Patagonia

Dorothy and I joined six other people on a hiking tour of Patagonia organised by Explore. We flew from Manchester to Heathrow then on to our hotel in Buenos Aires, where we met our tour guide Lucia. We were given a guided tour of Buenos Aires by Lucretia, a local guide. The tour included the incredible La Recoleta Cemetery and the colourful La Boca. Dot and I visited a couple of Art Museums, one of which had a huge temporary Turner exhibition! In the evening we eat out. They know how to do a good steak in Argentina. While I'm on the subject, they also serve a large variety of cakes for breakfast.

Buenos Aires

Next day we got up at 2am to fly to El Calafate where we were met by a minibus and driven to El Chalten. We saw Guanacos, Condors and a Choique on the way there and we had time for a short walk to a small hill with views of Mount Fitzroy and El Chalten. Mount Fitzroy had a little bit of cloud above it. this was appropriate because it was previously called Chalten which is derived from a word in the native language meaning 'smoking mountain'. Francisco Moreno called it Fitzroy after Robert Fitzroy who was the captain of The Beagle, the ship that Darwin sailed on.

The next day we were driven to El Pilar where we met our excellent and very patient guide Foocau (phonetic spelling) who took us up to Poincenot Camp. Here we were shown to our tents with mats, inflatable mats and thick sleeping bags. Nice food was provided and the view of Mount Fitzroy from the camp site was amazing.

Mount Fitzroy from Poincenot Camp

Mount Fitzroy

Me above Laguna Sucia

The next day we walked to the lake below Cerro Torre. The weather remained good all morning but it did get very windy and wet later on and Cerro Torre was in cloud when we reached Laguna Torre. We hiked back to our hotel in a very wet El Chalten and the next day went on a boat trip on Lago del Desierto. At the far end of the lake is a military outpost as it has been the subject of a territorial dispute between Argentina and Chile in the past. We saw a Black Faced Ibis there. In the evening we were driven back to El Calafate

The Group

The next day we were up early again to take a very plush service bus across the border to Puerto Natales in Chile. The town is on the Pacific Ocean but only by a very tortuous route.

"The province where Puerto Natales is located was named Última Esperanza (Last Hope) by the sailor Juan Ladrilleros, who was seeking the Strait of Magellan in the year 1557. It was his "last hope" to find the Strait after exploring the maze of channels between the waters of the Pacific and the mainland. It was not until three centuries later, in 1830, that another major expedition sailed through the fjords and channels of Última Esperanza: the British expedition of the sloop HMS Beagle."  - Wikipedia

We were introduced to our very enthusiastic Chilean Guide, Juan Pablo and on the next day we boarded a minibus that took us along a dirt road to Lago Grey. We had a fairly strenuous 2 hour walk up to a viewpoint about 600m above the lake with fantastic views across the Torres del Paine National Park.

Dorothy painting above Lago Grey and Grey Glacier (Icebergs in lake)

We then boarded another boat to take us on a trip below the snout of Glacier Grey that dropped us off at Camp Grey where we had dinner in the canteen and slept in our yellow tent with no inflatable mattress this time, just the normal mat and comfy sleeping bag. Quite hard!

From Camp Grey we walked to Frances Camp, where we spent two nights. We had incredible views of the Cuernos del Paine (The Horns of Paine) along the way and even closer views when we walked up into the French Valley. We were incredibly lucky with the weather.

Walking towards the Cuernos del Paine

Looking South with some amazing clouds. This photo looks like a painting!

Panoramic view of the Cuernos and French Valley

We then had a relatively easy day walking from Camp Frances to Camp Torres followed by a very long day indeed. We had breakfast at 6:30 and started walking at 7:15 so we had to be awake at 5:30 so we could 'faff about' with our gear. We walked up to the Chileno Camp, to which beer was being delivered by a train of horses, and then on up a marked path on steep scree to a lake surrounded by a wall of rock. It was snowing. So unfortunately, we couldn't see much. We passed lots of people heading up there as we started off back down to Camp Torres. When they asked us if they had far to go we had to reply "to be honest, yes!"

On the way to Camp Chileno before it started to snow. Still very windy though.

We got back to Camp Torres at 5:30, having completed the 'W Trek', and piled onto a minibus to the Argentinean border and then back to El Calafate. Because the cafe we stopped at for dinner took an hour to serve us steak and chips, we didn't get to bed until 1:30.

The next day we were up early again for a 6:30 breakfast and a 7:30 departure on what was admittedly an optional trip. Six of the group went trekking on the Perito Moreno Glacier but, as we had walked on a glacier before, we were dropped off at 'the galleries' which are opposit the snout of the glacier. The glacier is constantly calving. In other words, you can see huge chunks of ice fall into the lake if you are patient enough. We were lucky enough to see a big tower fall off. We also went on a boat trip to see it close up.

Perito Moreno Glacier

The glacier is unusual because, unlike nearly all others, it is not receding. In fact, because there is land directly opposite the snout, it sometimes forms an ice bridge that later collapses. This is known as a Rupture. It is one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, which is the world's third largest reserve of fresh water.

We had a lie in before flying from El Calafate back to Buenos Aires. The next day we flew back to Heathrow overnight then on to Manchester and a train journey home.

It really was quite an adventure. I don't think it would be possible to pack more into two weeks and we were incredibly lucky with the weather. I'll leave you with a photo of a Caracara.

Caracara