I think I may up sticks and move here......

On the 26th, after a stop over in Puerto Natales, we did our final border crossing from Chile to El Calafate in Argentina to take a flight to Buenos Aires (thanks to Marc & John - without your very generous birthday present we would have been doing a 36 hour bus journey, with it we were able to fly to BA in just three - thank you x).

I had read a lot about Buenos Aires (BA), I am after all a city chick and from what I'd read I suspected that I might like it, but I was wrong - I LOVE it!

We have rented an apartment in the coolest part of the city, Palermo Soho. For anyone who's been to New York it feels a lot like the Meat Packing district, full of fabulous restaurants, cafes, bars and chic boutiques.

Our first couple of days in the city were spent finding our feet and having some down time, just pottering (I love that term). 

Yesterday we visited Recoletta, famous for being the home of the cemetery where Eva Peron (Evita) is buried. Whilst it's a complete contrast to the natural beauty we have experienced in both Chile and Argentina over the past three weeks I have to say that I thought the cemetery was strangely beautiful.

Throughout Latin America they celebrate All Souls Day (aka The day of the dead) taking gifts and flowers to the graves of their loved ones, the indigenous communities take a feast to the grave side and family members take time to honour their dead. We were in Ecuador for All Souls Day and I remember seeing the gifts and flowers on the graves in all of the cemeteries that we passed.

I don't get the impression that All Souls Day was much of an event at Recoletta cemetery. 

A high wall protects the city of the dead that is Recoletta cemetery but despite it's height you can see an assortment of aged stone cherubs, angels and weeping widows peering over the top.

What were, I imagine, once fabulously ornate mausoleums marking what must have been a golden age in Argentinas history are now in varying states of decay, many of them with broken windows, exposed coffins and cobweb covered doors, it's like a silent theatre. 

The state of the tombs adds to the 'romance' of the place but left me feeling sad that they lie apparently forgotten by all but those tourists keen to see the final resting place of Evita who lies embalmed beneath tonnes of reinforced concrete to protect her from body snatchers and desecraters.

One of many plaques on Evita's tomb

Raine x

Silly silly people

Torres del Paine has very strict rules about the use of camping stoves and fires in the park and here's why......

In the past seven years two individual tourists have been responsible for destroying 285km2 of the beautiful forestland that makes up the Torres del Paine National Park.

It was incredibly sad to walk through the parts of of the park that had been so badly damaged by the stupidity of man!

Raine x

Grey Glaciar

The walk to the Grey Glaciar was an additional walk that we decided to do once we'd completed the W Trek. It was an extra 11km and it was my favourite walk of the five days, very few people walk all the way to the Glaciar, opting to view it from the mirador (view point) which is quite some distance away and which means that they only need to walk for four days.

It was quite a tough walk, we had to go up and down two 'ladders' made of scaffolding and cross one very wobbly bridge but it was so worth it. We only saw a handful of people the whole day and the views of the Glaciar were incredible.

It's a long way up or down which ever way you look at it.

Icebergs ahead....

The colours were ever changing

We walked along side the Glaciar through the glaciated valley which was stunning. The light kept changing through the day which made the Glaciar appear white initially and then all different shades of blue until looking back on it on our return journey it appeared to be electric blue.

Awe inspiring!

Raine x 

I am sooo glad we're not camping....

I woke up at about 3am to the sound of a gale force wind and looked out of the window at the campsite to see several people trying to secure their tents.....

After breakfast we set off for Refugio Grey, the final stop of our trek. The weather was amazing, we had the strongest winds that I've ever experienced (if you want to see what I mean by strong let me know and I'll send you the video).

Abs successfully staying on her feet!

The sun doesn't always shine on us.....

The wind made the walk harder than it should be but it also made it the funniest day, Abs and I laughed like children the whole way to Refugio Grey - recording weather forecasts, pretending we were skydiving and generally just trying to stay standing up.


They were right about the four seasons, all we're waiting on now is snow!

