Sending this from Sydney as we are now home, after a 6 weeks that will take a while to fully appreciate all we saw and did. A 3 hour drive from Ei Calafate, Argentina took us to Chile and after we crossed the border we were handed over to another driver (felt like a prisoner exchange), who took us to our hotel, Los Torres. On the way we saw lots of guanacos (related to llamas) and a couple of condors flying low down, near us. Our hotel was well situated in the National Park Torres Del Paine. We had an all inclusive package which was a total waste as Dick was still sick so hardly ate anything, neither of us drank anything and Dick wasn’t well enough to do any of the guided walks through that beautiful national park.
Guanacos, there are 3000-4000 in the Torres del Paine National Park and 70 – 80 pumas. We didn’t see any pumas but our guides regularly see them. They eat rabbits and guanacos.
Condors flying just above us on our drive to the hotel.
We did make it to the lamb bbq for dinner and shared that meal with two Australian couples, so that was a pleasant, social meal.
Outside the hotel which was located at the start of many walks in the parkDick slept a lot but we did get out for a 3 hour walk on a picture perfect day.
Lunch stop on the walkBeautiful blue lakesOur walk was a very small part of the ‘W’ trail, which goes through the mountains.
We saw the pack horses coming back from a supply delivery to the overnight camps along the W trail.
The next day we signed up for a full day tour which included some scenic stops.And a small waterfallPlus a boat trip to another glacier
As Dick was still not well, he stayed inside the boat but still got some glacier/iceberg pics.Another impressive glacier
On our last stop we had a beautiful vistaAnd we saw two armadillos up close, but I only got one in the photo. They seemed to like hanging around the campground where we had an end of day drinks and nibble session.
Since Dick was not getting better and still not eating, we decided to check out from the park a day early and go to Puerto Natales, the closest town with a hospital and the start of our next cruise. Another two hour drive in a bus got us to our hotel. Fortunately the owner was a lovely woman who lent us money for a cab so we could go straight to the hospital. This doctor reinforced the need for a strict diet and antibiotics, after examining Dick, and she recommended we go on the cruise as they have a doctor on board. In the end our unplanned stay in Puerto Natales was quite pleasant, helped by having a wonderful host and an excellant restaurant at the hotel, which is in the top 100 restaurants in Chile. A sleep-in and rest day before boarding, Skorpios lll at 3:30pm also helped.
This was the boat, Skorpios lll and our cabin was on the port side front on the 4th deck, so we had good windows and fabulous views. There were 79 passengers from 12 countries, and probably 50% spoke Spanish. In this pic the boat is intentionally beached.
The plan for the 3 night trip was that we would see 11 of the 48 glaciers in the southern icefields. We lost track as we saw so many glaciers, and we had already seen quite a few before we got there. We are posing in front of Amalia Glacier.
We got quite close to El Brujo Glacier but the rocks were slippery to walk on and then it rained.Later that day we went out in an ‘icebreaker’ boat. Was quite a different experience as we crunched through the ice.
This is the ice we were travelling through.
One of their traditions on the ice breaker boat was to have a 12 year old whiskey with 30,000 year old ice (or was that a way of warming us up?) and they gave us the nice glasses as a souvenir.
We walked on the terminal moraine to Bernal Glacier. This picture shows where the glacier used to be and how much it is receding.
They went all out with a fancy buffet complete with iceberg feature for the Captain’s Dinner. We had a couple of laborious speeches from the Captain in Spanish (and translated), as they followed some formal cruise traditions although sometimes we were reminded more of ‘Faulty Towers’.
We were on an english speaking table, with Scots and English. There were no other Aussies on board.
Our waiter was particularly kind to us (although he spoke no English). He organized these special gluten free desserts for us so we didn’t miss out as the others had about 20 desserts in the formal dinner. Rest assured we did not eat them all but we gave it a good go.
