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Half around the world and back

November 2019 - March 2020
Susanne & Machiel attempt to travel for a bit. Read more
  • 143footprints
  • 8countries
  • 146days
  • 1.0kphotos
  • 2videos
  • 66.1kkilometers
  • 55.7kkilometers
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  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 11

    On the way to Patagonia... ?

    November 17, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    So Friday morning in San Pedro we packed our stuff and went to the bus station to travel to Calama. There we were gonna stay 1 night before early morning flights would take us to our first destination in Patagonia, Coyhaique, with a short stopover in Santiago. The bus was gonna take about 2 hours, turned out to be very warm and a nightmare for Machiel. Not completely fit yet, he suffered from blocked Eustachian tubes which messed up his pressures and completely blocked his hearing.

    Arriving in Calama, the bus we were in hit a bunch of electricity lines that were hanging across the streets because the roof windows were opened. A bus employee quickly closed them and we drove on. That happened to be the street however where our next line bus would drive through that would take us to our stay for the night, and when we arrived there on foot we saw the chaos it had caused. Most importantly, it appeared no busses were gonna stop at that busstop anymore. Thankfully a taxi wasn't much more expensive and we arrived at our stay.

    While Machiel was trying to get his hearing back and battle his nose cold, a stressful discussion started about if he could fly, especially 2 flights in a row, what else we could do with our booked flights, what our insurance situation was, etc. After calling our insurances and precautionarily reserving a taxi, we decided to try and sleep, wake up in the middle of the night and see how Machiel was doing. Since that appeared to be worse instead of better, we had to conclude to reschedule our flights. We then visited a clinic Saturday morning (the owner of the apartment very kindly drove us) where after a speedy check-up Machiel got an injection and subscribed more medicine than he had seen in years.

    Since then we're trying to recover as good as possible, enjoying the slightly better climate of Calama versus San Pedro, the friendly hosts, and better nights of sleep. Our flights are now scheduled for Tuesday morning.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 13

    Patagonia!

    November 19, 2019 in Chile ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    We have arrived in a very cold and rainy Coyhaique. Quite the contrast with the Atacama desert! The flights thankfully went ok.

    Now we're finding out what we want to do here and how we want to reach Argentina by the end of next week to meet Franzi in El Chaltén.Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 15

    Hitting the road - Carretera Austral

    November 21, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    The style of Coyhaique is a mixture of Chilean and Scandinavian which made it very interesting to walk through. We found a nice place for lunch while discussing how we wanted to travel along the Carretera Austral. Renting a car has its advantages, but ultimately we decided for the bus. Knowing that busses might just go twice a week in some areas, our aim was to find out more about bus schedules to see how we can get to O'Higgins on time while seeing some nice stuff on the way. The Internet didn't help us a lot with it, but it turns out the tourist information does not really know much for sure either, so we had to call bus companies directly.

    But we managed to book something and Wednesday morning we took the bus to Villa Cerro Castillo. Several blogs said that fresh vegetables and fruits are scarse along the Carretera Austral, so we bought as much of those as we could fit. Arriving in the small town we set up camp for the first time on this trip. Without sun it got quite cold in the evening and we were excited to try out our new sleeping mats and bags.

    After 8 hours of good sleep we woke up warm to a wonderful blue sky and started our first real hike of the trip 😊 A bit of a lengthy discussion, joined by what felt like all the personnel of the national park, on if or if not it was a smart idea to try to reach the Mirador Cerro Castillo about 1100m higher up while walking through knee-high snow, made us decide to go for a lower viewpoint of Cerro Peñón. Almost 14 km return brought us to this nice spot with a view of the valley and the surrounding mountains covered in snow. Along the way we also saw a pretty nice waterfall.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    11
    Day 16

    Marble caves in Río Tranquilo

    November 22, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    We actually really liked our campsite. The grass field was really big, we shared it first with some horses and later with some chickens 😊 and the views were pretty amazing.

    Nonetheless, it was time for us to move further. So we had to pack our tents again to take the bus to Río Tranquilo. The bus ride took around 3 hours and went mostly over gravel road. That made it very dusty (yes, even in the bus) , but at the same time the landscape around us became really rough and it felt a bit as if we were on the way to the end of the world.

    The town of Río Tranquilo seems more touristic than Cerro Castillo (probably because of its main attraction - the marble caves) but the general setup seems very similar. Lots of tiny (sometimes improvised) houses, often combined with offering a home stay, camping or small minimarket. Different than what we read previously, those minimarkets actually have decent quality vegetables and fruits. While the choice is very limited the quality was surprisingly better than what we found in a supermarket in Coyhaique. After searching for a camping that was already open this early in the season, we arrived at a relatively busy (compared to the last one) but nice place.

    The sun was really strong and we were actually sweating without hiking for the first time since leaving the desert. Luckily this meant we had a really nice experience on our boat trip to the marble caves. The water was very turquoise, absolutely still and especially when reflecting the sunlight to the marble, it looked very cool.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 17

    From Río Tranquilo to Cochrane

    November 23, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Our prebooked bus to Cochrane was supposed to leave around 2pm. That meant we could sleep in a bit, have a relaxed breakfast and attempt a small hike to a viewpoint. To access the viewpoint we had to cross private property which the nearby minimarket owners kindly allowed. The local dogs did more than just allow it, they decided to join us and show us the way. After a short hour we arrived to a nice view over the lake and the surrounding mountains.

    Back in town, we packed out tents and went on a 3 hour bus ride. This time the bus wasn't dusty inside and the driver didn't seem to think that gravel roads should be taken slower. A lack of properly working seat belts made it more adventurous than anticipated.

    Cochrane seemed a bit like a sleepy town with not too much tourism pushed in your face, so we liked it. However, that also meant that we initially struggled to find information on how to reach nature without a car. The tourist information was closed opposed to their supposed opening times. Two tour agencies were open but their day tour offers were far too expensive for our taste. We opted to reserve rental bikes somewhere instead and closed off the day with some nice local dishes in one of the few restaurants.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    2
    Day 18

    Blue, so blue

    November 24, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Having had enough of our milk-oat flakes-fruit-breakfast (not Susanne), and being lazy and being made enthusiastic by a review about the nice breakfast by the owner of our hostel, we arranged for breakfast to be made for us this morning. The homemade jams and cake (or how they are called here: kuchen) were nice but also not super special. We were the only guests at the hostel and the cat was making sure our ears were clean.

    At 10 we picked up our bikes and went on a short 4km trip to Reserve Nacional Tamango. Here we started our hike of the day to Los Carpinteros, a viewpoint over the river and lake Cochrane. It started off being a perfect mirror and along the trail turned into absolutely incredibly blue and clear water. The trail was relatively easy, through nice vegetation, only being disturbed by a few horseflies that liked to chase us. The weather was great and we enjoyed our brought lunch at the very nice viewpoint before heading back. As always we took our time. The 4 hours hike took us almost 6, we simply had to admire the views and the water. Luckily people are relaxed here and returning the bikes we rented for 6 hours after 7,5 was not a problem at all.

    Having had enough of our meat-rich dinners, we bought as many vegetables we think we could eat and ate them all. We had to hit the beds on time as our bus to Villa O'Higgins was leaving at 8am on the following day.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 19

    Reaching the end of Carretera Austral

    November 25, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    The bus ride to Villa O'Higgins seemed endless. At least there was a free ferry ride with nice views in between to spice things up, but the whole thing took like 7 hours. Research had told us that it was gonna be very cold and the positive reviews of a hostel with a true Finnish sauna convinced us to choose that rather than camping in lots of rain and 2-7 degrees. It ended up being a good decision, and one that most people took as we recognised a lot of hikers there that we met earlier on the Carretera Austral.

    Villa O'Higgins is one of the smaller towns on the route and the one where the road simply ends. There is no land-line, there is one turbine and a diesel-generator for electricity. Card-payments and phone calls only work if the reception is good. The Internet is unstable since everything goes via satellite. To say it with the words of our hostel: 'Think about how difficult it was to get here. Similar things happen to our WiFi.'

    As there is no road to southern Chile, the only ways to get there are via long ferry rides, or by driving back north and driving via Argentina. We however are going to Argentina anyway to check out El Chaltén and meet up with Franzi.

    Our main goals for the day were buying some food for dinner and breakfast and organizing transportation for the border crossing. Turns out that other people were right, there is really not much available here. Vegetables are limited to half-rotten carrots, pumpkin and decent cucumber or courgettes, and fruits are rare. Thinking of a meal and then buying it doesn't work. You have to see what's available and then make a meal of it. We ended up with a decent tortellini with tomato-olive-sauce dish.

    We headed out early to find out prices for the border crossing. The way from here to El Chaltén consists of first taking a boat to cross a lake. Afterwards there is a 22km hike in which you pass the Chilean border office in the beginning and the Argentinean one in the end. You then arrive to the next lake where you can either again take a boat or hike around. From the other side of the second lake you can hitchhike or take the bus to El Chaltén.

    Us being undecided as always, by the time we had finally decided on how we wanted to do the crossing, the first tour operator did not have space for us anymore on Wednesday. Luckily there is a second one in town and we could reserve our spots here. However, the weather is unpredictable here and because of strong winds the first lake can be unpassable by boat on Wednesday. So we have to keep our fingers crossed.

    The rest of the day we enjoyed the very cosy hostel, updated some footprints and enjoyed the company and stories of some other travellers.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 20

    Finnish sauna in Villa O'Higgins

    November 26, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    Knowing that the weather would suck, we didn't plan on doing much the whole day. Since we had the time, we made some nice pancakes for lunch (which were so many we ended up eating them for dinner as well 😊). In the afternoon the sky cleared up a bit so Machiel and Susanne did a very small hike to a nearby viewpoint over the valley and town (which made it clear the airstrip is longer than the town itself) while Daniel enjoyed a true resting day. Back from the hike a great Finnish sauna was waiting for us. It was a great experience to relax outside after the sauna surrounded by snowy mountains.Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    11
    Day 21

    Hiking across the Argentinian border

    November 27, 2019 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    Our loyal readers will remember our footprint 'Reaching the end of Carretera Austral' where we mentioned how our undecidedness for booking the border crossing caused the first tour operator to run out of places for us. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise when on Wednesday morning we left the hostel to walk to our tour operator who would bring us to the harbour. Turned out that the other tour operator's boat was broken so it wouldn't run that day. Having gotten to know a lot of people in the hostel who booked tickets with that operator, we left with mixed feelings as we felt a bit bad for those that waited long (some longer than us) to leave Chile and now had to wait even longer. But that's how it can go in Patagonia and we were happy we were lucky enough that it was all going according to plan for us that day.

    The boat ride across Lago O'Higgins-San Martín was bumpy but the views were great. We were accompanied by a Swiss family of 6, 4 bikers, and a German mother and daughter. It was interesting to hear other's travel stories. One of the bikers was cycling the American continent from north to south, another cycled here from Florida. Earlier in the hostel we also met an American who was hiking from El Chaltén to Coyhaique. These kind of stories are just fascinating to listen to and underline that our trip isn't in any way impressive.

    Arriving on the other side of the lake, we asked the only inhabitant of the, let's call it settlement, to bring our heavy backpacks to the border, 15km away. That part was a gravel road that was also easy to walk. But before we went there we had to go the Chilean border control. After waiting a long time in line, it was our turn to watch how a guy slowly typed our passport information into an Excel file before copying it again to another system. We got our stamps! And off we went. It was a bit uphill but a nice walk with great views. After 5 hours we reached the Argentinian border, which was just a few signs in the middle of nowhere. It was 17:30 and we contemplated camping there or hiking another 7km to the harbour of our next day boat ride, where also the Argentinian border control was located. We decided to hike on, having heard stories about difficult river crossings and muddy paths. Those turned out to be true, and we were lucky we only ended with one wet foot and not an entirely wet Daniel and backpack. After a tough 2,5 hour hike down we only reached the campsite right before sunset. This meant that we had to cook and eat in the dark and with it getting very cold this was quite a challenge and our bodies felt quite frozen when finally entering our sleeping bags at 23:00. The bikers reached the campsite some hours earlier, so we were a bit jealous of that. Nonetheless the great view and simply the idea of hiking for so many hours without being officially in any country, was a great experience and totally worth it.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 22

    Snow rain and hot chocolate

    November 28, 2019 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    After a pretty cold night we woke up to a cloudy day. Susanne wasn't warm enough during the night, due to the strenuous day before and especially cold late evening. We had to catch the boat at 11:00 right in front of the campsite. While that sounds easy enough, we're always up for a challenge. Helped by some hail and rain, the packing wasn't ideal with us having to pack our inner tents separately from the outer tents, and we really had to hurry to make it. When at 11:00 we ran to the boat, the boat crew instead went to the Argentinian border office to have a tea. It's better to be early than late, we suppose.

    But the boat across Lago del Desierto was brilliant. Most of the people that hiked/biked the border crossing the day before were also there and it was nice to share the experience. Even better: the rain turned into snow 🌨️ and we got some hot chocolate from the crew 😊. The skipper was also the bus driver for the last stretch to El Chaltén, and he was so kind to immediately let us put our backpacks in the bus while we walked around a bit and had a tea in the lake café, which had 1 heater which was constantly swarmed by groups of cold people with wet clothes.

    The bus ride to El Chaltén felt short because we napped for a part of it. Upon arrival at the hostel in the town the rain had finally stopped and because it was supposed to stay dry for a while, we decided to put our tents up again in the backyard.    Read more

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