Argentina - El Calafate and the glacier walk

Following the W Trek, we were able to catch a transfer across the border from Patagonia in Chile to Patagonia in Argentina. Always Glacier guided us through the much quieter, much more chilled out border crossing out of Chile and back into Argentina. It seems the Chileans are only concerned about what is coming into Chile, not what is going out.

Travelling at dusk, we experienced a stunning sunset that lasted for two hours of pink, yellow and orange.

Arriving in El Calafate Belen from Lautara Hostel gave us the friendliest, most enthusiastic greeting we'd had all holiday. Her friendliness and helpfulness would continue the whole time we were here. It makes such a difference.

With heavy legs from the W Trek, a chilled day was on the cards. Whereas Puerto Natales was a no frills basic town, El Calafate was full of brand shops and fancier restaurants.

A stroll through town followed our pick up of rental boots for the next day's glacier walk. Lunch was at a very basic cafe like grill, La Fonda del Parrillero. The low priced steak turned out to be the best steak we'd had so far in Argentina! Just shows you that you can get as many recommendations on what to do and where to go, but the gems are still the ones you try blind with no expectations, that fly in from left field and surprise you.
My choice was the Ojo de Bife con frites (pesos 44 / <£6) and Mandy's Bife de Chorizo (same price). This is what Argentina should be about.

We spent the afternoon getting lost along the lagoon and bird sanctuary close to town before a quick sundowner and dinner. Yes, we did eat quite a bit today, but all in preparation for the glacier tomorrow. Mi Ranch was a number one recommended grill from Trip Advisor and off the tourist road - the lamb and trout we had were in our top 5 meals on holiday!

Finally ice walking day! Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the glaciers originating from the massive Patagonian Icefield. Mands, not wanting to miss out on any experience, agreed to tackle the longer, 7 hour "Big Ice" trek instead of the standard 3 hour option - good effort with her toes still blistered. The new speciality ankle boots should help too.

We were off with a good start as we were treated to one of the brightest sunsets I had ever seen as the bus made it's way to the glacier.

First, we'd go to a viewpoint on the mountain head directly in front of the glacier. For an hour we wondered the various platforms and viewing desks listening to the creaking glacier lying in front of us. It's enormous! Just check it's stats...
Front width - 4km
Length - 30km
Surface - 257km squared

This glacier is much bigger than the large glacier, Glacier Grey, we saw on the W Trek. It's also very active, moving at 1.7 meters per day in the middle and 0.45 meters on the sides. With thunderous cracks and rumbles, we watched front sections drop off the glacier into the water resulting in swells and ripples emanating and continuing to the shore line. I'm surprised how close the boats, seemingly toy boats in comparison, get to the glacier face. When an ice section breaks, they don't wait around as a large drop could create a wave to topple the boat.

One of these boats took us across, giving a much closer view of this frozen beast. After a briefing we were off for an hour hike along the side of the glacier to the Big Ice equipment camp where we'd start the walk. Crampons fitted to our shoes and harness on, in case of emergency and we were walking on this foreign surface.

Ski resort ice is pretty flat. The surface of a glacier is anything but! Hills, valleys, deep crevices, rivers and lakes awaited us. The surface of the glacier melts each day and refreezes creating these rivers and features. Furthermore the ice isn't all white, but a luminous blue!

The stories of establishing Patagonia's Chile / Argentina border were quite interesting...

1981, an agreement was reached to determine the border lines between Chile and Argentina as the "highest peaks that divided waters". Conflicting points where dividing waters did not exist led to each country interpreted borders differently. 1902 King Henry Edward VII of England arbitrated the problem, bringing an end to the Chilean /Argentinean issue that had reached at a very dangerous point in their relationship. He was presented with land as a gift and he returned it to the government under condition that it be preserved for future generations. His action allowed the creation of the first Argentine National Park.

Framcisco Pascasio Moreno was the Argentine expert called on to give evidence in establishing the border line with Chile. Thereafter, this explorer and natural science specialist, was chosen to lend his name to the giant glacier.

Back to the big trek. We had a lunch at the largest lake, half way out on the glacier, about 2 km in. The group filled water bottles and I felt somewhat like a natural Patagonian water advert model - one of the guides took a photo an emailed it to us, really could be an advertisement.

