They fed us on the bus. Nice. Only twice. The other times we got dropped off at random expensive restaurants. Hmm the lake district on the border near Bariloche is supurb. What a beautiful bus route. Will have to go back to Bariloche. Either in the summer next year when I finish in Buenos Aires or for the winter to learn skiiing if I get the opportunity. I will definitely make it there. Without the money for the navimag and the time for the Carretera Austral or El Chalten, I will definitely come back to do that trip with those three and maybe Antarctica depending on when I come back and with how much money. We had craptastic Muzak on loop for a long time. Then they went into films. We got stamps to leave Chile, but none to enter Argentina. So for one day I was technically in no country. We did stop and had some meat empanadas in Argentina. Superb. Angel had told me that the food would be much better in Argentina than Chile. I was in Argentina, but I would technically not be in Argentina until nearly a week later. The famous route 40 is so fucking boring south of the national parks that I can-t understand why anyone wants to travel down that flat dusttrack. We got night in the museum 2, RV, transporter 3 and then I fell asleep but I believe it was taxi. I wrote that Patagonia was going to be expensive, that you could see how windy it was, there was a crazy kid and this was too long a bus trip. Scenery spectacular.
I think by day two on the bus I was beginning to suffer from cabin fever of some type. Such a long bus journey I wrote. Then we got a Jim Carey medley. Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar, Me Myself and Irene and then I think Truman Show but maybe not as it got cut off for some Mr Bean. Reminded me of home so I was laughing more than maybe I should have done and the woman next to me clearly thought I was insane. Or maybe that was another bus. No idea. My brain got scrambled from the boredom. There was no space in Punta Arenas where I wanted to stay. Crappy. There was an Aussie dude in the place run by a mental old woman. I went out in the rain to find a cinema and was very disappointed to see I had seen everything. I got soaked, ate some pizza from the suprisingly good Telepizza chain and then went back to sleep.
Damn this internet can be slow sometimes. Not much in Punta Arenas, but its better than Puerto Natales. I went with the Aussie guy to the cemetry (which was ok), the regional museum (which was total shit) and the naval museum (which was mostel crap apart from the cool video showing an old voyage around Cape Horn from the early 20th century with commentary. That is more than worth the entrance alone). I spent too much on a pizza lunch and then took an afternoon bus to Puerto Natales. Eventually after 15 attempts I found a hostel run by an Argentine guy. Well he found me as I missed it. I set up my park transport for the next day and bought a load of food, for what I thought would be 4-5 days in the park. It did not look too tough on the map but you never know. Lets see.
30 dollars for transport and 30 dollars for the entrance. Woohoo. Patagonia had jacked up its prices just as I arrived. Just as I arrived with virtually no money and struggling to get through the last parts of the trip. I had made the decision that I would see all of Patagonia and then shoot for Buenos Aires via Puerto Madryn and Peninsula Valdes. As I write this I am about one week away from Buenos Aires. i should make it there with around 2k dollars to find work and live off while I wait for pay. Its going to be tight. May need a Plan B. Luckily Argentines at Perito Moreno were reassuring me I should get something. Still need to make my cv. Maybe tomorrow morning before the bus to Ushaia. I arrived in the park and hiked the road from Lake Almagro to the first hotel. 7.5km and I blitzed that. Left myself tired though. Ice, Ice Baby. This channel is too much. I figured there was no way I was going to take the full backpack up and down all the hills. I would just walk the base of the W with my rucksack and hit every point, there and back, without my bag. Should make it faster. Ok they reckon you need 4 hours to get up to the viewing point. Of course you do. Its a steep climb, but I nailed it there and back in 5 hours. The wind was looking like a problem for my tent. I blitzed the climb. Its a pretty valley running up. It really is a beautiful park. At the top there is a really steep climb and thats always been my weakness. Slowed me down. The viewpoint of the towers is stunning. Well worth the climb. On the way back I made friends with a Mexican girl and we chatted and hiked down together. Both of us prefer hiking solo to not slow down, so we could set a decent pace walking together. Just before this hill climb one plastic sweet rapper flew out of my hands. This should indicate the wind. I am quick. Very quick. Yet to catch this paper I had to sprint 150 metres to nail it down. I dont like littering, but I was going to keep my grip from then on. Wind was running around 50km/h. Very fast. I had gone looking for somewhere to have a piss and noticed a tent down in an old looking zone. It was the old camp site. There was a German guy there who had been cycling across Patagonia and being battered by the rain and wind. This area is in a dip and so has a wind shield. Also you dont have to pay so it was good for the two of us. I ended up shitting wild and the old benches made a good toilet. This old campsite is on the left, opposite side of the road to the main site.
