This time around, things are a bit different: our group increased to 7 people, Cédric and I have our maiden voyage with the tandem and bike trailer (a lenth now of 3.5 meters /11 ft – longer than Cédric’s smart car), and we’re starting out with rainy, cold weather and a train to our starting destination.
The plan is to train to Villach, Austria (although the train made it 2km outside of Augsburg so far due to technical problems) and bike around the Triglav mountain in Slovenia. Tomorrow, we will see how fit our group is by biking up to a mountain pass, fully loaded, at 1700m before biking down the Soca valley. We’ll bike to Ljubljana and then round out the trip by summiting the Triglav (on foot) at the end of our trip.
With no more data roaming fees in Europe, I should be able to write an update or two to during the trip.
Cheers!
Cassie and Cédric
So, in exasperation, we pushed on more northwards, hoping to get a sizeable portion of road out of the way. We figured that the fishing village of Camarones and the Cabo Dos Bahias National Park were surely not affected by the rain. There, we were hoping to see a large colony of Magellanic penguins. But first, we came across a large group of sea lions on our way north, near Caleta Olivia- the males are particularly ugly in real life and make constant belching noises (just like my brothers) .
As we found out the next morning, the dirt roads to the Cabos dos Bahias were also closed. So we moved northward again. Luckily, the Punta Tombo National Park was close by (only 200 km), where nearly 1 million penguins come to nest and mate each year. There, we saw more juvenile Magellanic penguins since the parents had already gone off to sea for the season. The juveniles are on land until they finish molting, teaching themselves swimming and fishing techniques for their big 4 month swim at sea.
After hanging out with the animal life at Punta Tombo (rheas, llamas, armadillos, and other bird species were there as well), Cédric and I drove north to Puerto Madryn to check out the Valdes Peninsula.
For two full days, we traveled around the peninsula to see more wildlife. Because we were so inspired by the animal life and wanted to preserve the nature, Cédric even found time to rescue a llama that was stuck in a wire fence. In addition to more sea lions and penguins, the island is also a place where orcas, elefant seals, and whales are known to mate and feed. The second day on the peninsula, the wind was so strong that it ripped Cédric’s pants as we were exploring the pink salt flats.
Now with a lot of money on hand (we were prepared to pay the exorbitant entrance and ferry fees for the park), we moved down south to see the penguins on Isla Magdalena near Punta Arenas. There, we were able to get up close thousands of juvenile Magellanic penguins – the parents had already left for the season. Having seen flamingos off the side of the road just a few hours previously, we marveled at the juxtapositions of the southern most area of South America. That night, we treated ourselves to some local sea food after a day full of surprises.
The next day, we will be decided to head back north and check out the Pali Aike National Park just before the Argentinian border. Just before we reached the park, we happened upon an vast sheep farm that had been vacant for decades. A near by shipwreck also added to this place’s creepy appearance. The Pali Aike park was full of strange basalt formations and craters from volcanos occurring between 10000 and 1 million years ago- making our way through some of the lava fields really felt as though we were on a different planet.
Just before crossing the Argentinian border, Cédric and I also attempted to rid ourselves of the extra Chilean pesos by buying as many food supplies as possible (as with most everything, food was significantly cheaper in Chile). The border town was unfortunately too small for our big budget and we only managed to spend a third of the money.
Thankfully, it worked. With the help of our GPS, we can found the stationed Argentinian border crossing 20 km down an unmarked and unpaved road, with the Chilean crossing 5km further down the road. That night, we arrived in Puerto Natales just before the rain.
The next day in torrents of rain, Cédric and I wandered through Puerto Natales in hopes to gather enough money, food, and information for our stay in the Torres del Paine National Park. Gathering information was no easy feat, since it seemed that there was a lack of communication between multiple entities for this highly regulated park. One could not simply camp in a designated camping area as in other places where we had been… we found out that booking (and paying for) a spot needed to take place weeks/months in advance, which sometimes included an overpriced full board. Pity for those who were unlucky with weather.
Since we had a car and were more mobile than most visitors who took busses into the park, Cédric and I opted to camp off the trail and drive to trail heads every morning. Although it wasn’t the hike that we were hoping for, we were making due. After a hearty Chilean stew at a local restaurant, Cédric and I drove to a campsite just in front of the rangers’ office to get an early start for hiking. By this time the rain had not let up and we were the only people at the site, so Cédric had the brilliant idea of sleeping in the bathroom. For those also camping in similar conditions (a cold downpour), this option comes highly recommended. The next day, we woke up dry and made our way to the rangers’ office only to find out that the trails leading up to the main view points were closed. And had been closed the day before as well.
We stayed in El Chaltén for two days to hike around the base of the Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy peaks. The views on the hikes were nothing less of stunning, with nearly every moment requiring us to simply enjoy our surroundings. The village of the El Chaltén was also budding with climbers and hikers, where one was not out of place walking along the street with a grimy hiking backpack and muddy boots.
We decided to head on towards El Calafate after the second hike, since the weather started to look more foreboding. In contrast to El Chaltén, El Calafate catered to an older and more posh crowd, where minimal hiking was rewarded with luxurious hotels and dinners.
The next morning we saw the main attraction of the area, the Perito Moreno glacier. This behemoth took up our full view as we stood 150m in front of it. Since this glacier moves about 2m every day, we were also audience to decades old blue ice calving into the lake.
