday 22nd, for a 150km bus ride to the park. On the way, the driver was very keen on doing the tourist guide so he was stopping every 10 minutes to show us the

We finally arrived in the park, took a map of it and started walking (which became our main activity for the next few days!!) on the main trek of the park which is called the W (for the actual trajectory you take while walking).

So on the first day we hiked one of the mountains to arrive to a first refuge (most of the refuges are closed but we could still camp there). As it is still the end of winter, there was still quite a lot of snow on the mountains. After a short break, we started to walk again decided to reach another place to camp a little more up in the mountain, unfortunately it was snowing but it didn´t stop us and we finally reached the camp. Enough for the first day (about 6 hours of walk), we put up the tent and got ready for the night...

So we went back all the way (2.5 hours), and started to walk to the next refuge, which is

On the third day, we walked for about 2.5 hours to reach the next camp, still walking along the lake. As we arrived, we met another trekker (a girl from India who was lovely) and we started chatting. The winds on that day were absolutely incredible, really strong. None of us had ever seen so strong winds, the trees were almost bending under the power of the wind. We were supposed on that day to go and visit the Vale del Frances but decided not to as the winds were too strong. So after chatting a little more and meeting another one of the trekkers (a french guy that we met before starting the trek), we continued to the next refuge.
The winds were so strong at some points of the trail that we had to hold on to one another not to fall... it was really amazing and funny as well!!
On the lake, we could see the wind lifting the water and creating some kind of water clouds on the surface... pretty impressive!

So we arrived to the next refuge, which is open all year round. It was great to be able to

After sleeping on real matresses!!, the last day was finally there and we nicely walked the 5 last hours in the flat and quite boring scenery on that side of the park...

What to say about the whole trek...?? well it is difficult to express. The scenery in the

But we are extremely glad we did it, we are now full of images in our heads and we can say that we did something pretty amazing...

Loads of kisses to all of you

Good night!!

VERSION FRANCAISE !

BLOG 20 :Puerto Natales and the Torres Del Paine National Park
Puerto Natales, Chile
Hello everybody,
Comme vous vous en doutez, nous sommes maintenant au Chili et nous y sommes depuis environ 1 semaine. Nous sommes arrivés dans une ville appelée Puerto Natales, assez loin dans le sud du pays… la principale activité dans cette région, ce sera de visiter Torres del paine national park qui est renommé pour ses randonnées.
Donc, dès que nous sommes arrives, nous nous sommes preparés à passer 5 jours dans la nature… (gaz, nourriture, vêtements)
Nous sommes partis le 22 pour un voyage en bus de 150 km jusqu’au parc. Sur le chemin, le chauffeur s’est improvisé guide touristique. Il s’arrêtait toutes les 10 minutes pour nous montrer la nature ou les animaux !! nous avons eu la chance de voir un aigle magnifique qui avait saisi un lièvre dans ses serres…
Nous sommes arrivés enfin dans le parc, avons pris une carte et avons commencé à marcher (ce qui allait devenir notre principale activité au cours des jours à venir !!) sur le principal chemin de randonnée du parc qui s’appelle le W (à cause de la trajectoire que l’on fait en marchant)
Le premier jour, nous avons gravi l’une des montagnes pour arriver à un premier refuge (la plupart des refuges sont fermés mais nous aurions pu installer notre campement là). Etant donné que c’est la fin de l’hiver, il y a encore beaucoup de neige dans les montagnes. Après une courte halte, nous avons décidé de continuer à marcher pour atteindre un autre endroit pour installer notre campement un peu plus haut dans la montagne mais malheureusement il neigeait, ce qui ne nous a pas empêché d’avancer et d’atteindre enfin le camp. C’est assez pour le premier jour (environ 6 heures de marche). Nous installons la tente et sommes prêts à passer la nuit…

Eh oui comme vous pouvez l’imaginer la nuit fut plutôt froide mais nous avons survécu ! surtout parce que nous avons de très très bons sacs de couchage et aussi parce que Ola m’a fait la surprise d’avoir pris un peu de vin, des oranges et des épices pour préparer un peu de vin chaud pour moi… c’est un ange !! c’était délicieux et chaud !!

