Clouds, rain, snow covered summits, costal rain forest, wind - welcome to Patagonia (1)

We left Puerto Montt early on the second of January because the bus left at 07.00 at the bus station. The trip from Puerto Montt to Chaiten is a lovely bus and boat journey (3 ferries) lasting several hours. As usually, the west coasts tend to be a bit rainy as it was in our case, but nevertheless, the scenery was beautiful, especially on the ferries.

Hornopieren

View from the ferry

Once we arrived in Chaiten, we expected to see a partially destroyed village, but this was not the case. The centre is nice and re-build and it does not seem as if this town was destroyed in 2008. But the inhabitants of Chaiten keep one street as it was to display how it looked like. A mud slide from the volcano destroyed the town.

Chaiten

Due to the bus connection and the weather (rain is not the best when you want to go hiking), we took the bus next morning to move on to Puyuhuapi, a little town at the shore of the sea. The bus left on time at nine, but we did not get far, since we had to organize a new spare tire for the bus. So the first store in town was not able to help us to fix this, so we headed to the second store and waited for 1.5 hours with a running engine until the mechanic fixed the tire :-) Nice!. The trip leads through dense forest, mountains covered with snow and low hanging clouds, beautiful! The town was built by German migrants and so, the street names and the beer produced there have funny names: Avenida Otto Uebel and Hopperdietzel beer (3 different kinds: Goldene Jahre, Roter Teppich, Schwarzer Bach). That sounds pretty German!

Puyuhuapi - first day

Puyuhuapi - second day

View to the valey of Puyuhuapi

We stayed in a nice hostel and next day, we organized a car to bring us to the "Hanging glacier", some 20 km away. A hike up to a view point revealed a very nice view to the glacier. On the way back, we picked up some Israeli hitch-hikers (but not for free, so we could split the cost of the car) and it's amazing how many of them try to get a free lift to some other places (in this very small town at least 12 were waiting to get a lift!). Furthermore, we saw a Swiss car in this little town as well! (well, this was not surprising since most of the tourists we met were: Germans, Israeli or Swiss).

The hanging glacier

The hanging glacier

Walking to the lookout

Since there is not much to do else in this town we rented bicycles next day and relaxed in the small thermal baths about 5 km away from town, before we wanted to catch the next bus to the south. We were told that the bus should leave around 16.00 - 17.00 so we waited... for some hours... until the bus arrived at 19.00 :-) This actually caused some problems, since we did not arrive as expected between 9 and 10, we arrived after midnight in Coihaique. The unfortunate thing was, that most of the hostels were closed, so we had to opt for an hotel for one night.

Puyuhuapi

The thermal baths

Next morning, we had some things to organize: since the south is difficult to travel by bus, we were looking for a rental car, we needed a hostel and we needed to do the laundry. And this time, we were lucky! we found a nice hostel, a German guy called Benjamin was also looking for a rental car so we were able to split the cost and we found a nice 4x4 car to drive around. Furthermore, the hostel did our laundry as well, so all our points were solved in no time.
We picked up the car next morning and drove direction south, to the glaciers and lakes there. The weather was perfect and we could stop to take some very scenic pictures before we arrived in Rio Tranquilo where we rented a cabaña (a little house). We wanted to see the "valey of glaciers" next day, but the weather didn't wanted us to see it; it was raining the whole day, so we had to wait for better weather to see something.

Cerro Castillo and our little car

Cerro Castillo

Panorama

Now, the plan is to do it the next day and head further south later.

Happy new Year - Neuquen - San Martin - Bariloche - Puerto Montt

First of January 2014, sitting in the (only) open café in Town of Puerto Montt and eating Schwarzwälder Kirsch! The start to the new year could have been worse!

From Mendoza, we went to Neuquen for several reasons. One was, that the bus ride directly to Bariloche or San Martin de Los Andes would have taken about 18 hours, which we didn't want to do; so stopping after about 12 hours seems to be a good idea. Secondly, in this area dinosaurs were found and excaved and last but not least, some quite nice wineries have their bodegas there. So we started with a relaxed trip by car (including driver) to the Bodegas: Familia Schroeder, Fin del Mundo and NQN. Unfortunately, since it was close before Christmas, the Bodega Schroeder did not open, so we went straight to Fin del Mundo. A nice guiding through the huge bodega (8 Million litres of wine per year) followed by a tasty tasting: and all for free! The second bodega NQN was smaller (only 2 Million litres of wine a year) had a surprisingly good red.
The day after, we took the public bus to a little place where a dinosaur museum exists (since they found the biggest carnivore in this region). The stop in the museum did not take too long (although it was a nice one) so we had time to relax on the shore of the lake and enjoy the sunshine, before we had to get back to the bus stop.

