White Water Kayak School

I went to a Kayak school for one day, which after I decided that that was enough. The guy who gave the one day training (Rodrigo) was quite frank about the difficulties of pursuing this sport, he told me he lost a lot of business by being so honest. He explained to me that progressing with this sport requires continuous practice, for this one needs a rive close by, to buy all the equipment : the Kayak and the clothing, which is very expensive, and one needs someone else with interest in the sport to go with to the river, as going alone in the river is not recommended. I guess that is why this sport is practiced by so little people.

During the one training day we practiced several kinds of rowing techniques, then we started practicing the Eskimo roll, the maneuver one uses when he and his Kayak are turned upside down in the river, in order to recover to un upright position, towards the end I managed to do this, although not yet with perfection. This required being dipped a lot of times in the cold water, and although I had some good thermal clothes on, I still felt cold.

After a few hours of training I was totally exhausted and I could not do anymore, so we stopped. When I got out of the kayak I had a hard time standing up, since my legs were very tired, but I also felt kind of dizzy, and then I started shivering , both symptoms of Hypothermia. A hot cup of tee, and sitting inside the car with the heating on cured the shivering. But this made think that this sport is definitely not for me, as white water kayak and cold water go together, and I do not think it would not be good for my health if I get Hypothermia after each kayak session.

Glaciers

During the cruise we had a few informative sessions, one of them was about glaciers, since this region of Chile is abundant with them. Anyway they told us about the Pio IX glacier, and they said it was advancing at a rate of 20 meters a day (or was advancing at this rate in 1920), they also claimed it was the only advancing glacier in South America. So now I heard two claims for the "only advancing glacier in south America" during the last few weeks. The other one was Perito Moreno in Argentina. After pressing the presenter about this fact , she claimed that Perito Moreno is only in balance and not advancing. I am not sure who to believe , but I tend to lean towards the Chilean version, since Perito Moreno have been fighting with that lake channel for tens of years now with out managing to overcome it once and for all.

The picture above is a sunset over glacier grey.

Puerto Eden

Our only stop during the trip was in this little town, the only means of transport between this town with the rest of the word is the NaviMag, stopping there twice a week, bringing in supplies and taken people from and back to the island. The significance of this Island is that it used to be the home of an indigenous group of people called the "Kawesqar", this group is almost extinct and there only remains 20 pure blood Kawesqar.

This indigenous group is very interesting, they lived on the banks of the channels, totally depending on the sea for there food. There many had a change build, very strong developed upper bodies and small undeveloped lower bodies, that is because spent most of there lives on boats rowing. The job of the men was to build the boats and hunt big sea creatures like seals, in addition to being the protectors of the family. The women on the other hands were the only one in the family who knew how to swim, one of their responsibilities was collecting muscles and oysters, they did it be diving naked in the near freezing waters, they were quite adapted to this apparently, since they should us a movie of a group of women performing this activity , and having fun while doing it ! This old life style of these people have disappeared, and instead of the hand crafted boats, you see now motorized boats on the island, and there is even a satellite dish providing an internet connection.

The group is almost extinct, many were either killed directly by the colonists, or indirectly by the diseases they brought, like common cold for example. Others could not deal with the disappearance of their old life style, and turned to alcohol or just lost the well to live, now only a handful of Kawesqar live, eight of them in Puerto Eden.

The Route

The route was amazing, going through fords, channels and narrow passages, the narrowest, of which you see in the picture above, is merely 80 meters wide. The channels and fiords were dotted with little green islands. We took a small diversion to visit a glacier, but is was not as impressive as the Perito Moreno glacier or the Grey glacier.
During the second day we had to sail in the open ocean for 12 hours, which made for a more turbulent ride, we were given motions sickness pills, which although helped mitigate the effects of the sea sickness, did not totally eliminate them. I found out that lying down I do not feel the effects of the sea sickness, so I went to sleep very early that night, I have not slept so long for a long time.

The NaviMag

We did not have the best of weather during the three day cruise, but none the less it was a nice trip. It was mostly raining but we did see a glimpse of the sun every now and then, giving me the opporunity to take sharp pictures of the nature around. The service was great, the food was not bad, and they had a disco on borad, where we partied a couple of nights.

El Fin Del Mundo

The end of world, is what they call this city. In reality it does not appear at all like the end of the world, and further south there is still Antarctica, which maybe deserves to be called the end of the world, but Ushuaia is the southern most city on the planet.

Anyway after the exhausting and amazing trip to Torres del Paine, I really was in no mode to do much around here, do not get me wrong, the nature here is nice, it is just that compared to Torres del Paine it looks bland. Add to that the unstable and cold weather, and you understand why I just preferred to relax, eat and drink a lot of wine. There are very good all you can eat Parillas here, mainly offering local lamb, but they have great salad bars as well, you do not really need to eat any meat to feel you got your money worth. I needed some good food after five days of eating camping food.

In the first night I stayed at hostel Antarctica, but they were booked for the nights after so I had to switch to another hostel. I moved to Free Style, a very nice brand new hostel, the problem is that it just does not have the same atmosphere as Antarctica, maybe because it lacks a bar and some music in the living area. Anyway no body was hanging around the living area so I ending up returning to Antarctica in the evenings to meet some people and have a drink.

