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South America

April - June 2023
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  • TravelerSouth America
    1
    Day 1

    Punta Arenas

    April 3, 2023 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Long flight Quito>Lima>Santiago>Punta Arenas

    arrived in the afternoon and Wandered around the city a bit. Nothing too special but it’s not too bad. Walked along the ocean a bit, lots of gulls and cormorants, statue of Shackleton.

    Slept early after the long travel day, and took the bus in the morning to Puerto Natales    Read more

  • TravelerSouth America
    Day 2

    Puerto Natales

    April 4, 2023 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Bus from Punta Arenas, stayed at a tiny hostel for 3 days to plan and ready for the W Trek in Torres del Paine.

    Day 1:
    Walked through the town and along the beach. Kinda small, fairly pretty, touristy, a bit expensive. Statue of a Mylodon because I guess there was a lot of skeletons from the ice age found nearby.

    Tag 2:
    Planned a bit, didn’t do much.

    Tag 3:
    Was here an extra day because it was only possible to book the cheap campsites for April 7th to 11th for hiking. But actually had a really nice day. Went to breakfast with Vi and Will from the hostel. French girl and American guy, they are cool! Will is a funky guy, he’s taking the ferry to the southernmost town in the world, on a little island. Just because I guess! Then we went to the cave of the Milodon, a big cave nearby where they found a lot of fossils from the last ice age of milodons (giant sloths), sabre tooth tigers etc. it was cool! And a nice hike along the hill to a view point and another little cave and some big rocks to climb on. Beautiful views, actually reminded me a lot of the Yukon landscape.
    Then chill a bit and pack gear ready for hiking tomorrow in Torres del Paine! Evening in the hostel was super nice actually. There was a guitar so Will played a bit (he used to be in an Avril Lavigne cover band!!) , and it turns out Violette is a super good singer! So it was a hostel singalong evening, which would normally be kinda cheesy, but it was actually really nice! Haha. I was too shy to play.. 🤔    Read more

  • TravelerSouth America
    Day 5

    TdP - Paine Grande>Lago Grey

    April 7, 2023 in Chile ⋅ 🌨 4 °C

    Puerto Natales > Pudeto > Paine Grande > Lago Grey (11km)

    6:45am bus from Natales to Pudeto, a point in the national park where you can then catch the ferry/catamaran. Drove 3 hours through the chilly sunrise and waited awhile in the wind and rain for the ferry. Then half an hour ferry along a blue green glacier lake to Paine Grande, one of the Refugios to start the trek. I am doing the W-Trek, a classic 4-5 day route through the National Park. Would have like the O trek, which is 8-9 days and goes around the back of the park and is less touristy, but it’s closed in April unless you hire a guide, which is too expensive :/ Next time!

    Started hiking from Paine Grande around 12 noon, along Lago Grey towards the Grey glacier.
    1st fail: lost my earphones :( there’s a hole in my pocket so they are just gone somewhere unknown :(
    2nd fail: forgot to bring gas for the cook stove.. ayayay. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I feel cursed/scatterbrained. Usually I’m so organised and careful. Luckily the campsite is pretty well equipped so I could just buy some 😂 if this were tombstone I would have had to cancel the hike!
    Anyways I hiked about 3 hours to Campamento Grey. Already a beautiful trail with fall red and orange everywhere, and the blue/grey lake alongside, the occasional chunk of bright blue glacier ice floating by. The downside: pretty grey weather, constant light rain, and INSANELY WINDY!! Seriously I nearly fell over a number of times from huge gusts of wind, and could barely see sometimes with wind and pelting rain in my face! But I made it to the camping area and set up my tiny yellow tent. Felt a bit lonely lying inside. Not that much to do except make a hot chocolate and cook dinner already. There’s a cooking building aswell so that is good, would be shitty cooking outside in the wind    Read more

  • TravelerSouth America
    11111
    Day 6

    TdP - Grey>Paine Grande

    April 8, 2023 in Chile ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    Refugio Grey > Grey Glacier Lookout > Paine Grande (20km)
    Cold and windy night, the sleeping bag is passable but not very comfy for this weather. Woke up with the sunrise, packed up and left my gear at the Refugio while I hiked to the Glacier Grey Lookout. It was actually really good weather (still unbelievably windy and occasional rain in the air), but mostly clear. 1.5 hour hike to the lookout up closer over the Grey Glacier. It was really beautiful, the mountains surrounding it, the blue ice textures, the sun and shadow illuminating different sections. Really worth it! Thena chill hike back to the campsite, had lunch and picked up my gear to hike back to Paine Grande for the night. Arrived around 4:30pm, setup camp and made dinner. Cold shower bleh, early bed because why not!Read more

  • TravelerSouth America
    31111
    Day 7

    TdP - Paine Grande>Frances

    April 9, 2023 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C

    Paine Grande > Mirador Britanico > Campsite Frances
    21km

    Wow! What a day. So cold overnight, couldn’t really sleep much. It started snowing really thick as I left the camp so I was a little apprehensive.. Got up for an early start and hiked the 8km or so from Paine Grande to Campsite Italiano. Quick lunch and leave the bag for the hike up the valley towards Mirador Britanico. That’s when the beauty of the place really hit me! The hike was really pretty through orange and red forest, along rushing streams and through rocky clearings. On both sides absolute incredible mountains rising high, snow blowing in foggy swirls around the tops. The blue sky and bright sun didn’t make much sense while snowflakes fell around me as I hiked. As I got up to the top, the snow stopped and the views opened up completely on all sides. Amazing!! After while on the top, hiked slowly down again and grabbed my bag, then continued another couple km to Campsite Frances. Setup the tent and cooked up some gourmet instant noodles as a reward for a long day of hiking.Read more

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  • TravelerSouth America
    21
    Day 8

    Torres del Paine - Frances>Chileno

    April 10, 2023 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

    Campsite Frances > Campsite Chileno
    15km
    Another freezing cold night, for sure below zero and the sleeping bag is not even close to warm enough! Didn’t freeze to death though so that’s a win. Watched the sun come up because I could sleep anyways, and had a slow breakfast (plain oatmeal 🤮) , then packed up and left at around 10am. 6 hours or so walk today to Chileno, this time all with the back. Really beautiful weather, and no wind! Crazy. along the lake through the forest and then drier vegetation. Looking for pumas but no luck :/ did see a huge condor swoop maybe 10m over me. Made it to Chileno campsite around 4:15 and had an hour just chilling in the sun. Cold again as soon as it’s down though! One more night, gotta be up early tomorrow to be at Las Torres for sunrise 🌅Read more

  • TravelerSouth America
    1
    Day 9

    TdP - Chileno>Laguna Amarga

    April 11, 2023 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    Chileno Campsite > Base Las Torres > Centro Bienvenida > Puerto Natales
    16km

    Another cold night, somewhat improved by gloves on feet and feet in sleeves of puffy jacket (top tip). Must have been -4 overnight, I looked it up later and it doesn’t get much colder than -5 most of the time even in winter here. Chilly! Up at 5:30am to hike 2 hours in the dark to the Base Las Torres mirador for sunrise at 8am. This is the most famous part of the park, the enormous monolithic towers of white rock jutting out of the valley . It was both sweaty and cold hiking up the rocky icy path. Made it about 15 minutes early to see the towers slowly come into view in the early morning light. Then for maybe 2 minutes they are cast in glowing orange light by the rising sun. Amazing! Hopped around to stay warm, and about 20 minutes later the full sun hit the top of the towers, now with bright yellow reflecting in the lake below. It was incredible!! And perfect weather.
    Then slowly hike down to the camp and pack up for the last segment back to the end of the W trail. Hiked the last part with a few people from the hostel I had met before in Natales. Made it down to catch the bus back to Natales at around 3:30pm. Felt good to get back to a warm hostel and shower. Had pizza and beer with the guys and slept so deep!!

    Some people I met along the way: Zach, dude from Minnesota who has beeen travelling for 4 years. Mario, Costa Rican who works remotely (jealous!). Anna, French girl who went to school in London. Marcus, pilot for British Airways 👨‍✈️. Chatted a bit with some folks from Toronto as well, and some from Montreal.

    I liked hiking alone, but camping alone like that is pretty boring to be honest. Too cold to do much or sit outside, not really a place to chat or get to know other people, and at the end of the day I’m pretty exhausted anyways and not that much feeing like meeting new people. Missed Malina to play Crib with or just chill together and chat about the day!

    That was my longest hike ever actually, around 90km in 5 days. All in all really successful!! Sore legs and feet but no injuries or blisters, amazing weather other than the first day or so, and the landscape was absolutely amazing.
    Woo! 🥾🗻    Read more

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  • TravelerSouth America
    1
    Day 11

    Perito Moreno Glacier

    April 13, 2023 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    Slept great in a real bed again, and then afternoon 5hr bus across the tiny border office into Argentina. Made it to El Calafate, a town on the edge of Lago Argentino. Kind of an annoying evening trying to figure out the best way to do things.

    Argentina has a bizarre economic situation where there is high inflation but the bank exchange rates are set really low, so if you take money out of the ATM or pay by credit card, you get about 200 Argentinean Pesos for 1 USD. But if you exchange it on the “blue dollar rate” (kind of like a legal black market rate) in currency exchanges or Western Union offices, you get nearly 400 pesos to a dollar, nearly double! The only problem is that calafate is a small town with only one western union and one currency exchange, and none of them have much money to give out… so I’m kinda stuck. I had read about it before so I brought some USD which you can usually pay with, but then you get a random rate depending on what they want to give you. Weird! Also annoying because I want to just spend one day here and move on to el chalten, so it’s tricky. But anyways!
    Hostel was meh and I got up early to catch a bus to Perito Moreno Glacier about an hour away. It’s pretty famous and pretty awesome! You can walk along a bunch of viewing areas and platforms for some great photos pretty close to the ice shelf. It’s almost 70m above the water level at the point where the ice comes down to the lake! Enormous. Every few minutes you hear a huge rumble like thunder as a piece falls off, and sometimes see the splash from a chunk the size of a car. Also got a ticket to take a boat ride up to the base of the glacier, where we got up to about 100m away and could really see the scale of how huge it is. Pretty cool! Got beautiful weather aswell. If you hiked over the glacier about 30km you would reach Torres del Paine, it’s really close.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth America
    Day 12

    El Chaltén

    April 14, 2023 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    Arrived at midnight in El Chalten, a small town in the mountains of Patagonia.

    Day 1: Laguna de los Tres
    Woke up early because some guy in the hostel let his alarm ring for 15 minutes. But it’s ok, it got me up to hike Laguna de los Tres, aka the trail to the base of the Fitz Roy. The weather was amazing! Chilly in the early morning but warmed up as the sun illuminated the beautiful fall colours of the mountain valley. Most of the hikes here start straight from town which is amazing so you can do day hikes no problem. About 4 km uphill, then you reach a huge valley at the base of the mountains, full of beautiful forest and lakes. The fall colours are insane! Another 7km or so mostly flat, then a last steep part up to the Laguna, which sits at the base of the Fitz Roy, the biggest and most famous mountain, jutting up into the blue sky. Really loved this hike!! Incredible views, colours, landscape. On the way down I did a detour to hike along the valley and around a lake there, involving a fair bit of bushwhacking. Ended up a lot longer than I expected, and I got back to my hostel after a solid 35km hike! Holy moly my feet hurt.

    Day 2: Laguna Torre
    Had planned a chill day, but Mario, Svenja, Zoe and Anna got to the town and were doing the Laguna Torre hike, and Another great weather day so why not! This one was a little easier, just a bit of uphill at the beginning, then again flat through a forest valley until another lake, this one at the base of Cerro Torre, one of the other well known landmarks here. Again super beautiful! The mountains are just amazing, and it’s such a nice time of year with green, yellow, orange and red leaves everywhere. By the time we got back it was 25km and my legs dying! Then went for fries and a beer together.

    Day 3: Miradores
    This time somewhat more chill day, just a 7km round trip out to the Mirador de las Aguilas and Mirador de los Condores near to the town. Super nice views of the mountain range (same one you can see on the Patagonia brand logo), and the other direction over the huge Lago Viedma and Lago Argentino.

