Barb -- Ushuaia, Argentina

Hey everyone,

Just a quick note about my last few days in South America... after a very brief but very happy reunion with Jon and Ave in Puerto Natales, Hannah and I headed down to Ushuaia, Argentina to see the pengiuns! Ushuaia was really beautiful, down in Tierra del Fuego (the bottom of the world!), and actually kind-of reminded me of banff in a lot of ways! We were able to meet up with Attila there, and stuffed ourselves at an all you can eat buffet for US$8. Tasty! So I then headed back across the border to Punta Arenas, Chile, and caught a flight up to Santiago. Tomorrow I say goodbye to South America, and head up to Texas... looking forward to some warm weather for a change!

See you all soon...

Phil and Andrea - Fitz Roy!

From El Calafate we took a 5 hour bus trip to the cool little mountain town of El Chalten. For those Canadians, El Chalten is like a small, way less developed Argentinian Canmore 20 years ago. From El Chalten you can take a bunch of nice walks to get views of the mountain range out there, namely the Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. The walks are great because they are right from the edge of town, are fairly level (no crazy elevation gain like the Inca Trail) and can afford some wicked views. Sadly, our main hike sounds a bit like Barb´s trip in Torre del Paine - cold and wet. We did a nice short hike to a waterfall on the first day which was fantastic (1 1/2 hours). The next day we did a longer 6 hour hike but got rained out and arrived at our lovely B & B with soaking feet and looking forward to a shower. That hike was supposed to have the best views of the Fitz Roy but we saw nothing but clouds. The last day had clear blue skies and Phil did the full hike to see the glacier. Sadly my knee was hurting so I only did the first third of it, still I saw more that day than I had on the previous one and the whole trip was more than worthwhile!

Andrea and Phil - Moreno Glacier

Okay, after Buenos Aires, we took a flight over to Rio Gallegos, then a quick bus over to El Calafate. From there you can take an amazing day trip to see Moreno Glacier. It´s reputed to be one of the most active glaciers on earth, it´s still growing!

The ice stands 60 m tall and I forget how far back it goes (kilometers and kilometers!), but it´s truly spectacular. You can hear it binding and compressing from the walkways, just across a bit of the lake - it sounds like a shot gun going off. After the sun heats it up a bit, you can see pieces of the ice fall off and crash into the lake - it always sounds so much more impressive than it looks. Unlike the glaciers I have seen in Canada, the top of this one is really jagged with big icy peaks all over the place - really cool. The lake is filled with icebergs, big and small, from chunks of the glacier that have fallen off. We took a boat trip around the lake from 11:30 - 12:30 , getting about 150 m from the glacier. The sun hadn´t heated it up enough, so we didn´t get to see any pieces falling but it still looked great and was a wicked way to see our first major views of the glacier.

Phil and Andrea - Buenos Aires

Okay, I have a bit of catching up to do. Buenos Aires was amazing, I have never been to a city like it. Usually when you get to a big capital city like that it is very hectic and busy, filled with pollution and people brushing past you to get where they´re going. The Buenos Aires that I saw wasn´t like that at all. There wasn´t too much pollution, people generally strolled wherever they went and there was barely a car horn to be heard. There were gorgeous street side cafes where you could sit and have a beer and watch the city roll by. The shops were very nice and the restaurants were amazing. The architecture was fantastic, big tree-lined boulevards with these 10 story buildings on each side of the street (like the pic on the right) - all with these cool balconies. The other picture is the world´s widest avenue. I think it´s 14 lanes wide or something and we had to cross it each morning to get to the supermarket. Still, even that was very civilized.

For our last afternoon in Buenos Aires, Phil and I took a trip down to the old harbour area called La Boca. There is a wonderful artists neighborhood called El Caminito where we spent hours wandering around looking at the brightly coloured buildings and cool paintings (reminicent of vaudeville or a carnival) and poking around shops and hippy stalls. My favorite part of El Caminito were the heaps of cool little cafes, all with tables, chairs, umbrellas and even big potted plants sitting out on the street - and best of all they almost all have a free tango show going on all day with a live band! Anyway, we enjoyed a nice, cold bottle of white wine, some tapas, a few hours of tango and the weather - a great way to spend our last day in Buenos Aires!

Barb -- Torres del Paine

Well, after hiking in Torres del Paine national park for five days (the classic ´W´ trek), I can safely say I am glad to have a warm bed to sleep in at night!

The trip was absolutely amazing, spectacular views (the ones we could see, anyways!) and a mix of weather.

