Torres del Paine - there are no words.

I just got back from 4 days hiking in Torres del Paine national park. I am tired, a bit sick, and just amazed that I get to see places this beautiful in the world! I am very lucky. I also think that if I could just hike like that for another week or so I would have buns of steel!!! :) Sadly, I have to move on from here...

But first I will tell you about the park. I took a flight from Peurto Montt on the 20th so that I could make it to the park by the 21st, in time to meet a friend of mine who I was going to do the hike with - Mauricio. I met Mauricio when I visited my boss Kelly in Conception, he is a PhD student there and was taking a holiday to the park at the same time as me so we went together. This worked out very well cause he had a tent and cooking gear so I arrived at the park with my gear and food for both of us. I had planned on eating a lot (cause I eat a lot even when I am not hiking 6 hours a day!) and I planned for Mauricio to eat more than me, which didnt actually happen so I had more than enough food :) But better too much than too little!

To get to the starting point of the "W circuit" I took a catamaran across Lago Grey - we had a nice sunny day (definitely not a given in this area of the world) and we saw basically the whole area of the park from the boat, and although I didnt know it at the time, I would soon be walking along and up many of the valleys and hills I could see from the boat! Mauricio knew some people who work in the park so we had free camping the first night, away from the crowds, so I ditched my gear and we headed on a quick (6 hour) hike to see Grey glacier. The weather was good, cloudy but with patches of sun that would come out and light up the whole mountain and the lake. The water there was perfectly green but wasnt clear, instead it was opaque so the whole lake seemed one dimentional. I dont know why the lakes are like this - Paul?? Do you know?? :) The glacier was impressive, especially since we were only seeing the tongue of it, and it comes right down the valley and ends in the lake so along the shore and in the bays are trapped iceburgs that have broken off the main glacier. We spent about 45 minutes eating trail mix and enjoying the view before heading back to camp for a satisfying meal of rice and tuna - trail staples.



Day two had us hiking with our gear to the Valley Francaise - there are two campsites in the valley and typically you would camp at one of these and walk up the whole valley that day after leaving your gear. But both campsites were closed for sanitation reasons (its late in the season so I guess they had just had all the visitors they could managed) so we left our bags at the bottom, hiked up the valley for about an hour, before heading back down. They valley has another glacier coming through between two mountain peaks and the edges of the valley are covered in very hardy, but definitely wind swept, trees. Most of the climb was scrambling over loose rocks and boulders - definitely happy that we werent carrying the packs! Once we were back down, we had another 2 hour walk to the next campsite. It was along the lake, which was beautiful, but also exposed to the crazy winds that the park is famous for - I was trying to decide if the extra weight of the pack was an advantage, or if the extra surface area that it provided made it easier for the wind to knock me over...I think they balanced out and I was still being blown around! But you could hear the gusts coming across the lake and through the trees so I learned to keep my feet close to the ground when I heard one coming. The camp site that night was pretty crowded since everyone had to come there, but we found a spot and met up with some of the other people that I met in the hostel in town before leaving for the park so we had a good night.

The next day was supposed to be a 4 hour hike to the last campsite, but it took more like 51/2 hours with breaks. It was nice and sunny, which we were happy about, until about 3 in the afternoon when I was begging for some shade. With the winds, you cant really wear a hat, so I had a bandana to keep my hair out of my face and no shade for my face so the sun was really strong. But at least we werent wet and cold which is what happened to the hikers the week before. Just as we were getting close to the end of the hike, with a cold river waiting for our hot feet, I slipped and fell down onto my knee on a little slope. It would have been just a minor event, except that my hiking pants, which were about 4 years old, decided that they couldnt stand me anymore and ripped a huge hole in the butt! And when I fell, I also ripped a hole in the knee, so they were definitely done for - they went in the garbage that night. Fortunately, the pockets on the back were quite big and prevented Mauricio, who was behind me, from getting a full view of my underwear! :)

That night the campsite was really nice - lots of grass, pick of sites, and horses grazing around. When we got back to town, we saw in the newspaper that a woman had gotten trampled in her tent by a horse that same night we were there! Mauricio and I both remember hearing the horses getting excited and running around but we didnt know that someone had gotten hurt because of it. Thinking about it now, it doesnt seem like a good idea to have horses loose around the campsite, but at the time it seemed picturesque.

