Chile & Argentina 2006

This post tells the story of an adventure through Chile and Argentina from February 10 through February 25 of 2006.

On February 10th 2006, our South American adventure began. The participatants were myself (Kathy), Beth, Brenda, and Bart (Mike). Bart, Brenda and I traveled together from Denver, through Dallas, and overnight to Santiago Chile. Beth came a more circuitous route.

We spent one day in Santiago, which turned out to be quite a beautiful and historical city. A favorite site was Santa Lucia Park.

The next morning, we caught an early flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas in the far southern part of Chile were we launched our adventure into the Torres del Paine National Park (pronounced "piney" but sometimes, PAIN was a better pronunciation). On the way, we stopped to see a colony of penguins (cutest darned things!). We trekked the "W" Circuit in the park.
We spent the night in the town of Puerto Natales. The next day we drove to the National Park, road a catamaran across Lago Pehoe, and hiked on to a campsite near Glacier Grey. On this day we first saw the spectacular Cuernos del Paine (Paine means "blue" in the native mapuche language and cuernos means horns or antlers - so the Blue Horns). As you can see from the picture, it was a "bit" windy!The evening of our arrival at Glacier Grey and the next morning, we visited the veiwpoints from where to observe the massive glacier's forward edge pressing into Lago Grey. Notice the rather large tour-boat approaching the glacier for scale. After we left the glacier, we returned to the shore of Lago Pehoe to camp for the evening.The next and longest leg of the "W" circuit brought us into the French Valley and on to the Cuernos Refugio. The French Valley truly was the most spectacular 360 degree panorama that I have ever seen - jagged mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, lakes, valleys... truly amazing and sadly impossible to capture in a picture so you'll have to go see that yourself. We spent that night in a wonderful refugio (hut/lodge) at the base of the Cuernos del Paine.

The following day was spent trekking to the Las Torres campground where we were treated to fresh grilled salmon and were introduced to the cultural experience of drinking mate (basically and herbal tea pronounced matay) - we were assured it is quite legal in most of the world :-)

The final day spent in the park found us trekking to the Torres del Paine (the blue towers). It was quite a long day of an out-and-back hike to the mirador (overview point) but the trail was very easy to follow (see the cairns!). The night, we returned to Puerto Natales.

Our final day in the south of Chile was spent playing tourist for the morning in Puerto Natales then returning to Punta Arenas for an evening flight to Puerto Montt. See following post for the next adventure.

After spend a week in the southern part of Chile, our group moved north into the Lake District (or it might have been northern Patagonia - we never really figured out the dividing line). We flew into the Puerto Montt airport and went directly to Puerta Veras - a darling little town on a lake staring out at Volcan Osorno. We spent one day here. We then moved on to Bariloche in Argentina via a short flight. We stayed at a beautiful guest house in Bariloche named Hosteria Santa Rita. Here is the view from our room window. Bariloche is a town very reminiscent of Lake Tahoe - both in spectacular scenery and in sprawling tourist development.

We left our wonderful hotel in plenty of time to catch the 8:30 bus in route to our Lake District Trekking adventure. Unfortunately, the bus left promptly at 8 and the 9:30 bus was full. So we hired a taxi to take the 4 of us and all our gear south for 2 hours through the town of El Bolson and on to the pier in the Lago Puelo National Park. At the pier at 1pm, we were to meet Kent Schoenar who would transport us across the lake via Argentine and Chilean customs. After parting from Kent, we were to meet our "guide" who would ensure food and shelter for the 3 following days and nights as well as point us back in the direction of civilization in time to catch our flights home. If we were captured along the way, all parties would deny knowledge of our existence. Remarkably, everything came together as planned (exempting the bus...). The picture above is of Kent and his boat at the Argentine border crossing and below is of our exceptional guide, Carolyn as we were dropped off for an afternoon hike in an area of old growth forests. Our afternoon hike was followed by a remarkable evening on Bandurias Island (an island of roughly 20 acres) were our delightful host Fransua helped us fall in love with her little corner of the world. The picture is of Fransua saying farewell with the beuatiful cabin we stayed in behind her.
After reluncantly leaving Bandarias Island, we hiked to the farm of a Chilean family for a traditional barbeque. The food was very good, but the time with the family was the true pleasure of the visit. We learned that children of every background love to play :-) See Tomas and Guadalupe. That evening was spent in the warm hospitality of a German immigrant family in a cabin on a cliff with the most spectacular view. Here's the view from their front room. The following day was a great deal of walking through rural landscapes. With our heroic steeds carrying ALL our gear. The bay is "Surprise", the buckskin is "Bad Cat" (or Apple depending on who you ask). Their owner, Toko, was our protector and constant smiling companion. During our hike, we often came upon fruits and berries ripe for the picking. So we ate and ate - blackberries, figs, apples, plums, and a bunch of other berries I can't remember the names of. That evening was spent with a Chilean family in their guesthouse near a beautiful waterfall. After a fantastic adventure in an area inaccessible by motor vehicle, it was time to venture back to civilization. And what a venture it was! We started in a passenger van made to seat 10 - we ended up with 24 people and a lot of gear packed into this vehicle! We then took a ferry across a lake to catch another bus that was larger in which we spent 5 hours driving through the countryside headed back to Puerta Veras. That night we flew from Puerto Montt to Santiago.

Beth left the group for her circuitous business-class trip home, while Bart Brenda and I headed to the Concha y Toro Vineyard. Chilean wines are some of the best in the world. Concha y Toro is famous, not only for their excellent wines but also for the supersition that the Devil lives in their wine cellar. This rumor was started in the late 1800s when the owner and founder of the vineyard wanted to discourage anyone from sneaking into his cellar and stealing his fine wine. Here are Bart and Brenda outside the Devil's Cellar. Bart's giving Brenda devil horns, but check out his eyes - I swear I didn't doctor the picture!

After a great deal of shopping (much to Bart's chagrin, but tempered by numerous cervesa stops), we caught our 11:40pm flight back home.

While it was a fantastic adventure, it is always a pleasure to return home to our beautiful Colorado! The final picture is of Greg and I on the Commando Trail near Vail, Colorado the weekend after our return from South America (Bart taking the photo).