VALDIVIA AND VILLARICA (CHILE)

On my journey north from Torres del Paine National Park, back towards Santiago, I stopped briefly in a number of places in the Chilean Lakes district. Although nowhere near as impressive as the Lakes district in Argentina around Bariloche, the towns of Valdivia and Villarica especially, still provided some interesting scenery. Valdivia was one of the most picturesque towns I visited in Chile, with the centrepiece of the region being an old fort, which was used to defend Chile against the Spanish Armada (apparently however the level of resistance offered was quite minimal and the town was captured quite easily). As a day trip from Validivia I took a boat ride to a number of islands containing old forts and military relics dating back a number of centuries. The other highlight from my visit to the town was walking amongst the local fish market, which was certainly something I had not experienced before.

Photos 1&2: Cannons and the remains of the fort set up on an island close to Validivia.
Photo 3: Rustic boat situated on the water just outside the town.














Following m brief visit to Validivia I continued north to Villarica, whose centrepiece volcano of the same name was quite impressive. Unfortunately the weather here was quite poor and I spent much of my only full day there, inside escaping from the drizzle and cold winds. I did however manage a number of nice photos of the volcano and nearby lake and I was able to just relax for a few days before heading back to Santiago and then onto Buenoes Aires via Mendoza.

Photos 4&5: Volcano and lake just outside Villarica.













Santiago as a city offered very little of interest on either of my trips there. Apart from an interesting visit to the statue of Mary on one of the hills in the city and a walk around the botanic gardens I spent the majority of my time here just wandering the streets observing the locals and browsing the many market stalls set up all over the place. A view of the city from an elevated vantage point proved only to confirm just how dirty the city was, with the pollution filled sky making it was difficult to see for much more than 1km. Another of my interesting experiences in Santiago involved a visit to one of the city's famous/infamous 'coffee houses' such as the 'Red Barron' (rather odd name for a cafe), which were frequented by business suited gentleman... A look inside revealed the true nature of these establishments.

Photo 6: View of the Santiago skyline.
Photo 7: Blooms in the botanic gardens.










Continuing from Santiago towards Buenos Aires on, I returned briefly to Mendoza to catch up with a few friends. The trip from Santiago to Mendoza was quite spectacular, more so than when I first completed the pass over the Andes in the beginning of March, mainly because of the amount of snow that had fallen in the few months that had passed.

Photos 8-11: Andes mountain range between Santiago and Mendoza - covered in snow.
Photo 12: Romina and Anabel - friends from Mendoza.

TORRES DEL PAINE NATIONAL PARK (CHILE)

After experiencing some seriously amazing scenery in Argentinian Patagonia, I crossed the border to Chile in the hope of experiencing more spectacles in the world famous Torres del Paine National Park. Following a day of organisation and rest in Puerto Natales I took an early bus to the park, the weather unfortunately being rather overcast and looking like it might rain on this my first day. One thing that I learned very quickly in the southern regions of Argentina and Chile was that in order to enjoy Patagonia, the weather needed to be almost perfect because otherwise the almost freezing temperatures, rain, snow, sleet and wind make it just about impossible to sruvive, let alone enjoy any of the magnificent scenery. Being so close to the Antarctic, meant the weather was very cold and highly unpredictable however I was very fortunate during my visit to Torres del Paine, especially considering I was there much later than most travellers (late March/early April).

The park served up some more magnificent mountain scenery with many incredible views of one of parks glaciers and more awesome colours in the changing forest foliage as the seasons changed from summer to autumn and onto winter. Having the chance to witness this amazing kaleidoscope of colour made we wonder if taking the risk and travelling to Patagonia during autumn, might be worth it although I later found that other travellers who had visited the park only a few days after me had been met with terrible weather so I guess that I just got lucky !

Each day of the 4 day hike was very different. On the first day I hiked to a vantage point close to the base of the Grey glacier in the north west of the park but had to complete the return leg partially in the dark with the aid of head lamps, my first night hiking experience. That night I froze in my tent, but luckily wasn't feeling too bad the next day where I was treated to some magnificent scenery in the famous 'French Valley'. Fortunately for this part of the hike I was able to drop my backpack (and return to it later) enabling me to enjoy the scenery to a far greater extent. Thankfully I managed a much nicer sleep that night with the aid of a sheltered campsite and a 'thermarest' borrowed from another hiker staying in the nearby refuge.

Day 3 was literally just getting as close as possible to the three 'Torres' and basically involved a hard slog up the mountain for most of the day, with not a great deal of interesting scenery. However, the effort was more than worth it the next day where after a quick hours scramble over boulders I was able to witness a trully breathtaking sunset which changed the colour of the mountain peaks from a dull grey to a brilliant orange. Despite the cold nights and my lack of apetizing food during the hike, I thoroughly enjoyed the 4 days and made some great companions along the way. The scenery was just as impressive as that which I experienced in southern Argentina and with a little luck from the weather gods I enjoyed some trully magnificent sights !

Photo 1: Amazing mountain scenery viewed from the lake crossing on day 1.
Photo 2: Photo depicting the conditions on day 1 - 'fresh' (i.e. cold and windy)
Photos 3-6: Amazing autumnal colours in the tree foliage.
Photo 7: View of the glacier and floating icebergs on the first day.
Photos 8&9: Sunset over the glacier on day 1.
Photoss 10-13: Snow capped mountains in the French Valley.
Photo 14: Myriad of thickly growing trees in the French Valley.
Photos 15&16: 5:00am sunrise at the 'Torres'.

