The big one

PUCÓN:

Volcano Villarica on a cloudy day

A view of where I went on my ducky!! Intense rapids huh? : )

The light at the end of a 25mile long tunnel (via bicycle)

My new Aussie mates!!

PUERTO MONTT:

PUERTO NATALES

TORRES DEL PAINE

PUNTA ARENAS

ISLA MAGDALENA

It was an amazing trip. It definitely exceeded any sort of expectations I had before leaving.

Where to start .... I already rambled quite a bit about my time in Pucón, the great time I had there and the amazing new friends that I made ....

Well, after a day of delay - which surprisingly did me alot of good ... I bought some things for camping and chatted with a friend who had just left Torres del Paine - we hopped on the Navimag heading towards Puerto Natales. The morning we departed was absolutely beautiful and we were incredibly lucky considering the captain said there were typically only 15 days as nice a year in that area. The boat is in all practical terms a ferry, but try not to envision a stuffy deck where we all had to sit and stare for four days ... it was pretty big and even had cruise like aspects. For example ... bingo night!! Which turned out to be the most amazing game of bingo I've ever been a part of ... think dancing in order to retrieve your prizes : ) More or less it was what I would call a "Booze Cruise", and again not how you may think ... the passengers were incredibly international (Spain, Holland, Israel, Greece, Denmark ...etc) and furthermore, covered all the ranges of age.

Basically this made it even more hilarious to watch the silly drunken dancing that came after bingo. Keep in mind that I had been sick since Pucón and didn't want to get off the boat sick so I hadn't had a drop. Making it even funnier!!

The boat ride was more or less what I had imagined ... lots of reading, napping and water. I wasn't however expecting to have land on both sides of the boat for nearly the entire trip! We were traveling through narrow channels and fjords for most of the trip. On the second day we entered into the ocean and through el golfo de penas - the gulf of pains? Luckily we had pretty calm waters and I wasn't sick at all. I was just very sleepy and had a tricky time of getting my cafeteria style dinner tray to the table with all of the ups and downs of the boat.

On the third day we went to a glacier!! The typical route either goes to a tiny port village or to the glacier, and considering that no one really wants to walk around a little town when you're wet ... we hung out at the glacier for a while. This was really neat, especially considering that it is only navegable by boat and very few boats at that. Our cruise director : ) who was full of info for the whole trip said that it was one of very few in the world that is not receeding. Good news there I suppose.

Ok, so the boat was great ... moving on ... we got into Puerto Natales and I was one of the first off thinking that if the 175 or so people on the boat were all heading to the same place ... Torres del Paine ... I wanted to find the hostal I was recommended to and get going right away with my plans. The fact that the boat had come in a day late pushed my plans back and it was looking less likely that I would be heading to the "End of the World" so instead I planned to be in the park for more time and even reserved an ice hike and climb on the glacier within the park!!

I had a good day to get everything prepared. I bought lots of dried fruit, nuts, oatmeal, salami and got all the camping gear I was planning on taking rented through my hostal. I still hadn't planned on going in with anyone but there was a nice Australian, Jemma, who was heading in the next day as well. It ended up being that we were joined by a New Yorker, Andrew, who was quite entertaining over the course of the time we shared in the park.

Read: 34 year old who may as well have been 21, not thinking about much besides women and Brazilian beaches ... needless to say we didn't have alot in common but he was a nice enough guy and we all made it out of the park with smiles on our faces.

It's hard to really list out what my time in the park was like ... I met alot of really interesting people from all over the place, I found that I was a pretty good little hiker, and even found a new appreciation for dried fruit. The path that we took is a really famous 4 or so day trek that is called the "W" ... for the shape that the trail makes along the mountain.

One of the most interesting parts of the park is that because all of the streams are products of glacial runoff the park encourages hikers to not bring in any water and just get it straight from the source!! All of the trails keep within a fair proximity to the water sources so you're never worried about running dry. It was pretty cool to just fill up right out of a stream and not have to worry about getting sick.