Post lunch Mands was really struggling with further blisters. This time on her heels and from the new specialist ankle high boots. Each step looked uneasy and it wasn't until the end of the hike when she took her boots off did I see how bad it was - both heels had almost 2 cm raw blisters! You could see from the guides face that they were bad. With additional strapping over the gaping hole, Mandy soldiered on. "No donkey!"

Just before arriving back at the starting camp, there was a huge crack, followed by another and another. The glacier face dropped of chunks of ice, the largest we'd seen. A boat, looking like a toy in comparison, was close to the drop zone and hastily turned away from the resulting ice bergs and swell heading in it's direction. Continuing along the single track path we heard the water now lapping up against the rocks near our pickup. It's like dropping a pebble, a big pebble, in a pond and watching the ripples travel.

Armed with our camera and knitted Peru and Bolivian hats for extra warmth, we looked out to the glacier for another mighty fall. Glacier Moreno let out loud stomach grumbles, but alas, no further splashes.

On our final morning, I made sure I was up before sunrise and had directions to a good viewpoint on the side of the lake to hopefully catch a similar sunrise on camera. Unfortunately a low horizon cloud bank wanted the sunset to itself, however it was a good 2 hours exploring an outer lying area of El Calafate.

Our flight had been pushed back by 7 hours (almost every flight has changed in South America). This would unfortunately cut short our already short time in Buenos Aires, but allowed Mands some much needed flip flop time to help the blisters before ... The Tango.

Chile - Patagonia and the W trek

Although Mandy always had Patagonia as her number 1, I knew very little about it. It was however rapidly climbing up my list due to the number of people we'd met on our travels who have rave reviews and many staying for weeks and "having to pull themselves away to see the rest of South America." It didn't take long before both of us were mesmerised with Patagonia's open plains, imposing mountains, glass lakes, snow capped peaks, glaciers and unspoilt beauty.

With a latitude of more than 51 degrees South, this is the furtherest South either of us had ever ventured. You know you're towards the bottom of the world when people are speaking about their Antarctic cruise.

The Parque Nacional hosts the granite pillars of Torres Del Paine (Towers of Paine) and is probably the finest park in South America. The highlight in the park is the Torres along with the 'W' trek. The W is the shape of the hike walking the side of 3 mountains and this is what we'd be walking over the next 5 days.

You have the option to camp along the route or stay in a "refugio". I vetoed the camping idea when I read reviews for March saying temperatures can drop below zero together with torrential downpours and over 100km per hour winds - to top it off, a clear day can turn on you in 15 minutes! I had in my head that the refugio was like a run down fisherman shack, however it was anything but. The refugio is similar to a large catered ski chalet - no shack in sight.

Day 0 - Arrival Day
Puerto Natales to Refugio Torres Central (arriving in the park)

The Gomez bus collected us for the 2 1/2 hour transfer into the Torres del Paine National Park. Wide open grasslands dominated the trip with horses grazing in the golden fields and small llama herds by the lakes. We could see the mountain ranges starting to rise and climbing into rugged formations over 2000 meters in the distance.

Park fees must be paid on entry and we'd been worried we didn't have enough money with us for the week. Luckily they accepted US$ and we had our emergency Dollars available to cover park fees.

A smaller bus took us to the refugio where we'd be staying, Refugio Torres Central.

All dorms were a 6 sleepers, with huge double bunks and double duvets for the cold.

We checked in and headed out to see if we could catch a glimpse of the Torres (towers) behind the clouds. Almost on cue of our arrival, the sun started to make it's way through and we rushed up a nearby hill to take some photos of the Torres appearing. Also over the hill we found alien like pods that must have been the staff accommodation. Back down for dinner in the eating hall and joined Becky and Neil from London, a friendly couple who we'd met earlier. Turned out we had the same plans and we'd see a lot of them over the coming days.

Day 1.
Refugio Torres Central to Torres del Paine and back (10.5 km, 7 hours).
The iPhone alarm rang out in the dark like a phone possessed - Austin Powers theme tune blared out at full volume . We were awake. Sunrise was starting and the sky was ... completely clear, without a cloud in the sky and next to no wind - we couldn't have asked for a better day, and more than that, this weather would continue all week! Exceptionally good weather again graced us with it's presence in South America.

