Chile - Part 4

All too soon the last day was upon us, and we headed to Punta, a transer of 5 hours.  Our driver this time was ex Chilean Army, and took great pains to point out the minefields along the border, as the route from Torres Del Paine follows much of the Chile/Argentina border.  Certainly in Patagonia, we found that lots of the Chileans support the Falkland Islands, and cannot understand why their government is allying itself with Argentina.  They too suffered when Argentina claimed much of Tierra Del Fuego from them, and there are currently some disputes about where the border lies in Torres Del Paine.....

Our fianl hotel Cabal de Hornos was in the centre of Punta, but only 500m from what could be most easily described as run down housing, similar to a Favella!  Dogs roamed the streets, and beggars were plentiful.  This was a side to Chile we hadn't seen.

Harry enjoyed looking at beach, but couldn't go onto it, as it was covered in rusted and twisted steel and lots of other rubbish.

The hotel itself was very nice, but there was a huge military and police presence outside, and we, along with many others suffered from shocking customer service.  We found out why when a huge entourage arrived in the restaurant.  The Chilean and Uruguayan presidents were staying there prior to heading to Antarctica.

The flight back was through Rio Gallegos, Argentina, and may possibly have been one of the last flights to stop there if the rumour mill is true.  LAN are coming intense pressure from Argentina to suspend the flights to the Falklands, and this would be a huge blow to the islands, especially the large Chilean community who live and work here.  By all accounts they recently wrote a letter of complaint to the Chilean government about their concerns with the Argentinians.

Fortunately we didn't have to get off at Rio Gallegos, and were able to sit on the plane.

 We were able to get some photos of the Falklands from the air, although Harry missed them as he was asleep.  Big Dog was with Harry for the whole trip, and had now notched up in excess of 15,000 miles travelling with Harry!

West Falkland

San Carlos Water in the centre of the photo (looks like a Y on its side)

Goose Green and Darwin

And all too soon we were home.  It was nice to get away, but it is also nice getting back, and knowing you don't have to keep packing up suitcases, although Dawn did have 6 or 7 loads of washing to get through!  Our neighbour, Steve, the Chief Vet, had prepared a meal for us, which was very well recieved

I would go back to Chile again, and to the same area for some more walking, although Dawn wants a beach holiday next time :-(

Chile - Part 3

We were to spend a total of 3 nights at Hosteria Las Torres, which is right at the base of the centre peaks of the park, Las Torres Del Paines, and was very popular and incredibly busy.  It also has a campsite as part of its facilities, but despite this, it didn't feel claustrophobic, especially when this is the view from your room!

There was also a family of Patagonian Foxes who kept us entertained with their antics.  Harry thought it highly amusing that one was trying to get a piggyback from the other......

The hotel staff were incredibly friendly and helpful, and the trips out were fantastic.  They couldn't offer the full range of trips, as several went into the closed area of the park, so they just put on extra trips to the other locations.  We ended up dealing with the same guide organiser, Marcella, for the three days we there and she bent over backwards to help us.  On the first night, she came to us in the bar at just gone 10pm to let us know that she had been able to organise some horseriding for us.  Harry had wanted to go horseriding at Rio Serrano, but the trips weren't running, so he couldn't go.  We had explained this to Marcella, and she must have pulled out every stop going!  We had an hour on the most gentle horses going, with the three of us, the Baqueano and a guide.  A guide and a Baqueano go on each tour, as the Baqueanos are there to look after the horses, and speak very little English.  The Baqueanos dress in traditional clothes, as do the restaurant staff!

The restaurant food was excellent, and took the form of a buffet, with a huge choice.

We managed to get Harry walking some decent distances too.  On the first morning Harry walked about 5 miles, stopping after 2.5 miles and a 400 metre climb to play on his DSi because "his legs were tired."  He wasn't fazed by the bridges either, unlike Dawn.....

Day 2 was where we split off to do our own things.  I wanted to walk to Las Torres, which is advertised as a challenging walk, climbing around 1000m in 9km, but taking around 4 hours to reach Las Torres, and then 3.5 hours to return.  I booked a tour guide, which turned out to be Marcella, and at 9:30am, I set off, with just one other person to walk to Las Torres.  A packed lunch was provided, and Marcella was fairly clear that it would be us that set the pace for the day.  The other walker, Kate, was young american tourist on holiday with her grandparents.  The weather was very hot and sunny, topping out at 28C, so it was no surprise that by the time we reached Chileno, the halfway point that Ihad drunk 1.5 litres of water!  Chileno is around 400m high, but to reach it you first climb to just over 600m, before dropping down 200m to Chileno.  Kate and I were interviewed by Chilean TV at Chileno about our views on the park and how our holidays had been affected by the fires before the reporter tagged onto the group for the final stage.

We finally reached the top at 12:30.  Allowing for rest breaks we had completed a 4 hour walk in just under 3 hours!  Marcella thought that this may be one of the fastest guided times of the season, and we had been talking all the way and finding out lots of information.  I guess that just being a small group helped considerably!  The final stage of the walk is a climb of about 1.5km over the morraine left from the original corrie glacier, and is about a 1:2 gradient.  All of us by now had emptied our original water and were drinking from the hillside stream, which were crisp, cool and refreshing.

