22.03, 12th march 2009, El Chalten, exhausted, survivor, very windy
I moved on, re-entered Argentina, another 2 stamps on the passport…it’s getting pretty full, and it’s only 2 years old…do I travel too much??
But I am late with my stories, 12 days of so many adventures that it will take me a full day to write them all! But…I love it so much to write them, and to read your enthusiastic comments, that I happily spend my time writing instead of sleeping or wandering around town in the wind (and darkness, I cannot even see the mountains I came to see!!)
It was the 28th of February, the day I got back from Antarctica, back on the known, on land, on land covered with trees, with cities, shops, hostels, people, internet. With Leonie we have been the last ones leaving the ship, apart from the crew obviously! I didn’t have any hostel booked, but Jordi had, having so many cameras and lenses with him (and pretty expensive ones!) he had reserved a private room, and this room had 2 single beds, so he asked to share, why not, at least I’m not gonna be alone and I can be very very messy again, eh eh! Sometimes I ask myself if I am an internet addicted..don’t think so, maybe more a communication addicted…the first thing I did when getting in the room has been switching on the computer and connecting to the world, to let everyone know I was safe and happy back! Chatted with Mum & Dad, with RS, and got the beautiful news of J&C getting married in june: I am so so very excited for them!!!Congratulations guys!!!
We were then hungry so got out to find some food, and while wandering around town we came across with half of the people who was in the ship. 5 of them were in an irish pub for lunch, so we joined them. Few minutes later the dutch/german couple passed by and waved through the window (we had a tactical window table!), then passed Leonie and she came in as well for food. Then another one, then the Japanese, and finally 2 guys from the crew came in for some beers. It was just the unplanned meeting point! Lunch went by nicely with sharing memories of ice and leopard seals. Next step was a nap, I’m getting old for sleeping only 3 hours a night! With Leonie we organized to go for dinner, we picked her up in her hostel, she was chatting with an aussie guy who also worked on Antarctic ships and has been long enough in Ushuaia to know some good restaurants. So he suggested us Mama Lola, he couldn’t have given us a better suggestion. This place was fancy from the outside and inside but the food not too expensive and the best tasted ever! I had a bife de chorizo and it was just amazing. Corona, this is the place to eat the best meat in argentina, so far! Jordi has been a bad boy…he left us to go for a 5 minutes phone call, but he came back 45 minutes later, and we two gentle girls had waited for him to eat…that’s not the way to do my dear guys!!! He said he had to call his brother for a job thing, but we are sure he called the girlfriend! Anyway, food was exquisite, I can still remember the taste of that beef, how was melting in the mouth, how I savored every single bite of it. It wasn’t too late but we were tired, and the schedule for the next day was though: be up and ready by 10am to catch a bus to the Tierra del Fuego national park for a bit of hiking there. We made it on time the next morning (well, kind of bit late, Jordi is very Spanish for this, always late!) and we started a very nice day in the middle of enchanted valleys. We did the first bit, was supposed to be 3 hours long…it took us 4.5hrs, would have been longer but at the end we rushed!! We started at the post office: you could have an “end of the world” stamp on your passport for 6 pesos…stupid…we have an Antarctica stamp for free!! (and also a penguin and a walrus…my passport is very nice and unique now!!). We started our way into the path, in between trees, small bays, birds, flowers, ducks. Every step we would stop to take a picture. Who was the worst?? Jordi of course, being a photograph, he could not stop changing lenses (he had 3! Well I had 2, but changed them maybe 3 times, he changed 50!!), making sure the light was ok, the aperture was the correct one and so on…at the end we had to forbid him to take pictures to make it to our bus connection to go to the very end of the world in that area! Later in the day we wanted a picture the 3 of us together, so we asked some guys to take it, with my camera. I had normal settings, but Jordi didn’t like the result of it, so changed 4 times the settings, then we were too far away, then too close, than it was not the best background… those guys have been very very patient with us! And he also made sure the pictures were RAWs, so he can play with them to have them perfect…still need to find a way to give him the RAWs as they are huge files! On the way we have also found 5 Calafate berries. These are similar to black (or blue) berries, but are typical of Tierra del Fuego/south Patagonia (Torres del Paine) areas. It is said that if you eat the berries, you will come back to Tierra del Fuego/Patagonia: we wanna come back one day!!! Also I am very sensitive with this thing about coming back… In 1975 my parents went to Rome and threw a coin behind their shoulder into the Fontana di Trevi… few months later my Dad got moved to Rome and I was born there!! Anyway, we had our Calafate berry, so we hope the superstition works! From this trail we went to the end of the world in this area, a