Dinosaur in Neuquen

Dinosaur found in Neuquen

Neuquen

Next day, we left Neuquen for San Martin de los Andes to spend Christmas there. San Martin is a layed back town over Christmas: Sunshine, wind, lake, a bit of hiking, trees.... nice and relaxing. In San Martin, we also had the chance to use our kitchen gear the first time (knife + anti-stick-pan) since our hostal had a kitchen that could be used! So we cooked our own Christmas dinner on the 25th of December (anyway: most of the restaurants are closed on that day as well!).

San Martin de Los Andes

But we actually wanted to do something else there: from Aconcagua, we had some gear we are not using anymore, so we packed a parcel with things and wanted to send it back home... well, before Christmas, all people want to pay there bills in the post office, so we waited 30 minutes in line for our parcel. Usually, this was never an issue, but they've changed rules: we were told, that all parcels need to go through "Aduana" (custom) first. But there is one just down the street, and after, you come back. Although this Aduana office has opening hours, it did not open the week we were there! So once we went to the bus stop for changing to Bariloche, we had a nice packet to carry extra!
As we arrived, we asked the cab driver to stop at the Aduana office first to check whether they are open or not... well, they were not open although the schedule suggested it. Luckily, the owner of the hostel we stayed knew, that there is another Aduana office in the post office, so we checked it: Opening Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 09.00 - 11.30... So we had no choice than going there again next morning. As we arrived shortly after 9, the office was actually open and there was already a queue waiting to pick up parcels. But finally, our gear was checked (note: 45 minutes waiting for a 1 minute check) and we were able to send out our stuff (5 kg less in our backpacks).
Once this was done, we took the bus to a bycicle rental store to do the "Cirquito Chico" by bike. This is a 30 km ride around the lakes in this area, perfect for taking pictures of the surroundings. Furthermore, we went for a tipical dish in Bariloche: Cheese fondue! Quite tasty!

View at Cirquito Chico

View at Cirquito Chico

View at Cirquito Chico

Besides the lake, there is also some mountains you can climb next to Bariloche, so we took the public bus again and hiked the Cerro Turista. The guy from the Club Andina (SAC of Argentina) told us: 4 hours to the refugio and 1 hour up to the top; It took us a bit more than 2 hours to the refugio but almost as long to the summit, so the guy had no clue how it looks like there. Climbing the summit really included climbing up some pretty steep sections, waling through snow fields and creeks and we were happy to have our big boots on; Other people (Argentinians) did the same tour with sneekers, converse shoes and we saw at least one person wearing sandals! But it was worth the effort, the view was great from the top!

Laguna on the way to the summit

Panoramic view

Summit seat

Our initial plan was, that we wanted to travel south to Esquel to visit the national park there, but there are some issues with a plant and the hanta virus and nobody was reacting on our emails, so we changed the plan to head west to Puerto Montt to start the trip on the Carretera Austral. On the way to Chile, we had to pass the border (which is always a fun thing to do!): Firstly, the Argentinians could not find my entrance to Argentina in the system any more but this was solved quickly, since I was leaving the country anyway. But on the Chilean side, the fun begins. Firstly, we waited about 45 minutes in the bus to approach the border / vegetable control post. Then, they unload all the luggage and check it with two dogs (looking for drugs and plants). After this, you bring your hand-luggage for such a control as well and then you queue up for an hour to get the entrance stamp. There were about 8 people in charge of checking the luggage but only one person for the border control :-) and all other vehicles at the border had to wait until our bus was done... what a waist of time! But finally, we reached Chile... but to make things a bit more interesting, in Osorno, we had to change the bus. Reason: None. Information: none. So, our luggage was unloaded and put into the other bus, and you can guess it: there was not enough space in this bus for all of us! So the bus driver was checking with some other companies and finally, we unloaded our luggage again and changed to a second bus. Welcome to South America! :-) But finally, we arrived in Puerto Montt 2 hours late, but we arrived. And in the evening, we found a very nice restaurant just around the corner for some delicious sea food and meat (Doña Julia).

Puerto Montt has not too many sights to see, but the fish market and the fish restaurants are definitely worth a visit. You can see the catches of the day and you can watch the fisher slicing the fish for the customers. Upstairs, you have about 30 restaurants (small ones with about 10 seats each) where you can enjoy freshly cooked sea food (home made style).

Broken boat in Puerto Montt

Fish market

Fish market

In the evening, we joined the hostel crew's new years dinner and party. They invited their neighbours / families for food, sparkling wine, there was a firework at midnight and a karaoke contest after, including the right amount of wine for a long night! Very good fun, so we are glad that we went there.

Karaoke!