The view at the top was amazing, and the photos below do not show how blue the ice of the corrie glacier really was, and certainly don't allow you to hear the cracks, crunches and groans coming from the ice.  On account of our good time, we stayed here for around an hour, having lunch, taking photos, refilling water and generally exploring.

We left the top at 1:30, and on our way back met people we had passed on the way up, who were surprised how quickly we had made it.

We stopped just once on the way back down, at Chileno, and arrived back the hotel at 3:45, which Marcella then confirmed was the fastest guided time of the season!  Back in the room, I took off my  Gore-tex boots which are supposed to let sweat out but not let water in, to find that in the conditions that day Gore-tex boots simply do not work; I could wring my socks out, and my feet had pruned with the sweat.  The socks had to be washed through because they were that wet!  That said though, there was not a blister in sight!

Dawn and Harry meanwhile had stayed around the hotel for some spa, massage and jacuzzi treatment, before heading off a trip to Laguna Azul.  They visited similar places to the trip at the start of the holiday, but it was much more relaxed, more friendly, and Dawn said the tour was a lot better, wishing that we had skipped the tour on the first day and gone straight to Rio Serrano from Punta!

They made a final stop at the "Eco Campsite" which makes up part of the complex.  Basically, it's camping in a dome!

Time to head back to Punta Arenas for our flight home on Saturday!

Chile - Part 2

Rio Serrano was the hotel we had been transferred to at the last minute from Hotel Lago Grey because of the fires, and things were still very much up in the air, which was slightly disappointing for us as this meant that we couldn't book any trips out, but the area was fantastic for walking.  This was also the same hotel that Robson Green had been to in January 2011 filming "Extreme Fishing - At the Ends of the Earth."  The place was amazing and very relaxing, and incredibly huge, but also very empty - most people had cancelled their holidays completely because of the fires.  The customer service was superb, the food excellent, and the view from our window outstanding!

The first picture shows the 180 view, and the second shows the Paine peaks, with the Torres (Horns)

Because the hotel had only just reopened, we weren't able to book any trips, but had some fantastic walks, and Harry climbed lots of trees!  We used the hotel more to relax than anything else!

 When it came time to leave Rio Serrano, we should have had a nice simple 50km transfer to Hosteria Las Torres, but because of the closures, we had to travel back almost to Puerto Natales, and then back out, giving us a 3 hour transfer!

Chile - Part 1

We receive an allocation of flights back to the UK each year as part of my package, or if we wish we can book through a local travel agent and spend the equivalent on a holiday of our choice, topping up using out money if required.  We had decided that we would go to Chile, especially as it is on our doorstep, just 90 minutes flight time from the islands.

After much debate we decided we would go to Torres Del Paine, a national park in Chile, famed for its beauty and also glaciers, we couldn't wait!  Then we got this news, which threw the whole holiday into jeopardy!

A fire had started on 29th December, and the whole park was expected to be closed until February.  Our friends Mike and Sue were due to go on 1st January, and had cancelled and were getting a full refund, but we were desperate to go on holiday and didn't want the hassle of going through the insurance to get a full refund.  Then good news!  The park was reopening, but one of the areas we were going to, Lago Grey was in the 20% still closed.  No problem said the travel agent, you are being transferred to Rio Serrano, and Las Torres is still open, so your holiday is still on!  Yay!!!

7th January saw us catching the flight to Punta Arenas, where we were met by a driver, as we had paid for private transfers.  We were then driven for 3 hours to Puerto Natales, just on the edge of the park.  Harry was not impressed that Spongebob on the TV in the room was speaking Spanish, but he was most impressed that there was a play park outside the hotel!

The town is on the edge of a lake, and looks over some of the glaciers.

Time for three of Harry's pictures

at MPA waiting for the flight

Puerto Natales

Puerto Natales

From the hotel at Puerto Natales we were collected and went on a bus tour of the park, although the tour was somewhat disjointed because of the closed areas.

First stop was the Milidon Cave, which was home to a now extinct sloth crossed with a bear known as a mylodon.

Looking out of the cave

From there we visited Lago Sarmiento, a very salty lake casued by water flowing in, but not out.  Water is lost by evaporation which concentrates the salts.

The stone structures on the edge are caused by bacteria calcifying the salts in the water to create coral like structures

We saw Guanaco, which are a relative of the Llama and Alpaca, the difference being that these have fur, not wool!

Harry loved looking at the guanaco, including the remains of dead ones

so he took a picture on his camera

whilst I snapped this bird in a shrub

We also saw some Rheas

Then we visited the Paine Waterfall

 Harry also photographed the Paine Waterfall.  I am actually quite impressed with some of the photos he took!

There was also evidence of the 2005 fire here

Laguna Armarga, again a salty lake, and home to some Chilean Flamingo

From there is was off to another lake, Laguna Azul, where Harry had good fun splashing stones in the water!  Again, a salty lake, one of the photos shows the weird coral like structures which grow in the lake.

It was then a mad dash back to Cerro Castillo, right on the Chile/Argentina border for lunch, at 3pm.  This was meant to take an hour, but the service was so appalling we were there nearly 2 and half hours!!  It was then back to Puerto Natales for our transfer to Rio Serrano.  This was madness, as we were within 60 km of the hotel when we had lunch......

The next photo is of Argentina!

There was a group of kittens, just making their first steps into the big world!

We finally arrived at Rio Serrano at close to 8pm, and headed for the restaurant for the most amazing food!