Eden and Josh

So we headed back to Argentina to finish our time in Patagonia with two final treks. The first was a 3-day one outside of El Bolson that we completed in two days, and the other was a 3-day trek around Cerro Catedral near Bariloche. Both treks were superb and had brilliant fall colours. The one in Bolson had several rickety bridges, and due to the condition of one, required us to ford a knee-deep river! Cold, strong, and not one I´d cross twice.

From Bariloche we headed up to Mendoza, wine country. Sitting in the warm sun we were able to count up some of the stats from our time in Patagonia. They are as follows:

Lodging:

Tent - 54 night (25 free)
Hostel - 29 night
Boat - 13 night
Bus - 1 night

Trekking:

Total km - 605
Total days - 41
avg km/day - 15
avg calories/km - 100
avg calories/km when hiking uphill - 150

Top 3 views: Ushuaia and Cordilla Beagle from the top of Cerro Guanaco in Tierra del Fuego National Park, Glacier Gray from the top of John Garner pass in Torres del Paine National Park, Cerro Castillo.

Hardest day: day 2 of Sierra Valdivieso. 11 hrs, 3 mountain ¨passes¨, no marked trail (Thank God for 16 hrs of sunlight).

Longest day: day 2 of Torres del Paine Circuit. 30km.

Temporary addictions:
Empanadas - like pizza pockets but stuffed with ham&cheese, beef, or chicken
Dulce de Leche - caramelized sweetened condensed milk
Helado - ice cream
Pancho - hot dogs with excellent toppings
Churrasco - thinly sliced steak sandwiches (best with cheese, guacamole, and chili sauce)

After getting a taste of large alerce trees at Pumalin we wanted to see even bigger ones, and the only place to do that is at the national park. Being only 40km from Puerto Montt, the park is relatively easy to get to and we set off the day after returning from Chiloe.

We woke up early to catch the 7:40 bus since the next wouldn´t be till noon. Because of the cold the previous night EVERYTHING was covered in frost (which stayed until about 11:30). The bus dropped us off 13km from the park, so we had some walking to do, but some friendly lumberjacks offered us a ride in the back of their pickup, awesome.

The park receives somewhere around 4000mm of rain a year so everything was wet, muddy, and smelled like that. The foot bridges that were built over the muddy parts had been covered in an algae or something similar and were incredibly slippery (I must have fallen hard at least 6 times). We saw some very large alerce (larch) trees, some around 2500 and 3000 years old and around 3-4m diametre. Similar to the largest one at Pumalin. The only disappointing part of the trek was that the log bridge 10 minutes from Catedral Alerce had collapsed and there was no way to cross the river otherwise. Luckily, these alerce aren´t the largest in the park but are "just" a particularly beautiful stand.

We took the bus down to Castro in the centre of the island of Chiloe to catch a glimpse of this changing and unique culture. Because of it´s relative isolation, Chiloe is somewhat backwards from the rest of Chile. There are brightly painted stilt houses overhanging the bays, pastures that resemble patchwork quilts, and interresting sights like fish and clams being sold on the street from wheelbarrows.

Chiloten folklore is rich, including stories about ghost ships and over a dozen trolls and monsters. The strangest has to be the Trauco, a disfigured troll who gets young girls pregnant if they wander into the forest. It wasn´t the boy down the street, it was Trauco, I swear!

We also decided to visit the national park to do a 3-day beach trek. However, it didn´t seem like the trek was going to enter the forest and we decided to cut it short to 2 days after walking 18-km on the beach the first day. We then turned around when we reached the organized campground and found a somewhat hidden site in the dunes overlooking the mighty Pacific. It was quite a sight to see lone cowboys or whole families on horses travelling along the beach. Not your usual life.

Bus service in the off-season is extremely limited in rural Patagonia so we ended up staying in Coyhaique for three nights. This wasn´t too bad since it was the first place in a month or so which had tons of fresh fruit and vegetables so we ate tons of greens. We also decided not to stop in any small towns along the way to Chaiten out of fear of getting stuck. This turned out to be a good decision, since when we stopped in Puyuhuapi (a small town settled by 4 German pioneers in 1920) there were 3 guys hoping to get onto our full bus. Lucky for them a Swiss couple got off the bus here and one other person. Talking to the two British guys they told me they would´ve been happy spending 15 minutes in town, but got stuck for 4 days, had no luck hitchhiking out and very nearly ran out of money.

Chaiten is a town set in Wonderland. Cloud-covered, fiord-like moutains rise up out of the land amid waterfalls, rivers, bamboo, ferns, moss, trees, everything green, rain, more green, wet, mist and more rain. We had originally hoped to camp in Parque Pumalin (a 3,000 sq km reserve owned by Northface CEO Douglas Thompkins) for three days but being the offseason transportation was an issue. Luckily we were able to arrange day transportation through an eccentric Chilean, Nicolas, who had lived in the townships near Montreal for some years. Between different short hikes Nicolas would play this tiny guitar/ukelele type instrument for us from traditional folk songs, to personal creations and even Nirvanna... who is this guy?!

The main reason for coming to Pumalin is to see the giant alerce tree which are often compared to the California redwood. Most of these trees were logged until recently, and only the most remote stands still remain. Several of the trees that we saw on a short walk were over 1500 years old with a couple 2500 and 3000 years old (and 3-4m wide!).

The following day we went to a hot springs outside of town to relax in the rain and warm water before catching the night ferry to Puerto Montt. This ferry was supposed to depart at 12AM but didn´t arrive until 2AM, then left at 3AM. Due to rough seas the 10-hr crossing was extended to 15...

So we stayed two nights in Cochrane before catching a bus to Villa Cerro Castillo where we did another long 4-day trek. The trek was quite incredible, camping under tall basalt towers and we only saw two other trekkers. Getting into the off season It was also so cold one night that our condensation froze on the tent fly. Just had to take it off and shake the ice off.

Yesterday we planned on taking the bus out of town but a guy in the roadside diner offered to drive us to Coyhaique, so we gladly accepted. Upon arriving in town we headed straight to the campsite, hoping to get our 50th night in a tent under our belts, but they were closed for the season. So we walked around for around 2hrs trying to find a place to stay... our second choice was either bulldozed or had burnt to the ground (or Lonely Planet got their map wrong).

Now in town it looks like it might be two days before we can leave again.

Basic plan from now is to head up to Chaiten to visit Parque Pumalin http://www.parquepumalin.cl/ the brainchild of Northface founder Douglas Tompkins. After that we will go to Chiloe to do a beach trek similar to the West Coast Trail.

Miss you all,
Josh and Eden

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