Posts for January, 2010

We spent a quiet New Years day in the camping ground at Ensenada. Most of the day Nina and I worked/played on our laptops, she cataloging our 13,000 photographs and me updating the software machinery that controls the whiteacorn website.

The sun came out today and we had a gloriously sunny day. We got to see both the volcanoes that sit beside the lake, they are quite impressive. It was warm, light sweater weather, not hot but that did not stop the locals from frolicking on the beach and swimming in the lake - brrrhhhh!.

We eventually got underway after saying our goodbyes to Sam and Bernie. The weather was cloudy and so we did not see anything of Volcan Orsorno as we drove along its flanks.

Another sunny day - but cool. We must be getting old and feeling the cold. The locals are running around in shorts and T-shirts and we are wearing heavy sweaters.

Today we decided to take an excursion to the town of Pampa Linda. It seems there is some spectacular mountain scenery and a glacier to see. But what first attracted us to this town is the road. It seems it is a narrow road and dangerous, so to protect travelers the road is only oneway. It is open to traffic going to Pampa Linda until 2:00 pm, then closes to new traffic, and opens to returning traffic after 4:00pm.

Nothing worth reporting

I realized last night that I should get new tires in Bariloche if possible. There is still a few thousand miles in the existing set of tires but we are about to travel the worst roads of the trip, not a place to have tires that are at the end of their life. And availability will probably only get worse farther south. So we spent the morning looking for our size and load rating - eventually finding 4 at one of the local tire dealers. We kept one of them as an additional spare (though not mounted on a wheel), it still has over 50% life in it (It was the spare when we left Texas). The only problem now is how to carry the extra tire ???

I spent the morning repairing the storage rack on the back of the Tiger. The deck of the rack is plywood and over the past month it has deteriorated. I did not replace the wood simply placed a new piece over the old and painted both pieces black. That should last a few months.

So why the reference to Butch and Sundance?

The weather gods seemed to be on our side as this morning was mostly clear and sunny. We continued south through Parque Alerces past beautiful clear lakes and river, with snow capped mountains, with some fresh snow, in the background. Along the way we saw many campers and a number of RVs made from converted trucks. Argentines seem to be avid campers.

It was raining when we woke this morning and except for a few momentary breaks when the sun won through it was wet, overcast and not particularly pleasant all day. Though even the weather did not prevent us getting some of the wonder and awe from the never ending vistas of mountains, glaciers and lakes. But .. this must be just a stunning place when (or maybe it's if) the weather is clear.

It's still raining.

A day of paved roads

South from last nights camp we crossed the Cerro Castillo range of mountains heading towards the town of Cerro Castillo and the end of the paved road. However before arriving at Cerro Castillo we took a detour, still on paved road, to the port town of Puerto Ingeniero Ibanez. This town is the ferry port for the ferry across Lago General Carrera (called Lago Buenos Aires in Argentina) to Chile Chico. Along the Ibanez road we got some fine views of Cerro Castillo, plus some of the strongest winds we have experienced on this trip, sustained 40 mph I would guess. It was difficult to open doors and walk into the wind.

We continued south along the western shore of Lago Carrera this morning to the exceptionally small town of El Maiten and a road junction. Right is to Villa O'Higgins and the end of the Carretera Austral and left is to Chili Chico and the Argentine border. We are going right, but will be back as the O'Higgins road is a deadend.

We were treated to fine weather today and it really did show off the country side and scenery.

From our gravel pit camping spot we continued south in overcast and wet conditions on a road that was essentially a single track forest road in OK condition. The road was pretty spectacular though, as it travelled along, mostly, the steep west bank of the Rio Bravo and then the equally steep west bank of the Rio Colorado before crossing a narrow causeway to gain the east bank of the Colorado for the final few km into O'Higgins.

It rained hard all night and this morning the river was at least 2 feet higher.

We were greeted this morning by a clear sky and bright sun, what a treat. We continued North to the junction of highway 7 and the road to Chile Chico (highway 256). Along the way we said goodbye to the mighty Rio Baker and its turquoise waters, and Lago Bertrand. The Carretera Austral has been, despite the rain, a wonderful experience and we are sad to leave it.

We busied ourselves in Chile Chico until late morning with washing and internet and then continued east for a few kms on good road to the Chilean border station. No dramas on exit - the same three steps as all other Chilean crossings. A little further down the road is a nice new Chilean border station building nearing completion with a sign proudly proclaiming that it will be complete in 2009 - huh??

We decided that this morning we would take a slight detour to Cueva De Las Manos a local archeological site with 9000 year old cave paintings. The turn off from Ruto 40 coincided precisely with the end of the Ruta 40 pavement and involved 22 kms of some very rough road to a wind swept parking lot on the cliff tops overlooking the valley of the Rio Pinturos. From the parking lot a very rough walking track led down into the valley and up the other side to the entrance station of the caves. To view the paintings we had to go on a free conducted tour which was fabulous. The guides English was just good enough for us to get some of the facts about the paintings, almost entirely of the human hand, and mostly left hands.

We traveled 300 miles today over 200 of which was gravel and the whole day was through dusty, dry grass lands with little habitation. There were only two places we passed today where we could buy fuel and at one of those the owners for some reason just left the customers waiting without service - we gave up after waiting 30 minutes. Incidentally that was the town of Bajo Caracoles which I commented on in yesterdays camping section.

The weather was windy with broken cloud this morning, which in these parts almost qualifies as a good day, so Nina encouraged me to hike the trail to Lago Torre, at the foot of the Grande and Torre glaciers and from which there are supposed to be good views of Cerro Torre.

The weather was clear with only light winds this morning, so I saddled up to repeat yesterdays hike sure that today would give me the views that I failed to find yesterday.

We had fierce winds and rain all day - a bit like a Washington winter storm. We spent it in the Tiger reading a novel.

We moved on to El Calafate today. Driving away from El Chalten the weather quickly became sunny even though the wind did not abate.

We spent much of yesterday trying to work out which of the many glacier tours we should take; El Calafate is famous for the glaciers that can be visited. Today we decided to drive west to the Parque Nacional and have a look in the hope that this would help us decided. On the way out the road traveled through Patagonia steppes country, wide, wind swept grasslands. To say that the Perito Moreno Glacier was a surprise would be a massive understatement. The road rounded a bend and there before us was this massive wall of ice.

We moved on again today. Destination the area of Parque Nacional Torres De Payne and Puerto Natales Chile.

We spent the day getting organized for the hike we plan to start tomorrow.