The first day we hiked up to camp just below the actual Torres, and it snowed. We woke up in the morning and hiked (through the snow!) up to the lookout, and were able to see ... snow. Ah well, what can ya do! It continued to rain and snow on the second day as we hiked through the big valley, along glacial lakes, to our second camp. Despite the weather and the long hike, it was a good day, as we saw lots of wildlife (9 condors!!!).



The next two days were gorgeous, we were in the Valle Francés with giant glaciers and beautiful sunny weather, and then into the next valley over where Gray Glacier comes right down into the lake. Very beautiful!



Our last day, Hannah and I pleaded tired feet (and backs... okay tired everything.. I am definitely out of shape!), and took the catamaran across the lake to meet our bus, while Attila braved it out (that is a polite way of saying he´s cheap!) and hiked the last 3.5 hours to the park administration office to catch a later bus.

We arrived back in Puerto Natales not too much worse for wear, but very glad to see a warm meal and a warm bed! The photos included here are ones that hannah took ... enjoy!

Today I´m off to Punta Arenas, then to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina for a couple days before I fly back to Santiago for my trip back to North America... the weather in Dallas is going to be a treat between the snowy cold here and the even snowier cold that awaits in Calgary!

Barb - Patagonia!

Chile is fantastic! I spent an amazing couple days in Coyhaique, relaxing with the Ellentons and enjoying their warm hospitality, visiting with the Otarolas, and loving my first non-hotel bed sleep in months!! Thanks, Gary and Louise!

I then hopped on a plane to Puerto Montt, and caught the ferry that travels along the Patagonian coastline for four days, heading south to Puerto Natales. The ferry trip was gorgeous, with amazing scenery the whole way, despite some rain. We motored all the way up to the Glaciar Pio XI, the largest glacier in south america and the only advancing glacier in south america. (most glaciers these days are retreating). So that was pretty fantastic!

I have met up with a couple other people, one girl from Saskatchewan and a Hungarian guy who is now working as a ski guide in Revelstoke, and the three of us are going to start a five-day hike in Torres del Paine national park tomorrow. I am pretty excited, since this is something I have been dreaming about doing since I was thirteen!

More after the hike....

Phil and Andrea - Iguazu Falls

After 25 hrs on the road (not continuous) we finally arrived at Puerto Iguazu, the town on the Argentinian side of the falls. The town itself was nice enough and we stayed in a very clean and friendly hostel for 3 nights, then moved to a slightly less friendly hostel with an absolutely amazing pool where we got to chill out all day by the pool (in the shade, of course).

The falls, as you can see, are spectacular. They are bigger than Niagra falls and set right in the jungle, so while you're walking between them, you are surrounded by gorgeous plants, hundreds of spectacular butterflies and some very curious mammals called coatis that look like racoons, but with small, ant-eater snouts. There are usually several walking trails available but the water levels were up enough that only two trails, the upper and lower circuits, were open. We got a great view of the San Martin falls but missed out on the highlight, The Devil's Throat. Still, the trails take you to some great lookouts and provide amazing views of the falls and the surrounding land.

We decided that we'd take one of the boat rides offered, and decided on the Adventure Ride. From what we could see, the boat would take you closer to the falls so you could get a better view. What we didn't realize was that the boat would take you directly under the falls and soak you to the bone, which they did. It was heaps of fun and very refreshing, though eating lunch in wet pants maybe wasn't so fun. Anyways, the falls were amazing and I'm very glad we made the trip over.

Phil and Andrea - Photos

We tried a film experiment and got one of Phil´s rolls developped onto CD. The first picture, though sideways (this blog site is very limited for photo manipulation) is of one of the brightly dressed women on the floating islands, near Puno, Bolivia.

The second photo is of Barb and I on our walk from the North to the South of Isla del Sol, near Copacabana, Bolivia. The sites were amazing there, and we stayed overnight to watch the sunset.


This picture is Phil modeling the nice poncho from our hotel balcony in Copacabana, Bolivia (lake Titicaca in the background).

I was planning on putting up a few more, but the computer here is very slow and it´s taking forever, so this will have to do for now. I hope everyone is well!

Phil and Andrea - Argentina

Hi everybody!

We are, as Barb said, currently in Argentina and loving it. We arrived over from Chile by Salta, a great town with a very cosmopolitan feel (and some fantastic steaks and great red wine!). We are currently in the little town of Corrientes which is midway between Salta and Iguazu falls - a 14 hr bus ride here and a 9 hr bus ride still to look forward to. We are heading to the falls, then taking a much-deserved flight to Buenos Aires, then a flight right down to the bottom (Rio Galegos).

Chile!