    Day 4: Cascada Chorillo del Salto
    Another more chill day while the others did the hike I did on Day 1. Super windy today so I just hiked a short 8km round trip to the waterfall Chorillo del Salto outside of town. Pretty nice! Some people taking selfies, nice fall colours, cold water. Tempting to jump in but wasn’t brave enough 😋

    Day 5: Loma Pliegue del Tumbado
    Another long hike, probably the toughest! My cheap hiking boots falling apart and my feet complaining, we made it another 25km or so in total out to an awesome viewpoint and back. A lot more elevation gain than the other hikes so my legs were burning! But really nice views over the Laguna Torre that we hiked to the other day, as well as the Fitz Roy. Also the lake and huge barren desert stretching the other direction. Awesome! Saw some huge condors aswell, really cool. Feet absolutely killing me on the way back, but made it. Happy Birthday Malina!! 🥳❤️

    Day 6: Huemal Glacier
    Took a shuttle out 37km to Lago del Desierto, along the bumpy dirt road that follows along further down the river valley. A beautiful drive in the sunlight, seeing the red and orange forest and the sparkling river. Then a nice easy hike up to the Huemal Glacier for some nice views of a green glacial lake and the long thin Lago del Desierto which stretches to the Chilean border. Had a little more time to walk through the forest along the lake, and then the shuttle back as the rain started to fall. Pretty exhausted! Last night in Chalten, then travel day on the 20.04 El Chalten to El Calafate by bus, then fly to Buenos Aires.

    Loved it in El Chalten! Nice laid back town vibe, good food, amazing hikes right on the doorstep. Was nice to hang out awhile with some the guys I got to know a bit in Natales/Torres del Paine, so I had a nice mix of socialising and solo chilling.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth America
    221
    Day 19

    Montevideo

    April 21, 2023 in Uruguay ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Bus to el Calafate, flight to Buenos Aires. Figured out the city bus into the centre and got there around midnight. Slept in a bit, Had a relaxed morning and walked around the streets a bit, got a haircut. Happened to bump into Domenica, someone we met at the Spanish school in Ecuador. Small world! But had to run to the ferry so didn’t have time to chat much.

    Ferry about an hour crossing the huge Rio de la Plata over to Colonia, Uruguay 🇺🇾. Then bus right away a couple hours to the capital city Montevideo and met Mario and Svenja who were also there for the weekend. Arrived and got some food and chilled a bit, then had some beers in the evening at a bar on the street, and kind of spontaneously went to a club! Haha. Only for like an hour, but it was fun dancing to Spanish regaeton that I don’t recognise. We were the only white people there which is always a fun/weird feeling.

    The next day I had a free day in Montevideo to explore, did a walking tour around the old city which was good. Some facts:
    - Uruguay is about 45% atheist. 3.5 million people, 15 million cows.
    - At plaza zabala, there is a fountain with spelling mistakes on the carving, and penis-shapes on the fence around it because the architect was mad at the owner.
    - Uruguay is the most democratic/least corrupt country in South America, is very advanced concerning human rights/gay rights etc. Weed is legal here.
    - President is a surfer.
    - The painting of the revolutionary hero Artigas hangs in every school etc, was painted by a guy that never saw him and it doesn’t look at all like him.
    - City name Montevideo = Monte (hill) + VI (Roman numeral 6 for six hills + D=de (from) + E (east) + O (west). There are 6 hills in the region, apparently that’s the why they named it Montevideo (Seems iffy but that’s what the guide said).
    - Mate 🧉. You see it everywhere in Argentina aswell, Maté is tea that everyone drinks constantly wherever they go. You bring a thermos of hot water, some of the tea, and a little cup with a special straw. It’s really funny, you see everyone carrying a thermos under their arm all the time! It tastes kinda bitter, and has a lot of caffeine I guess. Never thought id find a culture that drinks tea more than the English!

    Then chill afternoon just checking out the city, found a lot of people fishing on the pier. Next morning bus to Colonia.    Read more

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