Patagonia Part 1: Ushuaia

In the last 3 weeks my cousin Joe and I explored the Southern regions of Argentina and Chile know as Patagonia.  We had certain expectations for our travels but for the most part we didn't know what to expect.  Our idea was to see as much of the geographical landscapes as we could while working our way up north along the Andes mountains.  In every way the trip was more successful and rewarding than i could have ever imagined.  Everyday was a new adventure in a different place and as I look back on the trip I can honestly say I wouldn't have done anything different... except some nights we wished we brought sleeping pads.  I hope you enjoy the stories of our travels.

Day 1:  The travel started when our plane left Buenos Aires in route to Ushuaia, AR (technically the southern most city in the world).  We figured we would ride enough buses during our duration in the south, so we passed on a 3 day bus trip to Ushuaia.  Most definitely the right choice.        

The sky was partly cloudy as our plane descended to the city of Ushuaia.  From the window of the plane we saw the runway which was built on a peninsula that was as close to being an island as I can imagine.  The closer we came to the runway the more violent the wind became and when the plane touched down the right wing was significantly higher than the left.  This was our first taste of the gale force Patagonian winds and it wouldn't be our last.  We exited through the tail section of the vintage aircraft and our t-shirts offered little protection from the cold wind gusting across the landing strip.  We walked to the ski lodge style airport and once the airport's solo baggage carousel delivered our two backpacks we were on our way.  We took a cab to a hostel that our Lonely Planet travel book suggested because of its immaculate dorms and billiard room complete with beanbag chairs.  The place was full so we ended up getting two beds in a less hip hostel a couple blocks away.   

Ushuaia is a beautiful port city of 58,000 people and is in close proximity to the Tierra del Fuego (trans- Land of Fire) National Park. (NOTE:  The southern most area of Argentina/Chile makes up the archipelago known as Tierra del Fuego discovered by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1520.  He originally named the area "land of smoke" due to all the smoke seen from their armada which was produced by the residing natives for warmth in the cold region.  Later the named was changed to "Land of Fire" to sound tougher.)   

After we became settled into our hostel we decided that eating fresh fish would be a proper celebratory meal as the sun went down on the first day of our 3 week adventure.  We ended up going to a gourmet seafood spot named Kaupe where king crab, scallops and sea-bass were featured in most of the delicious sounding dishes.  I started with a king crab and spinach chowder while Joe savored his arctic scallop seviche.  The seviche was one of the most amazing things ever eaten by either of us and the chowder was close.  For dinner we enjoyed fresh caught sea-bass.  The food and wine were brilliant and it made for a perfect first night.  

Day 2:  We woke up the next morning ready to explore both the Tierra del Fuego National Park and an island home to thousands of penguins.  Realistically it would be a challenge to fit them both into one day.  We were optimistic that we could do it and be able to enjoy them fully.  Before the bus picked us up at our hostel to take us to the national park we already had booked a bus to Punta Arenas, Chile for the next morning.  On the bus we mapped out a trek in the park that would have us picked up at 2pm by another shuttle back to Ushuaia so that we could make our penguin trip by 3.  Everything was falling into place for the day.   

The bus dropped us off at a road which lead to the trail head overlooking an area of the Beagle Channel.  It was especially a beautiful day considering it precipitates more than 90 percent of the days in the region.  We didn't experience a drop. 

 The weather was a little cool but the 6 mile hike kept us warm.  The entire trail was close to the shore and would weave in and out of the damp forest beside it.  We found ourselves constantly stopping to take in our environment before continuing the hike.  We heard little besides the soft thumping sounds of our boots on the moist earth and the rolling waves of the channel.   The trees of the forest were hairy with moss just as most things were in the wet environment.  We didn't see much wildlife on the hike and it was tough to distinguish the sound of the creaking old trees in the wind with that of birds that we could not see.  We enjoyed some well deserved power bars at the end of the trail while watching 3 black headed arctic swans floating together through the channel. 

The shuttle came a little late to take us to Ushuaia.  It was a 25 minute ride back on some absurdly bumpy roads.  I have no idea how I fell asleep on that ride but I woke up with a sore neck.  We pulled up to our meetings spot at the piers 5 minutes before our departure to our next adventure.     

