Middle Chile update

Its been a while since the last update and looking back time seems to have flown by and I seem to have done a lot - somehow a week relaxing on a beach just doesn´t appeal at the moment when there´s a volcano that´s just erupted to be explored in the north!

5 day boat trip
I decided to take the slow route back to mainland Chile through the beautiful chilean fords spotting whales from time to time and relaxing. We only had one day of sun and the rest of the time it was an envigorating Force 8 weather (ie. strong winds but unfortunately coming from the wrong direction so we only had 3m high waves). Good bunch of people on board as well pity about the cargo of cows and sheep going to slaughter reminding us of reality as the beautiful scenery went by.


Fruitillar
I thought I was in the German/Austrian alps! There was a mass migration of germans earlier this century down to the south. A man named Hirsch is running for president and you can buy from any coffee shop flaumenkuchen and apple strudel - bizarre but beautiful and laid back.


Valdivia
A nice town especially down by the river front where some sealions have made it their home, being extremely lazy and basically waiting for fish to be thrown to them from the fish market rather than bothering to fish for themselves in the sea! A nice life for some. They appear so cute and cuddly in this environment compared to in the wilds in NZ.


Pucon
A few highlights here. I´ve climbed an active volcano, met some cool people and experienced my first quake (3.5/4)!

The first was trying to climb a mountain with mountain goats Mariano from Argentina and Raphael from Austria. I stopped early on to save my energy for the volcano trip. They eventually appeared in the dark and then we ended up trying to jump start a car with Raphael standing on the back of the pick up with a torch to light up the track and me pushing, before eventually hailing the first car to come along in 3 hrs to jump start it successfully and safely. Then on to natural hot water springs by a river. A nice end to a bizarre day.

Climbing the active Villarica Volcano. There is constantly smoke coming out from the top of it and at night the top was lit up red from the lava fountain. Unfortunately although we´d climbed 1000m the winds were too strong to go to the top to see the inside of the volcano (6th picture) so instead we had fun sliding down the volcano (5th picture) on our butts using an ice axe as a break. In my case the ice axe didn´t work so the guides with crampons on had to physically stop me as I hurtled towards them feet first clinging onto the ice axe for dear life - exhilerating. 4 hrs to go up, 1 1/2 to go down - cool.

3 days in Argentina

Well I wanted to see the most talked about glacier on the travellers network so I´ve popped across the Chile/Argentine border to see the Moreno glacier at El Calafate before popping back to Chile to catch the slow boat to civilisation in Chile ie Puerto Montt where you can actually travel overland up to Santiago by bus. Where I´ve been in the south of Chile (Punta Areas and Puerto Natales) you can only get to Puerto Montt by a 4 day boat trip or by going through Argentina). I think a bit of enforced solitude is in order and some more pain is in order so I´m doing the boat trip through the Chilean fjords and past glaciers, and though 8-12m high waves!

Back to the glaciers, absolutely gorgeous and very active but I´ve seen the same glacier twice in the same day. I arrived back at the hostel in the evening after booking a day trip to the glacier the next day to find a group about to do an impromptu evening trip to the glacier (sneaking in the back door) to see the Moreno glacier under a full moon. We left at 10pm, got back at 4am then I got the 8am tour bus to go back to the glacier (2hrs journey one way) to see it in daylight.

Full moon trip - invigorating as it was so cold, slippery but very ethereal (??). Whilst you couldn´t see the colours in the glacier you could see all the detail and the amount of thunderous sounds from crashing ice within the field echoed around the mountains. Under a full moon the glacier was various different shades of black and white and was gorgeous.

Daytime trip - amazing blue colours in the ice and I was lucky enough to see a section fall into the lake. The amount of people there on the viewing platforms meant we couldn´t hear as much thunder as we could during the nightime but there was a lot more visible activity during the day.

The next day (with a hangover from an all you can eat meat buffet with some Argentinians and Oliver) oh and beer, then off for a full day cold lake trip seeing 3 gorgeous glaciers and ice bergs floating in the lakes glowing blue - lovely, but cold!

5 days walking in Torres Del Paine

Update - I´m in the far south of Chile in Punta Arenas/Puerta Natales before making my way back up to the north of Chile, the slow route!

Well they accurately described this walk in terms of pain as my knees and feet are completely shot but I was very pleased with my progress and increase in fitness since New Zealand´s Tongairora Crossing.

Torres del Paine National Park in Chile is a vast expanse (80km´s) of flat brown pastures with snow capped mountains at the end. The Torres del Paine area is the only area of the National Park (600sq km approx) that can actually be accessed and as such its popular with walkers. I was going to be walking outside of the main season and had to wait for 2 days in Puerto Natales for the 60-100km per hr winds and rain to subside before heading off for the walk.

We were lucky as the people coming off the mountains had had snow hail wind rain, in one day alone. We had 80km winds and rain the first day but sun, cloud and wind every day after that.

Day 1 - Walk to Glacier Grey in the rain and wind. 5 hrs walking

Day 2 - Walk back to Lake Pehoe and then round to the middle of the walk. I misjudged the distance and my ability and ended up spending the night in someone´s tent in a sleeping bag only suitable for a hut and froze my butt off whilst the winds howled outside and rats ate out food (Thanks Oliver for the tent space:))! 9 1/2 hrs walking

Day 3 - Walk by lakes with the wind picking water off the lake and twisting it into mini tornadoes. After being knocked to the ground 5 times in 100 metres by this I ended up using a goat track inland to get to the hut. 9 1/2 hrs walking

Day 4 - the highlight, walking up the Torres del Paine lookout through lunar landscapes, bogs, forest and climbing 1km up a boulder field to the actual lookout. 9 hrs walking.


All in all, a gorgeous place, lovely scenery, friendly walkers and oh so grateful heaters in Refugios at the end of the walk. Hope you enjoy the photos...... (when there is an internet connection fast enough to load them there´ll be there - glow-worm speed connection in the far south of Chile)