and one last trip before we come home.........?

Nursing blisters and sore muscles we made our way to San Martin de los Andes in Argentina. The bus ride passed through some amazing scenery and past the mighty Volcan Lanin (3774m). The going was slow as we had to do all the usual stops at the border for passport and visa checks. However, we were quite happy to just sit, rest and take in the views.

Relaxing by the fire

We rented a gorgeous wooden cabana for only $36 a night with a warming open fire and to Chris´excitement our very own BBQ for all those steaks. We only did one hike in this area of the region as we needed to let Chris´blisters heal. The hike was only meant to be a short one, being 10km, but we decided to take a detour as indicated on the local map as being 14km total. It ended up being 26km - so much for resting those blisters!!

San Martin de Los Andes Mirador

We had planned to ride along the Siete Lagos Ruta (Seven Lakes Route) to Villa La Angostura but changed our minds when we found out that the road is being resurfaced and the weather was turning for the worst. So we ended up hiring a car, which turned out to be fantastic, as we were really able to explore all the different areas. We drove to Lanin National Park skirting Lago Huechulafquen where we saw a bird (don´t know the type) catch a fish right in front of us.

View along Seven Lakes Route

View from Cabaña

After a few days of enjoying lots of steak and sampling many Mendoza Malbecs we departed San Martin and drove along the Siete Lagos Ruta to Villa La Angostura. There is a good reason why this drive is world famous. The scenery is truly spectacular. After seeing the condition of the road and having to take a 100km detour (as part of the road was closed - no signs by the way) we were even more pleased with our decision not to bike ride.

From Mirador hike in Villa la Angostura

Picture perfect view of Lago Nahuel Huapi

Villa La Angostura is a picturesque town on the shores of Lago Nahuel Huapi. Once again we hired a lovely cabana with views of the mountains and spent a few days exploring the area. We did two hikes, the first to a mirador and waterfall and the second along the peninsula which forms the Arrayanes National Park (a park within Park National Nahuel Huapi). A mouth full we know.

Hiking through the snow

Next stop was Bariloche, situated on the opposite side of the lake to Villa. We made our way to the National Parks office to find out which walks were open and hopefully free of snow. They told Chris they didn´t recommend us going into the park as the weather was unpredictable. Not content with this we went to Club Andino (the parks hiking specialists). They let us know of a number of hikes we could do which would take in very nice views. They said just go as far as the snow line. Perfect!

Enjoying the snowy view

View on hike

The hike that we did is part of the Nahuel Huapi Traverse ( a four day hike which we really wanted to do but couldn´t because of the snow). Not to worry as we got amazing views and had a lot of fun hiking in the snow!! Other people were doing it - honestly!

Mount Tronador

We thought we couldn´t come to this area without checking out Mt Tronador. Tronador is Spanish for thunder. It is named this because of the noise which is made from huge chunks of ice and snow breaking off the glacier. We spent about 15 mins there and in this time we saw this happen twice. We couldn´t believe how loud it was. What is also interesting about this mountain is its 3 peaks. One is in Chile, one is in Argentina and the third is international.

Mount Tronador

Unfortunately the weather closed in and we were unable to do the other hike we had planned to do. We had to expect this though being in Patagonia at this time of the year.

We are so excited as we are now heading to Southern Patagonia. First stop is Puerto Montt where we board our 3 night ferry journey to Puerto Natales through the Chilean fiords. Brrr!

Hope you are all well. Look forward to hearing from you.

Love C & C xx

written by

chrishoorweg on November 17, 2007 from San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina

from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?

tagged LakesDistrict

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Puerto Natales, Chile

Our trusty boat

Our four day trip on the Navimag started with clear blue skies in Puerto Montt, Southern Patagonia, and the weather continued to be very kind to us for the entire trip. So much so that the on board guide kept telling us that we were the ´lucky passengers´. They had not had a clear day for the past 2 weeks up until now and it is also very rare to get 2 consecutive days of clear skies in this part of the world. So, as you can imagine we were very happy.

Osorno Volcano from Puerto Montt

Corinne cruisin

The Navimag is essentially a cargo and passenger ship which runs between Puerto Montt and Puerto Natales. The facililties on board are fairly basic but with everything you need. Our days were spent mostly on deck (as the weather was so fantastic) appreciating the views, listening to talks on the local fauna and flora, chatting to other travellers and drinking lots of hot chocolate.

Morning Mist

On Day one we travelled through the Ancud and Corcovado Gulfs. Day two we sailed through the Moraleda, Errazuriz and Pulluche Channels and into the famed Anna Pink Bay and through the night the Penas Gulf. Throughout the day the guides warned us of how rough the seas can get once we reach the open ocean or oceanic area. They recommended (often) that all passengers should take some sea sickness tablets to help with sea sickness. Chris was really looking forward to some big waves and hopefully some stormy weather. I wasn´t!! We decided to take our chances and not take any tablets hoping it was the right move. So when we hit the open ocean, around dinner time, Chris was sorely disappointed with the extremely calm water. I was thrilled that we were the lucky passengers, once again, and only scored an official 4 out of 12 for the sea conditions. We both woke up in the middle of the night rocking in our beds - a very strange sensation.