The second day I got up and loaded up my bag to go to Los Cuernos. The Mexican had persuaded me it was too far to go the night before, but I think I could have made it. Its a four hour walk, but I hit it in 3.25 hours with full backpack. Its not a difficult walk. Moves over the hills, past a lake and then loops through some cliff hugging trails that are a bit rougher. I had left at 8.30am so I met noone for 2-3 hours. Lonely Planet says everyone goes east to west so naturally now everyone goes west to east to avoid people. So they all work it together and I ignore Lonely Planet and get the trail to myself. Stupid Lonely Planet. If they say anywhere is deserted you can guarantee it will be full of everyone going there. Some travellers have yet to figure out that everyone uses Lonely Planey when travelling, so you can only get space by ignoring the book. From there I hiked to Campin Italiano. Motherfucker of a trail. Easy on the rocks and lakeshore and then an absolute bitch of a climb. Nice views, but fuck me that trail was evil. Would be easy coming the other way. It took me less than 5 hours in total to there. Got overtaken the only time on this trail by a guy moving like the Tayronas in Colombia, but he had no backpack to be fair. I dropped the tent and took on the Valle Frances. There is no real trail for the first 20 minutes and you are scrambling over rocks, seeking a path. An orange symbol 50 m to your left, then 50m to your right. Damn it. Stay still. Then you cross a stream and the trail becomes clear. This is the most beautiful part of the park I saw and its a steep trail. I was up and down in less than 4 hours. The mirador halfway has a stunning view of the mountain to the left. The snow does not look real and the multicolours are completely contrasting to Englands white snow. All the blues and greys and shades of colours. Stunning. Then if you bang on up to the second viewpoint you are in the middle of all the famous mountains. Every way you look is beautiful. This is probably the highlight of the park and if you can only get to one place, that is the place you want to see. When I got back I ate my last tin of peaches to lighten the load and then packed up the bag and headed 7.5km down a trail, past a lake and over lots of wooden pathways that felt like walking on jettys. This radio station loves Michael Jackson. I pitched my tent and it was battering the wind. I had hammered 40km in 11 hours. 25km with backpack and 15km without. Not sure why this W takes everyone so much time. I met the German again, who had cycled round and taken the catamaran across the lake to this point. He was surprised I made it that fast and we chatted for a bit. The night was shit. Rainy, windy and I had to pin the tent down in the night. Food and drink is ridiculously expensive in the park.
The nights sleep was so shit that I just got up with sunrise (which is very beautiful in the park) and decided to hammer it to Lake Grey and back for the catamaran. If I made it there and back before midday I would have made the W in less than 2 days. It took me 5 hours there and back and I made it with an hour to spell in the end. Damn the wind was strong. I feared for my tent and really should have collapsed it myself if I was thinking smart. The wind shredded straight through one carrier bag and was leaving me blind at points. Never been in wind like this. It was also bitter cold. I had socks on my hands. The mirador at the halfway point was beautiful and it was mainly uphill to here and some serious downhill to the refugio. Made me realise it would be a bitch coming back and it was. After the mirador it would be easy. Did not see anyone for the first 3 hours and on the way back I caught and passed people I had met on the way there. Everytime you catch someone it gives you a boost. Like a chase. You feel like you can then hunt down the next person. Must be something like that in formula one. The glacier is pretty. Ok its no Perito Moreno and if you had to skip one part of the W I would skip this one. Got a rainbow over the glacier on the way back. The lake is full of icebergs and they are very pretty. The first one I had seen in the morning I had thought was a boat. I thought the zodiac was out early and then I realised they were icebergs. This park has such great sights in every place. I had done th W in 47 hours (total walking time around 21 hours). You do not need 4 or 5 days for this. What are you going to do. Walk 4 to 5 hours a day. Ridiculous. 3 days would be comfortable for any walkers. I managed to maintain 4km/h even with my rucksack and regardless of terrain and thats maybe a little quick, but still its not hard. The winds had massacred my tent. It had splinetered one of the legs and someone had pinned down the stricken animal with some rocks. Oh yeah I got face to face with a deer on the way back. That was cool as we both just eyed each other up. A fun face/off. Reminded me of the Apalachian mountains at the very beginning of this trip. I took the catamaran back at midday and then a bus. Another 22 dollars for the boat. I think there were a couple of Israelis who were scamming and trying their luck to get away with not paying. Well done to them if they were, but they still held us up. There were no spaces to Ushaia for a few days, so I decided instead to rest up and take a bus to El Calafate in the morning. More stamp space in my passport. Its one year old and it only has 5 or 6 completely clear pages. It would help if the retards did not keep stamping in spaces to limit how many can be put in the passport. I wince everytime some idiot cant stamp straight. All of central america had no problem with this simple concept. Oh well in the morning it would be off to Argentina at last. The owner of the hostel had lent me his jacket for the trip to Torres del Paine. Thank God he did as it was bitter cold. Nice of him. I came back to the hostel and chatted with him. Bought the last ice cream Mega Framboise I was going to get (love them, ate one a day) and gave the tent a burial in a bin. Tomorrow it was off to Argentina. I will cover that sometime soon. I reckon there will be two Argentine parts and then it will be Buenos Aires. The scary shit is now whether or not I can get a job or not. 19 months without working. Judas would be proud. 18 months on the road tomorrow. Come on the Saints. Who dat say dey gonna beat them Saints. I really like Chile. Probably my second or favourite country so far, but very expensive.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment