Hipo-Hamster

A combination of night buses got me to Esteros del Ibera, a natural reserve comprised of wetlands. There I took a small boat out with a guide to see capybaras and caimans. The two creatures, one chubby cuteness, the other lean maliciousness, coexist there, along with a variety of bird species, in relative peace. The guide claimed the caimans don't eat the adult capybaras, which can be as big as 80 kgs, but do prey on the young.

Capybaras

Caiman

From the reserve I made tracks towards Puerto Iguazu, and Iguazu Falls. The falls are impressive. Really impressive. I mean god constantly flushing a toilet impressive. I visited both the Brazilian and Argentine side of the falls, and both yielded stellar views. Though the area of the falls is supposed to be teeming with wildlife, the only species that kept popping here and there is the raccoon-like coati.

Coati

Iguazu Falls

From the falls, I took the long ride to Buenos Aires, where I spent five days of sight-seeing and just walking about. Byenos Aires proved to be very different than any other city I've seen in South-America, and I liked it a lot.

From BA it was just a matter of 16 plus hours of air travel to find myself back home, where I am right now. So yeah, I 'm back, and looking forward to seeing everyone again. I just wish you could have done something about the weather though. See you all soon!

And for the last time (for this trip...), all the pics are here.

Adios Chile and last few weeks in Argentina

From Talca I went up north to Santiago, Chile´s capital. Other than taking a walking tour of the city, and watching drunken British folks, I didn{t do much there. I decided to go further north to La Serena, to visit a pinguin colony nearby of the nearly extinct Humboldt Penguins, however the sea was angry that day, like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli. Instead I visited the town museum, where they had a Moai on display.

Moai

From La Serena I continued north to San pedro de Atacama, a dry desert area. There I went stargazing, which was amazing. A French astronomer and his wife, show the sky of the southern hemisphere´s, with great vies of the milky way, and the different constellations. I also got to see Moon Valley, one of those places, which supposedly features a ¨moonish¨ landscape.

Desert

More desert

San Pedro was my last destination in Chile, and I took the bus to Salta, Argentina, through a beautiful road passing through the Andes. From Salta I went visiting Purmamarca, a village around Cerro de los Siete Colores (the hill of seven colors), and Cachi, a pretty village, stopping on the way in Los Cardones national park. Interestingly enough, Cardones, which are the cacti that grace that region of Argentina, are nowhere to be seen in the part of the park that I visited.

Purmamarca and the hill of seven colors

Los Cardones natinal park

Cachi

From Salta I hauled ass to Mendoza, to drink and drive (a bicycle) through the wineries of Maipu. After hitting a few wineries, I was pulled over by a cop, who instead of arresting me for intoxication, mentioned that it´s getting pretty late, and the wineries are beginning to close, so I should head back now. The next day I went to see The highest mountain in the Americas, Mt. Aconcagua. It was pretty high. On the way we also stopped to see Puente del Inca, literally The Inca Bridge. This bridge has nothing really to do with Inca other than being old, just like them. It was actually naturally created by the cohesive force of calcium from the nearby thermal springs.

The south face of Aconcagua

Under Puente del Inca

As always, the rest of the pics are here.

Volcanoes, earthquakes and one mysterious condom

I arrived in Pucon, which is sort of the Chilean Queenstown. The main attraction is scaling Volcan Villarica, an active volcano which looms over the city. The hike up is done in organized tours, since it requires use of crampons and an ice axe. The view from the top is great, and the slide down in toboggans was a lot of fun. Looking down the colorful crater, there´s no lava to be seen, however the occasional rumbling noise is heard, followed by a big puff of white smelly fumes.

Volcan Villarica, as seen from Pucon

View from the top of Volcan Villarica

The fuming crater of Volcan Villarica

After this excursion I had to take a couple of rest days for my sunburned lips to heal (I did put on lip treatment with 15 spf, I get it was too little, too late). Once that happened, I set off to Huerquehue national park. When the weather cleared up a bit, I could enjoy the park´s lakes, following the Las Lagos trail. In the meantime, I had the slightly weird experience of sleeping alone in a refugio/hostel (even the person in charge left).

One of the lakes on the Los Lagos hike

I left Pucon, and headed north, to visit the Malalcahuello-Nalcas national reserve (pronounced MA-LAL-KA-WE-YU). I hiked up Crater Navidad, a volcanic crater formed in a powerful eruption in 1988. The surrounding view was that of a volcanic desert, with some basalt ¨peels¨. Once I finished admiring it, O started up the adjacent Volcan Lomquimay, a much more gruelling task, involving a very steep scree slope. At the top of the volcano I found a metal case containing the ¨Lonquimay Conquest Book¨, which I of course duly signed. The crater of Lonquimay was filled with snow, assuring that here a new eruption was not imminent.