EL CALAFATE & EL CHALTEN (ARGENTINA)

The Patagonia region of Argentina was definately one of the truely breathtaking locations I visited in South America. Following 32 painful hours on buses south from Bariloche, my first destination was El Calafate, famous for one of the worlds largest glaciers, the Pertio Moreno glacier. The size of this thing was absolutely insane with the vertical distance from the water level to the top of the ice shelf being in some parts, more than 80m. The spectacle was further enhanced by the fact that every few minutes, massive chunks of ice were cracking and falling into the water all along the glacier face. This was one of the few places in South America where I felt inclement weather didn't necessarily take away from the spectacular scenery on offer and despite the day I visited being somewhat overcast and cloudy, the sheer monstrosity of the glacier meant one could not deny its magnificence. Needless to say I took literally hundreds of photos of the glacier and surrounding scnery.
































After a brief but definately worthwhile visit to El Calafate and the nearby glacier, I travelled north to the small town of El Chalten nestled in the foot of the Andes range within Parque Nacional Los Glacieres. The scenery here was absolutely spectacular and I don't believe there would be many other places quite like it in the rest of the world although I have heard Canadian's compare it with Bamf in British Columbia. The mountains in this region were like something out of 'Lord of the Rings' and at every mirrador it was possible to take photos containing rugged snow capped mountains, crystal clear rivers and tree foliage in so many shades of yellow, red and orange, it was hard to believe. The photos I took here are amongst the best I have ever taken, but in reality it was difficult not to take amazing photos - all one had to do was literally just 'point and shoot'.

Despite numerous warnings of the potentially horrible weather characteristic of this area, I was lucky enough to enjoy 2 and a half days of clear blue skies and blazing sunshine. However, after talking to a number of other travellers staying in the town, I considered myself quite lucky given that some had stayed there over 10 days before being treated to the same weather which I enjoyed upon arrival. The weather was in fact so warm that a crazy backpacker whom I met on one of the trails, ventured into the freezing cold water at the bottom of one of the glaciers and asked if I could take a photo of him sunbaking on one of the floating icebergs !! In his defence, he was from New Zealand... On my final day however I was treated to the spectacularly erratic weather of the region, as the town was buffeted by gale forced winds for most of the afternoon, making it difficult even to venture out for food without being required to lie down on the ground until the wind eased...

Photos 1 plus 6-9: Shots of the magnificent Fitz Roy range.
Photos 2-5: Cerro Torre and surrounding mountains.

BARILOCHE (ARGENTINA)

Following my 2 weeks of spanish lessons in Mendoza, I decided to head south as quickly as possible to sample the world famous Argentinian Lakes district and Patagonia region. This part of the country was amazing to say the very least, with almost every mirrador providing absolutely spectacular scenery, most commonly lakes nestled amongst vast forests and right alongside the snow capped andes mountains. Once again, I managed to time my visit to perfection as the weather was amazing, although there were a few clouds in the sky on one of the days I was there (poor me !) During my first two days in Bariloche I took a number of small day trips to various points of interest around the town and also spent time hiking around the Jao-Jao peninsula and Cathedral ski resort, the largest in the southern hemisphere. Particularly impressive for me was the hotel and accompanying golf course at the Jao-Jao peninsula, somwehere I would definately like to play a few rounds at some stage in the future.

Photos 1-4: Stunning lake and forest scenery viewed from just outside Bariloche.
Photo 5: Golf course and impressive hotel at the Jao-Jao peninsula.













I found Bariloche to be a very attractive town. However probably more impressive were the spectacular sunsets which I encountered there, with the colours and patterns made by the clouds seeming to be more impressive day after day. During my time in the Bariloche region I also completed a 2 day hike up to the base of 4 glaciers nestled on the Argentine-Chilean border. The hike up was pretty tough and involved about as much sweat as living in Mount Isa however the impressive views of the glaciers and colourful forest in the middle of autumn more than made up for it. At the bottom of one of the glaicers I stayed in a small, but comfortable refuge shelter, however despite my adorning thermals, a fleece jumper and all my other clothing items, it was still bloody cold up there that night and I was glad that I had a good sleeping bag.

Sunrise early the next morning was really something else and given that I didn't have to return to the bottom of the trail until late that afternoon I spent much of the morning walking almost to the top of the glacier, from which I got some great views of the Andes to the Chilean Lakes district around Volcan Osorno. Unfortunately, my descent to the meeting point for the return bus to Bariloche took me longer than anticipated (mostly because I decided to take a detour to a waterfall formed by melting ice on the glacier and also because I managed to take a number of wrong turns on the return leg.) As such, I almost missed my bus and had to leg it at a fairly rigorous pace for about an hour to make it there just in time...

Photos 6&7: Views of Bariloche town from my 11th floor hostel.
Photos 8&9: Spectacular sunsets over one of the many lakes around Bariloche.
Photo 10: Refuge at the foot of the glacier.
Photos 11&12: View of the glacier and colourful forest scenery whilst hiking up.
Photos 13&14: Sunrise over the andes range from the foot of the glacier.
Photo 15: One of the larger peaks viewed during my walk to the glacier summit.