view point into a lake with some islands, nothing special. But walking back has been pretty nice. The sun came out, we visited a “turbal” (sorry can’t remember the English name…only thing I can say is “turf” but this is a private joke between Leonie and Jordi with myself as a witness, so please don’t ask…. Guys the turf bit still makes me laugh my heart out!!!), we saw nice lakes, nice rainbow, mountains where it was snowing and you could see the snow was coming down just at that moment…It was 6pm and Leonie had to go back to town to buy her bus ticket to El Calafate for the next morning (5am start..20 hours ride…crazy! I decided to do it by plane, 1h flight, 20 euros more…for once I take it!!). Me and Jordi stayed a bit longer, to visit a nice lake. It was cold and windy, so we decided to go to the cafeteria and have a tea…but Jordi saw some birds and disappeared leaving me alone sipping my hot tea…where are gentlemen gone?? Ah ah. Back in town quickly, just enough time to get changed and off to dinner again. Picked up Leonie and asked that aussie guy again for another suggestion. The Comedor Patagonico was good but less than Mama Lola. Patrick (the aussie) joined us as well: it was so funny when P. was asking questions to J. and sometimes J. could not understand (P. had a very strong accent, I had problems myself sometimes!) so he would turn to me and ask translation…sorry Jordi I am teasing you, don’t be permaloso!!! We hugged Leonie goodbye, I wasn’t sure myself where I would be the next day, was thinking of taking that flight out of there. But in the morning I could not get a place on the plane so stayed longer. Took the chance to buy a new pair of trousers and…bumped into Leonie, who had missed her bus having stayed up chatting with Patrick till 4am and then slept through the alarm. It’s good that none of us is in a rush, so a small change of plan didn’t really bothered us! Jordi was going diving, Leonie had things to do, so I headed to a nice hike out of town. A bit of an off the road hike. I didn’t want to stay out too much, so I made my own route, putting together 3 pieces of 3 different hikes. The first part was entirely within a forest, a very thick forest, very thin and tall trees. There was absolutely nobody around, I felt a bit lonely to be honest. From there I turned into the second leg, which took me within bigger trees and wet ground. Then I hit the turbal field, it was so wet that my shoes were drenched and my trousers (the new ones!) were very dirty… I kept going for 20 minutes before realizing that I had lost the track, I was completely lost! In a turbal/forest where there was none else, nobody knew I was going there..if anything had happened to me, I would have been stuck there, with very little chance to be found! Not a nice feeling, I tell you! So, wise Renata came out and decided it was not worth trying to go on and reach the 3rd leg, so I turned back and walk all the way back to town on the same path I did to get there. Luckily I have a very good orienteering sense!
I was wet, dirty and cold when I got back to the hostel, I took a shower and got into bed to try to warm up, and waiting for Jordi to cry my misadventure out (internet was not working! For whatever reason the whole Tierra del Fuego had been cut out of internet, someone cut a line in a northern province!). But of course J. didn’t come back when he said he would! My shoes were wet (I washed them) and I had no other warm shoes, only the flip flops and the black sandals (those of the Antarctic party), so it was not easy to get out for a stroll. But I couldn’t stay home, so left wearing socks and flip flops: I never thought I would be able to do something ugly and out of fashion like this, but life is strange and bring us doing strange things ;-)) On my walk I met Leonie and we went for a sort of lunch and chat. Back to the hostel J was finally back (he had a good dive!), 1 hour and we had to be ready: Leonie and P. were coming over for an aperitif (a bottle of San Telmo Malbec red wine: we love it, it just taste good and is cheap!), to celebrate our last day together! L. and P. the next day were going hiking around there, and I was leaving to Calafate. Jordi was staying, few more days of diving for him, in the hope for a perfect shot…hope he got it! Celebration went on in Mama Lola of course, we all love that place! And who do we meet there? Some guys who were in Antarctica with us, they were also leaving the next day…el mundo es un panuelo… (y tu eres my mojo preferido!!!). The beef was amazing again, and the Calafate icecream might give us an extra chance to go back there sometimes in our lives! The night has been short, 7am wakeup call as Jordi was diving at 8am, and I had to pack all my mess to catch the 10am flight. It was a wonderful day, not a cloud in the sky, I almost decided to stay another day just to enjoy the sun (I still didn’t have my flight ticket, they said I could just go to the airport at 9am and get it right there at the check in!), but then…every good thing has an end (I did write this sentence in my last mail, isn’t it? Does is means that I am having all the time only good things???), I want to keep Ushuaia in my heart as the place that brought me Antarctica, that gave me the best meat ever eaten, and who brought me 2 very good friends I hope I will not lose (remember guys: we have the cheese and the beer tour planned! Jordi what do you offer from Barcelona??).