The volcanic desert around Crater Navidad

Volcan Lonquimay

The top of Volcan Lonquimay

My next destination was Talca, a major city, from which I could go to visit the Altos del Lircay national reserve. Against my better judgement, I arrived in Talca after dark. As I was walking from the bus terminal to the address Lonely Planed cited for my choice of hostel, I was a bit worried. The town was dark, the area seemed decrepit, and there weren´t many people around. I finally got to the hostel, only to find an abandoned looking building, with cracked walls, and a graffiti saying something about demolition. I decided to try and catch a cab to go to my second choice of hostels, but after waiting for twenty minutes, I realized this is not a good spot to flag down taxis. I spotted a young man passing by, and asked him if he knows where would be a better place to catch a cab. As we were talking, I also explained my predicament, and he noted that on all probability any other hostel that I´ll try will be closed as well. It seems I forgot to check my map of Chile, otherwise I would have noticed my proximity to Concepcion, the epicenter of the last earthquake. That explained everything. When I noted that this means that I have no place to sleep, he agreed, and suggested to host me for the night. At first I was reluctant, but he seemed like a nice guy, plus it was 22:30 and I really didn´t have any other choice. We grabbed a clectivo (SHERUT) to his house, where we had a very nice conversation, which involved him trying his best to speak slowly, and I trying my best to know Spanish. Turns out 200 people died in the earthquake in Talca. That night he was in a club, and the second floor collapsed, killing 5 people, and wounding him. Then, to my surprise, he said that he knows something similar happened in Israel a while back. In the morning, as I woke up, I felt the bed moving under me. It was a small aftershock. Christian, my host, made me breakfast, and put me on a cab to downtown, to arrange my visit to the national reserve.

The reserve was very dusty, and deserted. As I was setting up the tent, I opened its zipper to find a new condom, in its wrapper, in the tent. I have no idea how it got there. The next day I hiked to Laguna del Alto and Enladrillado. The latter is a flat basalt surface, made up of big stones, carved to smooth perfection. The locals are convinced its for alien landings. I reserve judgement. from there it was possible to see Volcan Descabezado Grande, a volcano that appears to have lost it head (descabezado = beheaded), among other peaks. I got back to my tent, and got ready to leave in the morning, for my next destination: Santiago.

Laguna del Altos

Volcan Descabezado, as seen from Eladrillado

As always, all pics are here.

Other Stuff That C Is For

((This is kinda long, due to the emotional impact certain parts of the post had on me. Sorry))

Okay, first and foremost, I did not have Jabali in Bariloche. After checking everywhere and asking everyone, it seems they ate them all, and there were none left for me. Slightly disappointed, I left for Castro, in the Island of Chiloe. Chiloe is renowned for its old beautiful churches, and delicious seafood, and the unique ambiance. I got to Castro, right in the center of the island, and supposedly the one place that contains all that is so attractive in the island. Having said all this, I should add that all of it didn´t do much for me. Firstly, the restaurant that was recommended to me for seafood wasn´t very good, and the night that I was there they didn´t have the really interesting stuff, such as centolla (king crab). Secondly, getting around the island proved to be slightly problematic, and going to all that effort for seeing one Church at a time seemed a bit too much for me. So I just stayed in Castro for a day and a half, which gave me enough time to check out the old church, and the houses on stilts (palafitos) which the city is famous for.

The Castro church

Palafitos

From Castro I went to Cochamo which is often described as the Chilean Yosemite. In order to get there, I had to get to the godforsaken village of Cochamo, arrange transportation to the trailhead, and hike for 3-4 hours in the rain, in a muddy and slushy trail, crossing several sock drenching streams. When I got there it was too cloudy to really see anything. With nothing better to do, I got to know the local community: climbers, some Americans, some Chileans, all roughly ten thousand times better climbers than I´ll ever be. The main attraction there is the trad routes, but even the sports ones where way out of my league (had I had any equipment to speak of that is). The next day I spent trying, unsuccessfully, to dry myself and my stuff, and waiting for the clouds to clear. In the evening I was notified that tonight we celebrate the end of climbing season, as well as the birthday of the site owner´s lovable 5 year old (the unofficial mascot of the site). The celebrations included a massive sheep asado, as well as a hand puppet show in Spanish, and an improvised musical jam (which included, among other instruments, a dijrido). The kid got his own little climbing wall as a gift. It was pretty awesome (you´ll to take my word for it, as I didn´t have my camera on me).

As the sheep carcases were starting to get chopped, I noticed one of the climbers already had a piece in hand. I asked him how it was, and he gladly passed me the odd looking piece, suggesting I take a huge juicy bite. Only then did I remember noticing the dangling pieces of meat on each of the male sheep. The sly smile on the others´ faces made it clear that I had guessed right. Some of the assadors claimed this was one of the prime pieces. I tried it. It was... soft. The rest of the pieces that I had were more conventional, and delicious.

