Stuck in Coyhaique

Well, we are still in Coyhaique for a reason that you will discover later (can`t announce the news to the world quite yet, but soon...). It´s nothing bad though, we promise.

Anyway, since the last post, we discovered that receiving mail while travelling is incredibly difficult, so we`ve basically given up hope of getting a new phone from my folks along with the music and potential cookies that were going to come. However, I managed to get a Chilean identification number which allowed me to purchase a pay as you go phone sim card and stick it in a full priced Samsung Galaxy S3 that I bought at a phone store (Sierra and I can now do that bluetooth bump and share pictures thing that everybody probably saw commercials for. Stoked!) So we have a foreign phone number and a phone that is capable of downloading music and surfing the internet, etc.

Also, we`ve discovered Cafe Ricer which is a pretty good restaurant that sources all of its ingredients from local producers, has a mean vegetarian sandwich, amazing bread, and a hearty meal of the day that`s pretty delicious. We have eaten lunch and gotten coffee there several times now, and it also has internet so you might call us regulars there. While we were walking back to our hostal about a week ago now, we ran into a couple of Israelis who we met along the trail while we were hiking Paso del Viento, and a guy travelling from Wyoming who was hanging out with them. They had just hitched from El Chalten and around Lake General Carrera through Chile Chico about a day behind us. We got a couple of drinks with them at Mamma Gaucho`s, a local craft brewery, and chatted for a bit about their plans and where the guy from Wyoming was going to grad school. They told us about a hike in the Cerro Castillo park, and we came up with some trekking plans because it sounded like a pretty amazing trip (one of the top 5 in Patagonia according to some guidebook).

The following day we attempted to get to the park, but due to some complications ended up just camping out of town. Bummer.

One of the cars everyone was gathered to see

The next day we came back into town and discovered there was a rally car race that was going on the following 2 days in Coyhaique, which sounded pretty fun, but would require us to stay in town even longer. But, there were lots of vendors and a huge stage set up in the middle of the town square, so we hung around town and met a brewer from about 65km out of town who was selling his beer at the event. We had lots to talk about, tried some of his beer (word of the day lúpulo), and hung around the square most of the day. I found a place selling Cuban Cohibas and bought a couple as we watched this event where rally cars basically just drove in circles around the square and we saw many young boys literally being dragged away by their parents as the night got later, crying to stay and watch. Fortunately, as the event was winding down, we found ourselves in front of Mamma Gaucho`s, so we popped inside to end the night.

Bravo Beer, with a cute little toque!

We went to the upstairs bar, which had only been open for a couple of weeks and ended up meeting a couple old Chilean dudes who were in the energy business. Most of the people around here have bumper stickers and signs on their businesses supporting `Sin Represas`, the organization that is fighting the installation of dams around the Patagonia region of Chile. Being in the energy business, these two had an interesting (albeit pro-dam) perspective. One of them owned a cattle ranch in the area with a lot of untouched forest where he hunts and enjoys the native Lenga trees. This guy was clearly very wealthy as he was leaving to cruise on his second yacht in Fiji around the world until October when his cows give birth. He told us about how huge fires raged through the region in the 1930`s, which is why there are so many non-native ponderosa pines planted in the area in order to grow quick and re-forest the land (Acacia does not buy it, though. Historically, perhaps, but now a lot of the pine plantations are being pruned, a huge investment to grow clear wood). He seemed pretty against logging in the area. The other guy, however, was the minister of energy (or something) for Coyhaique. He had a lot to say about how the dams would be the only totally clean form of energy that Patagonia could produce (although wind seems pretty available down here?), and that most of the people against the dams don`t want the `progress' associated with the large construction projects and increased industry that the dams will generate. Another component, though, which I was unaware of, is that in a decade or so other parts of Chile will start demanding water from the region which will require dams anyway, so he seemed to think the dams were pretty inevitable. He did have an interesting perspective on local populations causing protests and blocking projects from happening, and felt that the real way to deal with projects in the area is to talk directly with the local populations and get them on board rather than deal higher up politically, because Chileans have less respect for government than in the U.S. and will block projects they don`t like . He seemed to think the local action was generally a good thing because its a true representation of how the people feel, which seems like a fairly unique position for someone in his position. In other news, he is trying to go to Toronto to pitch an investment opportunity for producing rain in a giant blimp type thing with an electrically charged steel mesh that would attract water and could produce precipitation over any area in the world. Interesting fellows. They also bought us pizza and beer, so at least I dug them.

The following day we caught an 8am bus going south past the Cerro Castillo park. We got dropped off on the side of the freeway where the trailhead was. We immediately cooked some oatmeal for breakfast and admired the pretty epic view out into the valley.

Looking toward the park from the trailhead

A bridge on a bridge

Enough for 4 days? Imagine if John had gone shopping by himself. Yes, there are two bottles of hot sauce, 6 heads of garlic, and two kilos of flour.

While we were cooking breakfast a gaucho riding his horse along with 3 sheep dogs and a greyhound rode by us and went and moved some cattle around. We followed behind him about 30 minutes later. The first part of the trek wandered gradually up along a gravel road that crossed many property lines through gaucho territory. There were lots of cattle, which we had to scare off the trail several times by clapping loudly and hoping they didn`t charge us. Also, fall colors were out! The valleys and mountainsides were covered in amazing reds, oranges, and yellows. After a few miles we came to a set of steps that walked up over a fence and back down into the national park where there was a ranger station, a really crummy map, and a sign saying we had to pay 10 bucks to enter the park. Pshh! Well, nobody was there to collect, so we continued within the national park to the first campground that was at another ranger station which was definitely closed for the season. We had pushed on through lunch, so devoured some pretty crappy mac n cheese and then hung out in the campground and drank a beer from the brewer we had met the day before. After looking at the map and determining that this entire trek was 4 days, but only like 3 hours of hiking each day, we decided it didn´t make sense to press on and set up our tent and had the campground all to ourselves. It was pretty nice. We played some backgammon, and I fell asleep suuuuper early because it was rainy, cold, and dark outside.