Après cette froide nuit, nous sommes repartis pour l’ascension du reste de la montagne, bien décidés à voir la principale attraction du parc que sont 3 énormes tours en pierre…. Mais après avoir marché pendant un bon moment, nous avons décidé de redescendre du fait que nous avions des difficultés à voir la piste tellement la neige était épaisse. Mais de l’endroit où nous étions nous avons pu les apercevoir car le temps était beau, donc cela nous a suffi…
Nous avons donc fait le chemin inverse (2 h et demie) et nous nous sommes dirigés vers le prochain refuge qui se trouve à 4 h de là. Cette randonnée est plutôt agréable car nous longeons un grand lac. Ce fut vraiment une longue marche surtout avec 15 à 20 kgs sur le dos !! on a donc apprécié notre arrivée au refuge et nous avons planté la tente. Le camp était tout à fait chouette et nous avons entrepris de faire un feu, ça c’était formidable !!
Le troisième jour, nous avons marché environ 2 h 30 pour atteindre le prochain camp, toujours le long du lac. Lorsque nous sommes arrivés, nous avons rencontré un autre randonneur (une fille indienne qui était charmante) et nous avons commencé à discuter. Les vents ce jour là étaient absolument impressionnants, très puissants. Aucun d’entre nous n’avait vu de tels vents, les arbres se courbaient sous la puissance du vent. Ce jour là, nous devions aller visiter la Vale del Frances mais y avons renoncé en raison de ces vents violents. Donc, après tous ces bavardages et après avoir rencontré un nouveau randonneur (un français que nous avions rencontré avant de commencer cette randonnée), nous nous sommes dirigés vers le prochain refuge.
Les vents étaient si forts à certains endroits de la piste que nous devions tous nous tenir pour ne pas tomber… mais c’était tout de même rigolo !!!
Sur le lac, on pouvait voir le vent soulever l’eau et des sortes de nuages d’eau se former à la surface… très impressionnant !
Nous sommes arrivés à ce refuge qui est ouvert toute l’année. C’était formidable de pouvoir utiliser la cuisine et nous avons décidé de monter la tente quelque part où ce n’était pas trop venteux. Le refuge est construit en face de l’un des lacs les plus beaux que l’on n’ait jamais vu. Sa couleur est d’un bleu turquoise difficile à décrire…

Le jour suivant, nous avons marché jusqu’au glacier Grey qui est la continuité du même glacier que nous avions vu en Argentine (Perito Moreno). C’était impressionnant de voir l’autre côté et d’imaginer la taille d’une telle chose. De retour au refuge, les gars qui travaillaient là nous ont dit de dormir là dans l’une des chambres au lieu de camper. Super !
Après avoir dormi sur de vrais matelas, nous étions arrivés à notre dernier jour et nous avons passé ces 5 dernières heures dans ce logement.
Que dire de toute cette randonnée ?? difficile à exprimer. Les paysages dans le parc sont très beaux : les montagnes, les lacs, les forêts et les cours d’eau, les rivières… et nous sommes heureux d’avoir fait tout cela, même si très peu de peu de personnes ne font cela en hiver… c’est une vraie expérience d’être dans la nature, d’avoir à planter la tente, de cuisiner avec ce tout petit réchaud, de faire du feu, de ne pas se laver pendant un certain temps !!, de marcher pendant des heures, de traverser des rivières, de grimper dans la montagne, de regarder autour de soi, de voir les oiseaux, de traverser des ponts de bois, de boire de l’eau des cours d’eau…

Nous avons marché pendant si longtemps… Nous avons dû faire 85 à 90 kms… avec 15 à 20 kgs sur le dos la plupart du temps.
On a expérimenté tous les temps, de la pluie à la neige, du soleil aux vents violents… et nos pieds souffrent beaucoup après tout cela… !!!
Mais nous sommes tellement heureux d’avoir fait tout cela. Nous avons plein d’images dans la tête et nous pourrons dire que nous avons fait quelque chose de formidable…
Nous nous réservons un peu de repos avec notre prochaine destination qui sera une île du nom de Chiloe… et ce devrait être sans marche !!!

Loads of kisses to all of you des bisous à tous Good night!! bonne nuit !!

written by  agnesola on August 28, 2007 from Puerto Natales, Chile
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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