Volcano Villarica erupted a couple of weeks ago when I was still on Easter Island and we saw the spectacle on the news, but were also worried about the evacuation of Pucon and all other villages surrounding the spitting beast. It was over in a day and ever since Villarica has been puffing away in the usual manner. The Pucon alert system was put on yellow when I arrived and while numerous TV teams were nervously roaming around, eagerly waiting for the Volcano to erupt, the locals stayed calm and relaxed!
It did not erupt while I was there (and to my knowledge hasn’t ever since) … That said, because of the high alert it was impossible to climb Villarica and also the neighbouring Volcano Lanin, which, too, might erupt sooner or later. The option of climbing the in-between extinct Volcano Quetrupillán wasn’t very appealing. Instead I took the early morning bus to National Park Huerquehue (I’m still unable to pronounce that!) and climbed 1200m up to San Sebastian (6h return). Once again, it was worth the pain, for the extraordinary nature, bird life and especially for the 360° view from the top (including a view of the Volcanoes):
The lake region in southern Chile is full of signs of German immigrants, which can be a bit scary (at least for a german), as it seems out of place. It just seems weird that there are such strong influences that are still visible. Unlike in Namibia, I rarely heard anyone speak german, though, which came as a relief (that would have been even more awkward). However, a surprising number of Chileans speak quite a bit of german – even if their ancestors were not german speaking – and there seems to be a positive attitude towards germany and the germans in general (something you wouldn’t necessarily encounter in many countries in the world, be it for historical or cultural reasons).
There is one german word that even made it into chilean spanish: “Kuchen” (cake). Chileans LOVE Kuchen and they eat it at any time of the day, even for breakfast (something I have only experienced in parts of southern germany – it is definitely not that common in my home country).
However, if you ask german travellers what they miss most while travelling you will never get Kuchen as an answer. It is always, yes, always, BREAD! Unfortunately the early immigrants either didn’t know how to bake good bread (unlikely, as they knew how to make good Kuchen) or no-one wanted to eat it and it vanished eventually (unthinkable!) or the bread that we are used to nowadays was only introduced in Germany after the emigration wave. If anyone knows, your input is much appreciated! (I only found one bakery, in Pucon, that had amazing german bread and I bought a loaf and inhaled it’s wonderful smell before indulging in the taste – the bakery is called “Rostock”, most certainly after the german city with that same name, and it’s on O’Higgins).
Here is something esle that I much appreciated: beer brewed after the german Reinheitsgebot, meaning it only contains hops, malt, yeast and water. One brewery even uses a german subslogan: “Das gute Bier” (the good beer).
In the region around Puerto Varas and especially in the german colonial town Frutillar all Klischees were confirmed: houses, names, Kuchen, sausage dogs – and fjnally I even found some “Gartenzwerge” (garden gnomes)!
Purto Varas with view of Osorno Volcano and Llanquihue LakeChurch in Frutillar
I went to Punta Arenas for two reasons: to catch a flight to Puerto Montt and thus skip a 36 hour busride – and to see the Pengüinos (spanish for Penguins) on Magdalena Island! They were about to change their fur and leave the Island (in fact some already had but there were still hundreds left). Aren’t they the cutest animals!?! See for yourself:
And so are the sea lions on neighbouring Martha Island, even though they hunt the cute little Penguins…
I forgot to mention that before heading off to Chile and the Torres del Paine Nationalpark I had an overwhelming encounter with ice. No, not ice cream (I’ll get back to that in another post), but ice in its purest form: glacier ice!
The Perito Moreno Glacier is the no. 1 tourist attraction in Argentinian Patagonia although it is tiny compared to all the other glaciers in Patagonia! But it’s the only glacier that you can easily get this close to. And seriously, tiny is not a word you’d use to describe it. From the so called balconies on the mountainside opposite the glacier it looks huge! I could have spend more than just 2,5h looking at its beautiful blue colours, the blue being lighter or stronger depending on the thickness of the ice, and listening to the creaking sound of the ice moving or the thundering roar when parts broke off.
Of course I didn’t leave it at that. I had to walk onto the glacier! A popular way to explore the glacier up close is by way of a mini ice trekking.
Start of the trekking on the left
You’ll be equipped with crampons and two knowledgeable guides then take a group of twenty people for a different glacier experience, one that takes you over little crevasses, some of which are filled with water, and up and down the characteristic glacier towers. It was more strenuous than I had imagined, for the steel crampons are heavy and walking up and, especially, down is harder than expected (bloody knees!). But I highly recommend it! At the end you’ll even be rewarded with a glas of Whisky, on the rocks of course (taken directly from the glacier).
There is also a big ice trekking that takes you further up onto the glacier for several hours. Depending on the crampons they use for this trek it might be worth doing, but if you have troubles with your knees it might not be advisable…
A little hostel side story from El Calafate: in Argentina and Chile hostels mostly have mixed dorms, but in that particular hostel we’ve been four girls in my room on the first night. One moved out and the next eve the rest of us disbelievingly looked at the new suitcase in our room that had the size of a wardrobe!! As it turned out it belonged to a 22 year old Brasilien guy… when asked why in the world he was travelling with such a huge suitcase (on a 5 day vacation!) he replied “cause not all my shoes fit into the smaller one”!!! We almost cried laughing!
We’ve had it all on the so-called W-Trek: snow, rain, sun, wind! We’ve hiked up and down, crossed rivers and streams and huge mud pools and I was very glad that for the first time in my life I had rented trekking poles! No trekking in the famous Torres del Paine Natinal Park in chilean Patagonia would be complete without experiencing all of this. That said, I wasn’t able to see the Torres up close, as it was first raining and later snowing on that first day in the park. I still went up to Laguna Torres and saw, well, the laguna and… clouds. It happens to the best of us.
However, that day I also met THE TEAM (in reference to the German MANNSCHAFT during the last world cup)! In fact, I had already shared a dorm with 4 of the guys (Emiliano from Argentina, Christóbal from Chile, and Daniel and Átila from Brazil) in Refugio Torres. And now, in the cozy Refugio el Chileno, we sat together, with Tiziano from Italy, and THE TEAM for the next days evolved. We’ve had loads of fun (at some point when the sun came out I started off an “O sole mio” which Tiziano then sang to us in full, making it our anthem for the trek – music really helps marching on) and pushed each other to our limits (special thanks to Emiliano and Tiziano for pushing me up to Mirador Brittanico) and I am very grateful for this time with all of you guys, you rock!! (Question: why do I always end up in a group of guys? Not that I don’t like it, just wondering…)
It was amazing, yet strenous (hell, some parts took a lot of will-power), but I’d do it again any time! Not going to go into more details… check out the photos instead:
Day 1: Refugio Torres – Laguna Torres – Refugio El Chileno:
Torres in the morning from far awayFirst day – starting with rainbowWet, wet, wet.Laguna de los torres without torres.
Patagonian “bridges” (nope, that’s not me in the pink poncho!)
Day 2: El Chileno – Los Cuernos
Day 3: Los Cuernos – Mirador Brittanico – Paine Grande
Lago Nordensköld from Mirador Frances
View from Mirador Brittanico
Day 4: Paine Grande – somewhere on the way to Glaciar Grey -Paine Grande
Glacier Grey
And check out Daniels and Átilas professional travel blogger photos and videos, if you like:
For those of you who’d like to do the W: I’d suggest to book refugios incl. full board, if you can afford it. That way you’ll have to carry less and won’t get wet or cold at night! If coming from the east (start from Laguna Amada) get there in the late afternoon and spend the night at Refugio Las Torres. Start walking the next morning up to Laguna Torres (see Las Torres close if you’re lucky) and either spend the night at the small Refugio El Chileno or make your way down again to the larger and more comfortable Refugio Las Torres (I liked El Chileno for its cozy athmosphere and the fact that I did not have to walk all the way down again. Also, you can shortcut the way on the next day into the direction of Los Cuernos). Spend the third night at Refugio Los Cuernos and get an upgrade to a Cabin with beautiful views of the mountains and the lake and relax in the HOT tub! Alternatively spend that night at Campo Frances in a dome. That way you’ll have to do less walking on the next day! It is a long day, so start early! But the view from Brittanico is worth the effort! Spend the fourth night at Refugio Paine Grande. Consider spending a fifth night at Refugio Grey, as otherwise you’d have to walk a strenous 22 km return and hurry to get the 6pm boat from Paine Grande. Refugio Grey is said to be nice and you could even consider to do a tour onto the glacier – I’d certainly do this next time!
Bookings (incl. bus and boat) can either be done directly through fantastico sur or vertice patagonia (who manage the refugios) or even better through an agent. I recommend to contact Carla Alcayaga (www.australglacier.com, she has a small office in Puerto Natales on Baquedano 695) and discuss your options with her! She’ll then book for you whatever you like! You can also book any bus and any tour in Patagonia (even in Argentina ) through her.
It’s only a short 1,5 h flight from Ushuaia to El Calafate, a huge advantage in time compared to the bus ride. There is not much to see anyway. Vast plains as far as the eye can see. And then all of a sudden the Los Glaciares National Park’s mountain range shows up ahead. Although the sky was clear, the flight was bumpy and once we stood the plane was still shaking like a boat on rough water because of the wind (well, they say it’s wind, I’d call it a storm)! It’s always windy in this region, más o menos. And on a day like this it’s hard to walk, especially with a large backpack!