Our campsite in the morning

The next morning I woke up kind of early, made some pancake batter and set that out to let it rise a bit while I made cowboy coffee. After hanging out in the sun and making a bunch of pancakes, I lit my second cigar of the trip and wrote a letter. After finishing my cigar and cleaning up breakfast I shaved. Then Acacia woke up. We hung out in the sun a bit longer and kind of just lounged around for another hour or so. By the time we started our hike it was around 2 in the afternoon, and we were embarking on our super easy hike through the valley, áll downhill´ according to the guy from the Northface shop.  After about half a kilometer we got to a super nice view, confirmed with a sign that just had an image of a camera on it, in a glacial river surrounded by mountains. So we hung out there some more, watched a couple of condors flying around, and then began walking again.

Except our super easy downhill hike was having a lot of uphill. And then only uphill. I´ve never done so much uphill for a ´downhill´ hike in my entire life. We were not mentally prepared for this. Anyway, we kept going up, following the river up a valley for some super nice views of fall colored, glacier capped mountains.

Rock throwing

Add caption

John trying to blend in

After a few hours we reached the top of a pass that had a decent amount of snow on it. It was also kind of steep at some parts, and we weren´t really sure the best way to cross the snow. Acacia tried sliding down on a rock (like in Ice Age) and I tried using a couple sharp rocks as ice picks.

John WAAAAY up on the mountain

We ended up just walking carefully. Not too long after the pass was a sign that indicated we had reached the campground. So, even though I was really hot wearing my sweater, I decided to keep it on since we were almost at camp. But then we had to cross some streams along log bridges. And then there was another picture spot with a nice view. Then we had to cross a big river with an actual bridge. Then I decided to take my sweater off because the campground was clearly not close. 50 feet later, around the next bend, I found Acacia unpacking on the table at camp. Such a deceptive day. We made our classic mango rice dish for dinner and some hot-honey-rum beverage and played some backgammon. Acacia gave me a pretty hard time about how we were going to manage the bagged honey that I had bought, which, admittedly, was not one of my better decisions. It was a clear night and so we could see some solid stars, and it didn´t even get that cold.

I woke up pretty early again the next day and made pancakes and coffee again.

Breakfast on a rock in the river in the sun. Some of Acacia's favorite things.

Although Acacia was up a bit earlier and we left the campground around noon. Today was supposed to be pretty short, around 8 km, but over a pass. As we were going up the mountain we stopped at a stream fed from a glacial lake that had a waterfall down at least a hundred meters to the trail. We decided it was a pretty good spot to do some off trail trekking.

Across the valley at the hill we would climb later

We climbed up the scree along the side of the waterfall and up to the lake where we sat in the sun for a bit, Acacia mountain babed, and we had some amazing views over the valley. But, it got windy and cold, so we headed back down. About 20 minutes later we got to another lake, and decided it was a good lunch spot. Our first lunch in 3 days...weird!?

Anyway, we ate lunch and then continued up the side of the lake towards where we thought the pass was, and dropped our packs to climb up one of the peaks next to the pass. It was an amazingly good idea, because from the peak you could see the entire valley we had been hiking through, both lakes we had seen, and the other side of the park out into the valley where the town Villa Cerro Castillo was, the spot where our trek would end, and the huge Rio Simpson that feeds into Lake General Carrera. It was one of the most epic views of the trip.

Our lunch lake 

We took a bunch of pictures, but when it was time for a timed camera shot of the both of us, our camera died :( Sad day. As we were headed up to where we thought the pass was, we realized that we were actually going to a much higher pass. Plus it got much higher than the peak we had just climbed, so turns out our map was pretty inaccurate. By the time we had gotten over the real pass, it was around 6, and the sun was on the other side of the mountain on its way down. Acacia, with her low battery headlamp, was booking it down the mountain so as to avoid being caught in the dark. It was steep! And it was large loose boulders. And it was like 1250 meters down to the campground. After about an hour and a half of pounding our knees flying down this mountain, we lost the trail and were definitely on a deer trail of some sort. We got back to the trail, and then followed it for another 30 minutes or so when we both had the feeling that we must have missed the campground. But how could that be? All the other ones had hugs signs and warnings like a quarter mile before getting to them. Noo, we couldn´t have missed it. Then it got dark enough to require headlamps, so we got those out and peered at the map, which certainly indicated we had gone passed the campground. New plan! Hike down to where the trail gets flat enough to camp and reaches the river in the valley we were in, pitch a tent, cook dinner, and crash! As soon as dinner was eaten, Acacia was out. Before me? First time this trip maybe?

Today was supposed to be a day hike up a side trail from the campground we were supposed to be at. Since we didn´t want to backtrack, and since that trail wasn´t that good anyway, we decided we would hang out by the river all day. It was pretty fun. I got up for the sunrise, then made my morning coffee and pancakes. I smoked another cigar by the river, and wrote a couple more letters. We spent the whole day juggling, lounging, practicing headstands, eating food, and stretching our sore muscles. It was pretty fun.

The next day we walked the 8km or so to Villa Cerro Castillo. It had rained literally the entire night, but stopped as soon as we started walking. So that was pretty nice. We had a pretty late start, as usual, but it was a short distance along a flat gravel road most of the way. Fairly uneventful except for the dead rotting cow carcas along the road. Gross. We got to town at the exact time the bus we were trying to catch into Coyhaique was going by, which was pretty miraculous considering my watch, phone, and camera (everything to tell time) had died. We caught it and headed back.

We`ve spent the last couple days here showering, doing laundry, uploading pictures, and writing blogs. Hopefully we´ll head north tonight

Los Antiguos and beyond!

We arrived in Los Antiguos, AR kinda late, and were planning on being dropped off by the bus at a hostel, so we assumed that's where we would stay. Turns out everyone had the same plan, so they were full before we got there. And so was everywhere else in town. We met a couple from Prince George (I was diggin their Canadian accents) and a single British lady who were in the same boat we were in so we all wandered the town together. Eventually everyone continued on, but we gave up and bought what we hoped to be a cheap pizza (nope) and a beer. The people at the table next to us recognized John's hat... the dorky one we bought in Brazil to rep CA... from when we crossed them on the trail to Laguna de Los Tres. They were two guys in their late 20s from Mar del Plata, Argentina, a bit south of Buenos Aires, both named Diego. After chatting a bit they offered us a ride to the campground that we realized was our only option, about 2 km outside of town. After the meal, we piled in to the back of their sedan with our bags, since their trunk was full and drove to the campground. The reception was closed so we just chose a campsite near the Canadians, who had walked, but as we were setting up Diego came over and offered us the other two bunks in the cabaña they had already rented. Free beds, not having to unpack our bags, and good company!? Duh! We joined them in their cabaña and they pulled out their 2 liters of ¨the best beer in AR¨and a shiner from Mendoza, AR´s wine country, so we had a pretty nice night. The next morning they took off to continue their adventure, but left us with the left over alcohol, which we of course packed up in our waterbottle (who needs water!?) and wandered to the bus station to find a way to cross the border into Chile Chico, Chile. We were there early, so we set up the campstove and made fried eggs with onions and peppers and then took the bus a whole 9 km to Chile Chico.