Beagle Channel

About the only thing I did in Ushuaia was to take the boat trip into the beagle Channel. From the boat (The Barracuda) we had a great view of Ushuaia and the surrounding landscape. The boat made stops at a few islands (more like big rocks), were birds and seals live, but is was so cold and windy that midway through the trip, I resigned and went down to the bar, where I ordered a hot chocolate with brandy , and sat down to read Harry Potter y El Calíz del Fuego.

It is going to be a long day tomorrow, I have to wake at 5 am to get the bus toPuertoo Natales, I have to switch busses twice on the way, and I will only arrive to Puerto Natales at 22:00 in the night. The next day I will go on the NaviMag for a three day cruise. I just hope the weather during the cruise is going to be better than here.

Personal blog

I decided that instead of having a blog dedicated to one subject, I will have a general blog where I can write about anything that interests me, so I changed the name of my blog about religion to : www.spiritfish.blogspot.com. The latest item I added is my book list.

Of course my travel accounts will continue to appear on this separate blog.

The Towers

The towers is what this park is famous for and wher it gets its name, but I think that does not do justice to the other parts of the park, and I think to fully apreciate this park one should at least do the W trek, there are even longer treks like the big circuit which takes atleast eight days to complete.

Anyway I woke up on the last day after a cold night, and I was ready to go up to the view points to see the towers. I strated to climb the path, but at some point I lost the markers, I had a good view of the mountain, and looked around to see where the other poeple are walking, but unfortunetly I could see no one walking up, so I just pressed on, but the more I walked the more I realized this was not the correct trail, but I am stubborn guy, I refused to retrace and said to myself : Propably the proper trail is not far away, and when I get to the top I will see everybody there, I climbed some sandy slopes and then through thick forest, and finally made it to the top, where I found no one. So that was the wrong top, but it still offered a great view of the towers, it was not competely clear, but the towres where visible. It was tricky taking a picture of myself with the towers in the background, beacuse the wind was blowing very strong. After that I started heading down, which I did quite fast, since I could run down the sandy slopes. After making it down the weather got worste and the towers get shrouded by clouds, so I was lucky to get a clear view of them before the weather changed.

Changing weather

In the third day the weater started to change, and it got cloudy with a few drops of rain here and there, and in the night fierce winds started blowing over the camp site, I though my tent was going to be blown away at any moment, and I did not sleep well that night. The good thing is that it was a serivced camp site, so I could do my cooking and eating indoor, and take a good hot shower. The fierce winds continued the next day, which was was a very moody day, as it was sunny and raining at the same time, so I was taking of my wind breaker on and off all the time, as I was either getting too cold or too hot.

Five days of walking

Doing the W trek involved a lot walking, seven to seven and half hours a day, and with a heavy backpack this is by no means a leisure walk. I met this nice couple (Paul and Chris) from New Zealand at the hostel, and they were doing the same trek as I am, they showed me how to properly strap my backup so that the weight falls on my hips, rather than my back and shoulders, and they shared their oat meals with me as well, so thanks for everthing mates.

Glacier Grey

My first camp site was next to the glacier grey, one of the few glaciers in the park. The site was nice but infested with mosquitos. A few minutes from the site though, there is a great view point sitting just over the glacier, after dinner I grabbed my book and a cup of tee, and went there to enjoy the view of a sunset over the glacier, and at the same time get away from those blood sucking mosquitos.

Great weather and beautiful waters

The weather was great on the day I arrived to the park, and I took the opportunity to take many pictures. The pictures above I took while I was on a boat, crossing one of the lakes of the park taking me to the starting point of my trek. I was told the lakes where formed from the melting ice of glaciers and that the minerals in that ice is what gives them their beautiful torquoise color. All water in the park lakes, rivers and streams is safe for drinking, and it is one of the best tasting water I ever drank, and to keep that way, all park visitors are supposed to follow a set of regulations concerning water usage.

National Park Torres del Paine

There a diffenet ways to go and enfoy the amazing beauty of this park, I decided that for a change I will go camping. The most popular trek in the park is called the W, because it kind of looks like a W, and that is the one I did as well. The owner of the hostel Erratic Rock, where I stayed in Puerto Natalis, adviced me to take five days to complete it, and to dot it backwards, leaving the towers for the last day of the trek, which I did.
As I could not find a partner for the trek (I had only a couple of hours to do so), I had to carry everthing on my own : A tent, cooking equipment and enough food to last me five days. This meant that my backpack was quite heavy when I started the trek, but it got lighter day by day, as I consumed more of the food.