We set off with a day pack containing, sunscreen (no ozone above Patagonia), storm weather jackets, cameras and packed lunch.

It started with easy to moderate, mainly uphill along the side of the mountain with a river below. Dry grassland turned into well covered forests and temperatures in the sun were short trousers and t-shirt warm and shady areas, immediately cool with the cold wind.

There weren't nearly as many people on the trail as with The Inca trail and no guides and porters this time either.

The final 45 minutes was fairly steep granite bolder clambering up to the Torres. Huffing and puffing, we rounded the last boulder to open up to a turquoise glacial lake, reflecting the imposing towers up above. The sun shone down brightly with the deep blue sky radiating out from behind. What a sight.

Neil, Mands, Becky and I took our lunch together in front of the lake and made our way through the only thing larger than some of the boulders, our enormous sandwiches!

Our muscles definitely felt they had had a work out by the time we'd returned to the refugio and gulped down a Coke.

Sunset brought on an amazing sight. The sun dropped behind the torres. With the clear blue sky, it's rays beamed out around the silhouetted towers as if they themselves were projecting. Mands rushed out to take photos and was joined by even the staff taking in the moment.

Day 2.
Refugio Torres Central to Refugio Los Cuernos (12 km, 4.5 hours)

This was our shortest day initially starting off on the same route as the previous day then rounding the front of the mountain. More shrubs grew on the plains and we saw black, brown and white horses out for their morning graze along with the occasional rabbit darting under the growth. Reaching the top of the hill a dark lake appeared then dipped off sharply in contrast against the much larger turquoise lake, Nordenskjold. The first hour and a half we were the only two people on the path, for that time, we were the king and queen of our mountain - it's strange to say, but sometimes you could hear the dead silence. We'd hike the rest of the day next to the lake over the undulating side of the mountain. Although making good time, we took long breaks, just to take in the views and moments of this huge lake wrapped around us. I found a great flat rock section for an early lunch (another brick of a sandwich) and soaked up the warm sun on our backs as the cool breeze washed over our faces.

Although this was a short day, the sweat flowed as we carried our day packs together with our full backpacks. A good 20kgs each. We welcomed the sight of the Los Cuernos Refugio, however had walked well and again glugged down rewarding Cokes.

This refugio was the only one offering private stand alone chalets. Only 8 were available, but Mands had cemented our place with her early booking. Really nice room with the added bonus of an outside hot tub.

We jumped right in, although only luke warm to start and started swirling water around against the wood heated fire place to heat up the water.

That evening, we looked up at the night sky lit up with more stars than we had ever seen!

Day 3.
Refugio Los Cuernos to Refugio Paine Grande, including Valle de Francés (28km, 11 hours)

This was the big day... 5 hours with the 20 kg back packs and another 6 hours with the day packs.

Starting strongly we followed the lakes shoreline up and down hills. A group of American girls sang songs in the distance - not only did I not want to hear their songs, but also they weren't going to win any singing contests. We caught them right on the steepest section of the morning and used them as motivation to charge ahead. It worked wonders as we made good time with the heavier packs.

We could leave our packs at a camp site and follow a river away from the lake, walking up the middle of the W along Valle del Franceś. We clambered up and down rocks, through forests and across melted ice streams. The water was so clear here, you could refill water containers and I drank right from the stream.

Up, up, up we climbed for 3.5 hours until reaching the furtherest view point, mirador Británico. All around huge jagged mountain tops starred down at us. Again, the silence seemed to make a low drum sound in our ears. Every now and then, a crack could be heard with the frozen compact ice blankets breaking under the melting heat and creating small avalanches.

Returning to the camp we collected our larger bags and headed off for the final 7.5 km to Lago Pehoé. Mands was getting blisters and at this stage they became unbearable to walk. We tried bandaging them up, but one particular toe now had blister on top of blister and wasn't letting up. Against her husband's advice she changed into her havianna flip flops and set off for the final 2 hours with a couple of pain killers. That seemed to do the trick as we were back making suggested time. Good time until, I started slowing with groin issues - the day pack clipped to the backpack wasn't the best weight distribution. Eventually we made it into the refugio, with Mands wanting to tell everyone that she wasn't a novice walker hiking in new shoes that gave her blisters, but we'd been in them for 4 months already and not had and problems on the Inca Trail.

