Well, finally got to a reliable internet connection in Bariloche, so I thought I'd better update while I can! We arrived OK, but it was over 30 hours due to a 6 hour delay in Santiago - setting the trend of things to come. On advice we packed all the electronic gear in our carry-on (Thanks Jeanette and Pat) and everythig arrived OK. We had to wait 3/4 of an hour to get our bags though, not sure why, but we were relieved when they arrived. The flight to Puerto Varas, about 900km south of Santiago was fantastic. The weather was mostly clear and we saw lots of the Andes and many lakes. Some mountains had snow, but not as many as would further north, as they are higher there. Got a taxi OK at Puerto Montt to go to Puerto Varas, and my Spanish was continuing to be useful (thanks Nancy), and I am enjoying tryong to use it. Everyone is SO friendly and helpful. We arrived late and very tired, but had dinner an a fish restaurant above a fish market (El Mercado) and w...
El Chalten, the town. We both really loved El Chalten. It is a small town, built in 1985 and now has 700 inhabitants, mostly (all?) geared to tourism, but some is serious climbing as well as the kind of trekking we were doing. In many ways it seems like a "frontier town" with many small square buildings, many only partially built out of brick blocks (mainly). There are many restaurants and hotels and they are really interesting designs, using lots of wood and different angles and furnishings. Quite a lot of character. Just across the road from Los Nires (our hotel) is an old small wooden building with half on stilts like a queenslander, and it is a chocolate place that makes the most fantastic, rich but not over-sweet hot chocolate. Inside is old climbing gear and a staircase with a ski as a railing takes you to the small upstairs room where you sit in the sun with views of snow capped mountains to drink the brown hot warming comfort! YES!! ...
This is SO much better with pictures, but this computer does not recognize my USB hub to read the photos. Bloody computers! We got a bus (what a novelty - NOT) for the 90 min, 80km to Perito Moreno glacier. It is huge. About 5.5km wide, some 30km long and walls about 30-60m high. When we entered the National Park, the landscape changed dramatically. The sparse low vegetation gave way to greenery and trees. This is a result of micro-climate change rather than land clearing, we were told. The glacier is very impressive from the first sight, and more so when we got on a boat for a 30min crossing of the river and getting fairly close to the face of the glacier with its high, white walls of ice all criss-crossed with blue lines where water was making its own way to the green lake in which the ice-face sat. It was cold and windy but very impressive. Eva had all her layers on, I had 4 and had one to go if needed. After landing we were taken by guides to the ice, fitted ...
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