Our last stop was Santiago, which meant another 3 hour bus ride to the airport at Puerto Arenas and a 3 hour wait for the flight getting us into Santiago around 7pm. There we were taken to our hotel and told not to go out as there were protests in the street next to our hotel. A day trip to Valparaiso was already organized for us, and we liked the guide who met us at the airport, so we kept with the schedule and enjoyed seeing another very colorful part of Chile.
We visited Valparaiso, the port city, that previously played a key role in shipping before the Panama Canal was built. You can still see it is an operating port. Dick feeling much better.
Valparaiso features colorful buildings, originally all painted in distinctive bright colors so that owners could pick out their houses from the harbour.
Amazing murals everywhere
Quirky houses
And a series of funiculars throughout the city.So many colorful murals throughout the town.
The murals were a lot of fun and give the city a real vibrant feel. It was quite a relaxing way to end our trip.
Final reflections on the trip.
Six weeks was probably too long and we included too much travel without giving ourselves enough rest time; very few rest days.
17 flights, 25 hours on buses/car transport (not counting all the day trips or airport transfers), 11 guided day tours, 2 train trips, 19 different beds, 3 cruises and numerous other boat trips; all meant we were constantly on the go, (often starting before the crack of dawn) and regularly missed meals. I think that all contributed to our ill health for a significant part of the trip, in addition to the altitude issues.
South America or what we saw of just Peru, Equador, Argentina and Chile was really interesting with amazing natural wonders and incredible history woven into every aspect. Neither of us knew that much about the history, but each day we learned more that layered on and gave us a cohesive overall picture from pre-Inca times to after liberation from the Spanish. Dick asked so many questions about dates etc that one guide asked him to stop asking questions.
Glad we had the opportunity to see so much and would encourage others to do it at a more relaxed pace. Thanks to all for coming along on the trip!
A full day of travel got us to Iguazu. On the way we saw our friends from the Galapagos trip at Lima airport. Unfortunately they had spent 6 days in hospital in Cusco. As both were ill, the hospital had them in the same room. A reminder of the perils of travel, especially when you’re in your 80’s.
Our flight landed in Brazil and it took 3 hours to cross the border to Argentina as we had two lots of immigration to go through and the traffic over the only bridge was terrible. With no traffic or immigration it would have taken 30 minutes max. Given we got to our hotel at 9pm and needed to go out for dinner, it was another 1am bedtime followed by a 5am wakeup call. Sunshine and blue skies were with us all day and for me, this was the best day of the trip so far. Iguazu Falls were amazing and impressive from every angle. No wonder they are the top tourist attraction in South America. We walked about 7 kms on three different tracks so saw many outstanding views of the falls.
The entry to Iguazu Falls National Park which gets 15,000 visitors per day in the peak season.
This is called Devil’s throat and its a dramatic start to our viewing of the falls.
Our first walk took us here.Another view of Devil’s throat which is the largest fall in the park.
Our panoramic view of the top of the falls, Devil’s Throat.On the second walk we saw the San Martin Fall which is the second largest fall. It gave us a different perspective of the falls.
Dramatic flows of water
We walked on lots of bridges as there are rivers of water feeding into the falls everywhere you look.
This view really shows the power of these falls.
Another angle and lots of mist rising from the falls. From here we are looking over to the Brazil side of the falls.
This viewing platform is at the top of St Martin Fall so we could watch the water pouring over the edge.
On the third walk we could see the boats getting very close to the San Martin Fall.They called it a wet close-up! We decided to just do the walks and enjoyed all the different vistas we saw.
We saw a few rainbows as we marvelled at the majesty and drama of the falls.
We also got close enough to get wet from the spray, which was kind of nice as it was over 30C.
These were called the Two Sister falls (Dos Hermanas) so I nicknamed them Amy and Helen. In any other location they would be stunning but here they looked quite low key.
