Parque Alerce Andino

My first weekend in Metri at Matias's Place, we had a reunion of folks from El Bolson's CIDEP: Ximena, Charli, Sofie and Arnauld. On Sunday, Ximena took us to Parque Alerce Andino just down the road from her brother's farm.

Arnauld and Ximena

maté frio y cigarillo

Ximena y las musicas franceses, Charli y Sofie

from Chaiten to Puerto Montt

I had hoped to continue on up the Carretera Austral all the way to Puerto Montt, but the ferry from Caleta Gonzaga to Hornopirien wasn't happening after February and so I had to take a boat straight from Chaiten to Puerto Montt. The boat was supposed to leave at midnight, but due to delays related to loading truck loads of cows onto the boat, we left at 4 AM instead. There were more cattle on the boat than people. I visited with a guy who owned a couple of the trucks of cows and he said that it was the time period for shipping the cows up north for slaughter before it gets too cold in the south.

Parque Pumalin

From Coyhaique, I took a 12 hr bus up to Chaiten the nearest town by Parque Pumalin, which was recommended by several people along the Carretera Austral. The area is a temperate rainforest and is lush, green and beautiful. The park was created by a North American, Douglas Thompkins, who made his fortune with the clothing company Espirit and decided to protect this wild land before the Chileans exploited and destroyed it. While well preserved and with incredibly nice bathrooms, it seemed that someone watched Jurassic Park too many times. There were enormous wooden signs announcing the entrance into the park and the various campgrounds. I half expected to see dinosaurs around every corner. There was no reliable transportation from Chaiten and I had to hitchhike to arrive in the park.

hanging bridge leading to camping at Caleta Gonzaga

True to its identity as a rainforest, it rained for 2 days straight, most of my time in the park. In two of the 3 campgrounds, I was the only human camping, which was refreshing after camping in Patagonia with all the other foreigners. But, at some point, I went for over 24 hours without seeing another person, and I realized that I started to talk to myself. ¡loco!

In Argentina, I could always find denatured alcohol in the hardware stores for my ghetto but lightweight stove made of a tuna can and 2 beer cans. In Chaiten, they didn´t have this alcohol and they didn´t know what I was talking about. They had a pink solvent for burning and benzina blanca. I thought I remembered reading about trekkers looking for benzina blanca in a copy of a trekking book, and the benzina looked more flammable than the solvent and I was used to a clear not pink liquid. So....I made the mistake of taking benzina blanca as my fuel for 4 days in Parque Pumalin. Whoah! The first time I lit it, the flames leapt into the air over a foot high and quickly ignited all the liquid I had spilled next to the stove. Everytime I cooked, the huge flames left my stove and pot crisp and black and my hands were covered with black soot just from touching my pot. But, armed with oatmeal and polenta for my breakfasts and dinners, I had to use it.

One morning next to Lago Blanco, I found this guy inside my backpack. He later made it across the page of my dream journal.

Rio Tronador - heading up to Laguna Tronador

At Laguna Tronador, there were more than a dozen cascades emptying into the laguna from the surrounding mountains. After hiking up in the rain, the pristine lake was jaw-droppingly beautiful. One big cascade was behind my campsite; here are three views of it.

haircut

before in Coyhaique: March 12th

after in Pumalin Park: March 15th

Caleta Tortel

After a night in Villa O'Higgins, a few of us rode in a small van to the town of Caleta Tortel along the Carretera Austral. CT has only been linked with a road for a few years. Before, the only access was by water, connecting the town to the Pacific with a series of inlets and fjords. In Caleta Tortel, there are no streets, only wooden walkways.
Two hitchiking Chileans had hopped in our van somewhere in between Villa O'Higgins and Caleta Tortel and when we arrived, I heard them asking about the free camping on the beach on the other side of town. Although Fabrizio and Francisco eyed me suspiciously at first as the gringo that I am, we shared many good times around the camp fire hanging out for a few days.

Fabrizio volunteered to make me a new contraption for my stove to replace the grill I lost in Candelario Mancilla my first night in Chile.

Francisco's backpack weighed at least 3 times as much as mine and he was only travelling for a month. Of course, filling it up with sweet smelling Cypress firewood doesn't help.

una ´once´ de galletas, cerveza y pisco en el mirador

towards the littered campground

After two nights in Caleta Tortel, we ventured together up the Carretera Austral camping out in Cochrane for a night and also passing a night in Coyhaique, consuming plenty of cerveza and papas fritas along the way. We cooked an amazing dinner over an open fire in Cochrane, but our dinner at the Casita de los Bomberos in Coyhaique was staggeringly delicious. I stuffed myself until I could barely walk. Back in the bathroom at the hospedaje, Francisco gave me a 1 AM haircut.

Glacier O'Higgins

Before crossing Lago O´Higgins, I journeyed to the glacier with the same name.

Germans and Chilean

the dark lines in the glacier are layers of ash from a volcanic eruption a long time ago

Crossing into Chile

First, I had to take a bus transfer from El Chalten to the Lago del Desierto and then a boat to cross the lake.

Another view of Fitz Roy from the back of the boat in Lago del Desierto

Then, we had an 8 hour walk to the next lake. I paid to have a horse carry my big backpack and I crossed over the border about 2 hours into the walk.

Lago O'Higgins is visible here, my destination for the day and the site of the Chilean border authorities, a lonely office where they stamped my passport. This is probably Chile's most isolated border post - hardly any sign of human life could be seen along the immense lake.

Martina, a German architect, joined me for the adventure.
Check the turqoise of the lake!!

We camped out at a family outpost along the lake, Candelario Mancilla, the only settlement there besides the boat dock and the border guards. The next day a boat came to take us across the lake...

El Chalten

This small frontier town was my base for a week as I ventured up in the mountains. Argentina built a town here 30 years ago in order to lay claim to the land before Chile could beat them to it. They were putting in concrete sidewalks while we were there even though the roads were not yet paved and there was lots of construction. The town was mostly hostels and tourists.

seen from above

seen from even further above

me, killing time before the weekend when I would venture into Chile taking the once a week boat to cross Lago O'Higgins on Saturday.

Fitz Roy

At 6:10 AM, the very punctual Europeans (3 French and 1 Swiss) woke me up for an ascent to the Laguna de los Tres at the base of the famous Fitz Roy mountain peak. Our headlamps were not the only lights dotting the dark and steep rocky path as we made our way up; at least a dozen Israelis had the same idea. After watching a documentary about some climbers who repeatedly failed at summiting the Fitz Roy peak, I had some fresh respect for just how insane the peak is and for the climbers who make it to the top or even try to arrive at the summit. I suppose a lot depends on the weather. Lucky for us, we had perfect weather, completely clear days for all of our hiking in the National Park of the Glaciers.

David and Claire waiting for the sun to hit the peak: hordes of Israelis in background

ah, in all its splendor but with a pesky cloud in the way...the ice is a glacier by the way


David and Claire plus the other French whose names I can't recall

a little farther up, Claire and Laguna Sucia

Laguna Sucia and David scrambling

the pesky cloud finally went away to give a full view of the big rock, Fitz Roy

Fitz Roy a different day as seen from Laguna Capri