Be careful, or that's what will happen to us

Day three and the morning of day four were the most interesting sections of our trip. We passed through the Messier Channel and then through the English Narrow which was just stunning. We stopped in at Puerto Eden, a very small Chilean settlement with a population of about 200. We dropped off supplies and collected a few passengers. That afternoon we stopped in front of Pio XI, the largest glacier in South America. It is roughly 60 kilometres in length, over a kilometre deep with 100 metres visible above the surface of the water. We were lucky enough to see and hear large chunks of ice falling off into the water below.

Pio XI

Navigating through the English Channel

Our last day ended up being much longer than planned due to strong head winds. We were supposed to arrive in Puerto Natales at 11am but ended up arriving at 5pm. It didn´t worry us as we got to see more in the daylight. The most notable part of this stretch was the White Narrow, being only 5 metres wider than the boat. It was impressive seeing the Captain navigate the ship through such a small passage.

The White Channel. Narrowest point on the trip

Puerto Eden

We disembarked at 6pm and had to quickly get ourselves sorted in the hostel and then book our bus, ferry and pick up supplies for our 5 day hike in the Torres del Paine National Park. After a busy evening we were all set to go and were looking forward to hiking again after spending so much time on a boat.

written by

chrishoorweg on November 22, 2007 from Puerto Natales, Chile

from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?

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Puerto Natales, Chile

Torres del Paine National Park

It was an early start to the day to catch our 7am bus to the park. We were greeted with absolutely amazing weather again and we thought 'have we really arrived in Patagonia?' Our bus trip was great as before we even started hiking we got clear views of the Paine Massif and saw an ostrich with a few chicks, guanacos and condors.

The park from a boat to Grand Paine Lodge

Parque Nacional Torres del Paine lies roughly at 52 degrees south and encompasses part of the Southern Ice Field. The park is made of granite peaks and towers that soar from sea level to upward of 2,800m. Although the park sits next to the Andes, is is actually a seperate geologic formation created roughly 3 million years ago when magma psuhed its way up, taking a thick sedimentary layer with it. Glaciation and severe climate weathered away the softer rock, leaving the spectacular Paine Massif and also the salmon-coloured, spherical granite towers.

On lago Pehoe

We decided to hike West to East along the trails which are collectively named the ´W´. We caught the catamaran across Lago Pehoe to Grande Paine Lodge, a refugio where we stayed for our first 2 nights. On the afternoon of day one we went for a short hike to a mirador on Lago Pehoe as we didn´t have enough time to do anything longer. It turned out to be a really lovely hike of about 4 hours and which gave great views of the park.

Corinne infront of the Torres, what a beautiful day!!

Glacier Gray

On day two we hiked along Lago Grey to the Grey Glacier. We were treated again with clear skies and hardly any wind. Most of the hike was through forests of Lenga and Beech trees and Los Notros bushes which have vibrant red flowers. In some sections the trees had a constant wind swept appearance. The foliage was only growing on one side of the trees in the direction of the prevailing winds.

We had a great view of the glacier from a mirador after about an hour and a half and then continued on to the face of the glacier. This was impressive as were the electric-blue icebergs which were floating at its base. We found a great little spot to sit and have our lunch, sheltered from the winds, which were pretty strong by this point.

All in all it was great hike of a total of about 23kms and 6 hours of walking. We spent the evening up in the little bar, sipping hot chocolate, overlooking the trail heads watching people coming back from their hikes. Looking rather tired.

Lovely view from Grand Paine lodge to Los Cuernos

Day three we hiked along the shores of Lago Nordenskjold, up into the French Valley and then onto Los Cuernos Refugio. For both of us this day was the highlight of our trek, even though it was the longest. The French Valley was simply stunning. On one side sits the French Glacier, continually moving and breaking, the valley itself is highly vegetated with trees and flowers with a river running directly through it and to the opposite side is a very barren landscape consisting of granite and the Paine Massifs. Further afield you can see the numerous turqouise coloured lakes and snow capped mountains. It was incredible and made even better as yes, the lucky passengers had beautiful weather again.

Looking into the French Valley

Into the French Valley

Walking up the French Valley

After 26kms and 10 hours of hiking we arrived into our refugio at about 7pm absolutely exhausted and starving. That night we felt sort of comforted by the fact that we were inside and not in a tent for the winds were absolutely blowing. They were so strong it sounded like the roof was going to come off. The winds here can reach speeds of up to 120km an hour - those poor screaming campers!!

Day four and the lucky passengers got a real taste of the Patagonian weather! We started with drizzly rain interspersed with sunny periods but was pretty nice hiking weather. The morning started out fairly easy with few ascents and descents of not much more than 100m at a time. Within 2 hours the weather had closed in and we were now walking uphill head on into the wind, rain and HAIL!! Chris and I really enjoyed it as we thought you can´t come to Patagonia and not get knocked to the ground by the wind and be soaked from the rain. We arrived into our campsite just after lunch with the clouds settled in and not affording any views of the surrounding mountains. We decided not to press on and spent the afternoon with other hikers drying off in the refugio in front of the fire and chatting. Afterall, it had been another fairly hard day of hiking - 16km. We had a really great nights sleep in our tent and awoke to sunny weather. What are the chances?

