OLA, Que tal?
Two weeks have passed since my last post. First I would like everybody to thank for the nice reactions. I hope, you again like this one , unfortunately my picturies are not of very good quality, because my LED-screen is broken because of the rain in Chili.
Last two weeks we have been in Chili, and this part of PATAGONIA is completely different compared to Argentina. I left you in Los Antiquos, from where we wanted to go to Chili. That seemed to be quite a task. It was storming heavily in Los Antiquos, which resulted in no telefone lines, no electricity, and no bus company or private person wanting to travel the border.
storm in Los Antiquos
So we stayed an extra day in Los Ant., and left the next day for Chili Chico. At the border there were not only the normal procedures, but also an extra measures the Chilenians take. This means no bread, no meat, no vegetables, no milk and cheese etc. Fortunately they are not very fanatic, so we were able to save all our food, secretly hidden in our backpacks.
When we were in Chili Chico it still was storming & we heard that the boat across lago grl Carrera hadn´t been going for already three days, and that it probably (and luckily, later more about that) wouldn´t go that day. The only bus that would be able to transport us further into Chili, was full, so there we were in Chili Chico, and that certainly isn´t Paris.
Fortunately Christiana has a big mouth, and she arranged a lift for 5 people (two Americans, one French guy, and us) in a German Camper (a family with kids in the age of 3, 4 and 7, who are travelling the world for 1 year). Jochem and Ellen turned out to be very kind people to travel with, and so we were travelling together for three days (10 people in a camper!), the children were very glad to have 5 new comrades to play with.
Thanks to Ellen and Jochem we had an unforgettable journey around the lake
Gnr Carrera, which is again intensily turquoise all along the way.
Lago General Carrera
Lago Gnrl Carrera2
The unpaved road here is not easy to travel for a camper with 10 people, but the landscape is more than beautifull and very rough. At night we stayed on a spot with a view on the lake, and there we met two Germans that have made travelling as their profession, and now are making a world trip for more than 4 years (you see 1 year is nothing!). Actually they are famous in Germany, because of their travellguides (more information about them see
http://www.daerr.info/ and
http://www.weltreise-forum.info/ . During the night we celebrated Jochem´s birthday (he is my age 44, and almost as grey, Yes!), and we helped them emptying most of their wine bottles.
Jochem´s Birthday
We camped one meter away from the road, but in this place we didn´t expect much traffic.
Our campsite
Next day we travelled all along the lake to
Coyhaique. And again it is boring to say, the road was unique. The second part of the day the weather started to change which was a forebode to the weather in Chili, rain, rain and more rain.
Tour around Lago Gnrl Carrera
Because of this, the landscape started to change too, but I´ll come to that later. We arrived late in Coyhayque, and because of this we couldn´t find a hosteria any more, but we are now professional travellers that don´t care about that anymore nor the rain(HUM HUM), we drove out of town, and camped in the shoulder of the road (dank je wel Loes, dat was wel een hele snelle reactie, grappig ik wist niet dat jullie ook draft versies kunnen lezen, groeten wim).
The following day we regretfully say goodbuy to Jochem and Ellen, it was a very pleasant experience travelling with them, eating all their food, drinking all their beer and wine, a transport to Coyhayque, and not having to pay anything. Hope to meet you again, not for the free stuff, but for the company. Farewell, and have a good journey to New York!!
In Coyhaigue we met Chris Charlton who is travelling the world in 4 yours. He is doing that on somewhat different scale than others. See his website
here.
In Coyhaique we find a very small hospedaje. To get into our room we have to cross the living of an very old but nice couple, the only rule is that we have to be home and in bed by 23.30. Otherwise we have to stay outside. Now that´s a long time ago!!!
Hospedaje in Coihayque
Coyhaique itself is not very exciting, so we decide to visit another glacier in the
laguna san rafael. We go with
Navimag, a boat trip of two nights and one day across fjords. One problem however is the weather, it poors, or like the english say it´s raining cats and dogs, which means that most of the journey we only see water, and clouds.
Laguna San Rafael
But as our great guru JC (1947 AD) says: "every disadventage has its adventage", and a guru is allways right so also in this case. Because of the weather you get to see pictures of glaciers with clouds!, and not that boring blue sky! Another funny thing, when we enter the laguna, the intercom starts a nice marsmelody, and all the chilenians start to sing, in the end they shout VIVA CHILI, and I even see some people sheading a tear at the site of the place and the sound of the national anthem. Yes, raise your head, uplift your breast and wave the banners!!!!!
Glacier Laguna San Rafael
A few moments later we climbe into a small boat that brings us to the glacier. It rains refreshingly hard, and the captain of this vessel is not very interested in bringing us to the most interesting part of the glacier. Also most other people in our boat look like they are more interested in the wiskey that´s being offered, the biggest attraction of course is the whisky on the rocks, with ice from the glacier. Chilenians obviously like to sing, because after a few drinks the whole boat starts to roar.
Whiskey on the Rocks
Whisky on the Rocks 2
The glacier itself is not as spectaculair as the SPEGGAZINI, but there are nice parts, and next to the white and blue colors, we can even see green ice blocks floating in the water.
Laguna san rafael 2
Floating Ice
That night unfortunately the LCD screen of my camera stops functioning, probably because of the wet conditions on the boat, and although i can make pictures, it´s like looking into the dark, so don´t be offended, but the quality of my pictures will not be very well, until i find a place to repair it, or to buy another camera. Furthermore their is not much to mention about travelling with Navimag, maby i should make a compliment about the food! That really sucks! Their pudding for instance closely resembles vomit, allthough it doesn´t taste that good.