We arrived in Chile Chico after the Google bag aka our pantry was searched at the border. We lost our ginger, garlic, honey, and half an onion. So sad. We gotta get better at.... eating it all before the border!? We were dropped off at the plaza in Chile Chico, checked out Lago General Carrera, the second biggest lake in South America and then got lunch and a coffee at a place that was rumored to have good coffee. It was better, but not really good. After the tourist office, where we got a map of the Carretera Austral, we walked to a campground we saw on the way in to town. There was no one there so we planned our next move with a couple cats for company. After a bit the family who owned it came back and said they were pretty closed for the season, but since we were there we could camp and they would open up the bathroom and the shower. AND THAT WE COULD HAVE AS MANY APPLES OFF OF THEIR TREES AS WE WANTED. So, you know, we feasted. After planning, apples, frisbee, sunshine, apples, beer, cats, apples, and planning we grabbed some groceries for dinner and had our first peanut butter sighting! And therefore purchase. Dinner was polenta round 2, super tasty this time too, this time with mussels and mushrooms. For dessert we had some apple bread pudding. About as good as the apple cobbler (as in the best ever). The next morning we mailed some letters, played some internet, and attempted to use the ATM, without luck. Then we waited for a ride out of town.

The second car that passed picked us up and took us about 2 hours down a gravel road around the lake. It was a fantastic day with some epic views. We were dropped off in a tiny town called where we waited, ate, and waited. After 4 hours there was maybe one car going in our direction and they were full. When it came, we decided to hop on a neighborhood van that took us to the next town, Puerto Gaudal, which was supposed to have another bus leaving from it in two days heading south. Everything was closed, since it is the end of the season. Someone may or may not have told John we could camp on the lake, so we headed that way. We ended up on a peninsula overlooing the lake in a strange abandoned park/art installment and saw a nice sunset. Someone had also told John that there was a bus at the crossroads that were 15 km away at 9 am, so we decided there was no chance of making that. We opted to wake up at a reasonable hour, at sunrise, and continue our walking and hitchhiking combo. We got picked up pretty quick and were driven to the crossroads where we sat and ate (apples and olives) and read and sewed and enjoyed the weather and sat and sat and juggled. 2 hours later, no luck. The first car going south picked us up. We thought they were going the entire distance we wanted to go, but actually they were only going another 10 or so km down the road to Puerto Bertrand. We waited there for about an hour before we decided it was way too nice out and that we were going way too slow (at this point slower than walking) so we bailed on our Southern hopes of Tortel and Patagonia National Park and went to camp near Lago Bertrand near another apple tree.We spent the afternoon on the shores of the lake playing backgammon and enjoying the views. I was wearing all of my layers (2 fleeces and a down coat) while John went for a swim. Crazy. Around dark a couple guys biking the Carretera Austral joined us at the campground, one from Santiago, the other from Chicago. We were a bit envious of their bikes, and freedom, but were distracted by the pressing task of making apple cobbler. John made the topping while I carmelized some apples. We constructed our most successful dessert yet and exercised some extreme self control to save the other half for breakfast.

We woke up to rain and wind around sunrise, packed up, discovered that our dessert had been eaten, and rushed to meet the bus that comes around 9 mas o menos. At least after 8 and before 10... so we got there at 8:50. We kept hearing phantom vehicles, really the wind, and finally caught the bus around 9:30 heading North the Coyhaique. For this entire adventure we had little cash, since the ATM in Chile Chico didn´t work and every other town was so small. We had planned on making it to Cochrane, a town in the South, to get cash, but since we had abandoned those plans we were still empty handed. Our new plan was to hope there was a bank near the bus station when we arrived so that we could pay for the bus tickets.

Bad news: there wasn't. Good news: it didn´t matter! Our bus fare was about 5 times cheaper than the previous one. We had enough cash to cover it and walked across town to find the cheapest hostel in our guide book, which didn't exist anymore, so we walked all the way back to the bus station area and asked every hostel their price. After settling, we came up with our plan for Coyhaique, the first city of any size in a month or so. Taxes! Woooooooooooo. Not.

We have been here too long now. And spent too long on the computer. John was successful, I had to file for an extension in the US and have to file by the end of the month on paper for Canada. On the bright side, we are tax experts, you get more updates from us (Moms! and Cali!! Get off facebook and study), we bought a camera because ours broke pretty much the second the plane landed in Brazil and has only been getting worse, we researched how to receive mail from the Vivio household with a new phone but no cookies, and met some nice people. I am very ready to go, though. Maybe South to Reserva Nacional Cerro Castillo or maybe North to Parque Nacional Queulat.

El Chaltén and Paso del Viento

Written by Acacia-obviously, because of the formatting struggle.


We made our bus connection easily, even though we were loaded down by all of the groceries (we had planned for 9 days of meals, but John got bread and cheese for literally months). We had been planning on free camping, but after arriving found out that doesn´t exist anymore. Luckily we found the cheapest hostel we have stayed in yet, $8 a night. El Chaltén is incredibly scenic, with views of Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy, which are the mountains on all the Patagonia posters you have ever seen, We met some guys at our hostel who had just completed the Paso del Viento trek and told us all about it. To summarize: few trails, glaciers, river crossings, 2 mountain passes, and most importantly, few people.

The next day after our usual pancake breakfast we set off on a hike to Lago Torre, even though we had a hunch the weather wasn´t going to be stellar. About an hour into our hike we got to a look out, where we couldn´t see much because of the clouds, fog, rain, and wind we were walking into. Unfortunately, John realized that he had forgotten his raincoat (with important things in the pocket of it, like tent stakes) at the bus stop in Calafate, now 250km away. We toughed out the rain, and made it to Lago Torre in half the time the map suggested, saw the lake with an ice berg in it and a bit of the glacier across the lake, but not much else because of the weather, and then scrambled back to lunch out of the wind and rain. We hung around town for the rest of the day, and made an appearance at the local brewery, obviously. The beer wasn´t anything exciting, but the restaurant did serve popcorn at every table. I was stoked.