The Torres del Paine Massifs, What a fantastic journey

Our last day in the park and we headed up to see the Paine Towers hoping they were going to be clear of clouds. Lucky us they were. Most of the hike was uphill and the last part was climbing over large boulders. This did get a little scary at times as the winds were so strong. We had to stop, hold onto the rocks and wait till it eased off. The hike down was easy and in parts it was far kinder on the knees to run. We made it down in time for our 2:30pm bus back to Puerto Natales.

Even though it was a tough 5 days it was certainly worth it and is definately one of the highlights of our trip.

written by

chrishoorweg on November 27, 2007 from Puerto Natales, Chile

from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?

tagged Torres

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El Calafate, Argentina

Showing distance from viewing platform on the left

After a belly full of dinner in Puerto Natales and a good nights rest, we headed to El Calafate to see the fabled Perito Moreno Glacier. Even though we have now seen many glaciers, this one really shouldn´t be missed. It is incredible and the fact that you can get so close is pretty cool too.

It is the most impressive glacier we´ve seen and certainly the most active in terms of how much ice continually crashes into the water below with a thunder.

Some facts; the Perito Moreno Glacier is around 32km long, with a 5km face of which 60 meters is visible above the water. It is approximately a further 150 meters under water!!!

We spent around 2 hours watching the glacier from different viewing platforms and seeing the massive chunks of ice carve their way off the face. We also took a one hour boat ride to get up close and personal with the glacier. It took us to within 200 meters of the face. From here we could tell how far away the viewing platforms were from the glacier and realised just how massive this thing is. A different perspective and totally worth it. By the end of the boat ride the weather had closed in and there wasn´t much more to see anymore, but lucky us, we were on the bus and heading back into El Calafate.

The face of the Glacier

We also took the time to go to El Chalten, a small town in another part of the Los Glaciers National Park. From here you can do a number of day hikes to see Mount Fitz Roy and also Cerro Torre. We had originally planned on doing a two night hike into the park, but unfortunately the weather closed in so we decided to hire a cabin for the two nights instead. What a great decision that was!!! We thought that we´d experienced winds in Torres del Paine, but the winds here were just incredible. At times we thought that the big bad wolf was outside, huffing and puffing to blow our house down!!!

We did a day hike to view Mount Fitz Roy, but unfortunately the clouds were settled in and we didn´t get much of a view at all.

All in all though, we had a nice couple of days here in a picturesque little village.

Infront of the glacier on the boat

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Argentina

After our long days of hiking we were looking forward to enjoying some city time. We had heard that Buenos Aires was the nicest city in South America with lovely European influences and we were certainly not disappointed!

Casa Rosa

We spent most of our days just wandering around the beautiful city and looking through all the lovely leather shops. Chris even managed to finally get himself a jacket. We saw the Casa Rosa, which is the parliamentary building where 'Evita' addressed her people.

Tango musicians San Telmo

We also saw many markets full of good quality handicrafts and antiques. What was also fantastic was walking through the streets of Buenos Aires seeing Tango perfomers as well as many fantastic musicians busking. We also had a nice lunch in the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires 'Cate Tortoni' where many famous people come to eat.

Tango in the street

Cafe Tortoni's tango stage

The eating in Buenos Aires is certainly the best in South America from what we'd experienced and also very reasonably priced. One night we went to a Tapas restaurant, where all they served were two options for dinner. One a vegetarian option and the other a 'normal' option. This consisted of 15 different dishes brought out over 2-3 hours. We had a bottle of wine to go with it and walked away with change from $20- not bad!!

Inside cafe Tortoni

THE steakhouse

Another great meal was the purported best steakhouse in Argentina (big claim given how many steakhouses there are here and how good they are). It was expensive by Argentinian standards, but certainly the best steak we've EVER tasted. Certainly worth the money.

Chris and his STEAK mmmmmmm

Antique Store

Of note as well was the suburb of Recoletta. This is the most swankiest suburb in Buenos Aires and houses the famous Recoletta cemetry where Evita is buried. We only got to have a look from the outside as we were more interested in the markets outside and were really hot! From what we could see though, the cemetry was pretty ornate. All the tomb stones were amazing and like religious shrines. (Don't worry, we're not people who normally look through cemetries, it is a tourist attraction!)

We spent a good 9 days in Buenos Aires relaxing and shopping and generally just enjoying ourselves. We were tired from our journey through South America and spent quite a lot of time reminiscing over what a great trip we had. We were also very much looking forward to coming back to Australia to see our families and friends for Christmas.

Next stop.....Canberra!!

written by

chrishoorweg on December 13, 2007 from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Argentina

from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?

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and one last trip before we come home.........?

a travel blog by chrishoorweg

Lakes and Steaks!

San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina

The Lucky Passengers!

Puerto Natales, Chile

Blown away by Torres del Paine

Puerto Natales, Chile

Now, that´s one big chunk of ice!

El Calafate, Argentina

Dinner and Tango

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Argentina

Canberra, Australia

Narooma, Australia

Canberra, Australia