The Craze for Travelling
Travelling is a passion, and I've been on it since my childhood (courtesy my dad). My passion has led me all around the globe from high altitude deserts, to rain forests, to back waters, to snow covered peaks. You name it!! Läs mer🇸🇪Stockholm
  • Cumbres Nevada Hotel

    23 januari 2018, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We had a light breakfast at the restaurant in the bus terminal. After that, Hristo and I went around the town to find a place to stay. We had already looked up the prices in booking.com and had an idea on what to negotiate for. The place was quite a bit more expensive than the other places we had stayed in Chile for bit then Argentina is overall more expensive than Chile. We saw rooms in the shape of cabins, train bogies and all sort of fancy things but finally we decided on Cumbres Nevada with price almost near the lowest we had found on the net. We paid about 2388 ARS for 4 persons per day (an approx of 597 ARS per person per day) for our stay of 4 nights. We got a 2 room set with a private bathroom that was perfect for the 4 of us. The whole search had taken us about 2 hours.Läs mer

  • Reached El Chalten

    23 januari 2018, Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Around 8 am, we reached El Chalten. It a beautifully located small village just below the amazing Andean peaks of Fritz Roy and other peaks at the confluence of the Fitz Roy River with the Vueltas River within the Los Glaciares National Park. It is the National Capital of Trekking.Läs mer

  • Los Glaciares National Park

    23 januari 2018, Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Around 7 am we entered the Los Glaciares National Park. El Chalten is a village inside of the National Park. Here we could already see the snow peaks that the town is famous for. Finally a change of scenery!!!Läs mer

  • Sunset and sunrise

    23 januari 2018, Argentina ⋅ ❄️ 3 °C

    At around 9:30 pm, the sun set with beautiful colors in the clouds. The road was still along a flat straight plain. The sun rose at around 5:30 am in a golden glow with beautiful colors in the clouds and the road still was along a flat straight plain. It was as if nothing had changed in the 8 hours we had been traveling.Läs mer

  • Off to El Chalten

    22 januari 2018, Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    The food took much longer than what we had expected and we had to literally run back to the bus terminal. At 8 pm, we were back at the bus terminal just when everyone had boarded. We picked up our bags from the counter and took our places in the bus. Ours were the front row seats on the top deck with a perfect view of Patagonian steppe. We left the station at around 8:15 pm. The 1st part of the journey was along the Lago Argentina (the Argentinan part of the Lago General Carrera). The road was along a very flat and plain steppe topography.
    Here we started seeing El Gauchito Gel (red flags with religious sites). These are shrines to Gaucho Gil. Although Gaucho Gil is not an official saint in the church, he is revered throughout the country of Argentina and is a "defacto saint". Gaucho was a deserter of the military who evaded capture for quite some time. During that time, he was a sort of "Robin Hood" figure, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. When he was eventually captured and sentenced to death, he was hung upside down from a tree. As the executioner was preparing to behead him, Gaucho said, "Don't kill me - my pardon is coming. If you do kill me, your son will be stricken with a deadly illness, and the only way to save him will be to give my body a proper burial."
    As expected, the executioner proceeded with his task and, when he arrived home, discovered that his son was deathly ill. He returned to the site of the execution and buried Gaucho's body. His son was miraculously cured and a legend was born.
    Now, Argentineans have built shrines throughout the country to venerate the memory of Gaucho Gil.

    It is strange how these religious icons are exactly how it is in India. Any small location or tree with red color painted on rocks and red flags becomes a religious site. We had seen them in North Argentina as well but just a few kms away in Chile there's nothing like this anywhere from the North to almost mid South where we had left Chile earlier today.
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  • Los Antiguos, Argentina

