Day 149: Hotel Torres del Paine to Puerto Natales, Chile

Hi everyone
It was a bit disappointing this morning to wake up to find ourselves still socked in with cloud and mist. If you want to see what this special mountain range looks like, go and have a look at the McColl blog here:
http://2012ridearoundtheandes.blogspot.com/2012/11/el-calafate-torres-del-paine.html
We had a pretty gentle roll out of Torres del Paine. First Kiwi went and checked out his cousin.








Seemed pretty quiet. Kiwi wondered if he was stuffed?
The pack horses were waiting patiently for their trek up to the mountain camps.








Meanwhile Kiwi checked out these ladies from Belgium and France. One a teacher and one a doctor.




Ellen quite liked the idea of being a biker.




We got a tantalising glimpse of the famous peaks as we headed off down the gravel road




making sure we were going the right way.




We had thought we might camp along the way but there was really nowhere very nice.




And so we kept going to Puerto Natales. Love the corrugations!






We filled up with petrol and I attempted to top up my rear tyre but somehow ended up bleeding the air out. I had to top up on the side of the road. I could have been more pleased.




We then found a hotel. It is ok and quite a lot less expensive than the very ordinary hotel we were in last night. Here's the view from the deck...




where we sat and had a beer.




while the girls waited patiently down below.




We then went out for dinner. I remembered to take my camera. This is the raw fish. Ok but not enough coconut cream for me.




This was my lamb.




And we were all happy chappies. Mostly.




Today's run: 138kms
Cumulative: 37,831kms
Tipovers: 5

Location:Puerto Natales, Chile

Day 148: El Calafate, Argentina to Hotel Las Torres, Patagonia, Chile

Hi folks
We are in the Torres del Paine national park. We should be tenting but it is raining and blowing so we are in a velly velly expensive Chilean pub. We had a slow and gentle exit from the Santa Monica apartments at around 9am having had long showers and leisurely breakfasts. It was then a quick and dirty blast down a sealed road sitting on around 125kph to Esperanza where we gassed up, had a coffee and met lots of people on buses.



These ones are from Israel.



Kiwi was a bit po to find he wasn't allowed in the coffee shop. We ignored it!



We then zoomed off down another sealed road to Cancha Carrera where we exited Argentina and re-entered Chile. Lots of queues and paperwork. Boring! We had some lunch there amongst the bus passengers. Then across to Cerro Castillo and onto the gravel for the 100kms up to the national park. The rain was building up now so we were travelling pretty slowly in the gravel. We came up on these Guanacos on the side of the road.


Spitting!






These are the animals that I previously referred to as vicuña or as llamas. They are in the same family obviously (along with camels) but are a species of their own. An endangered animal, we were told it was the only species in the family that cannot be domesticated.



That took us up to the entrance to the national park; proper name: Parque Nacional Torres del Paine.






We went up a relatively gnarly dirt and gravel road to this flash pub. It was quite cool now, wet and windy so, being wooses, we decided to check in thinking that tomorrow we will camp. Probably. Or maybe the next day. It was painful on the wallet but we did it anyway.

Mark went across to a grocery store and bought some beer and we are now sitting, having a rain and watching the beer fall. It feels pretty good. We caught up with D&D and went for the buffet dinner. Not bad. And a bottle of pinto noir. Not bad either.
:-)

That will be about that.

Today's run: 353kms
Cumulative: 37,693 kms
Tipovers: 5

Location:Hotel Las Torres, Patagonia, Chile

Day 147: a trip to Perito Moreno glacier

Hi everybody,
We were tourists today. And now it's late so I am going to let my photos tell the story. I'm sorry that they are not great but my camera struggled to cope with the sharp light contrasts.
We were woken up at 6am and breakfast arrived at 6.30. We made a cut lunch with ham and cheese and added some fruit and hard boiled eggs and met the bus at 7.30. We then drove all over town picking up other people.




Our tour guide and driver got stuck into the mate.




We drove around the lake past some fabulous mountain ranges for about 50kms




before our first glimpse of the glacier.




The bus offloaded us for a 90 minute viewing time on a set of platforms.








The glacier itself was this amazing combination of blues with dirt streaks.








I hadn't realised before how noisy glaciers were. Every now and then a piece would break off with a loud crack and lumps of ice would cascade down into the lake below. Often by the time the sound got to you, the lump of ice had already hit the water.




Kiwi thought it was ok.




I tried some panorama shots.








We were then taken down to the wharf and on board the boat.




Along the bay




And up to the face of the glacier itself.












We were then offloaded to prepare for our walk on the ice. Mark and Dick.




The views were great.








Then it was time for the crampons. Kiwi supervised. They seemed to be doing it right.








And then we headed off up the ice.
























Down this slope.




And down this hole. It was plurry deep fullas.




The blue cracks in the ice were fantastic.








Then at the end of the walk we had whisky with three million year old ice. Go Kiwi.




I got so excited I spilled half of mine in the ice. Bother!






We then walked off the glacier and through a bush track back to the main hut. Kiwi found these Ladies Slippers.




And then back on the boat. Again the boat took us across the gave of the glacier.








Goodby glacier.




We climbed back on the bus and it was so nice and warm and comfortable and warm and whisky and comfortable and warm that I woke up with only 10kms to go back to town.
That was our day. For a change we had meat for dinner. Lamb this time.,we saw roasted vegetables on the menu so we ordered them. And got: roasted potato, roast kumara, roast pumpkin and roast onion. It would appear that green vegetables have not yet been heard of in Argentina. But the grilled lamb was delicious! It arrived grilled and on a charcoal griller at out table. Delicioso!
Back into Chile tomorrow and camping in a national park so may be out of touch for a while.
Now I'm tired. I have to walk into town to a cafe that has wifi strong enough to post this. Good night. :-)
Today's run: 0kms
Cumulative: 37,340
Tipovers: 5

Location:Calafate, Argentina