Okay Folks, come on we travel further up north! First we had the plan to travel to Chiloe, a beautiful island in the pacific, but we learned that not only the weather is now lousy, because of the approaching autumn (although
Chiloe seems to be wet all year round), but also that the season is ending and therefor bus transport is reduced to only one time per week, and that most of the transport to Chiloe by sea is very irregular. So we skip Chiloe in the hope that transport to other places is still smooth. How we were wrong with that!! (see further down)
Chilenian Patagonia
Our next stop is the
nacional Parque Quelat. We as glacier junks decided to see the hanging glacier, a very interesting name, so we asked the bus driver to drop us at the camp site there, and to pick us up two days after. That day we were still lucky because the weather was reasonable, we even could see the glacier hanging (although not hanging). The scene was however scenic, with three waterfalls surrounding the glacier, and in front an idyllic lake (ever seen before??).
The Hanging Glacier
Unfortunately the little boat that could bring us further to the spot was out of service because there were not enough tourists, furthermore the campsite was empty, the showers were producing cold water, but the rest was okay. And who needs a wash more than once in a week? I don´t, most of you should have noticed that allready.
Following day it was clouded, but we found a walk into the forest, that seemed interesting. Well, i can't remember ever having done this, it was RAINFOREST, more dense than I saw in the Amazone forest. We walked, crawled, climbed trees, walked trough heavy bamboo forest, on slippery paths, and sometimes we had to cut our way through. But it was beautifull.
Rainforest in Quelat, the path
We saw bamboo, fuchsia´s, kolibris (actually kolibris like fuchsia´s), very big ferns etc. During our trip we meet a lot of birds who are not afraid at all. One bird liked us very much and he accompanied us some time along our path. He looked like a giant Roodborst (nou Loes, vertel het maar......). When we sat down he almost sat on our lap. Probably the birds here are not afraid, because they hardly see humans here. You can see that Chilenian Patagonia is much much wetter, than the Argentian side. Not only the rainforest, and the variety of plants, but also the mountains are shaped by the water. It´s one orgy of water. They say annual rainfall here is about 4000 mm. Unfortunately therefore, and for us the weather is getting bad, we don´t see much of the surroundings anymore, and totally soaked we get back to the camp site. The rest of the day, we sit in the tent, spending our time with listening to the rain.
After this experience there is another one. Christiana´s eye looks like we had a fight, and when we go to the park ranger he tells us that it could be a tiny and very mean spider that could have caused it, and if we don´t find help, she could be dead in 48 hours. Now that would be a sad ending of her holiday, so we decide that finding help in Puyuhuapi is a reasonable alternative. Fortunately the friendly parkranger brings us to the medical outpost there, and we hear its only an allergic reaction, and there´snothing to worry about. Thanks to this fortunate accident (yes again our GURU JC...), we never had to wait ours in the rain for our bus, so next time we have problems with the weather, I know what to do.
Just next to the road
From Puyuhuapi to Villa Santa Lucia is only a few ours driving, and from there we hope to catch the bus to Futaleufu. In villa santa lucia we learn that that bus is not going, and we are stuck there for the night. It´s a lousy town with horrible hospedajes, but fortunaty Chimena offers us here place to stay the night.
Our home in Villa Santa Lucia
Chimena is 24, married with Juan, and she is mother of a child of 10! and of 4. (she says it´s quite normal for woman there to start at that age). By the way one night becomes two. We can´t find a bus, and we can not get a hike, hardly any car passes by, so we stand for more than 20 ours (part in rainy weather again) waiting for somebody to pick us up.
Waiting for a car in Villa Santa Lucia
Next day we get a lift to a place 20 km before Futaleufu, and there we wait for more than 4 ours (hiking seemes to be a problem here, but we find some comfort, offered by three lovely dogs and two tiny cats, that are happy to lick something else than each other) on at last the bus . WE ARE IN
FUTALEUFU!!!!!!!!!!! By the way, the road was again very scenic.
Just next to the road
Now this place seemes to be a rafting mekka, there is only one problem, end of season and most companies are stopping their activities, and the only one that ios still working is incredible expensive, so no rafting for us.
We only make a nice hike in again changed landscape. Spectaculair here are the enormous amounts of clouds, like smoke plumes (?) of flying insects (ants?), i counted more than 50 spiraled clouds with millions of insects.
A hike in Futaleufu 1
A hike in Futaleufu 2
A hike in Futaleufu 3
It´s funny to see, from chili to argentina you pass different vegetations - rainforest, moderate forest, alpine meadows (in Futaleufu alpine), and when you cross into argentina there is first something between this and the dry desertlike country, and only a few kilometers after leaving Esquel (Argentina), it´s argentinian patagonia again. After our rafting adventure we decide to leave Futaleufu to go to Argentina, but again no buses. We decide to take our chances again by hitch hiking, and this time fate is on our hand. Only after two hours a guy takes us to the border, and at the border somebody else takes us straight to
Esquel! Two weeks Chili. I wouldn´t have missed it. Nature is totally different compared to Argentinia, and extremely beautifull, and to get a good impression about Patagonia you should see both sides. For people that like comfort, don´t go to Chili, because lodging is primitive, and the food is not to good, and to all dutch, Argentina is even cheaper than Chili. Okay next time more about Esquel and following.
Los endos