    22 januari 2018, Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    After the border, we didn't have a problem taking a ride since now we were already inside the country. We got a lift in a small electric truck and the driver dropped us right at the bus station in Los Antiguos some 4 kms away. The bus station was decked up for Christmas even a month later 🙄 There was a Christmas tree made of upturned bottles and there were Christmas cutouts and buntings inside the main hall.
    We went around and compared the prices. There were direct buses to El Chalten our intended destination. There were 2 bus operators going there directly. We decided to go with Chaltentravels since they had a combo ticket to El Chalten and an additional one to El Calafate that we could use after as many days as we wanted, all for 1300 ARS. Since we anyways had to go to El Calafate later, this would work out much cheaper as the individual tickets were totalling to 1800 ARS. The bus was at 8 pm which was perfect, since that way we could go to the town and have our food before we left. We walked about 1.5 kms back into the town where the restaurants were. Quite a few houses here were made of wood and were quite artistic. The restaurant where we ate seemed to have a Charlie Chapelin theme and the food was quite good but expensive as we had figured out from our earlier entries in Argentina.
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  • Past the Argentina border post

    22 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    It was a hot, sunny walk for 3 kms with our bags along the border road with dry eroded hills on one side and the last chain of the Andes on the other side in Chile. Of course no one would give us a lift to the border post since we could be carrying contraband and they would get into trouble. We walked all the way to the border post and got our entry stamp around 5:20 pm.Läs mer

  • Into Argentina

    22 januari 2018, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    As agreed, our taxi passed the Chilean customs, waited on the other side while we got our exit stamps and then dropped us at the border. From here, we started our walk to the Argentinan border control 3 kms away.Läs mer

  • Chile Chico

    22 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    We picked up our bags from the common storage in the ferry and walked out. There was no bus terminal or any information signs. We looked up on Maps.me and found the main plaza of the village around 500 mts away. The bus terminal too was marked there. There were trees laden with peaches all around the square. We didn't waste too much time and were plucking away the ripe fruits from the trees. They were delicious. The bus terminal was right next to the center. We went in, only to find all the counters closed. It was lunch time and there was a board stating that they would open at 4 pm 🙄
    We went around all the counters to see what all destinations they were serving. All of them had boards for only destinations within Chile except one. We decided to wait for that one to open to find put about the price and timing. In the meantime, a lady working at the bus terminal told us that, that company had stopped going to Argentina side for a few months now and that the only option we had was to take a taxi to the border, walk across and take a bus or lift once on the other side. She even offered to call a taxi for us. She told that the price would be about 5000 CLP. The taxi person she called wasn't there and would be available in an hour so we decided to wait an hour and check at the counter as well once it opened. We had our food at the restaurant in the bus terminal. After that we sat waiting for either the taxi to come or the counter to open. In the meantime, Hristo went around and found out from the shops around that taxi was the only way across and it would cost us about 5000 CLP. He also found a money exchange place,where we could exchange Chilen Pesos to Argentinan Pesos. We would need them very soon and we remembered from our earlier experience in Argentina that there was quite a steep charge to withdraw cash in the ATMs in Argentina, so we decided to change our money before we left.
    The counters opened at 4 pm and we asked about the bus to Argentina. We were told that it had stopped a few months ago due to bureaucratic issues and that we would need to take a taxi to near the border, walk across and then take a lift on the other side. She too told us the price would be around 5000 CLP.
    In the meantime, the lady who had called the taxi guy came over and talked with the lady at the counter and then told us that the taxi was available now and that as agreed, the price would be 5000 CLP per person
    We were shocked at gow brazenly she was trying to fleece us. We walked away and went to the money exchange shop. Here, I changed some of my money to Argentinan Pesos. While Melinda was exchanging hers and Hristo was waiting for his turn, Maria was standing outside waiting and keeping an eye on our big bags we had places outside the small shop. Some local men started ganging around her. She didn't feel comfortable so she called Hristo. I too came out and stood nearby and Melinda too came and we made a circle around our bags. Hristo went in to change his currency. Seeing the 3 of us there, the mem dispersed a bit and then went inside the shop and started crowding behind Hristo. I went in to keep an eye on them while Hristo got his money and stored it in the day bag and pockets. Once outside, we saw a taxi parked a few meters away, on the opposite side of the road. We picked up our bags and walked straight to it. The taxi driver told us the peice would be 6000 CLP. We agreed and were happy to leave as soon as we could since now the men had started piling out of the shop and they had seen us all exchange quite some money.
    The Chilean border post was 6 kms away, then a no man's land for 3 kms, then the Argentinan border would start and then another 3 kms would be the Argentinan border post. He could drop us till the Argentina border but we would have to walk after that till the post.
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  • Puerto Ibáñez to Chile Chico