There were about 15 of us on our 20 passenger bus equipped with our bilingual tour guild, Juan.  It was about a 1.5 hour journey with two stops before we reached our boat's departure point for the penguin rookery at Martillo Island.  One of the stops was looking across Brown Bay into Chile at the southern most settlement of the world, home to nearly 2,200.  The second was on a hill home to trees permanently affixed to look as though they are being blown viciously by the wind.  Our destination was a ranch that produced merino wool up until 1995 when a winter with record snow falls killed off all but a few of the sheep.  The ranch was originally home to an English missioner, John Lawrence, in the late 1800s.  The land was given as a gift in 1898 to the Lawrence family by Argentine president General Roca for John Lawrence's activities with the idiginous people of the land since 1873.   The ranch is currently run solely for tourism by his 70+ year old great grand son.    

There was a 25 minute boat ride to Martillo Island where Juan educated us on the island its surrounding.  He also explained the respectful way we should conduct ourselves on the island. After his speech I asked him if he would allow me take one penguin as a souvenir.  He laughed and told me that they don't let people do that anymore.  The Zodiac drove right up on the shore and we hopped off the front of the vessel onto a small island home to nearly 2 thousand Mangellanic penguins.  There are also close to 20 pairs of Gentoo penguins that live on the island as well.     

   
Our group spend about 1.5 hours walking the island, learning from Juan and taking loads of pictures.  I thought it was interesting that all the penguins on the island return every year.  The juvenile penguins come for a brief period to molt and the adults come to mate.  Also, once the penguins choose their mates they return to them every year to mate after being away for six months.  There are scientists studying the effects of tourists interactions with the penguins on the island.  Juan said the scientists hypothesize that because of human intruders there will be more successful births every year.  He explained that the females are extra protective of their eggs because of humans and this allows true predators less opportunities to steal eggs.  

There are few rookeries where two species of penguins coexist.  The Gentoo Penguins are the ones with the orange bills and they are a bit bigger in size than the Mangellantic Penguins.  It was interesting to see them interacting together.  The Mangellantic Penguins have better developed feet for walking, the Gentoo penguins look as though they have more trouble trying to balance when they walk.    

The males arrive before the breading season to dig a nest for the eggs.  Also before the males have a mate they try their best to dig a sweet hole and the single females choose their partners based on their personal standards of these holes.  

Joe and I thoroughly enjoyed the outing and fought every urge to pick up a tiny penguin.  Before we left we each made a phone call to our parents to christen the sat phone.  It was a long day two and getting a little sleep on the bus ride back was crucial.  Juan recommended a local seafood spot where we stuffed ourself with fresh trout, calamari and mussels while a couple of Argentines played folk music.  We played a game or two of Cribbage before retiring for the night.      

Patagonia Part 2: Torres del Paine National Park

Day 3:  We woke up at 6am to catch our 7 o'clock bus to Punto Arenas, Chile.  The bus was less than half full so Joe and me both had a pair of seats to ourselves.  We both slept from the time the bus left until 11am when we arrived at our first customs check point in Argentina.  We filled out our declaration forms, got off the bus and waited in line for our passports to be stamped.  Drug sniffing dogs gave our bus a good once over and we were on our way.

We traveled a good ten minutes before our bus stopped again on Chilean soil at the next check point.  The winds were ripping that morning and by the looks of Chile's welcome sign and flag, it was easy to tell that the wind is aggressive all day everyday here.  We got back on the bus and of course I passed the time by sleeping while Joe read.  

When I woke up our bus had stopped in front of a giant ferry.  We were all invited to exit the bus so we could enjoy some fresh air on top of the massive vessel.  Joe and I both went to the highest point of the passenger section and during the trip the wind was the strongest we'd ever experienced.  The entire voyage lasted about a half hour and and we were back on the bus.  We arrived to Punto Arenas, Chile at 6pm and immediately booked 2 seats on the 7:30 bus to Puerto Natales, Chile.  With our free time we found a local seafood spot where we had some whitefish with spicy sauce.  It was a good dinner before our 3 hour bus ride.  We played a game of cribbage as the sun set and during our game the Denzel Washington movie "Man on Fire" was played.  It broke up the trip nicely.  We arrived at Puerto Natales at 10:30 and were aggressively greeted by a small Chilean woman pushing her hostel on us.  After a while of trying to think of a better alternative we gave up and climbed into hear car.  A Brazilian Mechanical Engineer named Fabio joined as well.  The place was a dive but the shower was great and the beds were soooo comfortable.  Also Fabio toasted some bread for us with honey and butter and served it with hot chocolate milk.  He was planning on doing a 10 day hike at the Torres... I hope he had success.