Raine x

Valle del Frances

After two incredibly hot days the weather broke over night and from about 3am it was absolutely teaming down with rain and that was to be the shape of the day- rain and lots of it.

We set off at 8:30 with the best waterproofs we could manage which for me was my fluorescent pink 'mac in a sac', a pair of shorts and a black bin liner tied round my rucksack - it's the same as not wearing Lycra when you ride a bike - it keeps people's expectations low if you don't look like a pro.....

Today was to be our longest walk through the Valle del Frances which on a sunny day would have offered up the most incredible views and whilst we've been lucky on pretty much every other day of our trip today was not our day.

After a night of torrential rain our first challenge was to cross a river that was flowing down hill, fast. There was a group trying to cross at the bottom close to the path but we decided we would have a better chance further up stream and, with the help of a lovely Belgian couple we'd met, successfully navigated the crossing with only wet toes to show for it - being that much further up stream meant we went 'off piste' for about 20 minutes but it did mean that we didn't fall into the river, unlike the group further down who all fell in waist deep......

With the weather as it was we knew that we wouldn't get to see any of the Valle del Frances but with so much time on our hands we continued with the walk, for the exercise if nothing else.

We got to the Refugio Paine Grande much earlier than expected and were able to shower and dry off in front of a wood burning stove with a glass of red wine.....

Dinner was a variation on the same theme, soup followed by turkey followed by a very sweet pudding followed by bed!

Raine x

The walk to Refugio Los Cuernos

After an early breakfast at 7:30 (ok, an earlyish breakfast, I am on holiday remember) we set off on our second day, headed to Refugio Los Cuernos. 

It was a scorching hot day and we had just short of 20km to cover but we had plenty of time, there was less elevation on the second day and so the walking was relatively easy and we took it slowly really taking time to appreciate the beautiful scenery that we were walking through, hills, valleys and lakes. The weather in Torres del Paine is incredibly unpredictable and we'd been warned, in spite of the exceptionally hot weather in Puerto Natales, to expect to see all four seasons on our trek, so far so good, we've only experienced summer.

Beautiful views all around

Mum, do you know what these are?

Some of the cloud formations are incredible

The walk is estimated to take about 10 hours but we made it to Cuernos for a late afternoon beer which was followed by a dinner not dissimilar to the night before, chicken and turkey seem to be the staples here.

Raine x

The Torres

The drive to the start point of our trek took us some way in to the park past herds of guanaco's (a type of llama), sheep, flamingos, Darwin's Rhea (look a bit like an ostrich) and numerous birds of prey.

From the point where we were dropped off we had a two hour walk to Refugio Chileno, there are a couple of accomodation options when you are hiking in Torres del Paine, camping or staying in a refugio, the definition of a refugio is a 'hut' and so I was expecting very basic accommodation but that wasn't the case, we had showers, bunk beds with sleeping bags and very good breakfasts, lunches and dinners provided.

It was a really hot day but the walk to the refugio was fairly straightforward, once we'd dropped our rucksacks off at Chileno we had a 5km walk to the Torres (Towers) they were really amazing and it was a great walk to them but for me but for me not as impressive as seeing Fitzroy.

Happy Hiker

As you know I forgot my camera and so the following photo's are courtesy of Abby.....

Base de las Torres

Me and the towers

Our first experience of a refugio dinner was a good one, chicken soup followed by turkey with maize and bulgar wheat and then a particularly sweet mousse for pudding. 

Our dorm room was fine, I had the top bunk three up from the floor which made for some pretty unladylike mounts and dismounts but in a dorm is highly recommended - it's way quieter up there.

Raine x

The bus will collect you at 7:30am.... Or will it?

Friday

As is thankfully so often the case our bus journey was short and uneventful, just 5 hours and 1 border crossing out of Argentina and in to Chile. We arrived at our B&B  mid afternoon and were welcomed by an incredibly enthusiastic Chilean lady called Fabby and her very dour English husband Brendan.