The next day we had planned to leave for the Paso del Viento trek, but John was fighting a cold, and the weather still wasn´t supposed to be fantastic, so we decided to hang around town again. We walked a couple km to a waterfall, and enjoyed listening to the water and laying in the sun. I had been craving a lounge sesh in the sun with a solid coffee, so after returning to town we checked every restaurant for some sunny (but hopefully not windy) seating. The place we settled on was sunny, but the coffee was terrible. We read (John too, really!!) and wrote and played some cards. Then we decided we should probably find a baked good, so went to another store and got something like a brownie with nuts and dried fruit on top and something like a slice of pecan pie. While there, we ended up watching a Bolivia v Argentina soccer match, which turned our little coffee shop into a sports bar. The game was close the whole time, but the people who gathered to watch weren´t the typical crazed fans, they were just there to hangout so there were only a few occasions where it became necessary to yell at the tv. After the match we ran up a hill to watch the sunset behind Cerro Fitz Roy.

The next day after stashing some stuff at our hostel we set off on day one of our Paso del Viento trek. We set off on a pretty fast pace, cruising up and up and up. Turns out we gained about 500m on a slow and steady uphill. It was sunny and the perfect hiking temperature, and there wasn´t anyone else on the trail! Finally. On the upper parts of the hill the Nothofagus forests were changing color. After the slow climb we had a quick descent into the Rio Túnel valley and made our way to the Lago Toro campsite. The weather turned pretty quickly after we arrived so after struggling to find a campsite without any dead branches above us (definitely avoiding the near death experience from this summer) we set up pretty quickly and sat around drinking hot beverages and reading. I was woken up in the middle of the night by the nearly full moon rise. It was still windy out and the clouds were low, so from my perspective they were moving super fast across the sky, and were completely illuminated by the moon. Pretty incredible. 

The fall colors and Rio Túnel looking towards Lago Toro 

 The next day the weather was back to being sunny and beautiful we walked around Lago Toro where we met up with 4 guys who were attempting the first river crossing. I went to check out potential crossings upstream, because where they were crossing looked okay, but there was a rock wall on the other side that they were going to have to climb over and above, which I wasn´t really into. I found an alright spot upstream and prepared for the crossing (pants off, Birkenstocks on) This time my mom saving the day by sending me to South America with her old sandals. Seriously. I´m so stoked they are what I decided to bring so versatile. Anyway, it was really cold and painful and difficult and terrible. John wasn't as lucky, he went shoeless because the current was pretty strong and he was worried about his sandals washing away. We made it, and spent a bit of time groaning as the blood slowly started flowing again.

Ready for a river crossing

In the top right you can see the glacier that the river was flowing out of

 After a bit more climbing we reached the glacier. Whoa. There was a huge cave in the face of it, all made out of ice, obviously, but seriously, the craziest thing.

We climbed up some rock next to the glacier and scouted out our crossing. We decided that the safest route would be sticking to the crumbly rock next to the glacier, which was actually a thin layer of crumbly rock on top of ice. We reached a point where sidehilling wasn´t gonna cut it, the bank was too unstable, so we switched to the ice, and then had to find a way off of it. After some slow going (but staying safe, Moms!) we spotted a place where the rocks were more secure, and gained as much elevation as we could and reached a perfect lunch spot with amazing views just above a lake, where the guys from the morning finally caught up. Turns out we were all going to have a cozy night together in the refugio at the end of the day, so after introductions we went our separate ways.

After lunch we had our biggest climb to Paso del Viento (just at 1415m). During the climb our lunch views just got more amazing

The bottom right is the glacier we had skirted around that morning.

Paso del Viento was amazing. Contrary to its name, it wasn´t windy at all.  We were looking down on the Southern Patagonia Ice Field and Glacier Viedma, while sipping some hot chocolate. Below is a panorama that I can´t make into a panorama.

We crossed to the other side of the pass and walked for about 2 more hours to the refugio, where we dropped our packs and scrambled to watch the sunset with some more hot beverages. We made paella that night, which was surprisingly tasty (with the addition of sundried tomatoes and dried mushrooms). Our roommates for the night made some apple dessert, which inspired us to attempt something like an apple cobbler at our next campsite. 

The next day was windy, but clear. I was wearing all my rain gear to keep warm, though. There was ice on the edges of the lakes and the air was crisp and cold. It felt more like early winter than early autumn. We had an easy 15km or so before the second pass of the trip, Paso Huemul.

Looking towards the pass in the top right. 

John at Paso Huemol

Acacia at Paso Huemol, braced against the wind.

 After crossing over the pass we had an incredibly steep descent that was brutal on the knees, but also some amazing views of Lago Viedma, complete with icebergs from Glacier Viedma.

We rushed to our last campsite once it got flat, hoping to catch a bit of the sun that was left, since it had set below the mountain we were up against for most of the day. We were camped near a bay on Lago Viedma, in a stand of trees that were tall enough to protect from the wind and not blow over on us!, but short enough to let us catch some golden autumn light. With our daylight left we had some more hot beverages and lounged around reading (again, John too! How crazy!?) and then made some pesto rice with sundried tomatoes. Yum. Also on this trek, I realized that we have been eating twice as much as we normally do for dinner when we are trekking with Daniel and Sierra, since regardless of if we are 4 or 2 we always fill our dinner pot when we cook (so come visit, guys! We have enough food!). No complaints on the food here, though. We decided to skip dessert and make the apple concoction for breakfast. 

After breakfast, which was somewhere between apple sauce with granolla and apple cobbler (super tasty). We started our last day, which was completely trail-less through a pampas like landscape. This was the part of the trek that we had been warned was a bit tricky, because there were few control points for finding our way, and the guys who advised us ended up with very wet feet trying to cross swampy areas.  We managed to avoid any soakers by staying high and on slopes and easily found the ridge where we needed to turn and walk down a river bank to Lago Viedma. Piece of cake. We were steadily climbing most of the day, without a view of the lake.Once we rounded the hill, though, we were rewarded with a view of the lake, all the way to the horizon.

