Santiago, the capital of Chile, is a city very like London, and it marked the end of the Tucan trip for us and goodbye to our new friends. Although, we plan to catch up with many of them again in South America and stay in touch with the rest. On our first night in Santiago the new Harry Potter movie came out so we all headed to the cinema. We had to queue around the block to get into the screen but we somehow got good seats all together and the film was great. The Chileans laughed and made quite a lot of noise in reaction to the movie, sometimes in advance of the words as they were reading the subtitles – very odd!
After a frustrating and expensive day at the post office trying to find my sleeping bag parcel from South Africa and sending some excess stuff home, we went out for our last night altogether. We went up the funicular to see sunset from the top of the hill but unfortunately the city smog and clouds meant it was not clear enough to see it. So after quickly swigging our drinks (so classy drinking red wine from the bottle!), we rushed back down on the last tram and headed to probably the nicest restaurant we’ve been to so far, excluding steakhouses in Argentina! We were all quite hyper and emotional as it was farewell to some but a good night was had by all (too good for some!).
We were now venturing off on our own so we had to organise our own itinerary and transport. The first stop we’d settled on was Santa Cruz in the Colchagua wine region a couple of hours south of Santiago. Our first foray onto public transport went to plan and we successfully made it to Santa Cruz with all our luggage. However, we were hoping to find a campsite in or near town so hadn’t booked anywhere to stay, which went against my organising and planning grain, but I went with it. Unfortunately, there was no campsite and the only hostel listed in the lonely planet was full, so we drove around in a taxi trying to find somewhere to stay. We ended up in a lovely (but budget blowing) B&B – we did appreciate the comfy bed and nice bathroom though.
Our next challenge was to organise some wine tasting for the following day and after some sign language conversations with the landlady, we negotiated a deal with a friend of hers around the corner to hire his 2 bikes for the day. We set out the following morning with our map and picnic. Unfortunately the map was more illustrative that accurate and we inadvertently headed east instead of north and ended up cycling a very large loop. We eventually made it back on track after more crazy conversations with locals. Poor Le Roux was having to deal with a slow puncture, which made pedalling tougher and we kept having to stop to pump up his tyre.
It was worth the cycle though as the scenery was lovely and we found the vineyard I’d heard great things about – Viu Manent. We weren’t disappointed and tried 7 lovely wines with a very knowledgeable and friendly host. We then cycled onto the Apalta valley and the Montes and Las Ninas wineries. Luckily we met an American couple who spoke Spanish at each place so they could translate for us as both tastings were in Spanish. We quoffed some more lovely wines and ate our picnic before pedalling somewhat more slowly back to Santa Cruz. Along the way we saw a lot of properties severely damaged by the earthquake back in February – adobe buildings don’t stand up very well in those conditions! In fact a lot of the wineries had only recently reopened having been badly affected by the earthquake.
After a wine induced nap back at the B&B we packed up our stuff and took the night bus down to Pucon to catch up with the Tucan gang. Buying the bus tickets had been another charades conversation and eventually we worked out from the 2 ticket office guys that there was only one bus a day late at night and that we had to get the last local bus to San Fernando to meet up with it. Luckily the plan worked (only just though as the last local bus was full and left early and we only just packed ourselves into the aisle!) and we arrived into Pucon at 8am the next morning and found the gang at the campsite just in time for a coffee and breakfast.
It was nice to be reunited with our Tucan friends even though it had only been a couple of days. The campsite in Pucon was lovely, with lots of trees and a river running through it. We had arrived at just the right time as it had been raining for 3 straight days and we turned up and the sun came out for our whole stay – that never usually happens!! Le Roux cooked up a storm for the group making one of his trademark beef stews which went down a treat. Pucon is famous for its active volcano and in true tourist style we all booked ourselves onto a tour to climb it.
The volcano is totally covered in snow and is smoking toxic sulphuric gas. It was a 5hr (-1hr for most of us who cheated and got the chair lift up to cut out the first hour!) climb up in mountaineering boots, crampons, gators, snowsuit, helmet and ice axe. After all the trekking we’d done at altitude, it was actually a relatively easy climb and the views were amazing. We didn’t spend much time at the top due to the toxic gas but it was pretty cool looking down into an active volcano. The best was yet to come though on the way down as we put on a nappy like thing and slid on our bums all the way down the volcano – the best fun I’ve had in ages!! The only downside to the day was burning my nose more badly than I have ever burnt anything before, despite the factor 50. My nose was bright red, weepy and then crusty – not at all attractive!!! Don’t rub you runny nose with your glove was the lesson learned here!!
The Tucan gang left the following day and we finally had to say goodbye to Lindsay, Claire and Chrissy which was a sad moment. We tried to find a fishing spot for Le Roux who’s been very deprived on the fishing front but unfortunately we ended up having just a woodland walk as the fishing spot we’d been told about was impossible to find. We cooked up a storm later on barbequing a steak, with veggies and potatoes, however, while we were relaxing over our dinner with a bottle of wine, one of the dogs at the campsite had unknowing stolen one of my walking shoes. We discovered this when we went to bed and so spent the next hour with head torches unsuccessfully trying to find it with the campsite owner. Having given up and decided to try again in the morning, I found that the damn dog had now also stolen one of my walking sandals. I was livid!! and stressed as we were doing a 4 day trek in a few days time and I didn’t want to do it in new shoes, and having already had to buy a new expensive sleeping bag, another $150 on shoes was a bit much! I didn’t sleep well that night worrying about the shoes, but luckily after a more thorough search in daylight of the neighbouring property, Le Roux finally managed to find both shoes scattered in different places – such a relief.