Asado, an illustration (I´ll spare you the illustration of the part I tried)

The next day, the rain finally abated, I decided to hike up what was said to be the prettiest hike in Cochamo, Arco Iris. Climbing up the muddy steep trail was fun, since it involved several sections of pulling myself over water slick rock faces, using fixed rope lines, over a rather threatening abyss. Fun. I finally got to the top to discover a couple of peaks looming. I assumed, as I saw some rock cairns, that I was supposed to go up to one of them. Therefore, I wasn´t too worried when the cairns disappeared. I just figured I´ll catch the trail again when I´´ll reach the top. After finding my path, which consisted of several ¨shortcuts¨, which to the untrained eye would seem idiotically risky, and dangerously similar to climbing a rock face with no form of security equipment, I made it to the top of the first peak. I saw an alpine lake, Mt. Tronador, and several other peaks. I didn´t see cairns. Somehow, the logical thing seemed to be to climb the other peak. I did that, and again, among the great views, I couldn´t count any cairn. It was getting a bit late, and the thought of getting stranded on a rock shelf overnight didn´t seem that appealing. I tried to find my way down as fast as i could, Which turned out to be pretty slow, since I couldn´t remember the ¨shortcuts¨. I finally made it down to where I last saw the cairns, somehow in one piece. It was really late now, and while it was better to spend the night in the woods than on the rock, I wasn´t too keen on the idea. I half ran, half slid (which means fell on my ass 65 times) down, hoping I can clear the ropes before it gets dark. I finished half rappelling the last section just as sunlight completely disappeared. Now it was just a matter of keeping to the path, using my trusted old head torch. With a lot of luck, I managed somehow to keep to the path (I thing I´m better at it in the dark for some reason), and made it back to the campground. When I arrived I shared my story with the others, who sagely noted that going alone was dangerous. I agreed. They also said that they were there today as well (probably as I was attempting to scale the peaks), saw the peaks and decided it was too far to be part of the route. Now I felt slightly more stupid. To perk me up, they offered some of the huge pot of delicious lentil stew the made. I had four bowls.

Clouds in Cochamo

My ¨path¨

View from the top

My visit to Cochamo ended with a sunny hike back to the village, from where I would try to make my way to Pucon. As always, the other pics can be found here.

Lakes, Beef and Chocolate

The trek in El Bolson, Around Cerro Hielo Azul, was very nice, with one great highlight: I did a side trip, climbing up to to a peak just opposite the glacier. There, alone on the peak of Barda Negra, I had an amazing panorama of the Comarca Andina. The pics from the trek can be viewed here.

My surroundings on the peak of Barda Negra

After leaving the so called hippie town (i.e. pot head town) of El Bolson, I made it to Bariloche, my current whereabouts. I didn´t do any of the treks I hoped I would here, and am driven out by the impeding bad weather, but I still had a good time.

Gastronomically, I made the obligatory visit to El Boliche de Alberto, which indeed serves a fine biffe the lomo. I had some chocolate at Mamuschca, some ice cream at Jauja and some deer delicacies (as well as a very nice boutique beer) at Familia Weiss. I hope to try Jabali this evening.

and because I feel it´s expected: Jabali before

... and after

As for scenery, I did a very short walk up to Cerro Campanrio, for great views of the Nahuel Huapi lake and a rented a bicycle for the Circuito Chico, a 25-30 km circuit in the park, with some short hikes and viewpoints.

View from Cerro Campanario

Hotel Llao Llao, on the Circuito Chico

While this took quite a bit of asking and probing around, I managed to arrange to go outdoor climbing here with a couple of guys in Piedras Blancas in Cerro Otto. The routes were very interesting, and required delicate foot work. This was made especially challenging given the strategically positioned holes in my rented climbing shoes. My toes are much tougher than I thought.

The easiest route I did In Piedras blancas. Cute.

All the Bariloche pics can be found here.

Tomorrow morning I will be getting on a bus back to Chile, and more specifically, to Castro in Chiloé. We´ll see how that goes.

El, El, El, Yekhezkel

El Calafate is my least favourite place in Argentina so far. Maybe it was the cheap and crappy hostel (you get what you pay for) or the gross cazino on the main street, but I really didn´t like it. The surrounding area was very beautiful though.
I took a tour to the famous Perito Moreno Glacier, which proved to be very pretty amd nice, just a bit overcrowded and too long (how many hours can you stand and stare at a glacier?)

I managed to catch a rainbow forming over the glacier :)

I also hiked up Cerro Crystal, a steep windy hike to great panorama of closeby glaciar and snow capped peaks.