Glacier Viedma from near our campsite

John´s proof that he was reading 

Looking back after a bit of a climb. Paso Huelmol is the pass right before it shoots up (center right). Glacier Viedma in the distance, and the bay we camped near the night before  

Our view of Lago Viedma after climbing out of the river bed

Lago Viedma, as far as the eye can see!
At this point we could see the bay, where our trek would end and we would hitchhike back to town, but also our final river crossing. It was the outlet of Rio Túnel, the same river we had crossed as it poured out of the glacier. We weren´t excited.

John growling (perhaps?) at the river crossing

This one wasn't nearly as bad though, the water had warmed up and we found a spot where a bridge used to be that still had a cable across it. So easy we didn´t even need to take pictures! We finished the trek and after a bit of juggling practice with rocks from the side of the road we caught a ride back into town with a guy who had just finished a bike race nearby . 

Back in town we bought some celebratory craft beer. John was disappointed when he tried something new, and I stuck with what I have found to be the best beer in Argentina, Antares' Imperial Stout.

We had a day to kill to wait for our bus, we were considering hitchhiking, but Ruta 40 doesn´t have much traffic this time of the  year, so instead we spent our last day on another day hike to Lago de Los Tres, which seemed to be the busiest trail in the park. For a reason though, it was beautiful. 

The next morning we discovered John's phone, with all of our pictures and music was stolen. We were pretty down, but there was nothing to do about it, so we caught our bus and spent the day traveling to Los Antiguos, Argentina.

Breaking this long post up into two in case I don´t finish before we have to leave on our next adventure...

The next morning we were supposed to get up at like 6:45, or some really early time. And, as it´s becoming winter in Patagonia, in doesn´t get light out until 8 or so, and waking up in the dark to get out of your warm sleeping bag and pack in the cold morning darkness is really hard. So we ended up waking up closer to 7:15 and scrambling to take down our tent, pack our bedding, and pack our huge bags in like 20 minutes so we could run through town to catch our 8am bus to the Glacier Perito Moreno.

This was an expensive visit to a chunk of ice. The bus was all tourists, so pretty pricey, and they didn´t tell us about the 35 dollar fee to enter the park on the bus, which was paid about half way along the busride so you didn´t have much of an option there. Fortunately we had the last of the squash bread to eat for breakfast on the busride to keep our sprits lifted. When we did get to the entrance of the glacier viewing area, we could tell right away this was touristy and not so much up our alley. There were 4km of boardwalk that zig-zagged its way along the cliff across the water from the glacier. It was fairly cold, but since we had taken the earliest bus there, mostly so we could catch a bus later that day to El Chalten, we did have the viewing area mostly to ourselves in the beginning of the day. What makes this glacier unique is that its one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world, at about 2 meters per day. Tons (literally) of ice fell off this glacier, and it made the loudest noises echoing against the cliffs we were on. At one point we heard some loud creaking and moaning from the glacier, so sprinted to a good viewing spot and saw a chunk of ice as big as a seqouia fall off into the glacial lake. It was a pretty amazing siting, but the only one of epic proportions that we saw all day. As it got later in the morning, busloads of tourists began to fill up the viewing area, so we made lunch with some hardboiled egg and cheese sandwhiches and then headed up to the cafe at the top. We got ourselves some Irish coffees in the warmth, played some cards, and waited for about an hour and a half for our bus back to El Calafate. We jumped back on the bus, and in El Calafate connected with a bus north to El Chalten.

Alright! We`re back!

We rested another day or two in Punta Arenas, which included a birthday cake, dark chocolate raspberry cheesecake made in a pot and a jenky oven with no controls, for Acacia complete with candles and singing. We even shared a bit of it with our friendly hostal owner, Eduardo, who was very impressed. The next day we had an early bus to catch for Puerto Natales, a small touristy town near Torres del Paine national park in Chile. Since we were trying to go to the park quickly after arriving in Puerto Natales, we did some grocery shopping at the ´Zona Franca´, or duty free zone, in Punta Arenas for an 8 day trek on our last day there. This meant that we could no longer fit all of our stuff and food in our packs by any stretch of the imagination, especially since my bag was on it´s 3rd set of sewing repairs to hold it together. After eating a large homemade Eduardo breakfast, with eggs and all, we grabbed our backpacks, the google bag full of food and some immediate bus entertainment, and two large bags of groceries and headed towards the bus. More than one Chilean was seen pointing and laughing at the loads we had. In any case, we made it to the bus with about 3 minutes to spare and ate our birthday cake leftovers and listened to our last ¨bottom of the bottle¨ podcast on our busride to Puerto Natales.

In Puerto Natales, Eduardo had already called a hostal to get us reservations and a discounted rate, as well as sold us tickets for a bus to pick us up the next morning, also for a discounted rate, right in front of the hostal. We walked over to the hostal with our Dutch friends, checked in, and immediately went on a second shopping journey for some more fresh groceries that weren´t at the store in ¨Zona Franca¨ and some camp stove fuel. We first checked all the outdoors shops in town (only a few blocks since the town was small) for the cheapest gas, possibly a new backpack for me (which never happened), and a pair of gaiters for Mike. At one of the stores we ran into a couple of guys, one from California and one from Germany (I think?), who invited us to go to the local brewery later that evening. Yes please! Then we headed towards ´Unimarc´, the town´s supermarket.

The general flow of grocery shopping for treks tends to go something like this:

John: We should definitely get this giant jar of dulce de leche and a bunch of bread and some bananas, and 2 dozen eggs.

Acacia: That´s going to be so heavy and we don´t need it!

John: It´s ok, I´ll carry it. But I guess we don´t need all of this. (Puts back one banana).

