Week 38 - Argentina - El Chalten to Chile - Santiago

We had a beautiful restful sleep because El Chalten was so quiet, but it was raining when we woke up on Monday morning and our hearts sank. By the time we had finished breakfast, the rain had stopped and the sky was beginning to clear up. We decided to walk to the Visitor Centre to check the weather forecasts and to get the ranger's recommendations on other walks to do on our remaining two days in El Chalten. We arrived there at a little after 9.00 am only to be told that it didn't open until 10.00 am (despite the sign on the door saying that it opened at 9.00 am). While we were waiting, we decided to do the walk to the nearby Condor Lookout. The walk involved a short climb up the stony hill next to the Visitor Centre. On the way up and at the top we saw the magnificent condors, wings outstretched floating on the wind as they entered the valley. The walk took us about an hour and the Visitor Centre was open when we got back. After talked to Alejandro (the ranger) about a couple of walks, we walked around the edge of town and started the Laguna Torre walk. Once again we found ourselves walking up stony hills, through beech forest and along streams and little ponds in the valley. At the waterfall lookout we saw a tiny hawk (Peregrine falcon?) circling in the breeze. Soon after in a forested section we heard a knocking sound, and then to our delight we saw three red helmeted woodpeckers swooping from tree to tree and examining each trunk as they scurried up or down or around it. Further on in a marshy area a beautiful yellow striped brown frog was crossing the trail. We stopped at another lookout on the way which looked over a valley with a rushing river in the bottom, rocks of many colours on its banks, green forests on either side and forests of dead trees in the centre with the Cerro Torre range at the end of the valley facing us. We finally reached Laguna Torre after two and half hours of walking. We sat on a flat rock to eat our lunch of dried fruit and nuts and to take in the views of the Cerro Torre range on the other side of the lake. The lake had a small glacier entering it from the mountains and mini icebergs floating in the lake. Behind was the ice factory of large mountains covered in snow and the spires in the centre of pink granite with the highest of them the Cerro Torre almost perpetually shrouded in cloud. It was tantalising watching the peak which always seemed about to clear of cloud but never did, due to the fact that the cloud seemed to be constantly developing around the ice encrusted spire. Then we walked back into town and back to the hotel feeling very exhausted after walking 24 klms up and down for the day.

We went out for dinner at 7.30 pm. As we were walking to the main road from our hotel, we passed a man leading three llamas home. One llama was wearing a brightly covered woven saddle and the others were carrying panniers/saddlebags marked with the logo of a local trekking tour company. We had a hearty dinner at Como Vaca and then walked back to the Posada where we collapsed into bed.

After breakfast we walked to the nearby Rancho Grande Hostel to catch a mini bus to Hosteria El Pilar, the starting point for today's trek. We drove 17 klms along the valley floor next to the river on a gravel road past snow capped mountains and icy lakes. It took us a good couple of hours to walk through the valley at the base of the Cerro Fitz Roy range. We walked past the Piedras Blancas glacier on the way. Just after we passed we heard a long loud rumbling as an avalanche came down – it sounded impressive. Parts of the valley were green and forested, and other parts were almost like a river bed with rocks and pebbles with the only vegetation being a ground cover and some spiky almost leafless purple coloured bushes. The ascent to the Laguna de Los Tres was very steep and tortuous. It took us over an hour and several rest stops to climb up the eroded path but when we reached the top, the views were worth it. Once again we had picture postcard views of Cerro Fitz Roy with the frozen Laguna de Los Tres in front of it. We sat down in front of the Cerro Fitz Roy admiring the views while we had a rest and our lunch. After lunch, we walked down to the frozen lake, along the edge and looked over a cliff to find a rich blue lake below ringed with granite peaks and spires. We walked carefully down the mountain on the same pathway that we came up and at the bottom we headed back towards the village on the same Laguna Capri trail that we had taken on Sunday. Passing through forest near the village we saw a female Giant Woodpecker. Unlike the males she had a black head and beautiful crest. We were footsore and weary when we arrived back at the hotel – once again we had walked approximately 24 klms, but today we were really feeling it.

