Argentina/Chile - Northbound Part 1

Greetings greetings Greetings!

Thank you for not noticing my poor use of caPitals above, much appreciated! sO HERE we are again.. Ben's Blog, harping on about South America again? Would he ever shut up! Why am I reading this?? Well this blog will be the mother of them all, I suppose. It's all about Argentina northbound part 2 with a fair bit of Chile thrown in for good measure.. feck it, let's see how it goes..

Bored already?

Feck off then..

Now that that rude guy has gone I will begin.

You may remember that we had just left the ever breathtaking Torres Del Paine National park in the Southern depths of Chile? ...Never mind... So we had just left the truly spectacular Torres Del Paine National park in the Southern Depths of Chile an amazing experience but had left us all shattered.. We got the ferry back across the lake with Didingo waiting for us on the other side, dropped the equipment off, smashed a burger and chips, picked up the missing amigos and were off again! I know, what? Were you expecting us to rest? Back across the border into Argentina heading for El Calafate. This was a long, late drive day due to the amount of stuff we had to cram into one drive day and we were doomed to a long quite evening on the truck sure to be in late. Did we lie down and sleep? No! Not I! It was time for a truck party.. Imagine 20 over tired adrenaline filled individuals starting a spontaneous drinking session with wine and cheap rum.. There was a whip round for mixers, they were found and DJ Buckley took the floor.. Good debaucharous times with many pee stops were had by all.. much love..

The next morning with a slight hangover, we left for the reason we had come to this town: The Perito Moreno Glacier. On the way to the Glacier we stopped off at this little country coffee house for coffee that had goats everywhere: in the garden, in the courtyard, the car park, the living room, the kitchen, everywhere!! Very entertaining watching them fight over bread.. If you ever get the opportunity, throw a slice of bread into a shit load of mountain goats, best craic ever.. Anyway, I digress: Glaciers. Now I have an issue with Galciers. Are they spelt GlaciEr or GlaciAr?? Anyway, this Glacier was frickin awesome. The sheer size of it was difficult to comprehend it was mind blowing. Firstly we did a walk along a beach close by and got some good photos which was fun despite hiking being the last frickin thing we wanted to do at that stage. We then did a boat trip that brings you up close and personal with the Glacier and I went frickin snap happy like there was no tomorrow! After that we weren't done, they brought us to the visitor centre which had all sorts of walk ways and boardwalks that bring you up to give you better views off this thing. What we all wanted to see of course was a collapse.. They told us some ice collapses off the glacier every 15 minutes. We stood there for 40 mins and fuckin nothing my friends! Nothing! But after a while the ice palyed ball and I got some great videos off the ice collapsing. What a great day and an amazing spectacle of nature.

To see the videos of the ice collapsing click here

The boat gives it perspective..

A short way north we hit our next port of call: El Chalten. A little town with so much to do.. Day one Sam, Nat and I did a 12km hike around the surrounding area taking in two awesome look outs and a waterfall as well as an encounter with an Armadillo! A dam good day in my book!! Day two it was Galcier time again, this time the Viedma glacier, now forgive me if I'm wrong but this is the biggest Glacier in Argentina and the second biggest in South America (but then I could be wrong, I don't tend to listen..) what was good about this trip though was we got to go trekking on it. They gave us our crampons and a couple of hours trekking around. the best part was maneuvering through an ice hole and then they gave us a shot of Tia Maria to cap it all off. A nice, civilized touch I'm sure you'll agree!
We spent the rest of our time here indulging. The nice thing about El Chalten is there is a shop for everything and no shop does more than one thing if you get what I mean..? There's a Chocolateria, a Microbrewery, A Wine bar, A Waffleria, A pizza house.. Anyway, the little shops do what they do well and we had an awesome night in the Vineria with cheese platters and all very very civilsed I'm sure you'll agree...

Atop the view point

A view of El Chalten

Viewpoint No 2

The Morning view

In an ice Hole

Tia Maria on the Ice

Cheese and Wine!

Next day was border day and we were heading back into Chile. We camped in a place called Quelat which is home to the Hanging Glacier. I know you're probably sick of hearing me bangin on about Glaciers but this is the last one.. There was a hike you could do to get up close to it but Sam and I decided against it and got some snaps from afar but still very easy on the eye..

Our next port of call was still in Chile and we were in Futaleufu. We stayed in these lodges with wood fires cos it was freezing and they had pigs and chickens and James and Craig tried to catch a chicken and failed cos chickens are fast.. but that was nothing to the reason we were here: White Water Rafting! I'm going to go out on a limb here and say as far as activities go: this is the best thing I have ever done! The stretch of river in Futaleufu is one of the best in the world for continuous Grade 4 and 5 rapids. A group of us from the truck did it and we had to manouevre around rocks and avoid falling out as the water smashes into you and you have to paddle for your life. It is immense fun and we did really well until the big Grade 5 rapid that our guide told us they called Madaka. We were supposed to avoid a big hole in the middle of the rapid but instead went straight for it and flipped up spectacularly. By the miracle of modern technology we got it all on film!

Take a look at the video of us White Water rafting and crashing by clicking here.

We left the rafting absolutely buzzing it was an awesome adrenaline rush. So so good!

A picture of the offending Rapid: Madaka!

Me in my Rafting gear

The Pet pigs on the campsite

Movin' on again we were back into Argentina and a place I had been looking forward to: Bariloche. Bariloche is a little tourist town with shit loads of stuff to do and is a 'must-visit' if you're planning on heading to Argentina at any stage. We had two days there so we busied ourselves with a trip into town to indulge in the many chocolate shops that are here. The place is apparently famous for chocolate (who knew!?) and I can see why. I overdosed as usual to the point of being unable to move and being sick.. The next day we went on a ski lift up to a lookout and got spectacular views of the lake and the surrounding mountains and area. Take a look at the pics, bleedin' awesome. That afternoon the entire truck got together and did a major truck clean. We are getting new people joining the trip in Santiago and our leader Kate wanted it spic and span before that, kinda like when you have guests come over and your mum makes you clean your room haha. No it was a fun afternoon and Tanin our Thai companion cooked an tasty Thai dinner for us that took 2 days to cook and made all the hard work worth it!

Chocolate!

The accompanying Coffee

I forgot my sunglasses..

The Lake

Photobomb!

Ok so I will leave you there for now. Next week on Ben's Blog: Climbing Volcanoes in Pucon, Saying hello and goodbye in Santiago (Will Ben cry?) and wine wine and more wine in north Argentina (Wine tours by Bicycle.. Will Ben fall off?). Find out next week!

Adios Amigos,
Ben