Johnny Boy
I hope you have an amazing day.
With all my love on your birthday.
Lorraine x
Monday, 28 January 2013
Thursday, 17 January 2013
I drink to forget (the llama jumper......)
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| Famous Grouse with glacial ice and shocking jumper |
......And the footwear, where the hell are my Louboutin's!
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......
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| A breathtaking sight to see |
Just Incredible
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| I now know what colour ice blue is... |
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| Kryptonite - Blue K |
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!
* 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.....
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| 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.
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. 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.
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| It is an incredible place |
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!
With love,
Raine x
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
Wednesday, 16 January 2013
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.
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| View from the bus |
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| View from the bus - incredible colours |
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| 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.....
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| Our first glimpse |
Looking forward to telling you about Fitzroy.
Raine x
Tuesday, 15 January 2013
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
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
A beautiful border crossing
The trip to from Bariloche in Argentina to Puerto Varas in Chile was 12 hours long and involved four buses and three boats and was without a doubt one of our most scenic border crossings to date.
We were picked up at 7.5km on Bustillo at 8am on Saturday 5th and taken by bus to the dock where we took a catamaran across the first lake. The water was a dark sapphire blue and we were accompanied by a flock of seagulls. It felt a bit like a scene from The Birds, at any one time there were as many as 12 flying along with us and for a small fee the on board photographer was more than happy to take a photo of a seagull taking food from your hand - I declined.....
Then it was on to a bus and then a second boat to take us across the second lake which was a short hop of 20 minutes and where we officially entered Chile.
The third and final boat of the day took us on the most impressive lake crossing that I have ever done, Lago Todos Los Santos is a deep emerald green colour and as we rounded the first bend in the lake we were confronted by Volcano Osorno a perfect conical shaped volcano with green slopes and snow covered summits, it's a perfect icon of the Chilean Lake District - the natural world at its very best. As you can imagine such a sight drove every passenger to grab their camera and rush to the front of the boat and after a few attempts to capture the view without someone else's hand, head or elbow in the frame I resolved to buy a postcard!
The scenery was breathtaking......
See you in Coyhaique.
Raine x
We were picked up at 7.5km on Bustillo at 8am on Saturday 5th and taken by bus to the dock where we took a catamaran across the first lake. The water was a dark sapphire blue and we were accompanied by a flock of seagulls. It felt a bit like a scene from The Birds, at any one time there were as many as 12 flying along with us and for a small fee the on board photographer was more than happy to take a photo of a seagull taking food from your hand - I declined.....
Then it was on to a bus and then a second boat to take us across the second lake which was a short hop of 20 minutes and where we officially entered Chile.
The third and final boat of the day took us on the most impressive lake crossing that I have ever done, Lago Todos Los Santos is a deep emerald green colour and as we rounded the first bend in the lake we were confronted by Volcano Osorno a perfect conical shaped volcano with green slopes and snow covered summits, it's a perfect icon of the Chilean Lake District - the natural world at its very best. As you can imagine such a sight drove every passenger to grab their camera and rush to the front of the boat and after a few attempts to capture the view without someone else's hand, head or elbow in the frame I resolved to buy a postcard!
The scenery was breathtaking......
Porto Panuelo to Porto Blest - crossing Lago Nahuel Hapi
Port Alegre to Porto Frias - crossing Lago Frias
Puella to Petrohue - Volcano Osorno
We stayed in a B&B called The Guest House, a big old clap-board house with a huge bedroom and a great communal area which we took advantage of on Sunday as it was pouring with rain - only our third day of rain in 100 days, not bad. It gave us the opportunity to plan the next part of our trip down to Torres del Paine, on Monday we fly to Coyahaique in Chile, apparently an ideal place from which to do a couple of glacier and National Park tours before heading further south. |
| Us talking through the next bit of our trip |
Raine x
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