Starting into 2014

And now, we are planning the Carretera Austral, a gravel road to the remote places in the south of chile. The idea is, to travel down to Villa O'Higgins (the end of the Carretera) and cross the border there back to Argentina. We'll see how it goes, especially tomorrow (2nd) will be special since we have a bus to Chaiten, a city that was destroyed 2008 by a volcano and it seems to be rebuild partially.

Carretera Austral - here it starts

feliz navidad - merry christmas - frohe Weihnachten

From Mendoza, we took the bus south, following the "ruta de los vinos" south to Neuquen and from there, we continued to San Martin de Los Andes! A beautiful place with a lake, mountains and forrest. A perfect place for christmas!

Merry Christmas from 25 degree and sunny San Martin!

Mendoza - Aconcagua - Mendoza

After the aclimatization trip, we arrived in Mendoza savely and checked into our nice hotel where we awaited the arrival of the tour guide and the other two swiss guys. They have missed their flights in Santiago de Chile so we had to wait some hours. Fortunately, they made their way and we met Ilan our local guide.

Besides guiding, he was also in charge of organizing the rest of the trip and to get Argentine money, he called his friend to do some money exchange. Since the peso is losing a lot of value, they are happy to by dollars and Euros to a very nice exchange rate (Official: 6.5 ; in Restaurants 8.5, "Dollar Blue" 10.0 USD). So, a nice men enteres the hotel you lead him to your room, where you first place the dollars / Euros and he provides the matching amount in Peso. Everyone is happy after the trade...

Getting the permit is another story the next day: first, you need 5'000 Peso in Cash (depending on the rate above, this is more or less) and your passport and a piece of paper Ilan filled out. With this, you walk down the road to get to a "rapi-pago" place where you cash in the 5'000 Peso and get a receipt. With this receipt, you head to the main office of the parque Aconcagua, sign some papers and receive finally your permit.

Before leaving, we rented the missing equipements (e.g. special boots that look like skying boots) and we had a nice piece of meat before going to bed. Next day, we headed to Uspallata (a place where the movie "7 years in Tibet" was shot) and stayed on night there in a big hotel that, to our bad luck, was hosting about 100 old age pensioner (German: Typische Kaffeefahrt Gäste) that were having a party in this hotel (luckily only till midnight). Leaving the place in the morning, we continued to drive up to 2400 m altitude to start our hike at punta de Vacas (well, we did not see a single cow.... they must have been eaten by the other hikers before)! A nice hike along a river to our first night in tents (YEAH! Camping!!) at pampa de lenas. Instead of "punta de vacas" we suggest to rename the start to "punta de mulas" since we have seen quite a lot of them. They are used to bring our luggage and food, etc. to the camp sites.

Mulas on their way

Once we arrived after a dusty hike (we were all covered in dust at the end), we cleand us off the dirt and had a very tasty gaucho BBQ! Happy and full, we slept on 2800 m in the tent and our sleeping bags. It was just after midnight, when we heared some mulas (donkeys) running through our camp and the gauchos shouting and following them, but besides this, it was all allright!

Gaucho BBQ

The second day lead us to casa de piedra (a matching name) and we could see the mountain now for the first time. This day was also a very dusty and dry day and in the evening, we had a special dish: Pollo al disco. This is not a dancing chick, it's acually a tasty dinner with chicken with vegetables and potatoes in a beer sauce.... good work at 3200 m altitude!

Aconcagua

Casa de Piedras

Third day: Yes, still dusty but now, our way started to become steeper to base camp. During the season, some people live in base camp to make and serve food for the people wanting to climb Aconcagua (4 month full time). We all felt good and our plan was to stay some days in basecamp to get aclimatized to the altitude (4'200 m). Sleeping in tents became not so bad anymore since we could leave them set up for some days.

Base Camp - Plaza Argentina

Day 4: Resting day. Medical check to see if we are aclimatized already to this altitude. All of us passed :-) . Not moving too quickly, drinking tea, reading, waiting for dinner.

Day 5: A little correctiton: sleeping in a tent is definitely not fun if a winterstorm is rushing through the camp. Snow and wind kept us up all night.... but we still had to do some aclimatization hikes, so we climbed "cerro Collorado" next to the camp.Fortunately, the sun was out and melted away the snow quickly.

Aconcagua - 6962 m

Swiss Hiker group

Day 6: Hiking up to campo 1 (5'000 m ) and down again. What a fun! Once you arrive, you know that you have to do the same thing tomorrow again :-) but the view and the weather was nice, so it was quite enjoyable.