So, with a grocery cart full of food and libations (read: 1.5 liters of wine, 1 liter of beer, and a bottle of manioca liquor, all in glass containers as well as some beer for the rest of the afternoon) we made our giant purchase and then carried the massive load back to the hostal. Once there, Floris and Mike immediately turned into American white trash as we found them out back of the hostel, with shirts off and drinking beer in the sun, in front of a couple of beeter trucks. We all had a few beers in the backyard, which included a couple of Belgian beers imported to the grocery store in Puerto Natales that Floris was stoked on, and Acacia tried to figure out how to pay Canada some fee for health insurance or something. After a couple of beers and general success on Acacia´s part, we made some dinner. In the kitchen we met a couple of American girls who were about to embark on the same trek in Torres del Paine as us, but a couple days later, and we chatted about there experience in Argentina and Chile to get some pointers for our own travelling. Our dinner was some pretty quality lentil patties, and I sampled a meatball or two from the Dutch guys. After dinner, of course, we headed out to find the brewery! All we knew is that it was on the square, but we couldn´t seem to find it. Being the person who most wanted to find the brewery (or something?) I walked into the first open business I saw and eloquently asked ¨Donde esta el cerveceria?¨. Well, it worked well enough, and I was pointed across the square to the brewery. To the brewery we went! And we met the same couple guys from earlier in the outdoor shop. The Californian had been living in SF, and was travelling around because his job to afford living there as a loan specialist was too shitty. Anyway, the beer. Best beer in South America so far. We got a pitcher of the IPA, and Acacia and I were diggin it while the Dutch guys weren´t as stoked because it wasn´t a belgian. But, after somebody else did the reading on the menu, it turns out that the brewery was started by a few Chileans who visited a brewery in San Diego and got it started with one of the San Diego residents´pointers on the beer. Cheers to that! We didn´t have too much though, because we still had to pack for the trek tomorrow and had an early bus. We all wandered back to the hostal around midnight and proceeded to drunkenly pack and then go to bed.

The next morning, we woke up around 6:15, wolfed down the breakfast provided by the lady working at the hostal, who also got her older daughter ready for school while serving us and looking after her younger daughter, impressive! When the bus didn´t come at 7:00, we started getting worried, but the lady also called the bus company and informed us that the bus would just be a bit late. We placed all of our non-trekking items in a storage room at the hostal, and jumped on the bus to Torres del Paine around 7:20. After arriving in Torres around 10:30 (not the hour and a half we were told it would be) we were efficiently sent through the park entrance office and forced to pay a steep fee, USD $40 or something, watched a movie about how to behave in the park, and sign a waiver saying we would behave. Well, Acacia and I had about USD $10 total, so we turned to our Dutch buddies who lent us enough money and then some to pay for the campsites we were also forced to stay (and pay) at.

Day 1:

Immediately, we could tell this would be very different than our previous backpacking experience. This place was designed to handle visitors, a lot! And, of course, the campsites were set up at about 3/4 day length hikes for us to make us stay longer than we otherwise would have if we were allowed to backcountry camp, but a bit too far apart to make skipping a campsite very worth it. However, our bags were loaded with food! So the short days were really pretty nice. Super sunny, great weather, and a well maintained, relatively flat, trail the first day took us to a nice campground with a slackline out front and expensive bad wine for sale. Fortunately we had our own cheap bad wine, which I drank immediately after arriving because I noticed that an entire liter of oil had spilled all over the bottom of my pack and needed an immediate boost. We made a delicious cream cheese and garlic pasta. We also ran into a German guy who had been staying at our hostal in Ushuaia, who happened to be a very successfull mooch. That evening, he borrowed my spoon and used a bunch of our cooking set as a windblock for his after telling us how he had asked everyone in one of the other campsites for leftover food to live off of while in the park. The next morning he borrowed our tarp to roll his sleeping pad up on, and took about half a roll of duct tape of the Dutch guys. He was a friendly enough guy though.

Day 2:

For the first time this trip, someone got up before me while backpacking, Mike. Mike was so confused about this that he actually thought I was missing before deciding to check and see if I was in fact still sleeping, which woke me up. So, naturally, I made pancakes, complete with the improved backcountry recipe which included raw eggs and lots of butter. We had a pretty slow morning, and eventually left around noon for a 6 hour hike according to the map. The trail was pretty flat, but we went around a point along a large lake that was pretty exposed, so it was mighty windy. The views were pretty good, but mostly pampas and lakes with the mountains in the background. We stopped for lunch for like an hour and a half and made cheese/hardboiled egg/mustard sandwhiches (a lunch that was getting to become pretty common) and a spoonfull of dulce de leche. As we approached our camp for the night, we were pretty high above it on the side of a hill and could see a sizeable refugio and a bunch of tents just off a huge lake. The ¨Refugio Dickson¨campground and refugio (essentially a hotel with breakfast included in the middle of the trek) also sold wine and beer, and had a bunch of tables to cook at with open fields for camping. Immediately after arriving we noticed a billion mosquitos all around, so quickly set up the tent and just sat inside, away from biting bugs. Once the Dutch guys set up their 4 person tent, we all jumped in there for party time with a game of cards and a Floris concoction- manioca brandy, rum, sweet apple syrup, water mixed drink- we were all sharing. Once it got cold enough for the mosquitos to die down we all finished setting up the bedding/tents and made some dinner. It was at this point that I realized our spoon had been left on the side of the mountain during the spoonfulls of dulce de leche eating. Bummer, we were now utensil-less. So we used the Dutch guys´ utensils for the rest of the trip. I tossed them some pancakes in return. Afterwards, we were allowed to hang out in the refugio out of the cold, and then watched the night sky for some shooting stars and went to bed.

Day 3:

Well, if yesterday wasa slow morning, this one was even slower. I made pancakes again, to use up all the pancake ingredients. We all took hot showers at the refugio, and then hung out by the lake for a bit before deciding to begin the next day of our hike. By the map, this one was 4 hours, so taking it slow seemed like the thing to do. Similar to the day before, it was a lot of pampas and lakes. A bit less flat than the day before, but still a pretty easy hike, especially now that Acacia and I had been eating our way through a bunch of fresh fruits and vedgies and wine to make our packs lighter. Approaching camp we got to an alpine lake at the bottom of a large glacier, though we could only see a bit of it. We all sat for a bit at the top of the lake and just enjoyed the view for a while. But, it started to get cold so we walked the final 5-10 minutes into camp. This one was within a bunch of trees, and also cost money, but didn´t sell wine and didn´t have hot showers, so kind of a ripoff. Acacia tried to hide in the tent when the fee collector came by, but I didn´t catch on and ended up paying for both of us. Since it was St. Patrick´s day and all, we drank the Chilean IPA we brought along while making dinner, and then enjoyed the Floris concoction.

