Barking Dogs

 A quick Blog while we have the time and keeps me almost up to date.

El Chalten to El Bolson; a 26 hour bus ride North. Really convenient time-table. You leave El Chalten on the Bariloche bus at 10.15 PM and eventually arrive in El Bolson the following night at 12.45 AM. At that point you have to enquire in your best Spanish as to the whereabouts of a Camp Site. No doubt the closest Camp Site, which is situated about 2km from where the bus stops, is well aware of the strange arrival times of the Bariloche bus, as by the time we got there it was close to 1.30 AM and they were open for business! To be quite honest we would have just set up tent in the first available space had Camp Patagonia had not been open!

Twenty six hours of travel reminded me of those endless train journeys to school, Johannesburg to Cape Town in about the same time. Those endless miles through the sweating Karroo with the windows wide open to get some semblance of air, which was also accompanied by a reasonable amount of soot, which had no problem sticking to Humphrey Powers ginger beer which he had so proudly made before boarding the train and so neatly stored on the top luggage rack, but had completely overlooked the effect of a rocking train on fermenting Ginger Beer. It explodes. It finds its way into every crevasse. Every time you walk, your foot comes out of your shoe as the soles stick to the floor.

On the Bariloche Bus there was no such incident, but I certainly made sure that the overhead luggage rack stored no leak able items. In getting to El Bolson, the country-side and the villages however, were comparable to the Karroo for most of the way. The villages consist of low-rise buildings with hand-painted signage advertising their mode of business. Covered in the dust kicked up by the passing traffic and blown into and over the entire town by the wind. The dusty streets are wide; I imagine accommodating the turning circle of horse drawn carts. Horses are very much part of the village life. The berets, boots, scarves, bandannas are wore with pride by the Gauchos, and it is not unusual to see them riding in the villages with their bereted young sons
riding bareback alongside them.

As before, there is a sudden change in the landscape, the flat barren land abruptly changes as you start twisting into the mountains, where the melting snow and glaciers create turquoise Lago’s and rivers of icy water too cold for Ewa to swim in!

El Bolson is a really picturesque laid back little town sitting in the bowl of surrounding mountains. It has a real ’60 “Flower Power” vibe to it, with a really lively craft market, which made Ewa extremely happy! There are a number of things my wife REALLY likes and craft markets have to be pretty near the top of that list along with chocolates and ice-cream. Imagine arriving in a town with all three of these things! It is strange really as milk and butter are not widely used commodities, yet ice-cream and chocolate are very much at the forefront of Argentinian life, along with slabs of beef, but you don’t see any cows? Don’t you need cows to make little cows and bulls? If so surely milk is a by-product? Do you get cows that produce “Long-life” milk?

We have now been travelling in the Southern parts of Argentina for a little over three weeks. We have only come across delightfully friendly, helpful and humble people, and their dogs reflect these characteristics! There are dogs everywhere, really laid-back dogs that wander the streets with no particular agenda, never growling, not unfed, just wandering dogs. That is in daylight hours. Night time is a whole new ball game, they bark. Not a little bark here or there at a passing stranger, they bark most of the night. As you lie there desperately trying to sleep you start identifying the various protagonists promising that when dawn finally breaks you is going to identify the dogs and their owners and deal with both of them in a suitable manner. We have had this dog problem once before and that was in a camp site in Ocuweronga in Namibia where the camp site was located not far from the local township. In both cases the local population seem absolutely oblivious to cacophony of sound. The barking is a real reason to locate yourself in an establishment as far away as possible from urbanisation. It is a real problem.

Besides the dogs all other aspects of El Bolson were most agreeable and provided pleasant breathing space before heading off once again on only a two hour bus trip to Bariloche.