View from the top of Cerro Crystal

From El Calafate I took a bus to the awesome El Chalten. From the town I set out walking for 4 days in the nearby north part of Los Glaciares national park. I camped for 2 nights at a cute refugio at Piedra del Frail, from which I hiked up to Paso del Cuardado, a mountain pass surrounded by ice and snow.

The refugio

Just a glimpse of the amazing views from Paso del Cuadrado

I continued to do the extremely popular circuit that features view of Cerro Fitz Roy and Cerro Torro. Weather was perfect and the views were great.

Fit Roy Mountain Range

Cerro Fitz Roy (view from Laguna los Tres)

Cerro Torro (view from Laguna Torre)

Back in El Chalten, I found I could buy a small booklet detailing all the numerous bolted sport climbing routes just a minute walk out of town. I gathered 2 brits and an Israeli rappeling instructor, rented all the necessary equipment and spent a nice day climbing nearby easy routes (we were forced to stick to easy routes, since I was the only one who could lead, and I did not want to take unnecessary risks).

Climbing some easy 5+/6a

BTW, on the first day of my trek I met this guy, Michele Radici, an extreme sports movie director, who filmed the first movie that made Alain Robert be known as the human spider. The people you happen to meet when traveling...

So, El Chalten was really great. From there I took an okay 30 hour bus ride to El Bolson, my current whereabouts, and am planning to go trekking tomorrow around Cerro Hielo Azul. More photos can be found here.

Finally, Pictures

For now I just uploaded a bunch of them to Facebook, as those of you who are not eternal PhD students (you know who you are), have probably noticed by now. From now on I´ll try to embed some in future posts. Enjoy!

Ache in My Shoulders and Pain in My Butt

As some of you know, I used to think that my travelling companions are in someway cursed, namely one of them always finds himself in the hospital. I was wrong. The curse is in me: I always find myself in the hospital. I was just lucky enough not to be the patient. Usually.

I started the Torres del Paine Circuit with slight trepidation, as on the way to the first camp I came across 5 people, 2 of which were heading the other direction. I was relieved to find the camp slowly filled up, and that I wasn´t alone on the trek. I did most of it with 2 friendly Germans, Denis and Kai, which were a lot of fun. The trek was very difficult for me, being the first time I trek with a tent on my back. In the first campsite there was a scale, which revealed that I was carrying about 27 kgs on my back, a fact which might explain why I was having such a hard time. Slowly and maybe slightly agonizingly, I managed my way through the trek.
On the last day, as I was waiting for the bus back, I started shivering uncontrollably, until one think led to another and I spontaneously emptied the contents of my stomach. On the bus back this trend continued, with the other tourists doing their best to ignore me. One local angel approached me, gave me some water, a new plastic bag to replace the one I had already thoroughly used, and explained to the wonderful people at my hostel what happened. I asked that they get me a cab to go to the hospital, thinking that I might need a transfusion to avoid dehydration, but they of course insisted on taking me themsleves, waiting with me and confirming everyhing with the nice doctor. It all ended with an extremely painful injection on my left butt cheek and some anti-vomiting pills. I seem to be fine now, and am even going climbing tomorrow (hurray!).
Tomorrow eveining I will probably take the bus back to Argentina to El Calafate, the whereabouts of Perito Moreno. I will try to remain in slightly better physical condtion from here on.

Patagonia: the beginning

Hi all,
Sorry I haven´t been in touch, it´s been kind of crazy since I got here.
On Monday, last week, I got to Ushuaia after 36 hours of travel. I hiked a bit in the Tierra del Fuego National Park, which was nicer than I had initially thought. I first went on a hike to the top Cerro Guanaco, a hike that proved unsuccesful. The weather at the bottom was rainy and windy, and turned to billowing snow at the top. Roughly 200 meters from the top it was impossible to find the trail, plus visibilty was nearing zero, so I had to turn back. The next day the weather was good and I walked through the rest of the easy trails in the park.
I moved on to Punta Arenas, where I managed to get lost for an hour and a half in a natural reserve, make it to my bus in time somehow, and catch the flu. I made to Puerto Natales, stepping out of the bus with fever, a huge backpack and an even bigger headache. Luckily it was raining, so no one could see the tears streaming down my face. I made it to a nearby hostel which welcomed me in, and sank into a blissful coma with the help of Decsamol Cold (night).
Since then I´ve mostly recooperated, and am going tomorrow on the Torres del Paine circuit, a classic 8 day trek.
I apologize for the lack of images, but my new shiny camera refuses to play along without its integral software, which I naturally did not think to bring along. My advice: use google images. The results are much better than what I could produce, not even having photoshoop handy.
I hope to update some more after the trek, so see you in a week or so.