The last hike was a day hike up to the Torres (towers) viewpoint - this hike was 4 hours up, but only about 3 to get back down cause it is mostly uphill on the way there. Lots of people go to the lookout to see the sun rise over the Torres, but if you know me at all you'll guess that I did not get up at 2 am to hike up the hill :) Seeing them at noon was nice enough for me! And they were completely ________ - I cant think of the right word to describe them. They are litterally vertical spikes of rock that shoot stright up into the air! Its like the ground was punched from underneith and formed these towers. There is a green lagoon at the base of the which just adds to the sureality of the scene. If you have vacation time coming up, come to Patagonia. I have never seen anything like it.





So now I am back in town - laundry day.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my other adventure!
TRAVEL TIP: Do not use your own bedding at the hostels.
Why? Because if the hostel has bedbugs, and you use, say, your sleeping bag liner in their bed, then your sleeping bag liner will get bedbugs, and when you go camping and use your liner in your sleeping bag, you will get bugs everywhere and have your arms covered in itchy, swollen bites, and want to chew your arms off to releave the irritation! Now, everything I own is in the laundry and I am wearing a skirt in the cold. Enough said.

I´m off to Argentina tomorrow - more hiking and adventures I´m sure!

A

Oh how time flies....

I have been meaning to update you all for a while now, but my time is very busy here, as I'm sure it is for all of you at home. Today is exactly a month since I left Canada, and I have only " months of holiday left!!! Okay, okay, I know I have no good reason to complain since not everyone takes a 4 month trip, but there is so much to see and do that I just want to stay longer and longer...

I have been traveling lately with two other women, one Swiss and one French. It has been great having travel buddies, although sometimes I do long for my space and some quality silence :) But tomorrow we part ways as I fly south to Peurto Arenas in order to make my way into parc Torres del Paine. I just had an email from a friend, Victor, who was there a couple of weeks ago, and the pictures are AMAZING so be sure to check back for my post on the trecking in a couple weeks. From now until then I will be mostly out of contact as I go from one park to another for more hiking and glacier walking.

The next few posts are some highlights from the last couple weeks - enjoy!

I hope you are all doing well, and if you have time it would be great to hear from you - news from home is always a welcome diversion!
xox
Andrea

Valdivia and the deadly scallop
February 9-11
After looking forward to visitig Valdivia for a number of days, I was happy to arrive and find that it was a really nice town. Its right on the river, with several island making up the city and surround area. Its also very close to the ocean, so it had about everything! I had traveled there with a friend from Villarica but since she was only planning to spend one day we went straight away to the local brewery, Kuntzmann, where we had a sampler to make sure we enjoyed all the flavors that the city had to offer :)

For the next day, I planned to go visit park Oncol and do some walking there for the day. I met up with a Swiss girl that morning and planned to go together, but where we got to the tourist info the bus was sold out (this is high season in Chile afterall!). I guess there is some merit to planning in advance, but I´m on vacation so we all know that that´s not going to happen - and actually almost resulted in me missing out on hiking with a friend in Patagonia, but that´s a later story. Since we missed the park, we went to the botanical gardens instead and saw a lagoon with water lilies and bladderwort, so it was not a wasted day after all :) That night, on our way to dinner, we ran into Patrick, a guy from the UK who we had met in Villarrica. He joined us for dinner - since we were by the sea, we went for seafood, although since I was trying to save some money, I had cooked for myself at home and was just going along for a beer. Patrick, Janine, and Nicole all had seafood, and after my comment that scallops were my FAVourite seafood, Patrick gave me one from his pasta dish. I would regret his generosity later...

The next day Nicole and I made the bus for Oncol and had a great walk through forests to a lookout that showed us both the city of Valdivia and the Pacific Ocean - an impressive vista. Even more impressive, once we noticed them, were the numerous (yes, numerous, not just one!) volcanoes in the distance. It was a wonderful clear day and we had lunch at the top in the sunshine. It was on the way down that I started feeling a bit funny. My head was light and my feet seemed really far away. By the time we got back down, I was feverish and had a headache so I lay in the sun for the 3 hours waiting for the bus back to town. I spend the next 2 days feeling pretty crappy and having no energy. Nicole saw Patrick, who was feeling fine, the next morning, so I put down my sickness to the usual travellers illness. I promised myself that I would be more careful with my eating....