The Fitz Roy

The second trek is the one leading to the Fitz Roy, a granite massif. It is the more difficult of the two but the more rewarding as well. The last part of the trek is a one hour climb leading to a great view point of the Firz Roy and the two lakes at its base. The wind got very strong during this climb, it was so strong in fact that sometimes I had to crouch and wait until it calmed down. Luckily I purchased a good wind breaker when I was in Bariloche, which I think is the best thing you can take with you to Patagonia (a decent wind breaker), as this is one of the windiest places in the world at this time of the year. I was not about to quit despite the strong wind and the threats of rain and snow (which in the end did not materialize), I decided that unless the weather physically prevents me from continuing I was not going to stop. In the end I made it to the top, which can be best described as a front row seat for viewing the Fitz Roy, the only problem is that the Fitz Roy did not show up, or at least only half of it did, the top half was covered by clouds, but that seems to be the norm, and you have to be very lucky to get a clear view of the whole massif. The view was still amazing though, and another ten minute walk up a small hill, provided a great view of Lago Sucia (dirty lake), which has a beautiful turquoise color. The other lake (Lago de Los Tres), which sets higher, was completely frozen.

El Chalten and Lago de los Torres

El Chalten is a little town that is the base to a few nice treks into the national park around, the nature around is very beautiful , full of lakes , rivers, snow topped mountains, granite peaks, waterfalls and a lot of glaciers.

There are a couple of popular treks around, and I did both. The first one goes to the Lago de los torres, there is glacier at the edge of this like, but it is no where near as impressive as Perito Moreno. At the lake there is a good view points to Cerro de los torres, the weather was a good, and it took me over six hours to complete the trek.

Glacier Perito Moreno

This glacier is huge, massive, and it is still advancing (one of the few advancing glaciers in the world). It is advancing straight into this lake, but the lake is fighting back, and this struggle between the two provides the spectacle that many people come to watch. Every once in a while a massive chunk of the glacier falls into the lake, creating a loud and big splash of water. I was lucky to see a big one when I got there in the morning, but after that for the rest of the day it was all small chips of the glacier falling off, nothing too spectacular. There was a few big collapses un the far side away from the view points, the problem with those is that the speed of sound is limited, and by the time you hear the splash most of the action is already over.

The glacier has split the lake in two parts at a narrow passage. The big spectacle occurs when the lake manages to break that barrier of ice and the water starts to flow again between the two parts, this takes place over a few days, one massive collapse after the other, until the barrier is completely destroyed, it is an amazing spectacle if you are lucky enough to see it. It happens every few years, the last time it happened was in 2004, now the glacier has again advanced to block the narrow passage, a tinny little stream can be seen flowing under the wall of ice, this stream will grow over time until it becomes strong enough to bring down the whole barrier again.

Whales

The whale watching was the best part of the tour. We went on a boat to find the whales that come to give birth in that bay, before going back to Antarctica. At this time the mother whales had already given birth, and we saw a lot of mothers swimming with their "little" 6 meter long baby. The drill consisted of spotting some whale, getting closer then shutting down the engines and waiting in silence, sometimes the whales would move away or go under the water, but sometimes they get curious and come by to take a closer look at the boat. Some of them where so close they almost rubbed their huge bodies against the boat, some other times they would pass under the boat, or do some rolls, But their movements in the water were always gentle and unintimidating.

Cute penguins

We got to see some Penguins from close by, very cute funny little fellows they are, one of their romantic rituals consists of ferociously "kissing" with their beaks, after which the male will bump his chest and make loud sounds.

Puerto Madryn

I did the standard tour to the peninsula Valdez, the tour consisted of making a couple of stops at two points, for watching seals and penguins, then a boat trip for whale watching. The first part of the trip I could have done without, you pay 115 (35 Euros) Pesos basically for being transported into a couple of strategic view points to see some elephant seals (huge), sea lions and penguins (cute), the fee did not include a park entrance few of 35 Pesos, nor did it include any food or drink, and the boat trip for whale watching cost an extra 60 Pesos. 115 Pesos is how much it cost me for a "Bus Cama" from Bariloche to Puerto Madryn, with three meals and drinks included, so you understand why I feel ripped off.

The perfect hostel experience

What makes the perfect hostel experience ? I had a couple great hostel experiences, I am talking about having a great time when your staying in a hostel. The first was in hostel "park Iguzú" in Puerto Iguazú and the other was in hostel "tango in" in Bariloche. So I am trying to find those common things in those two experiences. The first thing of course is a cool hostel , a cool hostel does not have an overly strict rules, you should be able to stay up quite late, come back to the hostel when ever you want basically it should have a 24 hour service (including bar). It should also have a nice inviting space, wher people can set together and socialize. A cool hostel does not guarantee a great experience though, the othe ingredient for such experience is hooking up with some cool people that are staying in the hostel at the same time that your are staying there, preferably it should a group of different nationalities, since usually groups of people from the same country tend to stick together and be less interested in socializing with other people.

Anyway the perfecting hostel experience is something we all travelers want to find everywhere we go, but we have to accept we are going to find it only in a few select places.

Writing

During my travle I realized that one of things I really wanted to do is write, that is one of the reasons I created my travel blog, as it gives me the opportunity to practise. I have interests in several subjects : Technology, sciense, religion, languages and more. But I have to start somewhere, and I decided I am going to start with religion. For this purpose I created another blog : www.waeltakesonreligion.blogspot.com, I hope that some people will find it interesting, and if not it would still be a good writing exercise. My first piece is called "God is a terrorist" I hope you like it, or atleast that it will provoce some thinking.