    22 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    The ferry left Puerto Ibáñez at 11 am. It wqs sunny but very cold on the deck so we stayed inside. The seats were very comfortable and we had nice views of the milky blue waters of the Lago General Carrera. The ride was about 2 hours and at some places we were meters from the Argentina border in the middle of the lake. We reached Chile Chico at 1 pm.Läs mer

  • On the ferry to Chile Chico

    22 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ 🌬 14 °C

    We reached Puerto Ibáñez and paid the bus driver 5000 CLP per person for the ride. We weren't even sure if we would be able to get on to the ferry, if there were enough tickets left for us. The bus terminal and the ferry terminal are the same. We went inside the terminal to purchase tickets for the ferry. Luckily, the tickets were available and the ferry was at 11 am. The tickets were 2250 CLP per person. It was very windy and cold on the lake shore. We sat in the sun waiting for the ferry but we needed to wear our winter jackets, it was that cold. The ferry arrived around 10:30 am.Läs mer

  • Back to Puerto Ibáñez

    22 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    As planned, we were up and ready early. The bus came and picked us up a little after 8 am. Then, it was all the way back about 120 kms to Puerto Ibáñez. We turned off the Carretera Austral towards Puerto Ibáñez, past the Laguna Morales and reached the port on the Lago General Carrera, just before 10 am.Läs mer

  • Back to Coyhaique

    21 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Hristo had remembered wrongly that we needed to return the vehicle by 11 am in Coyhaique, so we woke up early and were off from La Casona by 8 am. It was again a perfect day with no clouds. We reached Coyhaique around 10:00 am and went straight to the petrol pump to refill and return the vehicle. It was at the petrol pump that Hristo realized that we had till 1 pm to return the vehicle. At the petrol pump, Melinda tried using her card again and failed yet again 😁 She tried every possible combination of choosing her card as credit, debit, payments in lumpsum or in installments but the transaction didn't go through. By now, this had become a regular sight for us so we laughing about it but the attendants at the petrol pump got very nervous on what we would do 😁😁😁
    Eventually, Maria paid for the fuel with her card
    Now that we had some time, we drove around outside Coyhaique to find a nice place to have our breakfast. But, nothing was open at this hour, so we drove to the town center and parked there and had our breakfast at our favorite place Chelenko.
    Here we got good wifi and we tried to find a way to get over the border into Argentina since our next destination in the plan was El Chalten in Argentina some 800 kms away.
    We couldn't find a clear answer so we went to the information center to check there. Here too, we didn't get much information. They told us that the only way to cross the border was to go to Puerto Ibáñez (from where we had come in the morning), then take a ferry on the Lago General Carrera to Chile Choco on the border, then cross over and find buses on the other side. They had absolutely no information about the connectivity in the Argentinan side or if there were any buses. In fact, they didn't even have information regarding the buses on the Chile side even 😲 they just told us to go to the bus station to find out about the buses.
    Hristo and Maria went to to the bus station to find out about the buses to Puerto Ibáñez. Here too, they didn't get much information except that the lady at the counter gave them a slip with a number to call for the bus to Puerto Ibáñez. In the meantime, our vehicle was picked up up at the center by the rental company representative. There was no issue so he returned our deposit in cash.
    After that, we gave a call to the number we had got from the bus station only to find out that there was only one bus a day at 8 am and that it was connected to the ferry at Puerto Ibáñez at 11 am. We wanted to book our places for the next day bit they wanted to know where to pick us up. We had not anticipated this so we told them to reserve our places and that we would call later to confirm the pickup place.
    I started looking for a place to stay for one night and found a nice accommodation with a family, quite near the center (Hostel Puesto Patagon). They had quite good ratings on booking.com so we booked it and went with our bags there. It was a nice little place with bunk beds in 2 rooms on the 1st floor while the family lives on the ground floor. The toiltes and baths too were on the ground floor. We took the opportunity to get our laundry done since they had washing machine and were ready to do our laundry for a nominal charge of 3000 CLP per load. We also updated our pickup with the bus company for the next day.
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  • A fantastic dinner