Day 4:  We woke up at 6:30 and as satisfying as it was, we both confirmed that we could have slept another 4 to 6 hours.  We bought tickets the previous night for a bus into the Torres del Paine Nation Park.  This trip was the biggest on our to-do list.  We wanted to hike a trail called the "W" which was 52 miles creating a W shape coming in and out of the beautiful valleys of the national park.  On the way to the trail head we experiences such an incredible landscape with glimpses of granite peeks studded with glaciers.  We saw a diverse group of wildlife ranging from sheep, guanacos, a fox, various predatory birds to pink flamingos and ostriches. 
The 12 passenger van dumped us off at the front of the park. We payed our admission and took another shuttle to the start of the "W".  My camelbak water bladder decided to leak all over some of my gear so I was forced to attach various articles to the outside of my bag.  This may have been the first use of the term mountain trash (referring to my appearance on the trail).

Up, up and away we went.  It was already around noon so we had to get a move on to get our moneys worth out of the day.  For the first few hours the trail didn't stop climbing.  My legs weren't nearly conditioned enough to diesel up these hills but I gave it my best.  I just tried to keep up with Joe who just days before completed the Birkebeiner ski race in Hayward, WI.  

 
The landscape was indescribably majestic.  On certain passes the wind gusts almost knocked us over at points.  We were moving at a pretty good clip and reached the refugio Chileno a few hours into our trek.  

We set up camp for the first time on the trip and made a point to secure our stakes with head size rocks so the winds wouldn't take our tent while we were hiking.  We hydrated ourselves, ate a powerbar, packed a day pack and went up to the first lookout.  It was a bit hazy over the peaks but we figured it might clear up a bit by the time we got up there.

On our way up we walked into a couple guided by a gold-toothed Chilean and they suggested that we steer off the beaten path and take the Moraine up.  (Note:  Moraines are enormous rock piles on the sides of mountains that form after a glacier melts.  When the glaciers were advancing they pushed up against the mountains with such force that the sides of the mountains would crumble into the ice and snow where they stayed until the glaciers melted.)  This particular moraine was one of the better workouts my legs have seen.  My knees weren't too happy about climbing that bad boy but it was worth it for the view. 

At the top was the most magnificent view of 3 granite monoliths rising out of the ground like horns.  Small pieces of hale infrequently hit our outer shells as we tried to make sense of what our eyes were seeing.  The tops of the stone spikes weren't fully visible but it was impressive none the less.  While our knees took time to recover we enjoyed powerbars and took in the amazing view.  

We also made the call to go down to the lagoon and try some fresh glacier water.  I don't know about you but just looking at this picture makes me thirsty.  I can honestly say I've drank the cleanest, freshest, best tasting water that exists.  We were spoiled for a good week or so only drinking glacier water.  We headed back down and made it back to camp by 6 or 7.  The refugio had a cabin on the premises where we played cribbage, ate lasagna and talked to a Canadian couple that were traveling the world for 6 months.  We hydrated ourselves and crashed just after the sun went down.  

Day 5:  Before we fell asleep we plotted out the next day.  We didn't seriously figure the distances until the night after but we knew it was going to be a generous distance from point A to point B.  We wanted to got from our campsite to the refugio Italiano campsite to set our tent up and then head up to the next lookout in the Valley of France and back down again to sleep. 

We were lucky to have such an amazing day and all 12 hours that we hiked were glorious.  Coming out of the first valley was a decent down hill and we made great time.  The only thing that was slowing us down was the incredible landscape surrounding us.  At ever other opportunity Joe busted out his Gorilla Pod to take a team picture.  (Note:  the Gorilla Pod is a tri-pod made to attach itself to virtually anything... it rules and at every appropriate chance we "Gorilla Podded it".)

During the hike we came across a group of wild stallions.  It was one of those days where every 15 minutes we were seeing something more beautiful than the last 15 minutes.