Day 4:

Today was definitely the hardest day. We had a big climb ahead of us as we were going from the valley floor where the campground was at over a pretty high pass. The hike basically went straight up through some forest and into alpine where it was basically then a couple miles up scree slope. The views were pretty epic, as we got higher and could see over the entire valley we had been walking through the last day and a half. There was some pretty crazy geology going on too, with a few really good anticlines (Mike has just finished his undergrad in geology in Holland). And so we climbed up, and up, and eventually reached the top of this pass where it was SUPER windy. So we walked just beyond the immediate top of the pass to where it was a little less windy, and had a fantastic view of a huge glacier, and prepared to gorge on hardboiled egg and cheese sandwhiches for about an hour and a half. Many people that we passed on the way up made it to the top, stopped and ate, and continued down while we were still eating lunch. It was a good feeling. The way down was pretty steep, and pretty long. It was roughly the same distance we had climbed up, but seemingly more steep, as indicated by the handrails and ropes installed on some parts of the trail. But, the views were even more epic! The valley at the bottom of the pass we just went over was currently being carved by one of the largest glaciers in the world, 14,000 square kilometers. Basically, it was really big. As all of our knees and ankles were nearly giving out going through the forest of Southern Beech trees lower on the mountain, we got to a sign that said we had about 2km to go with some more downhill. However, it was about 1km and all uphill, so bad sign. But we were all relieved to not be going downhill anyway. We arrived at the camp (our first free one) and looked around for a campsite and set up. As I was in the kitchen area preparing dinner, Acacia was setting up the tent and bedding, which is the usual delegation of work. But, Leif, an American from Minnesota who we met back in Ushuaia our last night in the hostal, ended up setting up camp right next to us! It´s crazy how many people we keep running into doing the similar travel itineraries to us. Leif´s a pretty friendly guy who had just finished a NOLS course learning to mountaineer in northern Patagonia for 30 days, had just hitched a ride on a sail boat to Isla Navarina, south of Ushuaia, with a french couple and trekked around there for a few days, and was planning on canoeing down the Mississippi when he got back to the U.S. We had a lot to talk about. I think this night was our last of the Floris concoction as well.

Day 5:

Today we got off to kind of an early start because we were going to try to skip one of the paid campgrounds in order to save money and so we could complete the trek with our dwindling provisions, aka way more than  everybody else had for the entire journey. Breakfast was oatmeal and biscuits, and I met a couple guys from California in the kitchen area, both middle aged and in the medical sales field, who were pretty envious of the biscuits. We packed up and headed off down the trail by like 11. In the AM, it was a record! It was a fairly gradual downhill hilke through the forest, so definitely one of the easier days. We stopped for lunch at a nice lookout spot over the glacier and met an older dude from Tasmania. Around 2 or 3, I can´t really remember, we got to the campground/refugio that we were skipping. This was the fist refugio that was part of ´The W´, a trek that was only 5 days by the map and included in the one we were doing, but gets WAY more backpackers because its easier and more accessible. With that said, the refugio was huge, had clean bathrooms, had a market that accepted credit cards and sold wine anc chocolate. So we took a long break at this one with the four of us splitting 3 liters of wine. While we were sitting in the sun enjoying the view of the mountains, Leif caught up to us and busted out his Pisco and joined the party. It was a pretty good time. After a while of hanging out there, the 5 of us all headed down the trail for the final 3 or 4 hours of our hike with a good buzz going. Fortunately, the trail was well used and easy to follow. It went through the forest a bit more, and then went down through a pampas covered canyon where it started to rain towards the last 10 minutes of the hike or so. We had been told that the refugio and campground we were going to was ¨The Disneyland of Torres del Paine¨, and that was pretty accurate. Loads of people, and a bunch of showers and bathroom, a large hotel, a restaurant, a market, and boarded walkways out to the campsites. We set up our tents to get things out of the rain pretty fast, and then entered the most crowded kitchen ever. There were 3 working stoves in there, but with about 70 people, most everyone was just cooking on their stoves in there. We made some pasta and bought some wine at the market and just hung out in the warmth and the tables in the kitchen area until 11 when we were kicked out to our tents. While we were in there, though, the craziest thing happened. Acacia thought she recognized someone as being from Montgomery, and I was guessing a Warren twin. So, after pressuring Acacia into asking ïs your last name Warren?¨, and me hearing the scream (not from Acacia, just to be clear) indicating that it was indeed a Warren, I walked over and we both talked to Brittany. Turns out she was studying abroad in Valpairiso, west of Santiago, and was down in Torres del Paine for her spring break with some other students or something. Small world. Anyway, 11 rolled around, and we got kicked out to head back to our tents. However, the Dutch guys cheap Walmart quality tent had snapped a tent pole in the wind and needed some repairs. We all kind of stood around and watched as Floris did his best to repair the tent with some duct tape, but it was in pretty bad shape. In any case, we all survived the night.

Day 6:

Woke up and made some oatmeal as well as noodles for later in the day since we could use the stoves in the kicthen instead of our fuel. Although we weren´t planning on skipping another campground, we were planning on doing a several mile hike to Campo Italiano, another free campground, and then do several miles up a valley to a lookout and back, so it was going to be a long day. We started sort of early, but the Dutch guys showered, and tried to repair their tent in the light, and we all said bye to Leif who was taking off farther north since he was flying back in a week or two. The hike to Campo Italiano was fairly easy, with some decent views over a big lake and eventually leading to a glacial river with a large bridge over it that was right at the entrance to the camp. Apparently this was the spot to camp because this was the most crowded campground yet, so even though we were there by like 2, we set up our tents just to secure a site, and make sure it was close to the kitchen. We ate some of our pasta, and then headed up the valley to the lookout. Floris was leading, and for some reason he was booking it! I had convinced people to bring more clothes than they wanted since we were going up in elevation to somewhat stormy looking weather while the sun was going down, so moving fast made everybody very warm. We de-layered, and then continued on up at a bit slower rate after stopping to drink some water from a stream and try to climb some good looking boulders. We stopped again for a bit most of the way to the top for a small snack, and ran into Brittany again as she was on her way down from the lookout. Turns out she got snowed on. Good thing we brought those extra layers. Anyway, about 5 minutes farther and we were at this lookout-esque spot that seemed as though the trail used to go farther, but now just kind of ended at this boulder that was a bit higher than the trees so you could look out over the valley and see the mountains above. It was a pretty epic view. As more people came up to the lookout while we were there, the boulder started to get pretty crowded, and we were getting cold, even with the extra clothes. So we headed down pretty quick, stopping for some pictures and to look at the glaciers and valley. We got down and made dinner in the super crowded kitchen area and then played some cards before bed.