I call this part of the trip the Extreme Patagonian diet: Dried fruit, nuts and Glacial Runoff

: )

Ok, of course I had more than that ... I hiked 75kilometers! Lots of salami sandwiches (which I can do without for the next year or so), plenty of pasta (not too heavy in the backpack), and granola. Yumm. 5 entire days of that : )

On our first night I met a pair traveling from Switzerland. It was great to chat with them, of course in only one of their 4 languages ... whoaa. Nice job Switzerland. Anyways, I got one of their emails and might even get a chance to go snowboarding in the Alps with them while I'm abroad next semester : )

I had been rushing through a bit to make sure I made it to the other side of my "W" to the glacier to do my ice hike. Of course when I got there the guide said we wouldn't be able to do it because of the wind. Ok, no big deal ... I had the extra time to wait. So I shared Jemma's tent another night and the next morning the weather had only gotten worse ... I really was determined to do this though, I mean how many time do you have the opportunity to climb a glacier? Right, not so often. I basically spent the whole day in the "Refugio" they have there which is a place where day hikers can stay (for obscene prices) hostel style. This particular refugio was run by a bunch of 20something Chileans more or less and I managed to befriend a few of them. I had the entire day to just sit inside and stay warm and with my meals diminishing very quickly making friends was more or less the only option : )

Success was had .... and by that I mean I got a free HOT lunch. These refugios charge exorbitant prices for everything because:

A. they carry all supplies on boats or on someones back

B. where else you going?

A lunch costs 14USD and dinner 16USD. Worth every penny ... but I didn't spend a single peso : ) Oh, was it delicious. Especially after days of nutrientless soup packets.

I even had help setting up my tent by a few bored workers. I couldn't imagine how after having had one good shower ... eeeh ... no clean clothes at this point .... haha. Just extremely bored I suppose.

I was still crossing my fingers that the next day would clear up and to my utter shock it was an absolutely perfect day. There wasn't even a breeze. I assumed that this was the best possible day for an ice hike. I was right also, but the company wasn't prepared and I didn't get to do it. I was so frustrated and upset but there was nothing to be done ... the company is brand new and it is still really early in the season but having waited an extra day and a half really seemed ridiculous when they could have just told me they weren't prepared. I did have a nice time with my extra day and a half so I wasn't too upset about the lost time. I hurried back down to where I needed to catch the catamaran to leave the park and was headed back to Puerto Natales where a hot shower awaited and a deliciously unhealthy dinner of pizza and fries! It should have been something like fruit and vegetables ... but those aren't so easy to find down there.

I got all of my money back for the ice hike and the money I spent to stay an extra night at the campsite. I decided to treat myself to a massage and my body was ... shall we say ... destroyed?

I never had much back pain with my backpack on and I did just fine the whole time but my legs weren't doing so great. Right from the start my hip flexers were bothering me, which was something that hadn't happened since dance team but hmm. My feet held up ok, I hadn't brought any shoes in the park with me besides my hiking shoes and that I regretted ... but mostly just calloused feet, yeah I'm tough : )

At this point I only really had three days before heading back. I only really had enough time to rest a bit (massage!!) in Pto. Natales and then head to Punta Arenas to see the penguins!

On my penguin tour I ran into a girl I hed met on my rest day (she came in from the storm drenched) and had a really nice time chatting with her. It was really almost comical to keep seeing the same people over the course of my trip. There were people that I had seen or met on the Navimag, saw in the Park and even saw in Punta Arenas! Specifically this one man from whichever European country who had a great long mustache and wore big green rain boots with khakis tucked in ... seriously every single time I saw him he was wearing the boots ... Our boat, the park, in the city ... it was beyond comical. You can't make this stuff up.

: )

Ok, I could keep rambling but the pictures are really so much better ... I'm just going to throw them all out there for now ... maybe do a bit of organizing later ... Enjoy!!!

Navimag Voyage --

Passing the time onboard ... Ben and Allison

Into the Park -- Torres del Paine

Yummmm

Glacier Grey

It's a little hard to tell but as we walked back from the look-out we took a minute to look at the glacier and at that exact moment a huge piece calved off from the front!!! It was incredible!!

The second picture shows the pieces moments after they fell and a bit of a gap where it had been previously.

Proof that I was in a tent : )

Isla Magdalena - Penguin Land!!