Friday, December 23, 2011

Heading South!

On the way home from Torres del Paine our stomachs began to grumble. 8 days of oatmeal and instant soup will do that I guess... We managed to find a hostel much cheaper then any other we had seen in Puerto Natales. Our new motto? Follow the isreali's!!! First stop? A long hot shower! Afterwards we returned to Mesita Grande for fresh salad and wood fired pizza! And a new first for me. Corn as a topping on pizza. Dinner was followed by a stop at Baguales, a brewpub for tasty local cerveza's.

In one more example of how small the world is, Suzy and I were there on the recommendation of a friend of hers from work.  By odd coincidence I happened to meet the guy through a completely unrelated friend a few months before Suzy and I began dating.  At the brewpub we struck up a conversation with another American and it turned out he was an NSF scientist returning from Antartica who had just spent 4 days crossing the drake passage with the same guy who had recommended the place to Suzy and I....  So we were all there on the recommendation of a person that we had all met through completely different circumstances.  This is why I love travelling! 





Our hostel was so inexpensive and pleasant that we stayed another day to rest and prepare for the next day of our journey.  We slept in, found a great coffe shop overlooking the Sound of Lost Hope, purchased bus tickets, did some grocery shopping, caught up with friends, and cooked a nice meal.  The next day we got the bus to Punta Arenas...

Torres del Paine

Suzy - Well, we made it back to civilization!!! After 8 days and 65 miles on foot with all we needed on our backs, we are back in P. Natales. WOW! It was incredible and I am not sure where to start. AH! How to describe the beauty and colors of a place that is indescribable? The lakes and rivers took on these incredible aqua and green colors and as the light shifted and was filtered thru clouds it changed again. The towers were sooo amazing! No matter how many times you see the photos of them once you top out on a rough rocky climb, words cant describe once again. Then there was the French Valley AH! 360 degrees of just the most incredible mnt valley after a trail that took you over amazing rivers and thru beech tree forests. I did take a video and not sure how to down load at this time!

Days of hard hiking with heavy packs with 10 days of food in them was TOUGH! and having to move out of oncoming hiking traffic made it a bit worse. How come I am always the one to move out of the way for hikers to pass? Oh well, it filled the Karma Kup and we had the most amazing weather. Hot, Sunny and NO WIND for most of the days! I got a little sunburned but not bad. Then the Glacier Grey! WOWwee! We could see it for miles away and as we got closer and closer you could see the wild blue streaks in the ice. Oh and the icebergs that had calved off the glacier were so odd to see floating on the lake and getting stuck on the shoreline. So, we ended up camping up next to the glacier and headed out for a little day hike.....CAN you say WIND??? 70 knot winds met us on the side of the mountain with the glacier a 1000 feet below us and only spikey thorny bushes to save us if we blew off...I could hardly keep my feet on the ground and a couple of times had to hit the ground so not to blow off......we laughed as the trail crew had built railings in areas not so windy but the windy steep spots were unprotected.. On that note, we noted that there were these sturdy boardwalks across the wetland area but bridges over mountain rivers could hold only 2 personas.....WHAT? the boardwalk over boggy wetland could hold an army but the bridge spanning a raging river could hold only two people at one time the sign said??? Then there were the super sketchy spots that we had to scramble and crawl (me) down into a ravine with stair stepped waterfalls to carefully cross the waterfall. At one point I had to take off my heavy pack so I COULD get down a loose sketchy spot and Mike handed me my pack and I tried to slide it down further from me and WHOOP there it went....bouncing down the embankment....bounce bounce bounce!! Right over the waterfall 30 feet away... There goes my camera!!! AND my passport and my money and my water and my clothes and worst of all our Cadbury chocolate candy bar!!! SHIT!! Mike saved the day with me pleading him to not go after it.....He scaled the rocks to the waterfall and got my pack.....Once it was back in my hands, I realized the water bottle was still on the ledge......so, he went back for it saying something like he has seen seals swallow waterbottles........whew! then we had to climb back to the other side......
So, Mike saved the pack and our candy bar.....oh how I needed calories! We have been living on crackers, cheese, oatmeal and chicken soups. Oh yes, Mike had brought some 5 year old cous cous, freeze dried re fried beans and lentil soup to be added to our meals. It wasn`t so bad after 5 years on his shelf and it got us down the trail. SO the 4 dollar candy bar was a REAL treat and we didnt want to lose it.......oh for those of you not used to my emails from the field.....I rarely pay attention to details like spelling and punctuation.... Someday as many friends and family want me to do, I might write a book and these will be rough drafts at best.