Aconcagua and penitentes

Day 7: Winter is back. Although, it is summer in Argentina, we had snow down to base camp. But this can not stop though swiss hikers from climbing to camp 1 again. Fighting throught the snow storm, we finally arrived in campo 1 tired and wet. Due to the winds, we just had 2 tents for 5 people, so the night was short and windy, but not too cold (with 3 people in the same tent). All other tours returned in between to base camp for better weather. We had soup and luck, then in the morning, the sun was out again and melted most of the snow away.

Snow storm

resting

Day 8: No time for resting: Today, we hike to campo 2 for aclimatization. The first few hours, you stand in a wall and fight against the snow, but once you reache the edge, you have a splendid view to the other mountains. Most of them are not higher than the point we reached (about 5'400 m) and the view was splendid. On the way down, we noticed, that a stone man was watching us all day!

Man on Aconcagua

Day 9: We are getting closer to the summit. Taking down our tents (Peter actually slept outside of the tent this time in 5'000 m altitude) and hiking up the wall again. Luckily, other groups have built a nice path through the snow, so it is less tiring to get to camp 2 (5'500 m). In camp 2, we get interviewed by an Pakistany, that want's to do the 7 summits in 7 months. Furthermore, he's doing a documentation about climbers, so we are now part of the Pakistany project. His sister seems to be the first pakistany woman who climbed Mt. Everest... Strange people up here... :-)

Day 10: The weatherforecast seems to be good and we are in a pretty good condition as well. So, we pack our stuff and hike up to campo 3 on 6'000 m. At the beginning a steep hike, becoming better after a while. And the tension is rising. If everything works as planned, we'll try to climb the montain the next morning. So, we go early to bed (but taking some pictures before) to be ready for the day.

Campo 3 - 6000 m

Sunset at 6000 m

Day 11: around 04.30 we get up to be ready at 06.00 to start our summit day. The weather is good and we hike about 3 hours before we reach the refugio Independencia on 6'400 m, a shelter hut. By this time, we are higher than all other mountains around us!

Besides our guide Ilan, another guide / porter is with us, Hugo. Unfortunately, the group get's split into two and we get Hugo as our lead.... well, we have seen better guiding. Instead leading in a constant pace (as Ilan did) he goes fast and slow in cycles... so the way up to the next place for a break becomes very difficult. Nevertheless, we made it up to "las cuevas" a good place for a break. Unfortunately, the weather turns to it's bad side: snow and wind and fog are now all over the place.Not the best conditions for hiking up such a tall mountain, but we keep going.

At about 6'800 m the weather is still bad (even worse) and the guiding not better. After a break, we decide to prefere to have a save descend rather than trying to reach the summit. So, we won't make it to the top, but the view is anyway not good (so no panorama pictures) and a safe descend is important!

The way down is much quicker and we arrive around 18.00 campo 3 again, where we stay one more night.

View from 6'400 m (Refugio Independencia)

Going down again

Day 12: Hiking down the other side of the mountain to Plaza de Mulas, the other base camp. It's a short but step section we have to hike down. Fourtunately, down in this base camp, we meet Pablo. He's the organzier down there and we get very delicious pizza and meat for dinner.

As in some airports, our luggage did not make it down the mountain on time, but some other sleeping bags were quickly organized and we could sleep in a fixed tent with beds instead of our tents!

Base Camp - Plaza de Mulas

Last day on the mountain: Snoring people suck! a guy was making a lot of noise during the night so we did not sleep much but we have to hike out of the park today. 27 km downhill is the plan, the sun is out again and we can feel the last days now. It is more a duty then a joy doing this, but it has to be. Finally, we arrive the entrance, see some condors and check out. With a coold beer, we do a short touristic stop at the "Puente del Inca" and drive back to Mendoza that day. A very strange thing happend: it started to rain on the way and even in Mendoza we had rain; it does not rain very often down there! But now, it's time for a good steak and some more red wine now! Furthermore, I should think of visiting a barber.... I do lok like a Taliban now. I guess I would have problems entering Switzerland how I look right now!

Puente del Inca

Meat again!

The next days we spend with relaxing and washing our cloths. Some of them, we'll need to bring to the laundry again, everything is so dusty and dirty! Meat is given for the evening and we did 2 wine tours in Maipu (NO!! Mr. Hugo rental bikes was closed due to mourning, so we just got some crappy other bikes) and another with a car in Lujan de Cuyo. The last stop there was amazing (not because we have had too many drinks before, but they had the best wine of all the stops this day). Perfect sweet wine from white and red grapes; delicious! And in terms of meat: have a look down here:

After this, it was time to say goodbye to Mendoza, heading south to Neuquen (about 13 hours bus ride). Our hiking friends (René and Peter) catched they plane back to Switzerland and we are looking forward to seeing something new and head to Patagonia!!