Saturday

We both slept like logs, waking up just in time for our 9:30am breakfast on Saturday morning. In the afternoon we went to a free talk about the 'W' Trek run by the Erratic Rock hostel, it gave us good advice on what we should take (half of what we'd planned) and some basic info about the hike. We bumped in to a few people at the talk that we'd met at various points on our trip - one of them was the guy who had his bag stolen when we were on the bus from La Serena a couple of months ago, I'm amazed he recognised us! 

Unlike the majority we planned to complete the trek from east to west, no particular reason but Abs who had done all of the preparation for this part of the trip had taken some good advice from some people she'd met at our hostel in Mendoza.

After dinner at El Living, a veggie restaurant run by a guy from Croydon who was travelling around the world 15 years ago, arrived in Puerto Natales and liked it so stayed, it was back to the B&B for an early night.

Sunday

The bus was due to collect us between 7:30 and 8:30 and so we were up at 6:30 for breakfast and ready to go at 7:30, and we were still ready to go at 8:30 when Abby asked if we should be worried that the bus hadn't arrived, Fabby laughed and assured us that Chilean time is different to UK time and that the bus would arrive. 15 minutes later Abs checked again and Fabby said we had nothing to worry about but phoned the bus company who told her the bus was on it's way. At 9:30 a second call to the bus company revealed that the bus had forgotten us...... 

Fabby who had organised the bus for us was doing what she could to get the bus company to sort out a private vehicle to take us to Torres del Paine and that's just what they did unfortunately it was someone else's private vehicle.... They had rather cheekily tried to sneak us in to a people carrier that had been booked by 6 other people for a private tour! 

So at 10:30 we were back exactly where we'd started, not for long though as after another call from Fabby a cab arrived to take us to the start point of our trek, or so we thought..... as we tried to establish why it felt as though we were driving in the wrong direction and Abs was trying to clarify that the taxi driver was taking us to Torres del Paine which he assured us he was he pulled on to a driveway and tooted.... he'd driven to his house to pick up his wife who got in to the car clutching what were clearly some hastily made sandwiches .... well how often does a metered taxi get asked to take a fare more than two hours away to one of the most beautiful places in the world....

So there you have it, I've told you the punch line, in my opinion Torres del Paine is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Aside from forgetting to take my camera on the first walk there were no more mishaps, just five amazing days of walking in an incredible Biosphere Reserve, drinking water straight from the streams and having a wonderful time.

So as I said, brace yourselves....

Raine x

Five days of Awesome

Brace yourselves..... 

It's been 12 days since my last update and in that time we've crossed the Chile/Argentina border four times, walked 100km (62 miles) and arrived in a city that I could happily call home so as you can imagine I have lots to tell you.

I need to start back on the 18th January, my friend Janes birthday and the day that Abby and I took the bus, from El Calafate in Argentina which is where we visited the Perito Moreno Glaciar, to Puerto Natales in Chile which is where we were going to start the W Trek.

Torres del Paine (pronounced Pine-yah) most definitely inspired my awe, it beats an average cup of coffee, an ok meal and distinctly average service hands down!

Raine x

Feliz cumpleanos (Happy Birthday)

Johnny Boy

I hope you have an amazing day.

With all my love on your birthday.

Lorraine x

I drink to forget (the llama jumper......)

Famous Grouse with glacial ice and shocking jumper

......And the footwear, where the hell are my Louboutin's!

Raine x

I'm running out of superlatives

It's hard to know what can better some of the sights that I've seen so far while I've been travelling in South America but it seems that there is always something else just around the corner, maybe not to better it but something that drives a similar emotion. 

I remember seeing Machu Picchu and thinking that I would never see anything as special or as impressive, but then I saw the Salt Flats in Bolivia, Mounts Fitzroy and Torre and yesterday I saw the Perito Moreno Glacier......

A breathtaking sight to see

Just Incredible

I now know what colour ice blue is...