Bariloche we are told is the largest ski resort in South America and with this comes all the trappings of a tourist destination, the only difference it is set in a National Park and surrounded by absolutely spectacular scenery. So much so that the one view site is apparently rated by National Geographic Magazine as one of the top ten sited in the world! Not sure of the others but this particular view is mind blowing. It is a 360⁰ view, so you can’t really photograph it and even if you could stitch individual shots together it would be impossible to feel what you are looking at, but here is shot which gives you an inkling of what it is about.

20 Degrees of view

The two of us

We located ourselves away from dogs in a magnificent camp site from where we walked ourselves silly for two days in weather that can only be described as perfect. We enjoyed Bariloche and if time prevailed we would have spent a week in the area exploring the area, which is what we said we would do at the beginning of the trip, but the arrival of my motorbike in Buenos Aires has necessitated a tighter timescale and as I write this we are on yet another 21 hour bus ride back to our BA base where I pray we will have an uneventful time in clearing the bike, and I will also have further blood tests to check my liver which has not seen a drop of alcohol for over a month. Quite honestly, I have missed the odd glass of wine, but having lost about 6kg I am really feeling on top of the world.

Loaded up

In retrospect, it would have been really useful having independent transport in some areas, but having seen and bussed our way about I am not that sorry we were without it. The distances are vast, barren and windswept to a large degree and would have surely tested our endurance. As it is we are now heading for greener pastures as we venture northwards, and will take a very much more leisurely trip.

The one activity I sadly was not, and am not prepared for, is fishing. It would appear that we have just passed through some of the best trout fishing rivers in the world. There was many an occasion when I REALLY wished Butch Baker was alive. Horses, mountains and fishing that would have been a very special trip to have done with him. Better live your life while you can.

Trout waters from the bus

More of Patagonia

If I had been asleep and opened my eyes along the way to El Calafate I would have said that we were travelling through the Karroo. As you get closer to El Calafate the snow clad mountains in the distance would have you guessing and the lake that comes into view about 20 km out would rule out the Karroo, but essentially El Calafate is surrounded by a Steppe landscape and vegetation. It is only when you drive into the little town that you really get a feel for the place and that feeling is one of a European Ski Resort. Tourism is what drives this town, but it is a laid back tourism. While still in Puerto Natales we were advised to make a hostel reservation as many a traveller has had to retreat for lack of a place to sleep. It was our intention to camp, but one squiz at the weather forecast suggested that the wise move was to book a bed. The only bed we could get was in a 12 bed dormitory. That was the downside. The upside was it was cheap, but as far as we were concerned a bed is a bed and we had one, a better bet than erecting a tent in the rain.

As it turned out the Che Lagato Hostel was great and pretty well appointed, but I wouldn’t rush to sleep in a 12 bed dorm again, as Ewa will describe.

On arrival the bus was ushered around a fairly circuitous route to the bus station as the Patagonian Vintage Car Rally was in progress! It was great seeing all these old vehicles dashing around the town but it soon became apparent that the Rally was all part of an El Calafate Festival, as once we had deposited our baggage we went for a stroll and ended up at a real live “Bucking Bronco” Rodeo. Quite amazing spectacle to see these Gauchos trying and in some cases succeeding to stay on these wayward steeds bucking like crazy, while all the time the music, which I would describe as Spanish Flamenco Rap, was being performed with much gusto on a large stage. It was really fun and I am so pleased we stumbled upon it.

I never fail to be amazed by the things that happen by chance. We were strolling amongst the promenading visitors down the high street, when I spotted three packed motorcycles on the other side of the street, with one suitably clad rider standing close by. I wanted to talk to him as I need to know about certain road conditions in Argentine. I went up to him and said “Hablo Englis? “No problem” came the reply delivered with a broad Eastern Cape accent. I had been told by a contact in BA that there were three South Africans riding around, but the chances of meeting them I thought was remote. They were really helpful and I have no doubt that we will meet up again in the future.

