6th April 2013 – Ushuaia

Currently we are in Ushuaia and we had snow today …. this blog will report up to and including Puerto Natales as I think we will have this internet contact while we are here and then we will be without again for a while until we get back up the east coast of Argentina.

The reports from Punta Arenas and Tierra del Fiego, I will update later and upload the photographs as well ………….. so without further ado from our last update here is a summary of our trip

14th March 2013 – On Board the ‘Don Baldi’ … from Quellon to Chaiten

On seats with upright backs, for 7 hours we expected them to be more like ‘lounge seats’ but they were not. We reported 16:00hrs to board the vehicle, boarding was delayed till 1730hrs as they had to remove a body from the ship which was brought in from one of the surrounding islands. When we had boarded the MANKAT1, we had to get a bus back into Quellon. We went into a restaurant and ate then went to the Copec kiosk and had more coffee reported at the ferry office at 21:30hrs .. bus arrived and departed on time at 22:00hrs .. we finally sailed at about 00:30hrs. We arrived at 07:30hrs approximately at Chaiten the next morning.

15th/16th March 2013 – Puyuhuapi

We went looking for a camping which was north of Chaiten although we headed south in error, we returned only to find the camping closed down.
We turned around again and headed just south. We had surfaced road for about 45km and then gravel all the way down to Puyuhuapi. A nice drive with some road works. Some high mountains again with some snow still visible on top. We managed to park along the lakeside … a very beautiful spot. We checked with the local Cabierneri and they said it was ok to do so.

A German biker who is travelling on a three month trip with a biker group, walked over to our camper and talked to us for about 75mins also joining him was a Sam and John from Idaho, USA who were canoeing on the lake and spotted us at the lakeside. We discovered after we ate (rather late) that we had excellent internet contact.

On Saturday, At 0645hrs there was a text message on Claire’s mobile phone, it was from her niece asking to Skype … we did end up Skyping with her niece and sister,  we spoke to them for about 40 minutes or so but at about 10:00hrs our time and not earlier ………

17th March 2013 – Villa Mañuales – distance covered : 155km

Claire had sent off her St. Patrick’s day greetings in advance and was checking to see if anyone had remembered us via email and/or SMS messages by mobile. After we had all those message dealt with, we departed late in the day about 12:30hrs.

The drive today, was very nice and very changeable .. the drive along the lake from Puyuhuapi was lovely and restful then when we turned more south we had to climb up a high valley to continue on, there were some very sharp hair pin bends. We saw a lovely waterfall and also some beautiful ‘snow covered hanging valleys’ in the distance but we couldn’t really stop for Claire to take photographs.

The last part of today’s drive was on wide valley floors with lovely steep mountains on either side with plenty of greenery.

Today, we also noticed the first signs of Autumn in that some of the leaves now are starting to turn yellow and brown.

18th March 2013 – Coyhaique, Camping Alborada – distance covered : 81km

We left our parking place (along the side of the road) this morning and the fog was just lovely the way it layered along the mountain sides. Even before breakfast, Claire was out with the camera.

Our plan today was governed by the fact that we needed to uptake water, we had tried for the past couple of weeks to do so without success. Our option now was to aim for a campsite provided it had the facilities that we require i.e. water, electricity etc.

We opted for this campsite and it has all that a campsite should have. Also, it didn’t have a barrier which prevents normally campers of our height to enter. Although, we will probably have to reverse out. There are 2 entrances, the one I walked in, which the MANKAT could not have used, and initially we thought that this place was a non-runner but I asked if there was a second entrance, there was and we used it.
Shortly after we arrived, Claire did some sewing i.e. mended a huge rip at the rear of one pair of Jan’s trousers, another pair is beyond recovery and he cut it up into a pair of shorts. After that, we did the laundry, however this time it was by hand and assistance by her right-hand man. After that, Claire started to work on a stand for the ‘Mobile internet antenna’ but she did not manage to finalise the project yet.

19th March 2013 – between Villa Cerro Castilla and Santa Julia on the Ruta 7 – distance covered : 154km

After leaving the campsite, we went into town, we walked about in the sunshine and then did some shopping in the supermarket. We dropped into a local tourist office and spoke with a very helpful girl who also spoke English and she gave us a lovely booklet about the attractions in this region i.e. Región de Aysén. After that, returned to the car. When we left the town, we dropped back to the supermarket and picked up our shopping which we had left in a locker.

Lovely changeable landscape throughout the entire day. We had paved roads as far as Villa Cerro Castilla and since then only gravel. (There is no more paved roads further south). Once we had parked, it started to rain and rained most of the evening and during the night.

