Congratulations to Dave and Rachel!

PHOTO of the very spot...

Congrats to Dave and Rachel! Dave asked Rachel to marry him in Torres del Paine, on a beautiful overlook of a calving glacier in the Valle del Francés - and she said yes! Dave had told Sean and me that he was going to ask sometime during the trip, so we were dying with anticipation. We feel really lucky to be the first ones to know when they came back from their solo hike. He did pretty well, my brother did (on the proposal location and most of all on choice of bride!)

Torres del Paine with Dave and Rachel

Dave (my brother, in case ya didn´t know) and his girlfriend Rachel arrived as planned the night of February 13 in Punta Arenas. We caught a 3-hour bus the next morning to Puerto Natales, and then a 2-hour bus into Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. We were there for an incredible 6 days and 5 nights. It is truly a magical place. And we were really lucky with good weather. Incredible peaks, glaciars, lakes, raging rivers, and a huge variety of flora and fauna within the park.

All told, we logged about 95 km in our 6 days in the park, including day hikes. There are designated campsites in the park, so one camps near a lot of other backpackers. You can also buy meals in the albergues (kind of like mountain huts in the US), but I´m proud to say we always cooked our own.

We camped first first at Camping-Alberque Los Torres, then Los Cuernos, then Campamento Italiano, then two nights at Albergue-Camping Pehoé (formerly known as Paine Grande). We day hiked up to the base of the famous Torres and were rewarded with a very well-timed clearly of clouds for a fantastic view. We hiked around the base of the granite-basalt Cuernos, and dayhiked up the Valle del Francés. We also dayhiked up to Lago Grey and the Glaciar Grey - the only time we weren´t rewarded with a clear view, but the windy, rainy weather was so amazing we didn´t mind. The last day we hiked out and away from the Torres and Cuernos to Pudeto (the park administration headquarters) and caught a shuttle out.

We spent the night in Puerto Natales where we consumed impressive amounts of pollo, churrasco, papas fritas, and cerveza, then back to Punta Arenas again. And then , sadly, Dave and Rachel had to leave!

Back into Chile

On Feb. 11, we took 2 different buses to get back into Chile, and spend the night in Puerto Natales. Then the next day another bus to Punta Arenas, and here we are. My brother Dave and his girlfriend Rachel arrive tonight, so we´re gearing up to do a big shop for rations for our 5-day trek in Torres del Paine. And to end this update, I want to share my favorite “funny English” sign ever. Now, please understand, I realize that I make just as many silly mistakes in Spanish, so I´m not trying to be disrespectful…

Feb. 6 – bus south across the Patagonian pampa

This day was a 14-hour bus ride, almost all on gravel roads. The landscape was incredible – dry, dusty plains that went on forever, with almost not signs of people except for the occasional vehicles on the road. The bus was outfitted with special hydraulic mini-engines on the tires so that even if we got a flat the tire would stay inflated! We saw ñandú (ostrich like animals), coiques (mini ñandús), huemel (kind of like mini, skinny, hairy llamas), armadillos, condors, rabbits. The woman who sold us the tickets said “Vas a ver la nada” – “You will see what nothing is”, and that was a good description. It was fascinating. And tiring, after 14 hours.
We arrived in El Chaltén at about 11 pm, a dusty town seemingly spreading out of the pampa, exploding with tourist growth. We made it to a family-run campground and set up and quickly fell asleep (after sharing a little mate with some friendly Argentinians).

Feb. 7 – 10 – in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares

Wow! Incredible landscape. We were 3 nights and 4 days hiking and camping around this incredible area, seeing the famous Cerro Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. The first day and a half we were clearly on the trail most people traveled – sometimes coming across lines of hikers! But then we were able to get off a little, including a hike up to Laguna de los Tres (at the base of Fitz Roy), Glaciar Piedras Blancas (which rewarded us with a big chunk falling off), up to Refugio Piedra del Fraile (actually out of the park by Glaciar Electrico), and then to the campground at the base of Cerro Torre.

Photos are of:
El Chaltén, Fitz Roy from various view points, Glaciar Piedras Blancas calving (left center of photo), crowded campground, Cerro Torre (not in that order, sorry).

Feb. 5 – crossing to Argentina

Sunday, Feb. 5, we took a van from Coyhaique to Puerto Ingeniero Ibañez, crossing through dry, canyon-ish landscapes and past the impressive Cerro Castillo basalt towers. Then, a two and half hour, very windy ferry ride to Chile Chico across a huge Chilean lake. Then we immediately hopped on a van for an hour, that took us through the no man´s land between countries, through the two customs offices, and dropped us off in Los Antiguos, Argentina.
By that time, we were really tired, and I was thrown off by the new accent and new currency. But eventually got it all sorted out – a place to stay for the night, bus tickets heading south the next morning at 9 am, an ATM, and dinner. Everything is open super late in Argentina – so you can get dinner at midnight, but getting breakfast at 8 am is almost impossible!

Photos: Waiting for the ferry to Chile Chico, the ferry arriving, crossing through the lakes.

Relaxing in Coyhaique

Because Sean is a NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) instructor, we were able to camp at the NOLS Chile branch, located 12 km outside of Coyhaique. The branch was between courses so it was very quiet and we had the run of the place. It´s located in a gorgeous valley, and we enjoyed 3 days of sleeping in (in our cozy tent), cooking good food, great sunsets, and Sean got in a lot of fly fishing on a nearby creek.

Angelmó, Puerto Montt and ferry to Coyhaique

The small photos are of us in Angelmó - dockside fish market in Puerto Montt - and Sean digging into a big plate of the local curanto dish. The bigger photos are of the ferry ride.


On Feb. 1, we took a ferry from Puerto Montt to Coyhaique. It was supposed to be about 20 hours, but instead of leaving at 8 at night, we left at 3 am, so instead of one night on the boat we had two! We looked at it as another night of free lodging! The ride was beautiful, passing the inner side of the island of Chiloe, getting ever closer to the mainland coast. Unfortunately the part of the ride when we were in a tight fjord approaching Puerto Chacabuco (an hour from Coyhaique) was in the dark, but we arrived to beautiful sunrise colors. We both escaped the seasickness that a lot of people felt during a particularly rough 2-hour stretch about halfway through the trip.

Feb. 13 - catching up on the blog

We´re quite a bit behind on the blog, so I´m going to make several entries with photos attached...