So I got that taxi to the airport, I bought that ticket, I boarded that plane, I flew above marvelous lakes, mountains, glaciers, to land at Lago Argentino shore, ready for the famous Perito Moreno. I did feel a bit lonely. I had been within known people for 20 days or so, now I had to start over again, but I was just not feeling ready to do it, I wanted to be social but at the same time I wanted to be on my own. I guess it’s ok if this happens every month or so, isn’t it? I actually didn’t know what I wanted to do, maybe straight to Puerto Natales hitchhiking, tried to convince a Mexican guy to come with me but he didn’t want, so ended up taking a transfer to Calafate and check out from there. Still not clear what to do, I wandered through bus companies and tourist information finally deciding to stay in town for 2 nights, visiting Perito Moreno and then off to Torres del Paine. The hostel was fair, I just couldn’t be bothered with looking for a nicer place, I just wanted a bed and internet! And sun…it always help. I headed to the river shore, and stayed there for a little while reading and enjoying the lovely view. Back to town I headed for a milkshake in a very nice and cozy place, nice music and good milkshake (strawberry: my ratio for the whole week…if I eat too much fruit my body will feel strange!!). Something that impressed me is that in many shops there were signs in Hebrew, there are so many Israelis around that they even make posts in their language. They all travel in big groups after finishing the 2/3 years military service. And they are…noisy and… I will not say anything now about it, will keep it for later on, after my stories of Torres del Paine! Anyway anyone who have travelled a bit will understand what I mean. The evening arrived slowly, and I was there in this hostel on my own. I went to buy some food for dinner, but I hadn’t brought much money with me so had to give back some food/water to reach the amount I had…the girl saw me giving back the water, and felt bad so she gave me the water anyway even if I could not pay it (ok, it was something like 50 eurocents so it’s not much…but this people is always very nice and genuine in their help!). The common room was empty, I sat there, luckily there was internet, and Fra looking for celebration mate, he had got a good work opportunity, so we spent a couple of hours chatting over facebook and skype, and this made my evening, together with a bit of chatting in the kitchen area where I met some of the girls in my room. It was actually very nice, we were an Italian, a French, a Belgian, a german, and Austrian and only one Argentinean…and we all spoke Spanish together, it was so funny, we had at least another if not 2 common languages but being in argentina we spoke Spanish! The Argentinean girl was really funny and full of enthusiasm, especially being the only local in the group! The next morning the tour to Perito Moreno was planned or better decided, but obviously I didn’t have a ticket yet. No worries, I went to the bus station and bought my ticket, all smooth! Bus ride, panorama view point stop and then off to the lake shore for a boat ride close to the glacier. Nice. The sun was shining, and the color of the glacier was white and blue… definitely not as blue as in Antarctica… I was actually a bit disappointed after this catamaran ride, we got close to the glacier, we could see it falling apart which was nice, but not much more it was not that high and not as impressive as the Paradise Bay ones. I learnt a bit about this glacier…its size is bigger than Buenos Aires area…can you believe???And it’s not the biggest one in the area!! It has many cracks/crevasses, these are due to the different speed of movement between the center and the side of the glacier. It moves forward 2 m/day!!!!!But it also cracks so it’s actually not visibly moving much. It’s 30km long and 5km wide, and it’s not made of frozen water!!!!! Yep, do you think a glacier is made of frozen water??? Then you are wrong! The glacier is made of compacted snow. The other peculiarity of this glacier is that one of its side is expanding towards the side of the lake, and every some years it actually reaches the shore and start building a wall of ice, blocking the 2 sides of the lake. But then pressure arise, and water excavate the ice creating a kind of bridge which then may fell off, a big crash of ice into the water, making it one of the biggest natural shows in nature around here.
