Chile and Argentina 2017

An almost 4 hour plus flight to the capital : such crazy geography! And completely different temperatures to boot. This time we stayed in the Providencia District, more commercial and affluent then Lasturia. We booked up a cycle tour to the Santa Rita vineyard  in the Maipu Valley on the outskirts of the city and enjoyed a pleasant cycle through the rows of vines, albeit on an overcast morning before the sun got going in the afternoon. Pretty good wines though. We followed that with a visit to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights which was very well put together with an excellent English audio guide (in complete contrast to the one in the Braun Mendenez museum in which someone had the brainwave of adding tinkling music to the commentary with the result that it was almost impossible to hear!).Our final morning was spent exploring a very atmospheric and tranquil quality craft market in the shadow of the Los Dominicos church. Sadly the suitcases were already full! ...

An early morning bus for the 5 hour trip ( with many,many leagues  of pampas stretching into the distance ). South to  Puerto Natales for an overnight stay before a further bus along the Ruta called the“end of the world “, to Puntas Arenas,  , into which airport .we had previously flown into for the Torres del Paine National Park. Puerto Natales had gale force winds and our first rain or at least drizzle that we had seen since Santiago. Not a great deal to do there but an informative little museum focusing on their pioneer past, an important part of the culture here.And a rather good Africa Chile fusion restaurant! Punto Arenas still has a frontier feel, not surprisingly as it was not really settled until the early 1900’s. Also, all that is further South other than the Antarctic is Tierra del Fuego and there’s not a lot there. View from the rooftop of the Ilaia Yoga and Nature hotel We took very bracing walks along the “ prom “ in gale wind...

Back on the bus for the 3 hour transfer and a second chance for a coffee at the remote La Leona “hotel“ where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid holed up in 1905 after robbing banks in Rio Gallegos. Then , an enjoyable stroll through the streets of El Calafate, a rapidly expanding town enjoying a boom from increased tourism. We visited the lakeside nature reserve, well organised and with plenty of bird life to see. Spectacled Tyrant Chimango However, we were here for the town’s big draw, the Perito Moreno glacier, one of only two expanding glaciers in the world and relatively accessible to visit. An hour in the bus took us to a boat to cross the lake for a “ mini trek “ for an hour a half on the glacier itself, yes, a bit touristy but actually it was a really memorable experience. Photographs cannot capture the creaking and groaning and occasional massive cracking noises from all around you.The exposed edge is from 50 to 70 m high and about twice that u...

Bussing the Pampas Some of our best travel experiences have been in doing stuff on the just the right side of our comfort zone. Having had a very long transfer day bussing across the border at Cerro Castillo into Argentina to El Calafate and then a further bus to El Chalten we had a morning booking up tours, a laundry trip etc and then decided on a spot of white water rafting, the river being too high for kayaking (which should have been a clue). Anyway we were told it was a grade 3 trip. In fact the first rapid was a grade 4 and our steersman, ie, the only person who knew what he was doing, was thrown out in a “ hole “ and disappeared down stream in the boiling maelstrom of white water. Out of our  six crew, 3 had lost  their paddles and one girl had fallen backwards into the water but was still attached to the raft by the toe strap. Actually her being in the water allowed us to move into a lee by the rocks and the steersman was able to get ashore and scramble back...

Chilean Patagonia is pretty inaccessible; you cannot drive there from Chile so we had a two hour flight from Puerto Montt, a port town with little of interest apart from two hideous statues staring out to sea and a great steak dinner. Prior to that we had a very stressful hour trying to drop the hire car off before 6 pm in an impossible to find location! Yes, that is Carolyn by the foot! Next morning, after the flight to Puerto Arenas there was a 5 hour transfer to Torres del Paine, mostly on gravel roads.  View from the hotel Our transfer was made more “ exciting “ by the unusual incident of the falling door at the airport. Carolyn's loo door stuck, she pushed it and it fell off it’s hinges to land on her foot!  Great start to a planned few days of serious walking. The foot  immediately started to swell and discolour. So we set off in the minibus with her foot wrapped in ice and after having taken a painkiller which we later discovered is now banned in ...