The Guanaco - Three Things You Didn't Know

After the majestic Paine, it was on to the snowy Argentine boarder by 6 AM bus.

A reminder at the boarder, "Las Malvinas son Argentinas" regarding the dispute over Falkland islands.

I could see ostrich necks sticking up on hillside horizon and over the early morning sunrise. We then rejoined the Ruta 40 up toward El Calafate.

Ruta 40 was an infinite desert road, often as wide as an airport runway. We passed bushy-tailed skunks, mighty wild horses and many birds of pray.

The patagonian ostrich was by far the most amusing. What a strange animal this is run erratically with exaggerated clumsy steps. It looks like a giant bird that had it's arms (wings) removed. I can see why Darwin was so fascinated with this find.

We then crossed a never-ending plain of scrubland where we saw one of our first Guanacos. This cousin of the Llama and the Alpaca was a curious animal indeed. At first you wonder why it just sits there and stares at you approaching, without any concern. We then saw it could run almost as fast as a deer and clear tall fences with nearly as much grace and agility – not what I expected from what seemed like the strangest and most docile animal I've seen.

Darwin noted three more extremely odd characteristics about the Guanaco when he regularly came across large herds in Argentina:

1) They always go to the bathroom in the exact same place. "The guanacos have one singular habit, which is to me quite inexplicable; namely, that on successive days they drop their dung in the same defined heap. I saw one of these heaps which was eight feet in diameter, and was composed of a large quantity. This habit is very useful to the Peruvian Indians, who use the dung for fuel, and are thus saved the trouble of collecting it."

2) They drink saltwater. "The guanacos readily take to the water: several times at Port Valdes they were seen swimming from island to island. Byron, in his voyage says he saw them drinking salt water. Some of our officers likewise saw a herd apparently drinking the briny fluid from a salina near Cape Blanco. I imagine in several parts of the country, if they do not drink salt water, they drink none at all."

3) They go to die near water. "The guanacos appear to have favourite spots for lying down to die. On the banks of the St. Cruz, in certain circumscribed spaces, which were generally bushy and all near the river, the ground was actually white with bones. On one such spot I counted between ten and twenty heads. I particularly examined the bones; they did not appear, as some scattered ones which I had seen, gnawed or broken, as if dragged together by beasts of prey. The animals in most cases must have crawled, before dying, beneath and amongst the bushes.

Torres del Peine: Chris

We disembarked in Puerto Natales after what turned out to be a spectacular 4-day voyage the length of Patagonia. We were ready to explore back on land and see what all the fuss was about.

Puerto Natales was largely shut down and boarded up to tourists here in the peak of off-season. What ensued was a typical hour-long parade of our backpacks around town in a concentric circle to find the best housing. Finally we found a little hospadaje (bed and breakfast) that would have us.

The lovely old woman who took us in also helped us plan our trip to the famous Torres del Paine national park. Like a second Mom, she would not let me pack my own snacks, make my own coffee and was as friendly as every sweet little Chilean woman we have met so far. When she sent us off with a “buen viaje” we hit the road for the finest Chile has to offer in natural wonderment.

Cueve del Miladon - The first stop was an ancient cave which used to be home to cavemen and a sloth-like bear called Miladon (Miladon Darwini).

We then stopped at a cafe where we could validate our park entry. In the meantime a cat cleverly jumped into the passenger seat, slashing open the lunch bag and made off with our amazing steak sandwiches. The driver who forgot to roll up his window was sincerely amazed. I was not amused.

The banks of Lago Azul had a spungy rock that seemed to belong to another planet.

Our first glimpse then was of the Paine Massif mountain range from 112k across the open range. This is actually completely seperate from the Andes range that we've seem to have seen inside and out in the last few months.

Inside the Paine Massif itself stand the granite towers of Las Torres, which appeared dark and mysterious on the day we were exploring.

The massive blue icebergs on drifting from the glacier on lago grey was one of our highlights of Torres del Paine. In these surroundings you could fully understand the power and magnitude of how a glacier cuts through land, grinding rock down to pebbles and leaving only a serene lake in between.

Fancy seeting you here - We bumped into Sara and Annie (our cabin mates on the Evangelista) several times in the park and arranged to meet up down the road in Argentina.

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Shopping for long underwear in Chile brings some surprising finds...