Neil had a bottle of red wine waiting and a good dinner and pisco sour cocktail did wonders to end our day.

Day 4.
Refugio Paine Grande to Refugio Grey, including Glacier Grey (12 km, 5 hours)

Flip flops were out again and leading us us Lago Grey towards Glacier Grey!

We hiked in t-shirts in the sun and thermals in the shade. The first view point was over a small mountain lake. It reflected everything in sight against it's dark waters. Shortly afterwards we could see Lago Grey with icebergs floating by. Huge chunks of ice. We continued up and reached the midway viewpoint where we saw Glacier Grey. It's enormous! The glacier starts kilometres in the distance where snow falls, then compacts forming a solid mass kilometres long and wide.

This gave us new energy to push through to the refugio finishing our morning session of 4 hours.

Half an hour further and we had climbed down to the water level to watch the large beast. You can hear it rumbling with the ice shifts. It had been an overcast few hours, but rapidly the skies cleared when our cameras came out and we got some great photos. One boat does tours on the lake and when it arrived, it was dwarfed by the face of the glacier. With the boat about 2 stories high, the glacier was almost 10!

Back at the refugio we could sit down on the couches next to the wood fire heaters and catch up on blog and reading time.

Day 5.
Refugio Grey to Refugio Paine Grande and catamaran / transfer out of the park (11km, 3.5 hours)

This was the easiest day, hiking back the same path as yesterday to complete the W. Again we stared back at the glacier.

What a privilege to have been able to spend this time in such a spectacular part of this world, one of the most beautiful landscapes we have been privileged to visit. We'll look back fondly at this quality time and hope to return one day.

Chile - Puerto Natales

We flew into Punto Arenas from Santiago on a rescheduled (again) flight which was further delayed by about 40 minutes. This would have been no problem except being the super organised person I am I had pre- booked a bus direct from the airport to Puerto Natales saving us having to make our way into Punta Arenas to find a bus. We should have still had an hour between flight an bus but due to the delay we were now cutting it pretty fine.

We landed with zero minutes to spare and decided that since Warren is bigger (and often more persuasive) he would run and hold the bus while I collected the baggage.

Was succeeded in tracking down the bus and asking the driver to wait five minutes. He managed to communicate this through the glass doors to where I was still waiting for our bags to come out. We heard the hooting, that would be our bus signed Warren. What can I do? I signed back. More hooting and we decided it would be best if Warren waited next to the actual bus to delay it departing. The bags came out, I raced to the bus where Warren his now bus driver mate were waiting to load them. We got on the bus and found we had the best seats (except on Bolivia where they are two of the most dangerous) upstairs right in front of the window where we were able to gaze out at our first glimpse of beautiful Patagonia. While the other people waiting on the bus glared at us.

The wide open landscape of Patagonia is incredible, there is just so much open space.

On arrival in Puerto Natales we saw a giant prehistoric bear like creature with a short tail guarding as you entered the town. Turns out it was prehistoric and found in a cave not far from the town - strange looking thing. We had got some directions from the bus station for our hostel, but they weren't particularly good and we could not find it. Somehow I had also book the furthest possible accommodation from the centre of town. It must have had really good reviews online?

We found our way back along the water's edge to the tourist information where we managed to get a map with the hostel's location drawn on to it and finally found our way.

Puerto Natales is a tiny place, along Sena Ultimata Esperanzo ,an inlet from the Pacific Ocean. There is a main road, a small plaza and a lot of pretty little corrugated tin buildings painted in varying colours. It still feels like a fishing village when you venture off the main street which is full of outdoor shops.

We headed out for dinner, taking Liz and Felipe's advice to try Patagonian lamb and salmon. El Asador's food was amazing!

The following day we had a 2.30pm bus booked to head out to Torres del Paine. A quick wonder through town to pick up some provisions for our 5 day trek and to try and find Warren a new fleece (he had left his on a bus) and were ready to go.

Half an hour before the bus left Warren again headed off to panic buy a fleece. He grabbed a no name brand grey £12 fleece and made it back to the bus as I was loading our bags. Off to Torres very excited!

P.S. On arrival at the Refugio Was whipped out his panic buy fleece only to discover it was a bit of a crop top. Those who have seen his panic buy triathlon top will realise this crop top thing is becoming a trend.