Visiting in El Calafate

Here I am again...let's keep up writing about my journey.

The bus from Puerte Natales took about five hours, so for us really just a stone's throw away, and arrived at 11:30 pm at the bus terminal in El Calafate. Gabriel, the friend of Martha who was able to host us for some days, picked us up and went with us to a hospedaje in the center where he accommodated us. After eating dinner and talking a little bit, Martha and me were really tired and went to our Hospedaje to sleep.
The next day Gabriel went with us to the museum about the history of Calafate and spontaneously to one of the most important "Estancias" (Ranch) of Calafate, where we spent the rest of the day learning about traditional things on a ranch. For dinner we had a real good tasting barbecue with a danceshow inclusive. The sister of Gabriel dances traditional dances of Argentina and often has to dance for tourists etc.
The next morning we got up at 6:30 am to get a bus to the glacier "Perito Moreno". Since Gabriel managed to organize a car, we weren't in a big hurry anymore and slowly made our way to the Nationalpark. The time we won by taking the car, was lost the next hour trying to fix the car (which ran hot) and to pull us out of the road ditch (Straßengraben) Gabriel parked us in :D Since we couldn't fix the car a friend of Gabriel took us to the lookout of the glacier and we stayed there for some hours, watching a listening the Perito Moreno. It was incredible!! That thing is huge! At times you can see parts of ice falling off of the glacier making loud noises while falling into the water. It' so awesome :)
In the afternoon we also took the boat that takes you directly to the glacier and droves right along its side.
After getting back to Calafate (some chilean guys took us with them) we learned a little bit more about glaciers in general in the museum. As a surprise Gabriel also took us to the Glacier bar. A really cool place where everything is made of ice. The walls, the bar, the chairs and even the cups you are drinking out. We got special clothes before we went in but after half an hour we were too cold to stay any longer ;) pretty cool experience though!
In the evening we had dinner at his familys house and about 1am went to our hospedaje to sleep.
The next day Gabriel showed us the city. We went to another Muesum, ate "Calafate"-ice cream, which is made of the Calafate-fruit, which grows everywhere around it, and had a Tango lesson the evening. The Tango here is really different from the one I learned in Germany. It looks so awesome if you are able to dance it :-P
After our Tango lesson two of his friends went with us to one of the birthday parties of the city, where we listened to some traditional music and watched people dancing the traditional dance of Argentinia.
Since we had to wake up early the next morning to check out, we went to our hospedaje after that and slept(it was already 3 or 4 am in the morning, not that late for argentinien standards ;).

That was our stay in Calafate...the next post is going to be about our trip to Ushuaia-el fin del mundo (the end of the world)

See ya :)

Trip to "Torres del Paine"

We started on wednesday in the morning. We took a bus at 7:30 am which brought us to the Nationalpark entrance, where we had to take a Minibus to our first camping ground.
We had rented camping equipment in Puerte Natales because in the park everything was doubled the price you had to pay in Puerte Natales...
The first thing we did was setting up our tents, leaving our heavy backpacks-and only taking a little one for the day- and making our way to the first big attraction of the Nationalpark--> the "Torres del Paine"
The way there was sometimes pretty hard. The sun was pretty hot, we hadn't been doing any sports in a while and therefore weren't in our best shape and the path was freakin steep!!! With the help of Müsli-bars, Oranges and the cleanest water I drank in a while (out of the river) we made it at the end. The lookout of the Torres del Paine is very beautiful. It's very high up and the vieuw is just stunning.

this is the proof: Martha and I in front of the "Torres del Paine"

After we went down in about half the time we needed to go up, we started to cook our awesome first camping dish...rice with eggs and some seasoning ;)
We talked to our camping neighboor a little bit and went to bed . First day 16 km---> done!

The second day started at 7:30 am. After slowly getting packed and ready for the day we walked 12km to the next Refugio/Campsite to have lunch and rest a little bit. We had planed to sleep on the free campsite "Campamento Italiano" 'cause the prices on other campsites where pretty high. For that reason we had to walk 5km more...those 5km were hard but not as hard as we thought they would be. And the landscape distracted us a little bit from the pain in our feet, back, shoulders etc. Walking with a backpack with all your stuff for 4 days is a whole different thing, than just walking without. We did not think it would take that much energy but I guess we know better now ;)

no words for that...only: its a lot better if you see it yourself!!

Martha telling Max how to build up his tent :D

French valley and the path we walked (on the bottom)

Second day 17km ---> done!

The third day was our longest day. We woke up at 6:30 am to get going as soon as possible. To get to our first station we had to walk 7,5km and from there to the next Refugio/Campsite another 11km. Since we would have to pay for that campsite, we decided after a one hour break that we should walk to the next one, which was about another 3km away. After arriving there at 7pm we were all pretty exhausted and having to deal with thousands of mosquitos we were even more sleepy and went to bed after a fast dinner.

first view on "Glacier Grey"

Walking, walking and walking...and still smiling :)

Max taking a picture of "Glacier Grey"

Third day 21,5km---done!

Fourth and last day started for Martha and me at 4:30am, but only to see the sunrise from the outlook 5 minutes from our campsite. From there you looked directly over the whole "Glaciar Grey"! Amazingly beautiful!! Very worth it to get up that early!!

no sun yet...but still not really dark

a new day :)

We had our breakfast in the same Refugio, where we had a 1 hour break the day before and walked 11km back to the other Refugio where the ferry left for the bus back to Puerte Natales. Martha and me took it really easy, had some Muesli-bar-breaks with awesome views of the landscape and arrived a lot later than Max (who mostly walked by himself the whole trip). After waiting for about four hours we took the ferry to our bus. Arriving at 10:30 pm in Puerte Natales we had to return all our camp-equipment as fast as possible. So no relaxing yet...Martha and me were even able to get a bus ticket for the next morning to El Calafate the next day. But after having done all that, we just went in the shower (we were pretty gross after not showering and sweating for 3 days, HAHA) and went half-dead into bed.

Eisberg!!!

Thats all for now...

Ciaui :))

Pictures from the last few weeks

Couchsurfing in Ancud :)



walking to the "Saltos"



this is where we had our lunch ;)

 



Martha and I at the "Saltos"

 Sorry, can't upload more right now...it takes a long time.

Ciau