Voyage of the Evangelista

Cargo Ship Adventures through Glaciers and Fjordlands

“The islands were composed of a stratified, soft, littoral deposit; and the vegetation in consequence was beautifully luxuriant.” “The woods came down to the sea-beach, just in the manner of an evergreen shrubbery over a gravel walk.” - Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle

What is it with boarder towns and ports? Like Suratthani in Thailand, Huay Xai in Laos, and Tattoine in Star Wars – they have not been favorite places to pass through. The air is somewhat seedy and filled with opertunistic thieves, smuggles and Cantina Bar mercenaries. It's not exactly the type of place you want to roam late at night in search of an inn with vacancy. As luck had it, the Navimag cargo ship e-mailed us to say they would be embarking one day late which gave us an extra and quite unnecessary day here in Puerto Montt. We spent this misfortune at a fuente de soda and walking around to find some hats, gloves and long underwear for the icy journey south. Steph liked Peurto Montt for it's 'realness' as a working town, and I admit I did enjoy returning to Chile on this unexpected adventure south.

Either way we said goodbye and set sail from Peurto Montt (41 latitude south) towards Puerto Natalis (52 degrees south), on course 113* at 13 knots. When the captain sounded the horn, a 10 second echo would hum for miles up the channel's canyon. We enjoyed this prime position for whale watching and seal spotting.

The Comissario met us on board and showed us to the lower deck cabins. To our amazing luck we were upgraded to a private cabin with four beds all to ourselves. The cargo deck may have been full but the Evangelista felt a little empty with only seven passengers of a possible 300. This lovely old man took close care of us, warmly calling everyone to dinner in the cafeteria, inviting the group to film showings in the pub and keeping us up to date of all progress.

A wet and rainy fog meant that we were forced inside for the first few days to read our books and play card games, as sailors do.

“The land was wooded down to the water’s edge.” “The trees on every side extending their branches over the sea-beach”

Unfortunately we did not have the weather that I had hoped to be out on deck and appreciate this unusually broken up coastline of western Patagonia. Reading Charles Darwin's “Voyage of the Beagle” gave me elevated interest in experiencing this part of the world for my own first time. Darwin had sailed up and down this coast on the Beagle and a “yawl and whale-boat” to survey this coastline. It was great fun following these diary entries chapter by chapter. I spent most of the first day in the compass deck (aka pub) which had a multitude of maps to marking Mr Darwin's progress down through these exact waters.

“December 10th. — White massive clouds were piled up against a dark blue sky, and across them black ragged sheets of vapour were rapidly driven. The successive mountain ranges appeared like dim shadows, and the setting sun cast on the woodland a yellow gleam, much like that produced by the flame of spirits of wine. The water was white with the flying spray, and the wind lulled and roared again through the rigging: it was an ominous, sublime scene... The weather continued very bad, but it at last permitted us to proceed with the survey. The time hung heavy on our hands, as it always did when we were delayed from day to day by successive gales of wind...The north-west winds prevailing for the next four days, we only managed to cross a great bay, and then anchored in another secure harbour.

Bad weather was delivered, as promised. The fog was so thick we could barely see and then came the rocky swells as we approached the XXXXX opening before the Chronos Archipelago. These waters have a reputation for bad weather and rocky swells in the major bay areas. Steph had the misfortune of spending her birthday evening during the worst of it when it seemed like the ship was rolling 90 degrees on it's axis. During our voyage Steph and I enjoyed the intimacy and met some great friends amongst our fellow 15 passengers. An Irish family we had met at the Bariloche bus station were truly enjoying this trip and was one of the highlights of their south american adventure. We attempted whale watching with the kids from the navigation bridge, but spotted only dolphins and seals.

“On the way the number of seals which we saw was quite astonishing: every bit of flat rock, and parts of the beach, were covered with them. There appeared to be of a loving disposition, and lay huddled together, fast asleep, like so many pigs; but even pigs would have been ashamed of their dirt, and of the foul smell which came from them.”

When the rain clouds finally lifted the next morning a magnaficient landscape was revealed all around us. Darwin's descriptions of fresh water cascading from vertical forrests right down into the saltwater all came true. With the worst behind us (two bays open to the sea) the Evangelista continued weaving it's way down through the island waterways.

“We found the water (probably only that of the surface) nearly fresh: this was caused by the number of torrents which, in the form of cascades, came tumbling over the bold granite mountains into the sea. The fresh water attracts the fish, and these bring many terns, gulls, and two kinds of cormorant. We were again amused by the impetuous manner in which the heap of seals, old and young, tumbled into the water as the boat passed. They did not remain long under water, but rising, followed us with outstretched necks, expressing great wonder and curiosity."

The return to Chile...

The cargo ship we were taking on Friday was to leave from Puerto Montt in Chile. This required a short (by South American standards), SIX HOUR bus ride through the mountains and across the border.

