Santiago & Valparaiso

From Punta Arenas we flew back to Santiago, for a second more extended
look at the city (the first time we flew in and flew out at the start
of our tour but saw little more than a couple restaurants and the
airport). I can´t say that I explored this city very extensively even
the second time, but I managed to get up a couple of the hills in the
city and sample a few more restaurants.
Santiago to Valparaiso on the coast was an interesting journey due
mainly to the fact that we got on the wrong bus! Luckily it was
heading to the same place, but unluckily it was a different company so
we got to pay twice to get to Valparaiso. My introduction to this
port city was a negative one because we found after heaving out bags a
couple of blocks that our accommodation had been given away (or never
booked online in the first place). A bit of a haggling (or pleading)
at the bus station got a cramped space for a night in a nicer part of
town. After that rough introduction I warmed up to Valparaiso and its
very close neighbor Viña Del Mar. While the first has much more
character with and colourful and eclectic mix of houses piled on top
of one another through the numerous hills, Viña Del Mar is the beach
resort that all the Chileans go to.
We were lucky enough to be in Valparaiso over Easter, and a strange,
but quite normal tradition for Chileans is to burn an effigy of Judas
on Easter Sunday. We wondered what all the numerous dummies with a
cup for change in their hand were for but all the pieces came together
that night. Kids from all over the neighborhood gather around a
burning effigy stuffed with change trying to grab the coins that drop
while the dummy hovers overhead occasionally dropping a fiery leg or
arm on top of an unsuspecting child. We all held our breath several
times as a lump of change was thrown under the dummy and dozens of
kids gathered closer, only to have the man holding the burning dummy
swing it more vigorously! A fun and exciting ending to Valparaiso and
to Chile.

Punta Arenas

An interesting city to spend a couple of nights at the end of our
tour. The weather cooperated in being very cold and rainy for the
entire time so we were forced to do laundry and catch up on all things
Internet related. A couple of highlights: King crab (delicious), the
cemetery, and an Indian's foot.
The cemetery was actually recommended in guide books as 'a place to
see' because of the varied history of the immigrants who settled in
the area - a very large percentage of Croatian settlers interestingly.
The Indian's foot was attached to a full statue in the main square,
it's said that if you touch it you'll come back to that place some day
- we shall see.

Torres Del Paine

What a place! I have so many amazing photos from this place it was hard to pick only a few to post here. Our tour included the classic "W" hike over three days in the park. Although the link points to a 7 day trek, we cheated the second day by taking a bus and catamaran to our second camp.

Altogether we hiked over 55 kms in the three days and by the end of the second day both me and my sister were suffering from various blisters and sore knees. Over the three days we developed a complex form of what we called "blistology" in mostly futile attempts to remedy our feet for the rest of our trekking with combinations of "second skin", band aids, tensor bandage, and moleskin.

The first hike brought us to the base of Las Torres peaks (north, central, and south) shown in the first picture above. A 5 hour uphill battle and 3 hours back. The second picture illustrates what seemed to be a rarity in Patagonia, because it was so calm. We had almost three days of almost still air for at least part of the day. You could almost flip this photo upside down and have the same image.

An easier hike the second day brought us to the middle of the W with views of a few smaller glaciers and some spectacular mountains with two very distinct types of rock (photo above). Our third, last, and longest hike (22 km) took us to Lago Grey and Glacier Grey, the second largest glacier in South America. One of the many rogue ice bergs from the glacier drifted into a bay by the lookout point and looks strangely like the Opera House in Sydney.

Boat Cruise: Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales

Our preparations for this 3 day voyage through the fjords of Patagonia began with the purchase of several bottles of wine and several more litres of water. I found out later that drinking water was plentiful and free and that we were also traveling through channels as well as fjords, though I like the word fjord more.

All told we were on the water for 73 hours, 12 of those on the exposed portion of the South Pacific where swells can be quite rough, although apparently our trip was only 4 out of 12 for roughness (why the 12 point scale I don't know). The scenery during the time aboard was like a moving post card, with vegetation getting progressively shorter and sparser as we traveled south. We took a 4 hour detour to see the Pio XI glacier, the largest in South America, quite a site to see (photo above) and probably the highlight of the cruise for me.

The photo of the stranded ship was a sugar cargo ship which ran a ground navigating this channel in the 1960s it remains today as a lighthouse and a stark reminder of there the shallow water is.

Puerto Montt

I arrived to Puerto Montt at midday from Santiago and as an added side trip we headed south to Parque Nacional Alerce Andino.  The most hiking I've done in a while at over 11 km total; it was a nice change from the sedentary lifestyle I'd had on planes, transfers, and hotels the couple of days prior.  Highlights, beyond the lush temperate rain forest we were hiking through included a 3000+ year old local species of tree (the oldest known to be in the area), a waterfall and Lake Chaiquenes (the halfway point of our hike, picture in the previous post).

Puerto Montt as a town had very few highlights for me beside the large dinners with wine.  The city's mainstay is Salmon farming, which over the past 20 years has more than tripled the population to more than 300,000 people.  The town and area has a large German influence due to a large number of immigrants.  Much of the local buildings reflect this influence with intricate wooden siding.

The remaining two days in the area were spent on day trips - one to Chiloe Island to the south and one to Orsorno Volcanoe.  Chiloe was a marathon of a day, taking in the towns of Ancud and Castro, and also the Penguin colony on the west coast of the island (the highlight for me with breathtaking scenery along the coast).

Snow-capped Orsorno (picture in previous post) also has a ski resort, although closed for their summer, it still offers scenic chairlift rides up a rickety double chair at half speed.  We opted for the equivalent 40 min. hike instead.  Another lake (Emerald) and waterfall ended our day trip to Orsorno.

A quick story in photos.

I don´t have a lot of time to type at the moment, as I´ll be catching a ship for a three-day cruse to the south (Puerto Natales).  Pictures can say more than I can with the time I have.  I´ll have a better update from Santiago in about a week.

Picture 1 - 11k hike day one in Puerto Montt
Picture 2 - Chiloe island, penguin sight seeing
Picture 3 - Orsono Volcanoe, north of Puerto Montt

Enjoy.

Pre-Departure in Toronto

After a bit of a delay in Calgary, and re-routing through Edmonton, I reached my first destination yesterday - Home.  The packing and preparations continue until Wednesday at which time I leave the county for Santiago. 

The picture above shows the first leg of my journey through the Lake District and Patagonia, in Chile (Itinerary here).  Details will surely follow once I get to South America.