4.1.2008 Punta Arenas
Punta Arenas 4/01/2008
Have
we mentioned the wind yet? Patagonian wind? It's not a constant strong
wind but it blows in gusts of up to 70km per hour (or more). On tar
it's bearable although tiresome but on gravel roads there's always the
possibility that a gust will push you onto that treacherous "middle
mannetjie" (middle man - the hump in the middle). Riding into Chalten
at an angle and with a passenger made me really glad that tourism had
brought tarred roads to this area.
Chalten - outdoor mecca
Who
hasn't heard of Fitzroy, Cerro Torre and the Southern Ice Fields. These
are all accessible from here along with bouldering, sport routes,
trekking etc. We did a fantastic 3 day hike to Paso del Viento,
which crosses a
glacier and gives you a view onto the ice fields, and a day hike up to
a viewpoint for Fitzroy. The great thing for the big wall climbers here
is that the wait for the good weather can be done in town where there
is plenty of beer, yummy food and company. Speaking of big wall
climbers...we had another of those small world events. We chanced upon
two swiss guys from the Rhine valley that we know, Stephan and Marcel.
They were going for the Compressor route on the Cerro Torre so we got a
chance to get the inside story on how the whole thing works...over a
few beers of course. When we left they were still waiting so I hope
they got their weather window and all went well.
Perito Moreno Glacier
On
the southern side of the Parque Nacional los Glaciares
(with Fitzroy being to the North) is the Perito Moreno
Glacier. Our pit stop
before heading back into Chile and Puerto Natales. There are bus loads
of people going there everyday, I think it is one of the most
visited sights in Argentina. For good reason as it is a thoroughly
entertaining piece of nature. A 55m high wall of glaciar calving
into lago Argentino at quite a rate (40cm a day) accompanied by
creaking, cracking and crashing. Just the place to hang around for
hours waiting for big chunks of ice to fall off.
Little fluffy lambs
For
Christmas Eve Willy and Renato at Backpackers Magallanes were
organising a "cordero", a lamb barbecue typical to patagonia. The day
before Willy had gone to the Estancia to 'supervise' and film the
slaughter so we got to see all the gory details. We will try to
organise the clip. (Not suitable for sensitive viewers!)
You'll be surprised to know, that the ex-vegetarian ate some...though not much!
Torres del Paine
Leaving
the bikes behind in Puerto Natales we took a bus out to Torres del
Paine National Park to hike the Circuit. An 8 day hike that takes you
round the back (north) of the whole massif and to the viewpoints of the
famous granite towers. I had been there 8 years ago and was curious to
see
what had changed. I was disappointed, not by the fantastic scenery but
by how commercialised it had all become. The campsites are largely
privatised and expensive and the ones that are free are poorly managed,
overcrowded and used by hiking illiterates (who don't know how to shit
in the woods properly). They now have catamarans that cruise the lakes
and the entrance fee has gone through the roof. Ok, Ok I will quite
griping. On the bright side, hiking the circuit you are off the beaten
'W' (a four day hike taking in the viewpoints of the towers) track for
4 days and those big granite walls really are very very impressive.
The
other highlight was eating after walking for 6 hours, being the rations
manager I think I managed to make good meals with little weight. Axel
might not agree with me there as he carried most of it. But to give you
an idea:
Breakfast - instant oats with dried fruit or pancakes with honey
Lunch - tortillas/crackers/pita with cheese and salami or tuna plus chocolate or nougat
Dinner - Polenta with onions, cheese and tuna or pasta or ravioli with various sauces
Snacks - biscuits and trail mix
Note
on the latter: Axel decided that trail mix was just too american a word
and that we had to come up with our own original term. The trail mix
consisted of dried fruit, nuts and gummi bears hence the dubbing of it
as 'fart mixture'. It seemed to work particularly well on Axel because
even though his pack was heavier he could still walk much faster. I put
that down to his unique use of the fart mixture as a turbo charger.
Our
second last evening on the hike was New years Eve. We celebrated it at
7pm in the tent with a miniature bottle of pisco sour. 7pm here is
twelve o'clock in Liechtenstein and South Africa. We were asleep by 11.
Happy New Year!!
Small world event no. 4
We have
been trying to catch up with Dave Taylor, a South African (who is also
out in Patagonia trekking) since El Chalten with no luck. One plan was
to meet on Christmas day in Puerto Natales but that didn't work out.
Boxing day comes and we are on the bus to Torres del Paine. It stops
for a 5 minute break at a cafe and at the same time a bus travelling in
the other direction stops. Guess who we see...Dave.
(ps. event no. 1 was seeing another Liechtensteiner in the city of Buenos Aires on a night out in Palermo)
Small
world event no. 5 has just happened here in Punta Arenas where we will
be based a couple of days for some repairs (shocks are not looking too
good). 6 bikes ride past the Hostel we're in and I wave 'cos that's
what you do when other bikers ride past. It was Sebastian (from the
Container ship) and Gerben from Dakar motos. Nice to see them again.