Isla Grande de Chiloé - the scallop saga continues...
Nicole, a French woman Freddie, and I traveled to Chiloe island together to send a few days - we were hoping for good weather, but as anyone who has traveled to Newfoundland knows, islands off of oceanic coasts are not good for predictable weather! We had some sun, lots of rain, and lots of clouds. But maybe this is the reason that the island has lots of folklore and why you need to be careful of knomes when walking in the woods, alone, at night. Fortunately I didnt do this and made it though the island unharmed.

From the north of the island we went to see two penguin colonies - one species from the north and one from the south that both overlap their ranges only on these two islands off the coast of Chiloe. They were funny to see waddling around, all protecting their burrows, but no babies around yet!

Another fun fact, especially for dad and Henry - Chiloe Island is the source of 80% of the worlds potatoe varieties! At the museum I saw 10 varieties, from small to big, from yellow to red to purple. Maybe our blue potatoes that we tried Henry came from here!

Further down the island in Chonchi we stayed in what was supposed to be a "beachfront haven" run by a Canadian guy. Lets just say he gives our country a bad name. The hostel had great potential but needed some serious cleaning and gardening done!! Freddie cleaned her hands on the teatowel in the kitchen and came away covered in cat hair! Yuck. At the hostel, much to our surprise, we ran in Patrick again! This tends to happen when everyone is traveling about the same route using the same guide books :) Turns out I didnt get the one bad scallop of the bunch - Patrick spent 4 days sick and had to go to the hospital to get a rehydration drip put in! The doctors said he caugt a seafood virus of some kind. So it turns out I got off easy, and I can go back to eating/drinking whatever I want.

Peurto Varas - the most expensive place so far!
This is such a resort town I really didnt like it - if I wanted to be overrun by tourists and pay twice the price for a coke, I would go to Tremblant!

On the up side, Volcano Orsono is just on the other side of the lake and we spent a day walking around the base, hoping, unsucessfully, that the clouds would clear and we would get a view of the top. Even without the view, the lake was amazing and the beaches were fine black sand. I think I said this already, but the lakes are so cristal clear and blue they look like the setting for a mermaid fairy tale!

From here I catch a plane to Punta Aranas, and then a bus to Peurto Natales to go hiking in Torres del Paine national park with Mauricio, one of the students I met in Conception. The trip should be amazing and I cant wait....I just hope I am not in such bad shape as I think I am! 4 or 5 days of hiking with all the camping gear will answer that question quickly...

A (pictures to come later....)

Villarrica - the Lakes District

Yesderday I went on a little day trip to another lake a bit further South of Villarrica. This lake was more like a family camping area than a busy tourist resort so for me it was much nicer. The black sand beaches are because of the volcanoes in the area, and actually all the stones on the beach are red and black lava stones. I am already getting a nice sandals tan (as you can see from the picture, if you look closely!) and I have lost the winter-pasty look that we all have in Canada!

It is raining today, which is why I am spending time on the internet :) Yesterday I had high hopes of swimming but after a bit of sun around noon, the clouds rolled in and it started to rain. Last night and all this morning it has been raining, but I am hoping for a little bit of nice weather so I can go biking this afternoon. The hostel where I am staying rents mountain bikes and has "easy, medium and hard" routes - not sure which I will do! Depends on how lazy I am, which these days is pretty lazy :)

I move onto Valdivia tomorrow - coastal city with a huge botanical gardens, I will be in heaven!! Lots of flower and tree pictures to come...

First couple weeks

Two weeks exactly today I have been in Chile. Time does go by fast when you're traveling, in some ways, and it others the time is in slow motion. I have been busy for these first couple weeks because I had some people here to visit who were only going to be in the country for a short time after I arrived so I have been jumping around a bit. Now I am finished all that and just heading South. But now I'm getting ahead of myself....

I arrived in Santiago - a bit city that I had no hope or wish of seeing all of. I stayed in a cute neighourhood, Barro Bellavista, near lots of bars and restaurants, but on a quiet side street. I chose it because it was close to this big hill and park that had a botanical garden, which of course I visited! To get up the mountain you take a cable car and then there is a tram that will take you across the top and let you off at the places where there are things to do: pools, gardens, childerens play areas... I took the cable car to the top, but I didnt want to pay for the tram so I figured I could walk, it didnt look that far on the map I had...did I mention this park was on the top of a big hill?? Turns out the map was slightly misleading and I spend about an hour walking along a road that switched back and forth before actually getting to the place where the activities were! So I made it to the gardens but I was pretty tired by then and mostly just relaxed in the shade. I planned to take the tram on my way back, but since I had made the walk there I just went ahead and made the walk back. It didnt seem so bad the second time. And I saved at least $4 so it was worth it, right? :)

Rob, a friend from Peterborough, and his wife Carolina live in Santiago so for two of my nights there I was lucky to have their company to explore the city. They showed me around the metro, we went for dinner, saw a fabulous (-ly loud) Peruvian band, and a Brazillian band. Another friend from home was coming to visit Rob and Carolina the next week so I made plans to meet them for camping in Parc National de Siete Tazas. But that comes a bit later, I'll try to keep this cronological.

After Santiago I headed to Talca, just a bit further south, and stayed at a very nice hostel outside of town. There are a lot of Germans here in Chile and this hostel was one of the German run places. After feeling out of place for not speaking Spanish, it was strange to feel out of place for not speaking German! But the hostel was beautiful, overlooking a river, mountains in the distance, and a swimming pool. A bit of a treat, but the same price as my hostel in Santiago (about $15 per night). Chile is definitely not the cheapest place to travel. From what I hear, Chile and Argentina are going to be about the same cost to travel in, and both countries in Patagonia will be even more expensive. I am wondering about my budget and the length of my trip, but I'll just have to wait and see. Peru is supposed to be much cheaper so things may balance out towards the end of the trip. From Talca I paired up with a Finish guy and we took a bus out to the coast, to Constitution and Putu. There were black sand dunes there that we wanted to see and, from the directions our hostel gave us, it seemed pretty easy to get there. We were mislead :) Luckily the Finish guy spoke more Spanish than me so we were able to find our way - by hitchhiking. We were having bad luck at it, most of the cars were headed in the other direction, but then a car stopped - yay! We felt very lucky...and then we felt very lucky that we only had to be inthe car with these two guys that picked us up for about 5 minutes. The passenger was obviously drunk (and smelled of booze) and the driver was possibly drunk. In the course of 5 minutes, they offered the Finish guy pot, and told me a story about their friend who is in Canada doing his PhD who has done lots of shrooms. Definitely a little dodgy. But we made it to the dunes and they were amazing! Once you were on the beach, all you could see was crashing waves, and behind you these rolling dunes. All along the shore there were posts where fishing nets were attached, but we didnt get to see anyone pull in the nets. Our way back was much less exciting, thankfully, as we got a ride with a nice couple, a Chilean detective and school teacher.

My next stop was down on the coast: Concepcion. My boss from when I worked in Saint John, Kelly, was there as he teaches a course every January at the university with some of his research associates. So he arraged for me to stay with one of the students, Fernanda, and I had a great stay! The night I arrived, Fernanda and her boyfriend Oliver took me to an artisans market (eek!) and it was great. The place was crowded with people, families, children, couples, all milling around, eating junk food, and seeing the crafts. Afterwards we went for a drink and I met another student, Paulina, and her boyfriend, and it was Paulina that was my tour guide for the next day. I was only going to be in Concepcion for the one full day and I think we saw everything there was to see! We went for a seafood lunch and I had a bowl of soup with 3 or 4 different types of shell fish in it. Dad - I had more shellfish in my one bowl than you put in your entire pot of clam chowder! And it was like $4. When youre on the coast, the seafood is cheap and delicious! Over the course of the rest of the day, we went to a park on the ocean, to another town south of Concepcion called Lota where we did a tour of a now closed coal mine, to a garden on the cliff tops of the ocean, and rounded out the night with Kareoke with Kelly, Mark, and several other students. A completely packed day! The coal mines were one of the most interesting things though - the tunnels are like 14m under ground and actually extend under the ocean's floor. The tunnels that we saw were maybe 4 feet tall so the men who worked in there (for 12 hour shifts) would spend the entire time hunched over. I know there were and are coal mines in Canada, but this is the first time I have been inside one. And being inside of the tunnels is completely different from seeing a show or movin on tv about the mines.