    20 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    Maria reached the start of the trek just as we were walking out from there. Just near the entrance of the trek is the restaurant Puesto Huemul. We were quite hungry so we decided to habe our dinner there.
    They actually had quite good food. The lemonade was great after a full day in the heat and the vegetarian crepes were quite good as well. We were so tired by the end of the day that Hristo literally fell out of the vehicle whem we reached back 😂😂
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  • Calafate berries

    20 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ 🌬 19 °C

    About a km from the end of the trail, Hristo sent a message to Maria to come and pick us. We were quite hungry by now since we had not carried any food with us. Melinda was so hungry, she could eat one of us if she didn't get food quickly 🤤🤤🤤
    Luckily, there were many Calafate bushes with quite ripe Calafate berries. We gorged ourselves on the tasty berries and got blue in our mouth, teeth and tongue. But was all worth because they were very tasty 😁😁 Some were so ripe they were coverd with ladybird kind of insects 3-4 on each berry.
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  • The trek back

    20 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    After enjoying the view for almost 2 hours, we started our trek back at 6 pm. The views of the valley were even more mesmerizing in the evening sun. We reached the final flat part of the trail in 1 hour only. Here some of the places, the track was so eroded that the dust track was almost a meter below the ground level.Läs mer

  • Cerro Castillo!!

    20 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    What a sight it was!! Around 4 pm, we crossed the last of the ridhes around the Laguna Castillo. It was a mindblowing view. Typical of what one would dream of, in the Patagonia. It was a perfect day with no clouds and hardly any wind. It was nice and sunny and a bit cool at this altitude and the gentle breeze was perfect while we lied down on the rocks admiring and soaking in the view. There was even a rock formation which most Indians would liken to the shape of Brahma 😁 of course, here no one knows about that 😉Läs mer

  • Ridges near the top

    20 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ 🌬 17 °C

    As we continued to climb the views got more and more amazing. We could see further and further away. It was a panoramic view of the valleys around. The last stretch of the climb was among stones and rocks and quite slippery. The track till this place had been a thick layer of sand and dust and with each step a cloud of dust would fly around and it was hard to walk less than 15 mts behind each other. But once the rocks started, the dust wasn't the main problem, the grip was. We reached a ridge very near the peaks around 3:30 pm, almost 3 hours after we started. This wasn't the final ridge. We couldn't even see the lake below. Then it was a slight climb to the 2nd ridge. From here, we could see a bit of the Laguna Castillo. There were no clouds around the granite peaks of the Cerro Castillo.Läs mer

  • The steep climb up

    20 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    On the main trail, the track continued going up at a steady rate. The valley behind was spectacular. We could see for miles around. To the right were ts snow covered peaks with the Rio Ibáñez snaking its way into the valley. In the middle was the small village of Villa Cerro Castillo and mountains in multiple steps of plateaus behind. In some of the flat places, there were lakes. On the left side was the valley leading to the Puerto Ibáñez with the Rio Ibáñez continuing till the General Carrera lake.Läs mer

  • Back on the main trail

    20 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ 🌬 20 °C

    From the waterfall, Maps.me didn't show any trail joining the main trail so we would need to walk back 2 kms and then continue on the main trail. But, from where we were, a section of the main trail showed to be about 700 mts away. There was a sort of a trail or clearing among the thick grasses that lead in that direction so we decided to try and reach the main trail this way. The path was quite steep and tricky at some places and there were a lot of bushes with thorns and seeds that stuck to the pants. After walking for about 20 min, we reached the main trail. We had climbed quite high pretty quickly. The views were stunning. We could see the valley and the hills behind us. On the other side we could see the upper section of the stream forming more waterfalls. There were many tree trunks broken in strange formations. We could really figure out why they were like that. The most probable guess was fire burning the trees and the broken remains after that.Läs mer

  • Cascada Del Rey

    20 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ 🌬 19 °C

    There were several deviations on the main route up. We decided to go to the side path to Cascada Del Rey which was a short 2 km deviation from the main route. Hardly anybody else was going on this track and it wasn't even marked on Maps.me so we weren't sure if was worth going 2 kms to it but we decided to check it out. It was a beautiful waterfall with ice cold water coming from the melting snows above. We stopped for a while and filled our water bottles before heading on.Läs mer