Next stop after Pucon was Puerto Montt, the departure point for the Navimag ferry. There is no reason other than getting the ferry to go to Puerto Montt and I’m glad we only had an evening there as there really was nothing to see or do. We did however, manage to find some lovely seafood in a little cafe called Pinguino in Angelmo. We had a lovely seafood consume, chilli garlic prawns, hot smoked salmon and the biggest mussels I’ve ever seen – delicious!
I’d heard and read amazing things about the Navimag ferry journey from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, with beautiful views of the Chilean fjords and lots of wildlife. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side and we missed the best scenery as it was shrouded in cloud and the wind was so strong that we weren’t able to visit Puerto Eden where we would have seen a lot of wildlife. The ferry journey was a nice and relaxing way to travel and thanks to the amazing seasickness patches a guy at work had recommended I survived the Gulf of Penas without any ill effects. However, given the cost of the trip I was slightly disappointed as it didn’t live up to my expectations. We did, however, meet some great people and learnt some new card games which made a nice change to the ones we’d played on the bus for endless hours.
Next on our itinerary was Torres del Paine National Park and the “W trek”. The trek is supposedly one of the top 3 treks to do in South America and it more than lived up to expectations. We decided to take our camping gear and our own food as the accommodation and meals in the park are expensive, however, this did mean that our back packs were pretty heavy! I reckon mine weighed 15kg and Le Roux’s more. We met up with Will (an Aussie guy), and Lisa and Alex (2 Canadian girls) we’d met on the ferry and headed off to begin the adventure. The weather in Patagonia is very changeable and unpredictable and we experienced this firsthand. The catamaran trip across Lake Pehoe was more like crossing the English Channel as I felt seasick during the 30min crossing – waves were breaking over the top of the boat!! Also, poor Lisa lost her sunglasses before we’d even started as the wind whipped them off into the lake.
We set up our tents in high winds, which was a little challenging, and then we set off for the Gray glacier through the rain and howling gales. Despite the weather the walk was lovely, but the views of the glacier were shrouded in mist and fog so we didn’t get the picture postcard shot of the glacier reflection in the lake. After battling against the winds Le Roux and I were hungry for our steak dinner which got some very jealous looks in the campsite kitchen as others were dining on crackers and nutella!
Day 2 - after surviving a very stormy night (luckily our tent held up very well and proved to be water and wind resistant) we set off through the rain for the Valle Frances. It was pretty tough walking in the bad weather with a very heavy backpack, but we made it to the valley. Unfortunately, horizontal sleet meant we couldn’t see much and we gave up on the walk up the valley and decided to plough onwards to our next campsite. We arrived pretty cold and tired but pleased that we’d made it. We defrosted in the refugio and had a hot shower which made the world of difference.
Day 3 dawned and finally the bad weather had broken and we actually saw some sun! Amazing what a difference it made to morale, even though we trekked along with our big backpacks all day, including half way up the mountain. As we turned the corner on the final stretch to our campsite, the wind hit us and practically blew us over – incredible how strong the gusts were and how wobbly you are with a large backpack! We fought our way along and luckily didn’t get blown off the narrow path.
Day 4 began early (3:15am!!) as we’d decided to trek up to the towers in order to watch the sunrise – the rocks apparently go a beautiful pink colour sometimes as the sun comes up. We trekked for 1hr 45mins in the dark with our head torches – slightly tricky but we kept up a good pace and reached the top in time. It was very cold and windy at the top – it was actually snowing! We huddled together on a camping mat (Lisa and Alex had even brought their sleeping bags up with them to keep warm) and waited for the sun to rise and the towers to turn pink. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t on our side again and we didn’t get the picture postcard photo, but it was a great, if cold, experience, as the towers were stunning sitting behind a blue lake.
When I was too cold to stay any longer we headed back down to break camp and trek the final 2 hrs to the end. Le Roux and I made good time down – I think the fact that we only had 2 more hours to go spurred us on even though we were carrying our big packs. The only issue we had was that at the bottom there were no minibuses for a few hours, so we had to persuade a guy who’d just dropped off some other people to give us a lift to the park entrance. From there we managed to hitch a lift with a really friendly Polish/Canadian couple who were visiting the park for the day, the 30km to the campsite where the Tucan gang were camping. Only a few of them were there though as the rest had headed off on overnight treks in the park, which was a shame, but we had a nice day with Scoota and Max, and then treated ourselves to a bottle of wine and dinner in the campsite restaurant.
Next day we packed up and did one last walk up to the Condor Mirador, where we did in fact see condors, remarkably – frustrating though as I hadn’t taken the zoom lens though as I hadn’t expected to see any! The lookout provided beautiful views over Lake Pehoe and the park but it was so incredibly windy that we could lean on the wind, and in fact it had pushed us up the hill, helpfully. The incredible scenery in Torres del Paine National Park kept amazing me – it was totally awesome, as the Americans would say! I was sad to be leaving the park having had such a great time on the trek, despite the weather. The challenging conditions and being self sufficient made the trek all the more memorable and we got a real sense of satisfaction from it. We had great company on the trek too and I’m so glad that we did the walk with Will, Alex and Lisa. Overall, I can’t recommend the W trek high enough – it has been one of the highlights, if not the best thing we’ve done so far.
On returning to Puerto Natales we again treated ourselves to a nice dinner – we had been on camping rations for 3 days! We found a great carne restaurant that served “cordero a la cruz” - a whole lamb impaled on a cross, slowly cooked over a wood fired – absolutely delicious!! I’d been missing lamb as we hadn’t seen it anywhere in the north so it was great to find it done so well.
Puerto Natales was our last stop in Chile as we’d decided not to make the long journey south to Ushuaia and instead were heading back into Argentina to El Calafate. Chile is a great country with amazing scenery, great wines and delicious lamb (the steaks don’t come close to Argentina’s though!) and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.
Complete photo album:
