18 January 2010

Picture of the day: a 20-meter waterfall in Parque Nacional Lanín, near the Chilean border. We had to hike a whole 12 minutes to get here--and we were some of the only ones on the trail.

17 January 2010

Picture of the day: our dinner in San Martín de los Andes. This is exactly what it looks like, a huge freaking plate of smoked meats (deer on the right, trout in the middle, and wild boar on the left) and various smoked cheeses. San Martin is famous for its smoke shops, or ahumedoras.

16 January 2010

Picture of the day: a ruined bridge on the Ruta de los Siete Lagos (7 Lakes Road).

Luckily for us, this presented no problem. When we showed up at the car rental agency to pick up our tiny economy car (price: $50 per day), we had to wait for 45 minutes while an Israeli couple argued with the guy at the counter over a small matter of there being no cars left. (Gulp.) When we were finally helped, he looked at us apologetically and said, "There are no cars left.... only a truck. Do you know how to drive automatic, or do you need me to show you?" After we confirmed that we'd still only be paying the price for the economy car--and not the price for the 4x4 (price: around $250 per day)--we happily accepted.

15 January 2010

Picture of the day: sunset, as captured from the restaurant (more of a bar, really) where we met some nice Frenchmen who invited us to dinner. On the menu? A lamb roast and several bottles of wine. We started dinner around 11pm, and didn´t get back to our hotel until around 1:30am.

14 January 2010

Picture of the day: the clear water of Nahuel Huapi, the large lake on which Bariloche is located.

The water is so clear because it originates as snowmelt on the nearby Andes. We know this first-hand, because it was hot enough that day to find a private little cove for a picnic and go swimming. Or at least wading... it was hard to go much further than the knees, because even when it was 95 degrees out the water was so frigid it took your breath away.

13 January 2010

Picture of the day: Volcán Osorno, viewed from our dinner table in Puerto Varas.

ALIVE!!! (take 3)

We know we haven't updated the blog in a couple of days. We're not dead, in case you were worried. We've had only spotty access to the internet over the last week, as we arrived in Bariloche only to leave again on a loooooong road trip (the famous 7 Lakes Road), followed by a trek up in the Andes (the equally famous Circuito Chico in Nahuel Huapi National Park).

More photos to come once we've had a chance to shower, eat an entire cow at the local parrilla, and sleep for a solid 8 hours.

In the meantime, here's a taste of the incredible scenery we've been enjoying:

Nahuel Huapi lake

12 January 2010

Picture of the day: morning kayaking on the Puntra River in Chepu, Chiloé.

We intended to do a nice little 2-hour kayak trip at dawn. We actually did a 5-hour marathon starting at 8am--hey, it may not be Patagonia, but the sun still rises really early here! People sometimes joke about trekkers who end up looking like little human T-Rex's (massive muscle-bound legs, itty-bitty puny arms). After this kayaking trip, I think that won't be so much a problem for us. By the fourth hour, my arms were ready to fall off. Massive biceps, here I come!

11 January 2010

Picture of the day: palafitos (traditional houses on stilts) in Castro, Chiloé.

10 January 2010

Picture of the day: fishing boats in the tiny town of Quemchi on Chiloé.

This is where we stopped for lunch--a big bowl of curanto, or a traditional stew of mussels, clams, pork, and potatoes. (I suggest only the brave click that link to find out how the stew is made. After Torres, I fear no food poisoning!)

The churches of Chiloé

We caught a very early flight out of Punta Arenas and arrived in the Chilean Lakes District with plenty of time to rent a car and hightail it to the Isla de Chiloé. What a change from Patagonia! It was all rolling hills and tiny fishing hamlets. And rain. (Did I mention the rain?)

Chiloé is famous for its churches, which are built out of wood and painted wonderful colors. The blue church above was down a long, long dirt road, in a town of about 600 people called Tenuán.

The ceiling of this small church was painted light blue, with stars.

The church in Quemchi, also painted brightly.

The interior of the church in Castro (the capital of Chiloé), built completely out of native hardwood.

9 January 2010

Picture of the day: a totally unreal sunset in Punta Arenas (timestamp: 11pm). No photoshop involved, I swear!

Goodbye, Patagonia

On our last day in "real" Patagonia (technically, I think the Lakes District is considered Patagonia by the Argentinian government, probably just so they can label wine as Patagonian!), we traveled back to Punta Arenas, where we had flown in nearly a month before. Our bus made it into town with just enough time to run to the docks and catch a boat, all so we could fulfill Allison's final Patagonian wish:

PENGUINS. PENGUINS. PENGUINS.

We sat down for another (knee-agonizing) 2 hours to make it to Isla Magdalena. Totally worth it.

There are 69,000 breeding pairs of Magellanic Penguins on the island. I tried to fit them all in this picture, but some were hiding in their burrows.

A set of penguin chicks, looking very cute. They're starting to lose their gray fuzz and develop the distinctive black-and-white feathering of adult penguins.

I stared at the pengüinos, and some of them stared back.

8 January 2010

Picture of the day: sunset over Lago Nordenskjold and the Valle de Francés, a few steps from our campsite on the third night.

7 January 2010

Picture(s) of the day: Glaciar Francés, right next to our campsite the second night. We kept hearing claps of thunder every 20 minutes, and wondering what in the world it could be, since Patagonia almost never gets thunderstorms. The next day, we figured it out: avalanches! (Check out the second picture to see a nice avalanche we finally got a shot of.)

6 January 2010

Picture of the day: the mountains around the Valle de Francés.

This was the third, and most beautiful, day of the trek. We hiked up the Valle de Francés, which was stunning in a way that is hard to capture in photos. On one side was huge, Andes-like mountains with hanging glaciars. On the other side was sheer rock mountains, too steep to hold snow. It was like someone pushed together Rocky Mountain National Park and Yosemite National Park into one very small valley.

5 January 2010

Picture of the day: Glaciar Grey stretching back to the Southern Patagonia Ice Field.

We spent our first night of our trek on a beach next to this glaciar. Not surprisingly, it was a bit cold that night!

ALIVE!! (take 2)

We survived our second trek, the famous "W" in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine.

And by survived, I mean barely survived. There was a nasty incident with getting very, very ill at one of the most distant points of the trail (apparently there's been a breakout of norovirus or some other similar nasty at all the campsites on trail for the past 2 weeks). However, Allison is a total champ who can hike 11 km--that's 4.5 hours!!--with a full pack to get back to civilization, even if she's been throwing up all night. We found out later that a group of 20 people had been evacuated the same night from the park to the hospital at Puerto Natales. (Wimps.)

However, most of the trek until the last day was beautiful weather, beautiful views, and wonderful hiking. We knew we were going to have a good time when we arrived at the park, got on the catamaran to get to our first trailhead, and were rewarded with this view:

Los Cuernos behind Lago Pehoé

4 January 2010

Picture(s) of the day: Glaciar Perito Moreno, one of the major glaciars feeding Lago Argentino.

While most glaciars in the world are receding, this glaciar is one of the few that is actually growing. It also is one of the fastest-moving in the world, advancing about 6 feet per day. We spent a few hours on walkways above the glaciar, watching huge pieces (i.e., the size of small buildings) of ice calve into the water.

3 January 2010

Picture of the day: a tree growing sideways after being permanently bent by the wind, on an estancia outside El Calafate.

Yes, it's seriously windy here.