Day 7:

I woke up early enough to catch the last bit of sunrise. And it was pink. So my knowledge of poetry told me that it was going to be stormy out today. Well, under the cover of the trees that the campground was in, it didn´t seem too bad. So, we took our time getting ready in the morning and were nearly the last people to leave the camp. As soon as we left the cover of the trees, it was super windy and rainy. My rain cover flew off about 30m so I had to bushwhack for that, then quickly throw on all the waterproof layers before continuing on through the bad weather. Stopping at all meant you would instantly get cold, so when we came to the refugio that was a couple miles into the hike, we decided to go inside for an early lunch. The weather was getting worse, and the huge glass wall of the refugio made it seem terrible. Fortunately the refugio had whisky hot chocolates, so we got some to warm up. Also, the weather was seeming bad enough that we all came up with the plan to bail on the last day of the hike if it was going to be bad weather the next day. We had approximately 18km left to get to the campsite up in the mountains later that day, but it didn´t seem to worth it if the weather was going to be bad and leave us without any views. In any case, we hiked pretty quickly to get to the hotel at the bottom of the valley and asked them about the weather situation. Well, it was supposed to be only kind of bad the next day, but really bad all the rest of the week. With those conditions, we all decided to call the hike quits at the hotel. There we got some irish coffees, and ran into the medical sales guys again and chatted for a bit in the warmth of the hotel (picture the Ahwanee in Yosemite) before hitching a ride to where the bus picked us up to go back to Puerto Natales. We almost didn´t fit on the bus, and got the very last seats on this super uncomfortable bus crammed in the back on a windy dirt road. But at least we weren´t getting rained on.

We arrived in Puerto Natales around 10 and went straight to the hostal we had been staying at. It was locked up and nobody was home. Sketchy? Especially since our non-trekking gear was inside. So we wandered around to a bunch of other hostals that were either completely full or way too expensive. Eventually we found one about 20 feet from where the bus initially dropped us off for a good price. We got to the hostal pretty late, so took showers and went to bed pretty quick.

The next day we woke up to a nice breakfast that included real coffee, something we were all missing being in Yerba Mate country where coffee drinkers normally only have the option of instant coffee. After breakfast, the plan was to get our stuff from the locked hostal from the night before. We walked the couple of blocks to the hostal, and discovered that it was again locked. Floris held me up and I looked into every window and tried to see if anyone was around, but it didn´t look like it. So, we did the next best thing to wander into the local bakery across the street (Acacia said I wasn´t allowed to get anything... A edit: because the last time John and Floris went out together they stopped for baked goods like 3 times-something like 6 churros per sitting- and didn´t bring me or Mike any ) and ask about the people there and if they could call the hostal or something. No luck. What´re we going to do now? We already had bus tickets for the next morning so we needed our stuff today! As we were walking back to our new hostal to ask what to do there, we stopped at the laundry facility next door to the locked hostal and tried to ask about how to get into Martina´s House, the name of the locked hostal. When everyone had given up and was about to walk out, I pulled some of the few Spanish words I know out ¨Dejar equipaje en Martina´s House¨. Something about leaving our luggage in the hostal, and then the lady at the laundry seemed to get it, and told us to go to a different hostal to find a family member of the owner of Martina´s House and ask him. So we did. And he took is in to Martina´s House through the back door, seemed very confused about where his family was, and was also confused why our stuff was no longer in the storage room. At this point, we were all about to freak out because the most logical conclusion was that our stuff was jacked. Hundreds of dollars of mountaineering gear that we haven´t even used! Noooo! But then the guy who led us in opened up another door to the room we had stayed in, and our stuff was in there. Phew. So we grabbed our stuff and headed back to our new, non-sketchy hostal. The rest of the day was essentially a recovery day. We got some laundry done, wrote some letters and postcards in the park, played frisbee and drank beer in the park, and the Dutch guys bought a tent and new stove off a couple Germans we were hanging out with at the hostal. For dinner, we came across a lady selling salmon out of a cooler in front of the grocery store, so we went shopping for all the ingredients to go with the salmon, but then she was gone by the time we left the grocery store with cash to buy some. But, while Acacia was finishing writing some letters, Floris and I made another beer run and I saw a guy selling some kind of none too fresh fish from a cooler in the same spot, so I quickly purchased a whole fish. I have never really cooked a whole fish before, so I attempted to roast it in the oven and smother it with BBQ sauce. It turned out pretty decent. We also made some squash bread before going to bed to have for the bus ride the next day.

The following day, we had to get up early to catch a taxi to the 8:30am bus to El Calafate, back into Argentina. We quickly ate the breakfast with lots of coffee, and then all 4 of us crammed into the taxi with all of our stuff. Acacia and I ended up on bus 2, while the Dutch guys were on bus 1, but the ride was pretty uneventful with several pieces of squash bread involved. We arrived in El Calafate about 30 minutes after the last bus to Glacier Perito Moreno left, so that meant hanging out in El Calafate for at least a day to get a chance to see the glacier. We walked to a campground that was on a river and set up our tent next to what smelled like burning plastic, great. We went to the grocery store for some lunch ingredients including green olives, apples, cheese, bread, and some wine. We were feeling classy. Though maybe not so much with the boxed wine. We said cheers to the Dutch guys who we found sitting on a bench drinking beer and watching some local music in a plaza in town as they were waiting for their bus to El Chalten. They were trying to move north faster than us and had already been delayed by joining our trekking. After our late lunch, we did some meal planning for our trip the next day to El Chalten and the trekking we wanted to do there. El Chalten is a town within the Los Glaciares national park that was built in 1985 specifically for tourists, so we´d heard that food was limited and pricey once we got there, and there was no cash machine. Obviously, this concerned me, so grocery shopping included tons of bread and cheese and an entire grocery cart full of food. Familiar. Anyway, we stayed up kind of late cleaning out our packs and condensing our provisions to fit in our bags so we could leave early the next morning.