A 2 h busride further north lies the tiny town of El Chalten, the hiking mekka on the Argentinian side of southern Patagonia. At the ranger station we were told to tackle the parks most popular hike the next day: the 8h return hike to the Laguna de los Tres at the foot of Mt. Fitz Roy! Good weather is elementary for this hike as one can’t climb up the last part if it’s too windy or wet nor see anything of Mt. Fitz Roy! Apparently weather conditions are not the best, usually, but the next day proved to be one of those very few perfect days: mostly sunny, little wind and a high of maybe 15° C. I chose to walk from the acceso Hosteria el Pilar. A shuttle dropped me off there together with 15 others at 9:15 a.m. The beautiful walk along the river Rio Blanco leads up and down through low forests with great views of the Glacier Piedras Blancas. After 3 h I reached the Campamento Poincenot, filled up my waterbottle with wonderfully clean and tasty water from a stream, enjoyed my sandwich (created a new look, by the way, cap under hat… Don’t think it will make it onto the runway… ) and climbed another 1h steep uphill! But when finally reaching the top the view is priceless!
Fitz Roy, oh Fitz Roy!
I was up there for 2 h, admiring Fitz Roy, Laguna de los tres (on the right), Laguna Sucia (on the left) and the Glaciers! I just couldn’t get enough. Also, even on this rare perfect day, there were almost always some clouds at the top of Mt. Fitz Roy and we all waited eagerly for those short moments when it was fully visible (which I captured with my Nikon, photos to follow some time soon). I happily hiked back to El Chalten in 3:15 h.
The next day was rainy and windy, so we almost all stayed in town, hopping from one café to another… In Argentina meat, beer and bread are generally cheap (some of you might love to hear that!), everything else is expensive. El Chalten is more than expensive. Plus, there is short supplies of almost everything, especially veggies and fruits. This is an example of the supplies in the biggest supermarket in town:
I was still on a cracker-tea-potato diet during the first days, so no meat and beer for me, unfortunately. But I finally ate a nice sirloin on my last eve, accompanied by a botttle of red wine shared with lovely Carole! What a life!
My flight to Ushuaia was scheduled for 4:40 am. A nightmare. The absolute worst flighttime on my RTW- Ticket. As always, when leaving for the airport in the middle of the night, I couldn’t find any sleep. So I landed in Ushuaia at 8 am with an immense lack of that very. Plus an upset stomach (no idea what from). This prologue is intended to explain why I didn’t do anything during the two days that I spent in Ushuaia (which is, oddly enough, pronounced Ussuaia – with a sharp “s”). No hike in the National Park, no boat ride on the Beagle Canal. I walked through only half of the tiny town and had tea at a lovely place (thanks for the tip, P!) with the most brilliant loo signs:
The only productive thing on my agenda was getting my hair cut. The very friendly girl at the reception marked quite a large number of hair salons on the map (there seem to be more than in BA!) and I decided to give one a try where her mother (“who has short and curly hair, too”) gets her hair cut. It was tiny, cramped and a bit filthy, but I decided to ignore all this and to finally get it done. I knew that no one would be able to speak english and hence rattled down what I had been taught by the receptionist: “Corte de pelo, no muy corto, tengo rollos” (Haircut, not too short, I have curls), followed by an upward movement with my hands and a “whooop” sound to demonstrate that curly hair tends to move up when dry. I explained how I wanted my hair cut by showing a couple of fotos taken by my hairdresser back home, but the guy seemed to only take a short look, nodded and started cutting. No need to say that I was anxious to see the result of his work. While sitting still my eyes wandered across the salon, registering loads of hair (not mine) on the floor, the furniture and also on the neck brush in front of the mirror. But there was no turning back now! I was hoping he would not use or at least clean that thing for me, but only minutes later I saw him taking it and before I could protest, he used it to clean (?!) my neck. Yikes! Admittedly, he did quite a good job with cutting my hair. And it probably was the cheapest haircut I ever had: I only paid 120 Argentinian Pesos (~12 Euros)!! It certainly was an experience….!