After the boat trip I moved to the glacier lookouts, some path down towards the glacier, getting pretty close to it. Amazing, I really liked this, it impressed me lots, mainly hearing when it was cracking down, it made such a noise. The longer the noise, the big the cracking. Not been able to take a good picture though, you had to stay there and wait and be fast enough to have the camera on pointing to the right spot and then you could catch this natural wonder of ice cracking and falling into water. You know, I am not patient enough to stand still for more than 5/10 minutes so I missed many good shots. I walked all the way, enjoyed every single crack, took pictures of each and every one of them, it was sunny and then cloudy so the colors were rapidly changing. The path went very close, I heard of people crossing the barriers and getting onto the ice, right down the glacier. I didn’t do it, I’m a wise woman! Then I started raining so everybody jammed the cafeteria to drink something warm overpriced of course. Then the sun was out again and off I went for a last look. During the way I spoke with a Spanish couple, they actually started talking to me, after we met the second time I asked them where they were from…Burgos…oh I have been there once, for 5 hours…oh yes, why? Well I was visiting a supplier… We find out that the guy actually worked for that supplier (which was actually my worst supplier… James can you recognize them??) and now he works for another one of them…can you believe? I’m 15000km from home and someone tells me about work…arghhhhhhh. He was even asking me something about the Toyota Way…I don’t wanna know anything about it…I’m off from work!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, time at the glacier was over, the bus was there waiting for us, El Calafate another time! Arrived there I had my big surprise…I wanted to leave the next morning at 8.30 for Puerto Natales, but the 2 buses were full, the only chance was to leave on the 4om one, arriving at 9.30pm, uff too late, I would miss the 3pm chat about the Torres del Paine trekking and my chance to find someone to do the trekking with, meaning having to spend an extra day in Natales waiting for the next 3pm chat. No way, I really didn’t want to spend more time in Calafate, and I didn’t want to miss the chat. So…the decision came quickly and easily…I will hitchhike to Natales, it’s not that far, I can do it!!! Decision taken, I felt hunger coming up, so stopped at the bookbar for some food! I loved that place, lots of books, smooth environment, lots of sentences written all over. The one I likes the most: “a farewell is necessary to return to meet again. And a reunion, after a moment or after the whole life, is something unavoidable” (una despedida es necesaria para volver a reecontrarse. Y un reencuentro, despues de un momento o despues de toda una vida, es algo inevitable...)
That’s the sentence, do whatever you want with it, I like it anyway!
No dinner that night, but stayed in the kitchen area chatting with the same people of the night before, working on my pictures, uploading them and waiting for bed time. I was feeling better, ready to go on with the trip, to move to Puerto Natales and to the first 5 days trekking ever of my life..will I succeed to get to the end without blisters, cold, injuries?? What do you think???
This section of the story will finish in a short while, after the brief story of my hitchhiking. The bus was leaving at 8.30, but I was tired and anyway it was full, hitchhiking can be done at any time, so being my lazy self, I woke up at 8.30, got ready, bought some food for the way and at 9.20 off I went to the main road out of time and waited for my first ride…it didn’t take me more than 5 minutes, and the first truck passing stopped there and picked me up. It was so fortunate! He was driving all the way to Rio Turbio, which sits at the border with Chile!!!He was a nice guy, young, we chatted a lot, he was so interested in my trip. He did a truck shortcut (on a dirty road – unpaved) so we got there in 2.5hrs, very quick I tell you. Just off the truck, few cars passed and then a bus stopped. I was not even hitchhiking then, buses are not the best one to take you, but this guy was actually a bus driver for the workers in the mines of rio turbio, he was empty and he drove me few kilometers towards town. Rio turbio is a big mining town, 2500 workers there, coal mine, they even have a mining museum and a train line directly to Rio Gallegos, just to transfer coal! Off the bus I got another guy who drove me to the town center, from there I walked a bit, and another guy picked me up and drove me to the border. This guy was going to play football, he saw me and decided to make a deviation to drive me. He seemed nice but he drove at maximum 20km/h (and the road was perfectly fine) and after few minutes he said he wanted to go and visit Europe but the only way he could stay there longer was to marry an Italian or a Spanish girl…not me!! Of course I didn’t say it, and I was not even worried, the border was 4km away and there was just one road. I actually guess he just wanted to know a bit more about Italy! At the border I quickly passed and behind me there was a guy by car. I crossed the border and when he crossed it by car he picked me up. He was Chilean from Chiloe (I will go there!) but he had been living 15 years at the mines in Rio Turbio, and that day he was driving those 30kms to Puerto Natales to see his brother who was living there. This was very fortunate…he drove me right in front of the hostel I had booked! So my first hitchhiking alone was very successful. I started at 9.30 and arrived at 13.30: the bus had started an hour earlier and arrived 30 minutes after me… hitchhike beats bus 4 to 5.5!!! I was so proud of my very quick ride!!! I settled down in my room and…waited for 3pm, the famous chat about Torres del Paine, my chance to find someone to do this hiking trip together with!
But…this is another story ;-)))
So, great time in Ushuaia, quiet time in Calafate, if we wanna make it short! But still nice experiences, nice places and nice people, which is exactly what I want from my trips!!!
9pm, still 2.5hrs to go to my next bit of my trip…13.5 hours on a bus to make it to the Chilean border to cross there, I would love to be able to start my Carretera austral trip tomorrow…but it all depends on buses: that side of Chile is the least populated and connected to the world. There’s a town called Villa O’Higgings: the road ends there, after that Chile is just mountains and fjords covered in ice, inaccessible place unless by boat!
Next story will be about the 5 days in Torres del Paine…I just tell you that these can be renamed “Towers of Pain” as everybody going there experience wind/rain/sun/snow all in one day… how has it been for me?? Stay tuned and you’ll get the answer in a couple of days!!!
FindelMundoRen (EndOfTheWorldRen)
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