20th March 2013 – Glacier Exploraderos – Ruta X728 : distance covered 125km

The entire day was on gravel. It was raining when we got up and for most of the first two hours driving, we were hoping it would stop as at some stage we had visions of the roads becoming unusable in this type of weather. When we got to Puerto Río Tranquilo the rain had just about stopped. We made enquiries about the glacier and was told it was 52km further up the X728 road and we got our bearings for the ‘marble caves in the lake itself’ which we plan to do. Claire took some lovely photographs of the lake. We went into a little café and had a sandwich. After that we hit the trail, it took us about 1 ½ hours to complete the 52km up to the entrance. We arrived at about 15:15hrs and then once we settled in, we went into the ‘Sight Entrance’, paid our fee and then hiked up the hillside, the first half of it was a lovely track up through lovely dense forest canopy which then opens out onto a rocky upper half which you climb up to the viewing point. We were greeted with a different sight than we expected ..i.e. not the lovely white image of a glacier that has been calving recently, but the image of one that looks as if it has receded back somewhat into the valley and all the debris from the frontal moraine appearing directly in front of us and lower down. A pretty impressive sight all the same. We decided to overnight at this location for the night.

21st March 2013 – Puerto Río Tranquilo – Ruta X728 : distance covered 52.3km

When we got back from the glacier face to Puerto Río Tranquilo intact. However upon arrival, Jan discovered to his horror that the cover for the left handside locker at the rear of the camper had become undone again. When he went to touch it, the cover just dropped off the locker itself. (The last time we got this repaired in Soberbio, Misiones, Argentina last June) once we had calmed down, we realised that we were very lucky that it had not fallen off along the route. We had a coffee break and then Jan went out and looked to ask one of the locals where he could find a ‘ferrertaria’ (metal workshop) that could clean out the old rivets and fix it up again. As it turned out the local he asked did in fact fix the locker for us.

After that job, we then asked him about who we should ask (tour operator) to use to visit the ‘Capilla Mormol’ Marble caves which is the sight to see in these parts. As it turns out, he did excursions himself and we booked him to bring us out tomorrow morning at 09:00hrs. The weather was still raining a bit and it was very windy, not a nice prospect to go out in a boat this afternoon.

Later in the afternoon, he offered if we wanted to use the internet in his house, we took up his offer. It was in this area for the first time, we noticed that we had areas of no mobile phone coverage.

22nd March 2013 – Puerto Guadal – at Terra Luna Lodge : distance covered  72km

 

We were up early and were on the trail by 09:00hrs. We went out in the boat and the weather was somewhat calmer. It was a lovely spin of 15minutes or so out to the caves, there are three sites, the caves, tunnel and then the Cathederal and Chapel areas. All similar but unique. We saw lovely sights an also the clarity of the water is incredible, you could see the formations even under the waterline. All in all, the trip took about 1 ½ to 1 ¾ hours.
We cleaned up the camper upon return and then said our goodbyes to Juan and upon his advice headed for Puerto Guadal to contact an adventure centre ‘La Terra Luna lodge’ in the hope to get to visit a lake where is is calving glacier. We found the place this afternoon, and what a find … a little heaven on earth .. a stunning centre managed by a French couple and owned by a French mountaineer. It is a beautiful spot in itself but also then the set up of the centre. They also offered to us to move our camper in onto their site, to have it off the roadside. We hope to travel to the glacier face tomorrow.

Four of us did the trip, an Israeli couple plus Jan and myself. We did – it was a very long, long day. It was a car journey of about 1¾ drive to the drop off point, then a 2 ½ hour trek to the glacial lake. Then a total of 1 hour in the lake itself, we had lunch on rocks beside the face of the glacier and saw some calving.

NB: Claire fell into the river and Jan fell at one point, and hurt his hip on the way back. We arrived back at the lodge at 2050hrs, in the dark … we went down for dinner in the restaurant after we had cleaned up and changed.

24th March 2013 – Just inside Argentinian border control post Paso Rudolfo Roballos : distance covered 134km

We said good bye to our guide and to the owner and manageress and all the other staff that made our stay so enjoyable and memorable. Claire took several photographs of the premises then we left at 11:50hrs approximately. We drove until we passed both the Chilean border post and 12km further on the Argentinian post. (We were just given a transit visa, this time around).