I followed my brothers advice to go to a football match: River Plate (one of the two major clubs in BA) played against Tigres Mexico in the Copa Libertadores (which is similar to the Champions League in Europe)! As a tourist you cannot simply buy a ticket, you have to join a group tour. My lovely host only had to do one phone call and I got the last ticket in a group of eight (together with a Brazilian family and an American couple). Yes, it was expensive, but well worth it! In the taxi, Paula (or energetic guide) told us how we’d get to the stadium when dropped off three blocks away: hold up your entrance tickets when passing the three police controls and do not talk English until we’re in the stadium (apparently some fans are a bit sensitive towards visitors). It was just as busy as walking to a German football match and I thought it was rather normal, though we do not have such thorough police controls. In the stadium the Brazilian father and me were quite devastated to hear that no beer is being sold (there is an alcohol ban in the stadium and 3 km around it!). That said, there must have been some really bad riots in the past if they’ve taken such drastic measures! So we had water and Hamburguesas (obviously THE food to have here) and the Brazilians and I were reminiscing about the world cup and the game Brazil vs. Germany… The lack of beer did not affect the athmosphere, though! 90% of the fans were dressed in River Plate trikots, singing and cheering all through the game (not only in the standing terraces, but everywhere). Many brought their children along, I even saw a couple of babies. And the kids sat there cheering, just as excited about the game as everyone else – you couldn’t hear any whining nor see bored faces or any signs of fatigue (the game started at 8.15 pm!)! The Tigres scored a goal in the rather uninteresting first half, but River Plate equalized with a spectacular goal in the fiercely contested second half. I guess for the two Americans it was more like us watching American football: “interesting”… I was seriously asked if this was my first time in a football stadium, followed by a useless attempt on my side to explain what an “offside” is. I’m quite certain, though, that it wasn’t due to my profound explanation.
The night ended with a late dinner and 4 l of beer (they usually have 1 l bottles here) shared between Paula, the Taxi Driver Norberto and me! It also helped language wise… I still struggle with the spanish language. I do understand quite a lot, it seems, but speaking is so much more difficult. It’s more like lining up words and hoping someone else can make sense of it. That eve we basicically spoke spanglish. It was fun!
Three days are faaaar to short for a visit of Buenos Aires! Yet that is what I had planned and I wasn’t going to change the dates on my RTW-Ticket as I want to see lots more in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru. I stayed at a wonderful cozy B&B in Palermo Viejo with only four rooms, an amazing host and a delightful breakfast! Palermo Viejo is a vibrant neighbourhood with many old buildings, nice cafés and shops and a very pleasant vibe. I spent a lovely afternoon roaming around.
On friday I was kindly invited for lunch by an old business friend of my father. I must admit that it felt a bit awkward, especially when he called his assistant to see if she could show me around town the next day. But as it turned out she is my age and we got along very well and really enjoyed the day. And I could finally fire all my questions about the ecomical crisis, politics and life in Argentina in general at a local. Thank you so much, P.! Hope to be back some time soon!
P.S. Here is something for the lovers of weird signs: What is that supposed to mean? Watch out, office people late for work hastily crossing the street?!
Hanga Roa, the only village of the island, is a small village with one and two storey houses (building higher than that is not allowed anyway) with beautiful gardens rich of fruit trees and flowers. At first sight it reminded me of eastern africa for its red earth and that earthy smell. Hanga Roa has basically one main street lined with cafés, restaurants and a handful of supermarkets. Not one of them belonging to a chain, the supermarkets tiny and cramped and mostly not showing to the prices for any of the goods. For a foreigner it’s thus impossible to say what things actually cost and if he’s getting the same price as the locals or if something is being added… Many of the restaurants, however have biligual menus and a great variety, especially when it comes to seafood. The other day I saw how a huge swordfish was cleaned at the small pier. A couple of minutes later a guy in a very old car, probably the owner of one of the restaurants, came to a halt with squealing tyres, got out a scale from the trunk, weighed the three huge pieces of fish and stored them in the trunk of his car right next to the spare tyre. By this time I wondered if it had been a good idea to eat ceviche…
On the streets you always have to watch out for the chicken (that start being noisy around five and don’t stop until late), the dogs (that like to follow people all around town and to howl at the moon at night) and the horses (that are branded, but run around freely on the island. The other day one of them caused a traffic jam on the main street as it was proudly walking down on the middle of the street, making it impossible for the cars to overtake.
On my last morning I went to see a spectacular sunrise at the other end of the island (thanks to the fact that three awesome people came in and we shared a car): I was sad to be leaving, even though leaving from Rapa Nui international (!) airport is an experience in itself as you practically walk through “security” and wait outside with a view of the airfield before you cross it to get onto the plane.
Now I’ll only have to visit Hawaii to complete the polynesian triangle (the triangle is formed by New Zealand, Easter Island and Hawaii with the other polynesian islands, e.g. French Polynesia, in the middle between these three)!
The Pucon alert system was put on yellow when I arrived and while numerous TV teams were nervously roaming around, eagerly waiting for the Volcano to erupt, the locals stayed calm and relaxed!
Sattelt die Hühner... 
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