Kryptonite - Blue K

I really cannot imagine what else I will see before I come home but I fully expect to use the words extraordinary, spectacular, breathtaking and maybe even awesome*, a few more times.

On this trip if there's one thing that makes me sad it is that I will never be able to see these extraordinary naturally beautiful sights for the first time again. 

Raine x 
* I am less inclined to use awesome since our American cousins choose to use it to describe an 'ok' coffee,  a 'quite nice' meal or 'distinctly average' service. Please know that if I do use the word Awesome it will be to describe something that has inspired my awe!

Allow me to introduce you to Fitzroy

Mount Fitzroy is extraordinary.....

Mount Fitzroy

El Chalten is a small village of less than 1000 residents nestled in the shadow of Mounts Fitzroy and Torre, and it exists solely to enable hikers to come and complete the hikes to get a better view of these amazing mountains, and for the more experienced to climb Fitzroy and Torre which are considered to be two of the most technical climbs in the world.

Our first day was nerve racking as there was a lot of low cloud and we couldn't see the peaks from the village but we were assured that we were going to be very lucky the next day.... 

In the evening after doing our admin we went for a glass of wine and met Sarah from Montana who had just climbed Aconcagua and was in El Chalten for a a few down days before flying home. As she was planning to do the same hike as us the next day we invited her to walk with us, she was a remarkable lady, an astro physicist which made for a fascinating conversation over dinner and newly diagnosed with MS just three years ago at 26, her mantra "The only way for a diagnosis like MS to be ok is to live a better life with it than without it"; I'm glad that we met her.

It is an incredible place

Wow, we were so lucky the next day, we set off on the Tres Lagos Trek at 9:45 in brilliant sunshine and able to clearly see the sheer granite faces of Mount Fitzroy. 

El Chalten is an unusual village because you are able to set off on every trek from the village so within just a few minutes you are already on the ascent.

It's a long walk, it took us 10 hours to complete, about 5 - 6 hours to the peak with the last hour of that being a very steep climb to the most sensational view, then another 4 or so hours to get back to The Cervezeria for a celebratory Artesanal beer!

Awesome - and I don't say that often

I am in love....

If you are a keen walker and you haven't been to Patagonia you need to ask yourself why and then book your flights, it is without a doubt the most strikingly beautiful place that I have ever been to.

With love,

Raine x

The road to El Chalten

In stark contrast to Coyhaique in Chile the sky was blue and the sun was shining at 7:30am in Los Antiguos.

We took full advantage of the buffet breakfast at Hotel Mora, transforming it into a packed lunch and snacks for our journey. We left Los Antigous at 9am and 15 minutes later we were still driving alongside Lago Buenos Aires, the water was a mix of turquoise and deep blue and it was sparkling in the sunlight, quite different to yesterday when there was a strong wind blowing and there were frothy white horses everywhere.

The landscape has changed completely, much flatter and less dramatic. The trees and bushes look exactly the same as the ones my brother used to use to create the country side for his Hornby train set. 

We're getting quite used to these long bus journeys but the downside for me is that I can't read as it makes me feel travel sick and my earphones have packed up so I can't listen to music so it's time spent day dreaming and looking at the scenery, which on this journey was stunning. We were on Ruta 40, a single highway that will take us all the way to El Chalten, after about three hours we left the comfort of Tarmac and travelled on a gravel road, it was bumpy but the sun was shining, the sky was bright blue with lots of cirrus clouds which looked really striking over the landscape where the hills were a similar shape.

Two hours later and we were parked at the side of Ruta 40 - the bus had broken down..... There are a lot of things in life that are worth your stress and angst, this was not one of them so I went to sleep. There were three false starts but after a couple of hours we were on our way again.

Ruta 40 is 5000km long and we travelled just 650km but what an amazing road, between Los Antiguos and El Chalten I didn't see a single house, farm or electricity pylon.

The landscape is extraordinary with the colours in your line of vision ranging from white through to black with so many colours and shades in between. Occasionally going round one of the bends I thought that I was looking at a harbour or a bay but it was just the contrast of the colours and landscape playing tricks on my eyes.

