The Way to Santiago

Travelling with a surfboard can be tricky at times, travelling with three surfboards, camping equipment and everything that goes with it can be even trickier. However, undeterred we continued our journey North with x2 small backpacks, x2 large backpacks, x 1 large duffle bag and x1 large surfboard bag.

In order to get from Chile Chico to Santiago we had to take two ferries and two buses, but it actually worked out being a lot easier with so much luggage than we thought it'd be.

We passed through some pretty amazing countryside along the way, and while it wasn't part of our plan, we were glad to take the ferries through the scenic Northern Patagonian fjords.

We stopped at the picturesque Puerto Varas for a couple of days to check out the views of the lake and volcano and have a few beers and a nice meal for my birthday.

After Puerto Varas it was back to Santiago where we could leave some of our luggage and continue to our next destination Nicaragua!

In Patagonia Part IV

While we had originally planned on driving all the way up the Carreterra Austral from Lago General Carrera, hampered by our car situation, we were happy to still go a little way along it to visit the incredible marble caves near Rio Tranquilo.

The day before leaving to take the 5hr bus trip to Rio Tranquilo, we were stoked to bump into our Aussie pals Tarunya and Adam who we'd originally met at Torres del Paine. We ended up going to Rio Tranquilo together with them, two swedish girls (Malin and Sandra) and one Brazilian guy (Eduardo). 

We all chipped in to rent out a cabana for two nights and had an awesome time visiting the caves on Tarunya's birthday, eating birthday cake (nice work Adam!) and generally having a few drinks and hanging out.

The caves have been formed by windswell waves breaking on the rock, eroding and polishing it over the course of thousands of years. It's a really incredible, beautiful place and we were all pretty excited to realise that it doesn't seem to be very touristy. Can't help but think that in 5-10 years you're not going to be able to move around this area for all the tourists flocking here.  

End of the Road

Mas problemas with the car. While on our way to the extremely remote Cuevas de los Manos in Argentina we realised the car was making some pretty bad noises. We turned around giving up on the caves in favour of getting back across the border to Chile and not breaking down in the absolute middle of nowhere.

After driving through some of the most remote landscapes in Chile and Argentina for three days straight I can't help but think we were fairly lucky to break down in the little town where we were headed, 2mins walk from a campsite and two different mechanics.

The first mechanic didn't even want to touch the car telling us it was only good for the scrapyard. The second mechanic said to fix it, it would be basically more than half the car was worth. So unfortunately it was time to say goodbye to the car.

Trying to sell a car that's pretty wrecked in a tiny isolated little town in Patagonia seemed like a bit of a daunting process. However, luckily enough for us the second mechanic Bruno liked to collect old bangers (he certainly had enough sitting around his yard) and we managed to agree on a pretty good price.

We've certainly had our fair share of problems with the car, but neither of us regret buying it for a second. Whether surfing the huge coastline of Chile or navigating the vast expanse of Patagonia, the car has taken us to some incredible places along the way that a lot of travellers just don't get to see (including plenty of mechanics and regristro civils!!:-).

So while we're both a bit gutted not to be finishing our trip in the way we wanted. Maybe it's not such a bad thing, because it looks like we may be able to go somewhere else instead that we never thought we'd get to on this trip...

 

End of the World

After Torres del Paine (and getting two new power steering hoses for the car in Punta Arenas) we decided to drive down through Tierra del Fuego to Ushuaia, the most Southern city in the world. 

We took a car ferry from Punta Arenas and arrived on the wind blown island of Tierra del Fuego. A few hours driving got us to the most Northern known colony of King Penguins in the world. 

After driving a while longer and crossing the border from Chile to Argentina, for the first time in our trip we saw the Atlantic ocean. There's something that makes me feel at home about the Atlantic and while there were no waves, it's nice to think that all my friends and family in England are just on the other side of the water (all be it a pretty long way away!!).

We drove for several more hours and decided to treat ourselves to a hotel as it'd been quite some time. The following day we pushed on to Ushuaia and drove as far South as is possible to the end of Ruta 3. We'd heard mixed reports about Ushuaia, but decided it's quite a nice town with lots of artwork scattered around the place and a nice backdrop of mountains.

We camped a fairly cold night in the National Park and were lucky enough to see a fox really close up. The next day we decided to push on and start making our way North. But not before we'd made the hike out to see Laguna Esmerelda. Really nice lake hemmed in by steep mountains, nice trek through the wilderness, REALLY muddy though, came very close to slipping over a few times.

Just before catching the ferry back to the mainland, after a night slept in the car, as I was about to boil some water on our stove by the side of the road a really friendly Uruguayan/Argentinian couple invited us into their motorhome for a coffee and some freshly cooked bread. You get some really nice people here in South America and we were pretty excited to sit and chat (in our very best Spanglish!) with our new friends.

In Patagonia Part III

Next stop in Patagonia was Torres del Paine National Park. Torres del Paine is on the Chillean side of Patagonia and is famous for it's amazing scenery and trekking.

We decided to do the "w trek" with an extension starting at the park administration. In other words we were gonna be hiking with heavy packs, cooking and camping for 5 days and 5 nights.

The park is set up quite differently to Los Glaciares in Argentina with lots of refugios and even hotels on the trail. But while it's certainly more commercialised it isn't any less spectacular. The trek took us past turquoise glacial lakes, huge calving glaciers and steep granite peaks.

Carrying the equivelant of a bag of cement on your back (20kgs) doesn't sound like it'd be too bad, but actually can be quite tough when you're walking 6-8hrs a day through the mountains in the crazy Patagonian weather! But at the end of the trek you seem to be filled with a strange masochistic pride in your achievement and we were actually feeling pretty fit and would have liked to keep going a bit further.

Along the way, from one of the campsites we did a side tour kayaking to Glacier Grey. Hmm, was it a good idea after walking for 6 and a half hrs to paddle against a pretty fierce wind coming straight off a glacier for 2 and a half hours?? Well, it would seem yes it was. We got to paddle almost within touching distance of several icebergs in Lago Grey and got out of the kayaks onto the land to take photos about 10 metres away from the glacier itself. Pretty amazing, definitely worth getting splashed in the face by freezing cold water for (especially if your sat at the back of the kayak!!!Hahhahahah)

At the end of the trek we still had to get back to our car and were picked up by a very nice Chillean couple before we'd even started to stick our thumb out to hitchhike. They were on holiday enjoying the park and we were happy to serve as their own personal photographers for an hour or two as way of a thankyou for giving us a ride.

Everyone doing the hike was super friendly and we met some great people along the way. Definitely one of the (many) highlights of our trip.