At 8.00 pm we limped to the nearby Mi Viejo Parilla for dinner only to find that it was closed! We decided to walk to the tiny Nipo Nino to have a couple of empanadas to fortify us for the walk to the other side of town to find another restaurant. However once we were there, we decided to stay for dinner, especially as the owner told us he had Patagonian lamb if we were prepared to wait. After a short wait we were presented with a rack of lamb (cut differently with the full rib) and a lettuce and tomato salad. The lamb was really tender and delicious and we picked the bones clean.

We set the alarm again on Wednesday morning because we had to catch the bus back to El Calafate. After breakfast we packed up and walked around the corner to the Rancho Grande Hostel to catch our bus. We arrived at El Calafate at 11.00 am, collected our back packs and walked back to the America del Sur Hostel. We spent some time on the internet while we were waiting for our room to be ready and catching up with our friend Holly who we had last seen at Puerto Madryn. After putting our bags in the room, we went to Viva La Pepa for a delicious lunch of smoked salmon salad, chicken, mushroom, almond, spring onion and Roquefort crepe with grapefruit juice. We bought some chocolate from the Laguna Negra chocolate shop for dessert. Then we walked back to the hostel and had a restful afternoon as we were both feeling very tired from all the walking and the early starts of the last few days.

We signed up for the hostel BBQ dinner at 9.00 pm. Once again it was a really great dinner with salads, vegetables, beef, chicken and sausage. We had fun chatting to a couple of ladies from Cork over dinner.

On Thursday, we woke up to the alarm again and after breakfast we shouldered our packs and walked to the bus station to catch a bus to Puerto Natales in Chile. We travelled through a gap in the Andes mountains and saw rheas, condor, geese and sheep. It took almost an hour and a half for us to be processed through Argentine customs.

On the Chilean side, there was only one customs officer processing all our passports and all our luggage was hand searched. Despite this, the process was much quicker and we were on our way in less than an hour. While we were waiting, we went to the restaurant next to the customs office and ordered a couple of hamburgers – which turned out to be the size of plates! We noticed that the cows were fatter and the fences were better in Chile.

We arrived in Puerto Natales at 2.00 pm and walked to the Erratic Rock Hostel II where we checked in to a lovely room. We went for a walk to the centre of town stopping at Erratic Rock Hostel I to listen to a very entertaining information session about the Torres Del Paine National Park given by an American guy. All the information provided at the session seemed to be pitched at serious trekkers who were happy to commit to treks lasting from 5-10 days. We left the information session happy that we were doing the right thing by going straight to Santiago. Afterwards we walked to the Sky Airline office and booked a flight to Santiago for tomorrow afternoon. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around town and then went back to our hostel for a rest before dinner.

We went to dinner at Angelica's – a restaurant recommended by Marcela at our hostel. We had king crab cannelloni (centolla) and cod served with shell fish, mushrooms and chips. For dessert we had a tiramisu and a cherry clafoutis. It was a lovely dinner and a wonderful end to our first day in Chile.

We went back to our hostel and enjoyed the luxury of satellite TV in our room!

No alarm on Friday morning! We slept in and had a leisurely breakfast. Then we checked out, stored our backpacks and wandered around town. We changed our remaining Argentine pesos into Chilean pesos, walked to the seafront and took photos of murals on the town walls. As there are so many islands and fjords on this western coast of Patagonia, the water was completely flat like a lake. We saw beautiful white swans with black necks and a red growth above their beaks. Many other cormorants and gulls congregated at the water end of a derelict wooden pier. After lunch we caught a shuttle from the hostel to the tiny airport and waited for the Sky Airline jet to arrive from Punta Arenas. The plane was over an hour late and it stopped at Puerto Mont before flying on to Santiago (like a bus). On this leg we got great views of the Andes running parallel to the right of the plane with the snow capped peaks catching the sun. The Chilean plain stretched below while Argentina was visible in the distance over the mountains. We saw one particularly large old volcanic cone covered in snow. At Santiago we caught an airport shuttle downtown and went to the Andes Hostel to check in. We had been allocated a one bedroom apartment – it was one block away from the hostel so we walked around with our backpacks. The apartment was really new and modern – and to our surprise looked exactly like the pictures on the internet. We were very happy to find that it was totally self contained with a little kitchenette, a large flat screen TV (satellite) and Wifi (which didn't work). It was on the 22^nd floor so the views over the city to the Andes in the background were spectacular – pity about the smog though!