  • Start of the Cerro Castillo trek

    20 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Maria decided to skip the trek as she wanted to relax a bit and the La Casona was the perfect place for it. She dropped us off at the base of Cerro Castillo where the trek starts and went back to the villa. It was almost 12 pm when we started the trek. The day was a clear one with hardly any wind. There was a small cloud floating just below the mountain peaks which we hoped wouldn't be there when we reached the top. Overall, an ideal day for a steep mountain trek.Läs mer

  • La Casona

    20 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We woke up around 10 am the next morning feeling quite refreshed. We wanted to start the trek of Cerro Castillo before 12 pm when we had heard they stop the entries for the day. It was a lovely sunny morning with hardly a cloud in the sky. We could see tge granite peaks of Cerro Castillo, which boaded well for our trek plans. La Casona where we had been very lucky to find a place the previous night was a lovely cozy place in a very scenic location. It was a beautiful wooden villa run by a single lady. She had some cabañas and was also running a restaurant there.
    We had paid 20000 CLP per person for one night, making it a total of 80000 CLP which was double than what we had paid in most places but then we didn't have a choice the previous night and we had been very lucky to find this place. The breakfast was included so we didn't have to go anywhere else to find food before the trek. It was during breakfast that we found that they had cabañas as well and were costing 45000 CLP for the 4 of us. It was a nice cozy cottage within the same compound and as we were expecting to come back exhausted after a day long trek, we decided to stay one more night there but moved to the cabaña.
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  • Back to Rio Tranquilo and off North

    19 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We returned from the glacier, removed our gaiters and cramp ons before continuing back on the path over the boulders and the forest back to the starting point of the trek. Here our van was waiting to take us back to Puerto Rio Tranquilo. On the way, we had to stop and wait for almost 2 hours for some road work going on in the National Park.
    We reached Puerto Rio Tranquilo quite late in the evening because of the delay. Here, we had our food and were off heading North with no booking for the night. The paln was to find some cabaña on the way and stay there overnight. We wanted to do the Cerro Castillo trek the next day so we wanted to be as near as possible to Villa Cerro Castillo (the nearest village). Here again we gave a ride to 4 people from Germany but we weren't sure how far we would go since we told them we would stop at the first cabaña we saw after dark. We drove very slowly in the lower gears with the 4x4 setting over the slippery gravel road. Despite that, the vehicle continued to roll and pitch at every turn over 40 kms per hour. Our hitch hikers had changed vehicles by now and gone with another coming from behind going all the way to Villa Cerro Castillo. Around 12 pm, I felt extremely tired and we hadn't found any place to stay. Hristo took over the driving and we continued North. I slept a while in the back seat. Eventually, we reached Villa Cerro Castillo. There we parked the vehicle. I stayed in it while the rest 3 went around to find a place to stay. Despite having woken up a few cabaña owners, they didn't find anything available. There had been extremely strong winds in Cerro Castillo the previous day and the rangers had to go in to evacuate the hills. A lot of these people were now in Villa Cerro Castillo. We tried calling some other places we found on Maps.me but none was available. We drove around 10 kms up North towards Puerto Ibáñez and stopped at every cabaña sign and woke up the owners but found nothing available.
    Eventually, we found cabaña sign at La Casona hostel and restaurant marked on Maps.me. It was totally dark there. Melinda and Hristo went to check it. After knocking and tapping for 5 min, there was still no response. That's when Melinda heard snoring from inside so she was sure there was someone inside and started knocking harder and louder. Eventually, the lady running the place woke up and surprise... surprise... She had rooms for 4 available 😁
    What a relief that was!! We eventually got a place to sleep at around 1:30 am and we slept like babies after that.
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  • Yet another hole

    19 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We found another hole in the ice that we walked in for a few meters before coming out. We were getting late by now so after that we didn't stop anywhere on the glacier.

  • Tunnel of ice

    19 januari 2018, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We came across a small tunnel of ice. There was a deep hole on one side where the water was swirling down into the depths while on the other side the path continued onto the ice back up to the glacier. A few of us jumped into the tunnel and came up the other side. It was a fabulous experience.Läs mer

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