25th March 2013 – Gobernador Gregores : distance covered 359km

We planned a very long day’s drive, we wanted to reach this place, we had hoped that the road would be surfaced, but it was not till we reached the Ruta 40 that it was i.e. after 130km. (We took the southerly Iriygen route).
This is the 1st surfaced road that we have driven on since we left Quellon on Chiloe island. (actually just outside Chaiten back on the mainland).
The sky today was only fantastic … the cloud forms/shapes/designs were fabulous. Jan explained due to no winds and the clouds appears like Zeppelins or floating disks. Very little traffic on the entire route. We stopped and had a break of 45 minutes for lunch. We reached Gbr. Gregores finally at about 1710hrs.

Jan went to an ATM, he got talking to two motorbikers, one German and one Swiss who are heading north.  We noticed this evening shortly after we parked that the wind picked up, in fact it became so strong that the MANKAT 6×6 began to shake about as if we were on the high seas. It remained like this for most of the evening and night.
26th March 2013 – El Calafate : Distance covered 340km

This morning, we tried to replace or refill our Argentinian gas tank in Gob. Gregores, but we did not succeed. We did some shopping to tide us over with food for the next 2-3 days in Argentina and hoping to keep our foodstuffs at a low level so that we will use them all up (fruit/meat etc) and have none on board for the crossing back into Chile.

We notice that down in this area, they are less likely to accept credit or debit cards for diesel filling as well as little or no internet.

We didn’t start driving today till about 12:00hrs and we knew that it was going to be another long day as our trip would be about 300km yet again. The day itself was nice and sunny, but the wind was extremely strong all day. We noticed a huge change in the cloud patterns today. For the first time in a long time, Claire noticed the cold wind more and more as the later afternoon progressed when she went to take photographs. A lot of the journey today was on un-surfaced roads.
27th March : strolled around the town and booked our bus tickets to the Glacier for Thursday.

28th March : went to the glacier for the day : 08:15 was the departure time of the bus. We have to say, it is an excellent view of a glacier. As we had gone out before in a boat to a glacier face, we decided not to take up this offer again today.  On the landside, the viewing galleries are excellently set up and the crowds were extremely manageable so we had great views and also we saw the glacier calving several times.  When we got back to the camper, we phoned Claire’s sister for her birthday.

29th March 2013 – Cerro Castillo ~ Chile : distance covered 223 km

We headed toward Torres del Paine in Chile. Originally, we thought that we would not make the distance today. We filled up with diesel (approx. 780 litres). We got back onto the Ruta 40, however ½ way between El Calafate and Esperenza, we decided to use the ‘old’ Ruta 40, which is now a piste, by doing this it saved us approximately 80/90 km of driving and the piste itself was quite good, so we did not have to reduce our speed too much. We saw several Chilean cars and one or two Argentinian cars on it, so it is certainly being used still.

Near the end of the ‘short cut’ i.e. about 5-7km we stopped to talk to an oncoming German registered Detleff camper. We stopped and chit chatted with them for a short while. It turned out that they were originally travelling with another German couple. The topic of safety came up and Jan mentioned to the gentleman about hearing that a German couple were attacked in the Mara de Plata area within a month of arriving in the country where the man was shot dead. It turned out that the man and women that we were talking to were actually their travelling companions. The couple we were talking to today, were also attacked for a second time in one of the parks. Nothing serious the second time around, but not what you want to happen while travelling about.

They also informed us, of two other bits of news, 1) that Grimaldi i.e. the shipping line that we used to get the camper down to south America, have now stopped using Argentina completely from the end of this month (March 2013). They are now using Montevideo, Uruguay instead and 2) that there is a huge storage area in Montevideo for ‘European type campers’. So, it looks like we might change our travel plans now in May/June in that we may go up to Uruguay if we are ahead of our schedule before we return to Europe.

It was very cold today even when the sun did come out to shine after lunch time. We had no problems at the border crossing, except that we originally parked beyond the barrier and had to move the car back to be placed before the barrier until we had been cleared by the Chilean authorities.
A short distance beyond Cerro Castillo, we pulled in off the road and camped there overnight.
30th March 2013 – Puerto Natales : distance  covered 216km

To-day, we spent the day visiting the Torres del Paine. The weather was once again very kind to us. We met 2 american bikers from California on a 6 month trip. It was a lovely trip most of it off road. We took the route between the 2 lakes and then went around afterwards to the Lake Grey landing area and walked out across the beach to see the glacier in the distance. We didn’t bother to take a boat up to it. It was late in the afternoon and we had been closer to the ‘Moreno’ glacier.

From here we saw the ‘cave Mildoon’ on the way went out to the Ruta 9. The last few kilometres were surfaced. Just as we entered Puerto Natales, the road was up and we had to do a detour. This town definitely had the look of a ‘frontier town’. However, it had some lovely restaurant buildings and tourist shops, especially the one across from the Church.

 

31st March 2013 – Easter Sunday