View from the bus

View from the bus - incredible colours

View from the bus - The night sky on Ruta 40

view from the bus - The night sky on Ruta 40

We arrived in El Chalten a little before 11pm and it was only just dark (it gets dark just after 10:30pm here......) but it was incredibly windy, despite our very heavy backpacks Abs and I were blown all over the place before we reached our B&B.

Having seen the silhouette of the mountains in the night sky I have high hopes of El Chalten - subject to the weather improving.....

Our first glimpse

Looking forward to telling you about Fitzroy.

Raine x

We're not celebrities but please get us out of here...

We arrived in Coyhaique in the early evening and my lasting memory of the place will be the time that we spent trying to leave.....

We had heard that the Chillean side of the Lake District was less travelled than the Argentinian side and a few people that we'd met on our travels had told us how beautiful it was. One of the advantages of travelling and having the luxury of time is the ability to change your plans on a whim and that's what we decided to do.

To quote Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman; "Big mistake. Big. Huge".

We took the bus from the airport (in the pouring rain, it's worth noting that Argentina has 300+ days of sunshine and Chile has 200+ days of rain!) and arrived at our hostel which was set a long way back from the main road in woodland, Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor describe Hostel Salamandras as 'rustic' [Note to self for future reference: whilst the word 'rustic' conjures up an English country garden kind of picture in my mind of a slightly aged picket fence and original sash windows rather than double glazed and all sorts of home cooked delights on the kitchen table, when the word is used to describe accommodation it should be treated with a cautious mind and not a romantic one].

'Rustic' in this instance meant; remote, cold and damp, with no heating (and remember set a long way back from the road in woodland). As the taxi's engine faded away, in the distance I could hear the faint strumming of a banjo (Twang-a-twang-twang twang-twang twang-twang twang......) at the same time Abby was thinking she could see something nasty in the woodshed.

It didn't take long to decide that we weren't staying, but it turned out that leaving was harder than we expected.....

We managed to find a great twin room in the town and on the owners recommendation we went for a pizza and a beer at a strange Leprechaun themed restaurant where we laughed about our day (and the fact that we were eating in a Leprechaun themed restaurant) when what we should have been doing was hatching an escape plan.

We went to the bus station to take a bus towards El Chalten at 9:30am and were told that buses to El Chalten only leave on even dated days, great we thought as it was the 8th... Not so great it was 9:30 and the bus left at 7am. So the rest of the day was spent trying to find an alternative route which we did, we booked a mini bus to Ibanez (pronounced Ibanyez) which is done by walking up to a minibus parked at the side of the street, giving the man inside it 800 pesos and your address and accepting his assurances that he would indeed pick us up at 06:45 and get us to the ferry port at Ibanez in time for the 10am ferry. 

Then we had to book the ferry to Chile Chico which is the border crossing back in to Argentina, a bus to take us from Chile Chico to Los Antiguos and contingency accomodation in Los Antiguos just in case we aren't able to get a bus - which based on our experience was highly likely.

After an anxious 5 minutes in the morning when we'd almost convinced ourselves that we'd been ripped off and then agreed that as 800 pesos is £10 it was unlikely, hardly the biggest money making scam in the world the bus arrived and got us to the ferry in plenty of time.

The road to Ibanez was beautiful 'moody' scenery, dark green rolling hills and a heavily cloud laiden sky with a glimmer of sun pushing through the edge of the blanket of cloud a long way in the distance. The hills are glacial deposits and the uneven yet obvious pathway that the glacier left behind as it travelled through make me think what a truly incredible world it is that we live in and how long ago this pathway was carved in to Chiles landscape.

When we got off the ferry at Chile Chico we were able to take a Collectivo to the least stringent border crossing that I've ever experienced and a few minutes later we were in Los Antiguos a purely functional stop before we take the 8am bus for the 12 hour trip to El Chalten.

See you there.

Raine x