After a late night of Kareoke, I hopped the bus back north and met up with Rob, Jeremy, and Carolina for two nights of camping. The park was had buses running to it so it was quite accessible, but by the time we found a campsite, carrying our packs, we were wishing we had a car :)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-35.4756,-70.9977&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
The park was up in the Andes, and although there was lots of vegetation all around us, the ground was completely dry and within a hour everything was covered in dust (I think it too two days after leaving the park before I finally blew all of the dust out of my nose!). Fortunately, the park is centered around a beautiful river, Rio Clairo, and the crystal clear, "refreshingly" cold, water was very welcome once our packs were off and our tents were set up. The park is named Siete Tazas, Seven cups, because the river flows down through 7 different pools, and several other water falls, as it makes its way downhill. The river gorge is very sharp and the riverbed is all muted grey rocks and bolders that create a complete contrast to the green of the vegetation. We spent our days seeing the river, and lounging on rocks, and our nights by the campfire. Rob, with help from Survivor man, created a sweet contraption to hold our pot over the fire and we had two delicious campfire meals. Over the second bottle of wine on our last night, Rob, Jeremy and I were sitting and talking about how funny it is to all be together on the other side of the world...and yet we were doing the exact same thing that we would often do in Canada. Very far away and yet not so different.

After the park, my intention was to head to the lakes districk - a place called Villarrica where a lake sits at the base of a volcano. However, the bus times didnt cooperate and I spent two nights in Chillán. Not much to say about that city. I was there on the weekend and everything I wanted to see was closed. Bascially, a couple of bunk days.

On Sunday I made it to Villarrica - and it is welll worth a visit.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-39.2809,-72.2213&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
It is very strange to see a snow-capped volcano with a lake underneith it. I wanted a couple days to slow down and relax here after spending the last couple weeks jumping all over the place. I arrived at abot 9pm on Sunday and Monday a Swiss woman and I went to some nearby hot springs. They were very nice and a perfect way to start my relaxing visit. Today I am spending in town, writing this entry, and working on Spanish. Everyone told me this before coming, but really, I should have learned at least some Spanish!! So Julia and Andrea, let me say this to you - Learn Spanish before you come!! Even if its just the basic things like Where is? How much is? Where the F%#& am I?? It hasnt been so bad, but I just know it would be much easier if I knew a bit more. I am getting more words slowly and I have mastered asking prices and buying bus tickets, but understanding responses is another thing entirely! As soon as you speak a bit of Spanish, the Chileans speak a mile a minute to you and I only catch about one word in 10! So, this is why today I will get some veggies, head to the beach, and spend some QT with my spanish phrase books (actually, Rachael, its your Spanish phrase book - I hope when you lent it to me back in December you werent hoping to get it back anytime soon...!).

Now, I offer you all who have made it this far my congratulations, I will write more frequentyly from now on, I hope, so the entries wont be so long. Pictures will come soon, I forgot my camera cable today.

Chile really isnt so different from home - the cities are just cities, and the people are very friendly. I am having no trouble making my way around the country, and I would challenge any place to beat Chile for bus service! Its remarkable. In order to save money I havent been eating out at restaurants much, but there are lots of fruits and veggies on offer on the streets and I am eating my fill. My travel doc told me "peel it, cook it, or forget it" but that's not really possible, the peaches and nectaries are amazing!!, and so far I havent had any stomach problems, or at least nothing of the explosive kind :) Most places say the water is potable, but I have been treating it if I get it from the tap, just to be on the safe side. Empanatas, fried or baked turnovers filled with veggies, egg, meat, and-or cheese, are available everywhere and are a great snack. I was a bit surprised to bit into one and find an entire boiled egg inside it (mom, you'll be happy to know that I have, mostly, masted my gag reflex to boiled eggs) but it was mixed with onion and meat and was quite good. Avocadoes are everywhere and I am eating as many as possible. I havent yet tried, but will soon, the other favorite street food, the Completos, which is a hot dog topped with tomatoes, onions, avocado, and mayo.

I am having a great time, but am envious of the people who have travel buddies, Julia - are you sure you cant come sooner!?? I have the next couple weeks planned out and will probably head over into Argentina in 2 or 3 weeks. There is so much to see its hard to narrow down the options...

Andrea