On another note... Thank the lord for podcasts! A wonderful way to pass the time on these tedious bus journeys. I have learned the majority of the Spanish I know in this way. Seriously, Chris and I maintain that the best travel item you could ever have is the iPod Touch (or Iphone if you really want). We use these not only to listen to music on long journeys but also to download our emails for free and keep up to date with the world whenever there is wifi available (this includes making phonecalls home by Skype)... Not only this but Podcasts (the saviour of all bored backpackers on 21 hour bus rides) can be downloaded with much ease. I have managed to keep up to date with the Brits by listening to Chris Moyles, Jonathan Ross and others every week. Oh, how I love Apple - I know I could sell this product if they asked me to!

We were very pleased to meet a lovely Irish couple who, with their three children, were travelling around South America for three months. We were so excited not only to meet them at the bus station in Bariloche (as we waited for our 2 hour delayed bus) but also to find out that they too are taking the Cargo Ship down the Western coast of Patagonia. It will be lovely to spend this time with children.

Unfortunately, the cargo ship had been delayed by a day so we were to stay in Puerto Montt for an extra day. This town was incredibly Chilean and authentic, with the only tourists being those who take the ship from here. While there was really nothing to do but wander round, it was admittedly rather refreshing to be in a town that was so authentic without any show of tourism.

Here, housewives rent their spare rooms out to travellers for between 10 - 50 $US. It was funny wandering around the next day and meeting the owners of these 'hospedajes' as they tried to sell us a room for a ridiculous price. After spending a very cold night in a dodgy area on our first night, we eventually settled on the 'Swiss Chalet' for our second night, owned by a Swiss-Chileno couple. There seems to be no central heating in this town and you'll be lucky to get hot water. Still, being close to the ferry terminal, the 'Swiss Chalet' suited our needs.

Circuito Chico

Why go cycling in the Patagonian mountain snow? Because we are stubborn. Because we had paid good money in advance for it. And because we are stubborn.

Steph's Irish friend Ros had told her she couldn't miss it. It was our 4th attempt... 1st, too late, 2nd, raining, 3rd too early/closed 4th... SNOW) Our friends Megan and Abdel had been on this spectacular bike circuit yesterday. They confirmed what we heard - it is indeed spectacular, challenging, and well worth it. He refused our hostel discount the first day because we were late. So when we hurried to get there on a second sunny day attempt the bike shop guy decided to sleep in. Refusing to be defeted, we marched out there for third try on our last day, and in the SNOW. It was now officially Chris and Steph V the Bike Shop Guy. We would be victorious in the snow, wincing all the way to the Swiss Colony where we defrosted by a fire and indulged in hot chocky.

The conditions were pretty grim. My only carrot-on-the-end-of-a-stick was to promise Steph a German sausage and mulled wine when we got back to the lodge. After a the hot chocolate we convinced a bus driver (by heavy persuasion/pleading) to give our bikes a lift back to Mr Bike Rental.

Defeated? No. Happy to be back in the warmth of our chalet? Certainly so. That night there were snowball fights on the way to school dinner up the road.

The Seven Lakes Drive

Talk about rally-driver-Steph! I commented on more than one occasion during this drive how I felt like Colin Mcrae on these winding dirt roads.

One of the things tourists come to Bariloche for, besides the chocolate and the feeling of being in the Swiss Alps, is to go on the 'Seven Lakes Drive'. There are many companies set up for this, offering all kinds of tours for all kinds of prices, all of which seemed ludicrously expensive to us. Instead, we opted to hire a car with our dorm-mate Abdel from Lyon, France. Abdel is doing an internship in the South of Patagonia and was making the most of the long holiday in Argentina this weekend in celebration of 200 years independence from the Spaniards.

I was designated driver; it was such a wonderful experience to be driving through this beautiful scenery. You begin to realise in Patagonia just how much of the world remains untouched by the hand of man. Much of the road was unpaved making for hour upon bumpy hour of exciting, rally driving style turns around sharp, hair-pin bends. What fun! The boys held on tight as we bumped our way along, dodging potholes for the five-six hours of driving each day.

This was one of the most stunning drives I've ever been on - not least because of the firey autumn colours we were lucky enough to see. The leaves were so incredibly bright - I don't know how photos will ever do them justice.

We were able to keep the car over night while still paying for only one day of car hire (2pm - 2pm) and this meant we could stay the night in St Martin de los Andes where we dined on a boxed fondue set that Chris had been craving all week. We sorted the world out over a few bottles of wine in our triple room/studio before setting off again the next morning back to Bariloche. It was great sharing this experience with Abdel and hearing about his experience of living in the south of Argentina.