On Saturday morning, we walked around the corner to the hostel where we had a leisurely breakfast. We took our laptop with us and spent some time using the Wifi after breakfast. Then we set off on the first of the hostel's suggested walking tours.

The walking tour guided us through the Barrio Bellas Artes (where our hostel was located). We climbed up some stairs – we had to run to dodge the sprinklers – into the green lush gardens of Cerro Santa Lucia where we came across the Terazzo Neptuno, with stone fountains, columns and curving staircases. We stopped to have a delicious chocolate ice cream at the El Emporio de la Rosa. After that we walked through a book market in Barrio Lastarria. From there we walked to the Iglesia de San Francisco. We had a look inside the church and then walked behind it into the Barrio Paris Londres. Our walking tour notes said that this was one of the most beautiful neighbourhoods in Santiago. The streets were cobbled and full of European style mansions with wrought iron balconies. We walked on to the Government Palace La Moneda, and then on to the Palacio de Tribunales. After that we walked to the Plaza de Armas which was a pedestrian only shopping area. We were very hungry by now so we made our way to the Mercado Central where we planned to have seafood for lunch. We walked through the fish market and we were accosted by several spruikers each trying to persuade us that their restaurant was the best. We looked at a few restaurants and finally settled on Paila Blanca where we had ceviche (raw white fleshed fish "cooked" in lemon juice with onion and parsley), Paila (a shell fish stew) and grilled fish (reineta) with mashed potatoes. It was very hot by now and we gradually made our way back to the hostel via the Parque Forestal. We bought some supplies from the supermarket and then went back to our apartment for a cup of tea and a rest. We had seen a sign saying the temperature was 34° so we decided to use the pool on the 18^th floor. The pool was extremely cold so it didn't take long for us to cool down!

On Sunday morning, we woke up late, had breakfast at the hostel around the corner and did some internet. It looked very overcast and grey but wasn't actually raining so we decided to do the second walking tour. It was very chilly which was a complete contrast to the day before which had been very warm. We walked up to Parque Forestal and followed the path along the Rio Mapocho until we reached Plaza Italia with a couple of impressive sculptures. The Rio Mapocho was quite polluted and a few homeless lived along the banks. As it was Sunday it was very quiet with few people around. We crossed the river and found Patio Bellavista with many classy handicraft stores, book shops, clothing market and restaurants. We walked past Pablo Neruda's house a bit further on – a famous Chilean poet apparently. We checked out the funicular going to the top of San Cristobal hill, but because of the weather we decided there was little point in going up so we walked around the hill to rejoin the walking tour where the funicular came down on the other side. This involved walking through an industrial area under a couple of freeways and along a bike path and in the process we were picked up by a black and white staffy cross who was on a Sunday stroll of her own. Eventually we arrived at the Estacion Pedro de Valdivia and checked out the pricey recommended restaurant, Divertimento. We kept walking to the sculpture park beside the river and crossed back over to walk down Avenida Providencia with restaurants and coffee shops. We couldn't find anything quite right but were forced into a decision when the rain suddenly became a lot harder. We dived into a cafe and ordered a couple of the Menu del Dias. We enjoyed lunch and then, as the rain was continuing we ducked into a nearby metro station and caught the metro to Plaza de Armas where we got into the Pre Colombian museum. The museum was recommended in our guide book as a must-see and they were spot on. It was very small but the stone carving, ceramics, and metalwork were outstanding. The quality of the pieces was due to the fact that most of the exhibits came from tombs where they had been undisturbed for centuries. Also the fact that we could photograph them was a real bonus and Keith went berserk with the camera. The patterns, the animals, the detail in the painting on ceramic and the metalwork were exquisite and often uniquely South American. There were also the complex Mayan carvings and many other groups' pagan deities as well as weapons and some mummification. The exhibits were from all over South and Central America and covered a wide range of cultures including, Mayan, Aztec, Inca, Olmec, and many others with difficult names. After this we caught the metro back to Bellas Artes and had a cup of tea before making our old favourite, spaghetti Bolognese. We ate this with a bottle of Misiones De Rengo Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 and enjoyed the dry warmth of the apartment.