El Calafate is launch pad for visits to the Perito Moreno Glacier. We have a timetable now as we have to be back in BA to clear the bike out of Customs on the 1^st March, so even though rain was predicted for the following day, it was the only day we had to visit the Moreno glacier. WE were up bright and early mainly because we wanted to get to the Banos before the other 10 sleeping individuals in our Dorm! In retrospect there was little chance of us not having the Banos free, as us OAP’s seem to function at different times of the day to the younger generation. However we were away on the bus to the glacier by 8.00 am. It was raining at the time, but by the time we arrived at the Parc Los Glaciares the clouds had started to lift.

It is hard to describe the sense of awe as the boat moved up closer to the face of the Moreno Glacier. I think it was the sheer pent-up energy of the 60 meter high leading edge that appears to be static. Silence. Then there are these sharp belly wrenching cracks and rumbles as the glacier inches forward and massive chunks of the front façade crash into the icy blue water, the energy rolling away and dissipating in waves that rock the boat as they pass. It is truly an awesome sight.

MORENO GLACIER

The Moreno Glacier with its 5km front is one of the few growing glaciers, which the books tell you can move up to two metres a day. The rain disappeared, the sun came out and we had yet another perfect day to reflect upon.

El Chalten Is a two hour bus ride from El Calafate. The drive is through the same Steppe vegetation. Then once again you move into this amazing landscape, which forms part of the Parc Los Galciares. On arrival at El Chalten, everybody has to attend a briefing on arrival on the Do’s and Don’ts. Its resident population is about 400. For such a small population there are sufficient children to warrant a nursery school, which tells you a lot about the place. Firstly there is not much to do in the winter months. Secondly, it has been discovered and is fast becoming one of the “must do’s” for Walkers, Travellers and Climbers, not a great place for the aged.

You may battle to find El Chalten on a map, but the co-ordinates of our tent are S49⁰19.488  W072⁰53.342

EL CHALTEN CAMP SITE

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We have come up with this Top idea. We believe that  HAWKINS & SONS FERRETERIA is the way to go. Ferreteria is Spanish for Hardware. It really has great potential. What we have noticed is that there are a good number of buildings that need to be finished off. There may be a number or reasons for this: Lack of cash; lack of skills; lack of motivation; too many rainy days or shortage of building materials, whatever.  Supply could be a problem or an opportunity. Getting any goods in from the West Coast is really not an option you would have to find a way over the Andes a couple of Glaciers and the weather I am told is pretty foul. The only option would be to truck in the materials from Rio Gallegos (pronounced Garshagos). This would be about a 12 hour trip one way, creating another business opportunity for HAWKINS & SONS TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS.

COMPETITION

Now if we started HAWKINS & SONS GLACIAL WATER, we could fill 1 ton IBC’s with crystal clear glacial water, taking care of the return load to Rio Gallegos, from where HAWKINS & SONS SHIPPING would ship the water to destinations far and wide. Having now cornered that building materials market we would be able to offer HAWKINS AND SONS Architectual and Building services, where for starters we could, at the design stage, make sure that the waste pipe from the toilet Ewa was to the European Standard, thereby eliminating the need to place the used toilet paper into the already full waste bin next to the loo, as is required as most places we have visited! The other advantage of offering building services is that you could then insist on the use of a spirit level and set square as a bare minimum, this would throw out the current builders a bit, but I have no doubt that these simple tools could become quite popular over time, I would hang back on a theodolite until the local builders had got the hang of a spirit level and maybe we would throw in a plastering course for free as a show of good will. Maybe a bit of help on town planning would be good for the future of the town. The town’s electricity is supplied by two fairly large diesel generators; it would have been beneficial to have sited these out of the residential area as the humming would annoy me. Better still set up Hawkins Green Power, as one thing that they are not short of is water and wind energy.

Talking of Green, Hawkins Hydroponics has a certain ring to it and I have no doubt would be yet another winner. Veggies should arrive on Tuesdays and Fridays from Rio Gallagos, as the truck has already stopped off at El Calafate on the way, the quality and quantity of fresh veg is a little wanting. If the resident population is only 400 and the max holiday population is 1500, you would not have to have a great number of Tunnels to meet the demand for lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and beans.
Indeed if it were possible to erect tunnels that would not be blown the 200 kms to El Callafate, there could be export potential here for Hawkins & Sons Transport who would have to add a refrigerated vehicle to their growing fleet as fish from Rio Gallegos would along with the now fresh veggies really improve the local diet as well as make money for Hawkins Inc.

There are a couple of businesses that I would not consider. I would leave the current bakers alone; they are really doing a great job. The micro-brewery I would not have thought about, but as water is the main ingredient the current operation appears to be doing a brisk business, just a pity my Malaria Liver prevented me from passing a connoisseur’s opinion, but it is a great idea. Undertakers would not be good, too much rock.

Following on from this, when the SONS had a moment to spare, Justin would naturally be starting JUSTIN HAWKINS CLIMBING TOURS,  Alex may have to forgo swimming as the water is a little chilly but he would definitely have a winner with ALEXANDER HAWKINS CROSS COUNTRY TRAINING SCHOOL. would not have a great deal of competition on the Dental front and JoJo may just want to stay in London for a while, which all of a sudden may just feel like heaven. Doff? Well he would go painting to get out of the way of his busy family! Sorted.

Spanish could be a bit of a setback.

If one wanted to come to El Chalten for a visit, you would be blown away by the beauty, the friendly people, the stunning walks, climbs and trout fishing. Not forgetting Josh Alke’s La Chocolateria, which is impossible to walk past without a visit. The little town is overlooked by some pretty impressive mountains, the highest being Cerro Fritz Roy at 3408 m and the other being Cerro Torre at 3102m.

 

WALK TO FRITZ ROY

Fritz Roy as you may recall was the Captain of Darwin’s boat The Beagle, he was apparently a really competent Captain and Navigator and an extremely competent botanist. However it was his strict religious views that saw him at odds with Darwin as he would not accept Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. This eventually led to their parting of ways and much animosity. Darwin aside Fitz Roy had a pretty spectacular mountain named after him and the 4 hour walk to the Lago and Glacier de Los Tres at the base of the mountain is one of the main walks leading out of Chalten the other being to the base of Cerro Torre. The cold wind off the glacier more often than not tends to shroud one or both of the peaks in cloud, but however you see them they are a spectacular sight.

BASE OF FITZ ROY

WAITING FOR THE CLOUD TO CLEAR

PAD KOS

We are really pleased to have visited El Chalten. May it stay the way it is, may it keep out HAWKINS ENTERPRISES and I don’t believe the weather reports, the weather has been exceptional.

It has been hard finding time to paint, I did a quick sketch of Ewa and I doing the Tango, a pencil drawing from our tent at Torres del Paine on which I put some colour not very successfully, but we decided to take two catch up days in El Chalten. After we had completed all the chores we did a simple walk to a nearby Chorrillo del Sano waterfall where we relaxed, Ewa read and I painted. Once we have the bike it will be a lot easier to get around and find relaxing time and painting time!

DOFF & EWA DOING THE TANGO

CORRILLO DEL SANO FALLS

TORRES DEL PAINE CAMP SITE

 

One last thing that I must add. I don’t know if you have noticed, but people always go into full restaurants? If there is a row of restaurants and you don’t know which one to eat at, you will always go to the full one first! So for years I have always said that I would love to start a restaurant and fill it up with really good mannequins, play noisy bustling conversations over the sound system with the usual back ground music. Then when live patrons came in you would pick the mannequin up by the scruff of the neck, ask him what he thought he was doing sitting at that table, and chuck him out the back door, apologise to the incoming patron and offer them the now vacant table! Well we went into this great little restaurant in El Chantal and blow me down if they did not have a mannequin sitting at a table! It was not the whole nine yards, but a good start!   

LOCAL GROUCHO

HEREWITH A SHORT INTERLUDE FROM EWA

“Rules of Etiquette in Hostel Dorms”

Can anyone help me? Is there a manual?       When taking a shower does one take all one’s clothes into the shower and then get dressed afterwards in damp clothes (having been sprayed by the shower or fallen off the flimsy peg ) - thus taking up more precious shower time, or does one climb into bed and try and get dressed underneath the bedclothes?   Or just throw modesty to the wind and hope the virile young men are more interested in the nubile young maidens in the dorm rather than one’s 60 year old body!

Does one turn the light on at 7am when getting up? Or scratch around in the dark trying to find one’s clothes and toothbrush etc. in the medley of “things” on the floor? Are the other inmates within their rights to turn on the light when they roll in at 1 / 2 / 3 am after having partied all night? Is one entitled to complain?

 Who lays claim to the floor space next to the bed and under the bed….ie bottom bunk versus top bunk, not forgetting the space between the beds. It can get quite complicated with these youngsters spreading the contents of their rucksacks all over the place (as we can recall our offspring’s’ sense of tidiness when they lived at home!)……..when lightness and smallness of pack is of paramount importance one would hate to accidentally pack someone else’s belongings into one’s own pack!

Another problem which has been worrying me in concerned with ablutions.

Everywhere we have been [excluding a very smart hotel in Torres del Paine (we only went in to use the loos) maybe they have a different sewerage system for their smart guests] they have notices all over the walls in Spanish and in English (so no excuses for not understanding) to please not throw the toilet paper down the loo but in the bin provided next to the loo. Can you imagine by the end of the day (and sometimes before) the little bins are overflowing with used loo paper!?!  I haven’t been able to bring myself to comply and so use the paper very frugally and hope with every pull of the chain that I am not blocking up the sewerage system of Patagonia. If however I use a lot of paper I can fold in the used bit and thus throw a decent- looking wad of paper into the bin provided. Maybe others do the same and hence the bins overflow so rapidly. Strangely enough there are never any flies or smell around these bins!!

Torres del Paine

Grey Glacier

I remember when Brother Rich and I were in St Marco Square in Venice when we were either side of 20. We were strolling around the square when this booming American voice said “Say Lads where are you from?” We turned around and there was this really fat middle aged man sitting at a table drinking coffee. He gestured us to sit down and join him with a cup of coffee, which we did. What really amazed me was his ignorance. When we informed him that we were from South Africa he replied “I’ve been in Africa, I was in Cairo”! We were blown away to think that he just saw Africa as just one big continent, and had very little idea about  the whereabouts of any of the countries within it.  As it happened he was ignorant, but I must admit I now have some idea of what he was getting at. I don’t think I would ever have seen Cairo around the corner from Cape Town, but if you asked me to draw the boundaries of the countries in South America before deciding to travel here, I think it would create an amusing picture. Ushuaia, Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales previously they were just towns “Down there somewhere at the end of the Earth!”  Well Ushuaia is  just short of 55 degrees South and is in Argentine and about as far as roads go South in the world, Punta Arenas is in Chile and is a little over 53 degrees South, and Puerto  Natales  is in Chile and is just short of 52 Degrees South. Chile and Argentine sort of meander between the fiords down at the sharp end of South America.

Puerto Natales is the launch pad for most forays into the amazingly spectacular mountains, glaciers and fiords around this area. It is a pleasant fishing village which had a real boost to its economy from tourism, but it has not lost its simple way of life. Nobody hoots if you happen to stop your car to ask directions. No need for pedestrian signals at intersection, cars will always give way to pedestrians. There is no crime and the people are extremely friendly. Most of the houses are built from corrugated iron, and all in all it has a really pleasant feel to it. It must be pretty bleak in winter where Patricia, our lodgings proprietor, tells us it is not the cold (around -2 degrees) that gets to you, it is the incessant rain.