This is a coatie. There are lots in the park and they are real scavengers. One stole a bag of peanuts we had sitting between us on a bench. Later when Dick bought two ice creams he was surrounded by four of them.
We also saw monkeys in the park, colorful birds and a very large catfish in the river.
We returned from Iguazu Falls around 4:30pm, got some dinner and went to the airport for our 8pm flight to Buenas Aires(BA). Got picked up at the airport at 10pm so into bed after midnight. It was a very long day and we were both almost catatonic and hardly able to speak. However we loved our experience of Iguazu Falls and felt it was a privilege to be able to witness such a powerful natural wonder.
A 6am pickup for a flight to El Calafate, Patagonia meant we didn’t see anything of BA, as was the plan. Then from Calafate we had a 3 hour bus ride to El Chalten (2000 people), known as ‘The Trekking Capital of Argentina’. We stood out a bit here as most of the people were young hikers with all the gear. After we arrived at 3pm I needed a sleep before we went out for our first meal of the day, early dinner at 5pm. The thermals, big coats, hats and gloves all were put to good use as Chalten is a very cold and windy place. Fortunately we managed to get antibiotics for me here without a script, as I was not well. We seemed to be taking turns as the next day Dick was not well. The plan was to do some hiking here and in the end we managed an 8 km hike up to the lookout to see Mt Fitzroy.
Arriving in Los Glaciares National Park with the town of El Chalten in the background. The park was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1981.
The start of many walks in the Mount Fitzroy area
We could still see El Chalten as we started the steady climb up.Beautiful views along the way and a clear, sunny but windy day.We had the mountain in sight and Dick persevered although he was not feeling good at all and needed lots of rest stops.
Success – we made it to the lookout! The walk was rated medium and it took us 4.5 hours to complete the 8 kms return.Mount Fitzroy is the highest mountain in the area at 3375 m and dominates the landscape. It is the Andes most prized peak for climbers and was a sacred place for the Tehuelches, a group of indigenous peoples of Patagonia.
After the effort of our trek to the lookout, Dick seemed to get much worse. Fortunately he could rest the next morning before we took the 3 hour bus trip back to El Calafate, arriving at 6:30pm. Concerned that he may have a recurrence of diverticulitis, we went to the local hospital where we conversed with the doctor using Google translate. She did an examination and a blood test before confirming that it was gastroenteritis, not diverticulitis. She also put him on an intravenous drip and gave us a script for backup medicine if he wasn’t better in the morning. No dinner that night, as we left the hospital at 11:30, although Dick started to get his appetite back.
Dick on a drip.
El Calafate is known as the ‘Land of Glaciers’ and the next day Dick was well enough to do our booked excursion to the Perito Merino Glacier, which is also in Los Glaciers National Park and was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1981. Our first stop was a nautical safari (ie a boat trip) to view the south face of Perito Merino.
Our first view of the Perito Merino Glacier from 7 kms away was not so impressive and not helped by the morning rain.
The view got better as the boat took us closer to the south face of the glacier.
As the weather improved we got even more colorful views
The boat stayed close for everyone to get good photos. This is the full view of the south face of the Perito Merino Glacier from the boat.
The day kept getting better as we drove to the main viewing area and did the walks to see the panorama view and the north face view.
The panoramic view looking down on Perito Merino which is 254 sq km (98 sq miles) and seems to go on forever in the distance.
This is the north face of Perito MerinoIn this shot you can see the point on the left where the north and south face meet.
From this view of the north face we could hear loud noises like thunder emitting from the glacier on a regular basis, and see some parts of the glacier falling into the lake.
We really enjoyed seeing Perito Merino in the lovely afternoon sunshine.
This was our introduction to the Southern Patagonia Icefield (home of 48 major glaciers and over 100 minor glaciers) which is the third largest icefield on the planet after Antarctica and Greenland. Its 370 km long with an average width of 35 km and is shared by Argentina and Chile. Next stop is Chile where we will see more of this icefield.