HUM.....So, granite towers (torres), beech forrests, glaciers, icebergs, imense valleys and lakes of crazy colors, we make it to a refugio and a camp spot with a shower!! WOOOWWWEEEE!! Hallelujah! a shower! and not so fresh clothes that were washed out in a mountain stream AND an enclosed kitchen area to make dinner out of the eliments! Life is good!! So after struggling, pushing and shoving our way to a table that seemed vacent we found our spot in the kitchen. We were among so many different nationalities and languages being spoken. Everyone wanted out of the eliments as the wind, rain and cold was moving in...We were setting up our kitchen space on a table (the room was round and surrounded with windows so you could see the lake, mountains and weather all around us) I had to rescue Mike`s spot several times from people trying to move in at the picnic table....wow! no wonder countries can´t get along....where are everyone`s manners.......our dinner was done our bellies were fat and the ^London School of Business kids had pushed us out of our spot. I can only imagine how ruthless they will be in business after being litterally pushed out of our place at the table and then they just starred at us to clean our kitchen spot too...damnn the world is in for it!....

We went to our campsite! only two days left of easy hiking in the pampas and dreams of seeing Gunacos and pumas were in our heads (small camels and mountain lions) The two days of hiking left were awesome and EASY! whew! we followed a swollen river full of glacial silt. The scenery was so like my beloved WY and Mikes beloved MT....It resembled the Yellowstone or the Snake River valley so much. We were half expecting to see bison or elk wandering the grassland but we were super hopeful to see the small camels or mnt lions that do live in the area. Nope! there were none to be seen or heard....dang! How could this fertile land not have animals roaming and grazing....oh well we did see some ibis birds that have a much loader voice than should come out of their bodies.....and the song birds were amazing as well......whew! we are almost done...

We made it to the administration building and had a couple hours to wait for the bus to take us back to Puerto Natales....WE DID IT! We hiked the W in Torres de Paine and had the most incredible weather. The trails were tough at times and I had to yell at my legs to keep going up at times and now have some blisters to contend with but we DID it! The bus came and as we were driving out of the park.....THERE were all the guanacos and rea birds they where all along the dirt road out of the park.......some things are very similar here to our beautiful parks in the US and some things are quite different.....like speed limits, not hitting the animals and staying on your side of the road in a big BIG bus.....We made it to Puerta Natales and found a cheap cheap cheap hostel so we are staying for an extra day....next is Punta Arenas and maybe a tour of the Lawrence M Gould......we know its in port as we met an NSF guy at the brew pub last night.....that is another story for another time.....but it is a small world....Ciao for now!! we are heading to have our laundry WASHED in machines and a CAFE CON LECHE VANILLA!!! YUM!




































































Mike - all I have to add is my experience in a new ecosystem a biologist. Like Suzy said, at first glance the landscape appears very similar to Wyoming or Montana. A closer look however reveals a biological bizzaro world suitable for a geeky episode of the twilight zone. All the trees that appear to be pines and juniper are actually southern beech species. Conifers have not made it this far south and beech trees appear to have undergone an adaptive radiation to take their place. Beeches appear like common juniper, pinyon pine and larger mountain species as well. That rabbitbrush? Appears to be some type of thorny succulent on closer examination. Some things appear to be similar but much larger, others are similar but much smaller. And when you turn a corner on the road expecting elk or bison you see Guanaco's or Rhea's instead. I could go on but you get the point... Overall a terrific experience and one that I would recommend highly to one and all.