We were told that it was going to be cold, wet and windy. I am sure, like my self, you imagine that you will be travelling in this rather bleak windswept terrain. Well it isn’t. There is an amazing diversity of flora not dissimilar to the Western Cape. This should really come as no surprise as before the continents decided to part their separate ways, they were neighbours! This part of the world drifted a little further South, so even some UK plants are in evidence.

View from our tent at Paine Grande

Granite Capped Peaks

 As we drive west to the Torres Del Paine national park, there are fields of white daisies and lupins and Hollyhocks.  It is a rolling landscape of grassland.  The suddenness of the Torres Del Pain Massif really takes you by surprise. There are other mountains which form part of the Southern Andes, but the Torres Del Paine area is a completely separate entity, which the blurb tells you was formed about 12 million years ago when some hot stuff slipped into a crack in the surrounding sedimentary layers and pushed it up about 2000 odd meters. It didn’t manage to escape so it just caused a bit of a bulge then cooled down. It then took 12 million years to wash away the soft surrounding layers, which is what we see today. Extraordinary formations with hard dark granite peaks covered in snow and sitting on top of light coloured sedimentary layers with vertical  sides. It is a truly astounding and awesome sight.

Then there are the three Torres;  Norte, Central and Sur. These are the massive spikes that stick out between the other eroded mountains presenting an awe inspiring sight.

There are over 200 km of trails and hikes in the Park, the most well-known being the W Circuit. This is what we travelled about 40 something hours to come and walk. We could have flown to Puerto Natales which would have knocked our travelling time down to about two hours, broken the bank and robbed us of a whole bunch of stories and fun.

Ewa hiding from the wind

View from final camp 

Final Valley

We made it!

Torres del Paine
Sur Central & Norte

Not a bad stroll

Will it clear?

Basically there are three valleys. If you can imagine starting your walk by walking up and down the a the left hand  valley, around the bottom, up and down the middle valley , around the bottom, then  up and down the next valley, you would have formed and completed a W. You would also be pretty knackered, quite hungry, lost a couple of kilos, have stiff glutes, calves and a couple of other bits you didn’t know you had.

Pack Horses

You would also have a smug smile on your face as you would have seen sights of Nature that words cannot describe, walked into winds that literally nearly blow you off your feet, pushed yourself a little harder than you would normally do, met wonderful people, walked through forests, put your toes into glacial lakes, drunk ice-cold water from mountain streams, heard and felt the rumbling of an avalanche, seen Condors, felt rain on your face and cold on your cheeks. Seen horseman riding pack-horses along narrow mountain paths. You would have laughed and nearly cried, talked and dreamed. You would have realised why you sent Ewa out to work!

In 1976 five South Africans became the first climbers to climb the East face of the Central Torre. 35 years later two OAP’s clad in Motorcycle jackets, Motorcycle gloves, shorts and Takkies, put their heads into the wind and braved the last 45 minutes of near vertical scramble over screed and rocks to complete the W Circuit and gaze and wonder at the enormity of the achievement 35 years earlier.

Having done that, the OAP’s skipped down the mountain and basked in 28 degrees of breathless sunshine, finished their last stale roll dipped in “cup of packet soup”, slept like a log, packed up the tent, loaded Ewa with bags and caught the net bus back to Hostel Patagonia Natural in Puerto Natales, where we promptly devoured half a cow with salad on the side and toasted ourselves with a clinc of Coke, as I still need to check that the Liver has recovered from Malaria before sampling Chilean and Argentinian Grape juice.

What fun we have had. Weather? Damn near perfect, winds light and variable to gale force at times, Temperature 24 degrees C , none of the dire weather predictions transpired.

 Northwards we go to El Calafate, Barraloche and back to Buenos Aires where the bike finally arrives a month late on the 1^st March. It is all part of the adventure.