  
The view was absolutely astounding.  The furthest mountains in the distance were snow capped and the hills between us and them contained glacier fed milky-turquoise lagoons.  We followed the lake until we reached the refugio Italiano relatively late in the afternoon.  We heard that the campsite was closed but we decided to risk it and start setting up are tents.  A park official immediately put the kibosh on that so we just left stuff to put up when we got back.  It was around 5 at this point and we had a decent climb ahead of us.   Eating powerbars all day with hours of exercise inevitably guided every conversation to being food related.  I can remember myself describing my favorite cheeseburger from Soblemans in Milwaukee with such detail that it was all either of us could think about for days.  We ended up making a sandwich of our own for dinner but I'll get to that.

 As the day progressed the clouds began to dissipate and the glorious granite spires showed their faces.  I've never smiled so much at the sight of rocks but these daddies were tickling my eyes with their glory in such a way where I could help but grin.   (It's getting late here and I'm fully aware that the previous sentence is beyond over the top but it made me laugh so I decided to keep it.)  We reached the top of lookout at around 7 or so and even being completely out of energy we were able to think about nothing beside what was in front of our eyes.  

As we hiked down, our bodies ached but we were completely contented.  This was why we came on this trip.  We climbed all day to get to this point and we reached indescribable beauty.  The most memorable moment of the entire 3 week trip might arguably have been in our decent down the Valley of France.  The sun was setting over the mountains on our right casting a beautiful orange glow on the granite peeks to our left.  In this time I commented to Joe, curious about the frequency of the falling glaciers on the mountains to our right.  Just after I finished my sentence a building sized glacier fell off the top half of the mountain and smashed into an avalanche as it worked its way down the mountain.  It's still tough to believe that we witnessed that.  Moments after the collision the valley was filled with a roar equivalent to lightning bolt striking within close proximity. 

On the way back to the camp we convinced ourselves that it was a mighty fine idea, boarder line brilliant, to make a sandwich using one chocolate and one peanut butter powerbar (yeah thats how hungry we were).  Even with a body in desperate need of nourishment it was tough to choke down.  I studied the map and asked joe what 36.5 Kilometers is in miles and we both laughed for a good five minutes, recalculating our distance at least four times.  We figured we hiked around 22 miles that day and it immediately made sense why everyone thought we were crazy when we told them what our plan for the day was.  Still as tired as we were we struggled through a game of cribbage before passing out hard.  

Day 6:  When we woke up our legs felt reasonably well considering what we put them through the previous day.  We had another late start waking up around 8:30 but we still figured we could easy crank out the 18 plus miles of the trail before the last ferry left for day.  It was turning into another perfect day with the clouds dissipating as we hiked.  

 
We made it down to an information checkpoint in fairly good time where we left our bags before challenging the toughest part of the trail.  We found out that the last ferry was to leave in just as much time as it would technically take to go to and from the Glacier Grey at the end of the valley.  Of course we decided to risk it and go on the adventure. 

   

The hike was 11K each way and it had significant up hills in both directions.  We reached some serious elevation where we could see enormous icebergs studding the lagoon from end to end.  The hike was really long and our stamina from the powerbars was running low.  

Glacier Grey was magnificent.  We climbed to a lookout on a tall hill overlooking the expansive valley of ice.  The ice extended as far as our eyes could see.  It was both jagged and beautiful at the same time.  It was tough to imagine the shear size of the ice field.  From our perch we felt small staring off into the vast distance between us and the glacier.  We took our time and Gorilla Podded it a couple times before getting ready to diesel back through the valley so we could make our ferry.   

We made it back in record time.  That 11 K stretch was the only time sweat was actually falling from our faces.  We were passing people in winter jackets.  We even had time to chill out in the cabin and play a game of cribbage before the ferry came.  I think the people at surrounding tables wish we didn't make that judgement call.  

We hopped on the ferry and made our way to the roof to check out the landscape from afar.  The ferry traveled a good 30K to get back to our starting point.  It was great to take a step back and see the great distance we traveled from.  The day was perfect and it made for many postcard quality shots.  This was the most beautiful national park either of us have been to and I hope some day I can come back to hike for a more significant amount of time.   

 
We got back to the town of Puerto Natales late and after booking a bus for the next morning to El Calafate, AR we grabbed a serious bite to eat.  As usual I looked like mountain trash.  Joe couldn't help himself from taking a picture.  We found a hostel with hot showers and comfy beds.  We were too tired to play cribbage before hitting the sheets.  That nights sleep was one of the best all trip.