Here is a map of Chile, so you can follow my progress. I am sure that Andrea will post one of Argentina, so you can follow them too! I am currently in San Pedro de Atacama (northern Chile, near Calama), and I have just seen Andrea, Phil, Jon, and Ave off on the bus to Salta, Argentina. Tomorrow I hop on a bus to Santiago, and from there I fly to Coyhaique on friday. I spend the weekend there, and then get on a boat-ferry thing in Puerto Montt that travels for four days along the Patagonian coast to Puerto Natales. I will likely be able to have a happy reunion with the others somewhere in southern Chile in about two weeks...hooray!

Salar de Uyuni and Southwest Bolivia

Upon arriving in Uyuni (an hour and a half earlier than expected! what a treat!), we were able to meet up with friends Mike and Penny, and book a three-day tour of the Salar de Uyuni with them! Nine people (the seven of us, plus a driver and a ´cook´) crammed into a jeep for three days, and it was actually more comfortable than it sounds!

The salar tour was absolutely amazing, i have never seen such a variance in landscape in such a short amount of time, where the landscapes have only one thing in common -- a seemingly otherworldly quality. As Phil said, it was a bit like something you would expect to see on the moon!

We first drove across the salt plains, which used to be a saline lake during prehistoric times. We drove to the Isla de Pescado (doesnt look anything like a fish, despite its name...), which was rocky and covered in huge cacti.



We then continued out of the salt plains and into the mountains. The entire trip was above 4000m, which likely contributed to the barren appearance of the landscape. We saw lots of Vicuñas (the ´wild, delicate´ cousin of the llama and alpaca) and lots of odd rock formations from wind.



We then visited a museum and archaeological site with some mummies buried in rock caverns, from about 1200AD. crazy! the climate has preserved some of them incredibly well.

The next day was laguna colorado (red lake) and... something else I cant remember. (sorry!) Oh flamingos! yes, flamingos. We saw lots of really cool flamingos.

Our final day was an early start, to see some active geysers and then to Laguna Verde, right on the Bolivia-Chile border. The mountains all throughout the region are gorgeous, with multicolored rock and often some snow (!).

Dino Tracks in Sucre

Well, I am a bit behind here in the blog... last week we were in Sucre and in Potosi. Sucre is a gorgeous town that seems really international and ... well, relatively wealthy for Bolivia. While there, besides stuffing our faces with gorgeous food, we hopped on the Dino Truck, which took us out to a nearby cement quarry. They have discovered a bunch of dinosaur tracks there, from both herbivores and carnivores, large and small, and it was really incredible to see! Quite a change from most of the things we have been doing and seeing here in South America. The unfortunate thing is that they are still dynamiting rock out of the quarry, and the prints are located on a really soft layer of sandstone... so this means that they are being eroded relatively quickly... not something that would occur if these prints were found at home, but that is Bolivia for you. (who knows, the cement quarry is probably owned by an international company or something!).

After a lovely time in Sucre, we moved on to Potosi (the highest city in the world, at about 4500m or something like that). Jon, Phil, and Andrea did a tour of the cooperative silver mine in Potosi, while Ave and I had a lazy, relaxing morning and did odds-and-ends jobs. Potosi was cold! We then hopped on a bus to Uyuni.

Bolivia - Maps and pictures of the Pampas

Hey kids!! Barb is going to use her fantastic writing skillz to fill you in on our trip to the Pampas, but I thought I would upload some pictures since it always takes forever to do so. Here is a map of Bolivia so you can follow along if you´d like. We crossed the border around Lake Titikaka, headed to Copacabana, then to La Paz. We flew to Rurrenabaque for the Pampas trip (very scary flight, with lightning flashing outside of our window when we were in the air, Phil´s arm was probably tingly because of my amazing grip on it), then yesterday we flew back to La Paz. We are taking an overnight bus to Sucre (dinosaur footprints!!) tonight, then going to Potosi (the world´s highest town), then to the Salar de Uyini to do a 3 day tour of the Salt Plains which lets us off right down by Laguna Verde so we can cross into Chile. From there, Barb and I set off in different directions, Barb is going down through Chile and we´re going right over to Argentina to check a few things out.

Okay, picture time! We saw heaps of wicked animals in the Pampas. First off is my personal favorite, the capybara. They are about 1 m high and are the biggest rodents in the world. When we were cruising down the lake, we saw two big ones come tearing out of the woods and dash directly into the water at top speed, about 3 m from our boat. It was awesome. We saw heaps of aligators (we even went on a night cruise where you can see hundreds of their eyes reflecting the light off the flashlights) and loads of different birds. We saw a tree full of spider monkeys and had a group of howler monkeys sit in a tree directly above our bathrooms and howl for about half an hour. Anyway, it was a wicked trip and well worth the state of complete ming we were in when we got back.