Roadtrip!

Bariloche

Patagonia's largest city is an "ideal place to shop and run errands"....Bariloche didn't really sound too appealling in our travel guide. The same guidebook bible, whose name I need not mention, then led us to a hostel that was closed for the season. Normally after a 21hr bus this may try your patience a little.

And then, with a huge stroke of luck, we stumbled upon what would be one of our favorite hostels in the world so far, the Bariloche Hostel Inn. We entered a warm, cozy and modern chalet that felt like home immediately. Perched up on the hill, it has plenty of balconies that overlook the lake and mountains. The living rooms have a flat screen and wood fired stove. The bedrooms and bathrooms even had heated floors.

We later found the Swiss had left behind a rich number of choclate shops, our favorite being the mint, pistachio and raspberry varieties at Mamoushka.

We dropped our bags and decided to have a quick look for ourselves at this city built up by Swiss and German immigrants. You couldn't help but feel like you were in a French alpine village or even Lausanne as we approached the lake. There are wooden chalets everywhere and Steph was already eying chocolate shops galore. My first impressions of our gateway to Patagonia were much more inspiring than what we were led to believe. I think when you can find a perfectly comfortable home away from home, this can make all the difference in these kind of towns.

We soon realized the full benefit of the 7eur to stay there was not just the free breakfast, where a little lady toasts your bread, it was the free dinner at the bar the sister hostel a few doors down. This basically paid for all our food too.

The meal was a mystery every night but the benches were packed with traveller's from both hostels. We met other travellers who had made the long detour, and one who was crossing Argentina on his bike! How could we complain about long bus rides?

The staff at Hostel Inn always called us by first name, even in such a large hostel.

The Bad News > I asked Marco at reception how exactly we could get down to El Calafate and unfortunately the only real option was a bus that would detour to the coast and pretty much around the whole southern half of the country, taking 28 hours. And so we struggled again to lock down a future plan and ways we could get to southern Patagonia. Large stretches of the famous Ruta 40 that we arrived on were closed further south. The off-season uncertainty and lack of a solid plan had us a little demorilized. We needed to remember that these last few months were to be enjoyed before returning to real life. After a few days of moping and feeling a little homesick, Steph and I got our acts together and now have a solid and very exciting plan which is all booked and ready to go!

The Good News > We have booked ourselves onto a cargo ship, the Evangelista, which will take us through fjords and to glaciers and to (almost) the southern tip of the world! This will be a three night/four day adventure and we will be sleeping in bunks in a 42 bed cabin below decks... let´s put it this way, we´d better not hit an iceberg!!

We are very excited about this slow lane travel. The boat only leaves once a week and we obviously missed yesterday´s so we´re now going to stay put here this week - luckily there is enough to keep us busy here. Public buses run all the way out to the foot of trails, lakes and mountains. I must say I just enjoyed putting our feet up with all the comforts of hot chocolate and books to read. What's more, we now had plenty of time to make excursions further into the lake district. I think a road trip is on the cards... our new friend and roomate, Abdel, is keen to do the famous seven lakes drive.

21 hours to go...

Backpacker Monica couldn't stay forever and it was a sad sad day when we waved goodbye to her after our Uruguayan adventure together. She had certainly injected some fun and life into mine and Chris' now somewhat subdues attitude to travel.

Once again, we were alone. Just like in Sydney, Chris and I dragged ourselves away from the Marriott and found a significantly cheaper place to stay for the night without any of the comforts we'd been used to for the last few weeks. After a cheap street snack (empanada) for dinner, we sat down to decide which direction our travel was going to take. With only three months to go, we are both really feeling the effects of being away from home, family and routine for so long. It feels like we are at the very end, even though three months is still an incredibly long time for adventures and travel. Nevertheless, homesickness was seriously beginning to sink in, especially for me.

Our last night with Monica was a chilled one - we had all intended to go on a big night out in Buenos Aires as a final goodbye. This never happened however since Lis and Jim had treated us to one last night at the Marriott; we just couldn't bare to leave the comforts (and free food) it provided.

Bariloche was to be our next destination, being the gateway to Patagonia. The thing about Argentina is, everything is so far apart. And... so bloody expensive to get from one place to another... We hadn't expected this of South America and our wallets put up some protests.

Nevertheless, we set off on our 21 hour journey to Bariloche. The bus was incredible with an sirline style lunch plus a hot dinner of ravioli and even breakfast! It certainly was impressive (though, it should be for the price!) and I even watched a film, airline style, while on board!

Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay

As Chris has no doubt already mentioned, Uruguay is significantly quieter than Buenos Aires - this can be at least said for the towns we visited. Having said that, it is South America´s smallest Spanish-speaking country with only 3.5 million people.

After our 3 hour bus between Montevideo and Colonia de Sacremento, we set off to scope out a hostel which was deemed suitable for our needs. We eventually found a great place where Monica was encouraged to stay in her very first dorm room - albeit, there was no-one else in the room with us but still, it was a step up (or down?!) from the private rooms we had indulged in in Montevideo. She was on her way to becoming a fully-fledged backpacker! Good job, Monica! It was a cool place to stay actually as it was filled with families who had brought their children to compete in the National Chess Championships next door.. was a lovely atmosphere, especially at night time when the kids were all playing table football in the cute little courtyard outside the rooms.

After our accommodation had been found and judged adequate enough, we set off immediately to see the sights this town had to offer...

Colonia has an interesting 17th century history as a Portugese smuggling port - the intent being to disrupt Spanish control in Buenos Aires. While Colonia de Sacramento may be Uruguay´s oldest town (since European settlement, that is) we found the old town itself to be rather small. Clearly we are spoiled brats who have enjoyed growing up in Europe where antiquity abounds and perhaps we were being unfair - this town did gain UNESCO World heritage status in 1995 after all.

It is home to the oldest church in Uruguay, set amongst quaint cobbled streets where colonial buildings from the 19th century interest its visitors. And to be honest, there is a certain romance in the air as you walk around alongside the rest of the tourists (of Argentine origin - this is so close to Buenos Aires, it must be a hot-spot for Porteño weekends away). Having said this, twenty minutes after we´d arrived in the old town (so 25 minutes after we´d left our hostel in the ´new town´- this town is so tiny, seriously) we found ourselves repeating our tracks already.

As luck would have it, there happened to be a vintage car rally out in full force as we wandered around the tiny 17th century dwellings. Chris´ excitement can only be imagined. Monica and I left him running around to take photos while we explored the cool little artsy shops, browsing at the knick'knacks for tourists.

We spent our two days here wandering around the old town and enjoying hostel life. Monica commented on the weirdness of a few aspects of being a backpacker which I can completely understand... It is quite normal to see travellers of all ages in hostels, for example. In Colonia we chatted for a while with two English men who, it seemed, were travelling solo: one in his mid 30s and one in his 60s. It is often strange to think why people might be travelling on their own, yet I´d say the larger majority of people we´ve met are.

Secondly, it is also quite normal to find backpackers staying in hostels for hours on end, watching DVDs or the TV or purely sitting down to read for hour after hour. Monica commented on this and wondered why people weren´t out and about and enjoying the new experiences a completely different town and culture may bring. Chris and I also took a while to get used to this, however now... we can be placed inside this group of travellers ourselves! At first, when in China, India and South East Asia, the travel bug was still very new to us and there was so much to see and do. We rarely spent any time in our hostels other than to sleep. New experiences and crazy cultural experiences seemed to abound. Yet, when you´ve been travelling for a long time, you tend to slow down quite a lot as we did by the time we reached Australia. This was our explanation as to why, on more than one occasion, Monica had witnessed whole groups of travellers lazing around watching DVDs instead of seeing what´s out there (which is what you´d expect them to do since they´ve paid a lot of money to get to a place: why would they just sit and watch tv all day?!).

We had a few really good meals in this town, similar to those we´d enjoyed in Buenos Aires (though poor Monica is getting quite sick of the ´Sandwich con queso´ option forced upon her as a vegetarian! You did well, Mooonooo!). We also sampled a few new Alfajores varieties which is always a treat... Apart from this, Colonia was purely a place to wander, reflect and chill. We kind of ran out of things to do by the end of our two days and decided to take a bus the long way around town to find the old, now unused, bull ring which we´d read about. After some confusion about which bus to take, the old man who ran our hostel told us he´d take us in his car. And so it was that the three of us had our most local experience yet in our backpacking adventure to Uruguay. The man told us in slow Spanish all about the history of the bull ring and how it was never used for bull fights any more due to animal rights (this surprised me as it´s still ongoing in Spain as far as I know??). He told us about his grandfather who had owned a hotel in the area back in the 20s and showed us the street named after him. We were shown how the town used to be and where the ferry from Buenos Aires used to drop people off before they were taken by train to his grandfather´s hotel. This was such a special experience for us, not least because the whole exchange was done in Spanish and between the three of us we had managed to translate much of what this lovely man had said while replying with a few measly phrases: ¨Aw, muy bien, muy interessante¨ etc.