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Carretera Austral part II

Next day, we decided to get the hell out of Cochrane, heading south. Villa O´Higgins if possible (it´s the far end of the carretera austral), Caleta Tortel if not. And so, we grabbed our bags and sat at the south exit of the town waiting for a nice cozy car to take us south. We were waiting for hours. All the cars passing by were giving us the familiar signals from the army trempiada - ¨I´m going, and you´re staying here¨, or ¨I´m going really far, Villa O´Higgins, you have nothing to do there¨, or ¨La bahad¨. Anyway, around 5 in the afternoon, we decided to give up, the people of the fine city of Cochrane just refuse to go south more than 2-3 km, and so we bought ourselves bus tickets for the next day to Caleta Tortel.
The next morning, without much hesitation, we sat on the bus headed to Caleta Tortel. It is amazing how the view on this side of the mountains is so different from the same place on the Argentinian side. Instead of the desert, we were going through high wooded mountains with glaciers on the top and lakes on the bottom. After only an hour, we had a pancher, which revealed the true nature of our driver. While changing the wheel, the driver was screaming ¨Haya!!!!!¨ so passionately, it was obvious that the samurai ways were not strange to him. We only had to wonder how come he didn`t get out his sword and cut the misbehaving wheel in two.
After picking up a dozen hitchhikers from nearby farms and dropping a lot of boxes and bags in an airdrome next to Tortel, we finally arrived at the village. Caleta Tortel, a small village situated on the Baker river. The interesting thing about the village, is that it has no roads. It has the access road which ends in a parking lot, from which you start descending using stairs to the village itself. The village was built on the slope of the mountain, and because of the steep climb and the humidity, the only way to get from place to place is by boat through the river, or by walking on wooden passages and stairs which can be a great scenery for a nice horror movie. Not really understood at first why would anyone bother to build this place, but probably, the Baker company got a lot of money on cutting the local forest and exploiting the population that it was worth it.
Walking around the village, we got to the Plaza de Armas, a ¨must have¨ in almost every city in SA (until now except Argentina). Joking about being the last tourists in patagonia, we suddenly heard English. We went closer and talked to the tourists. It appeared that they worked in some volunteer project from British kids, and finished it, and were on their way to catch the boat from Villa O´Higgins to Candelaria Mansilla and cross to Argentina (the boat we didn´t wait for). The volunteers were waiting for a boat to take them to the Isla de los Muertos - Island of the Dead. They offered us to join them and so we did. Island of the Dead is located not far from Tortel, but because we rented the slowest boat in the western hemisphere, it took us some time to get there. The story of the island was, that the Baker company, which exploited the local resources a hundred years ago until a few decades ago, settled about a hundred workers on the island. After not so long, all of them died from unknown (until now) cause.
While getting closer to the island, i had, again, the feeling that i´m in a cheap horror movie. 8 people in their early twenties arriving at and island, holding a terrible secret! The Island Of The DEAD! The island itself was a lot more boring than the story surrounding it. We disembarked, walked for 10 minutes, looked at the old cemetery, and went back (except for the people who disappeared on the island and were never to be found again). All this journey made us hungry, and we started our quest for food. It appeared to be a much harder task than you can imagine. We walked all around the village, but could find only one overpriced restaurant in the whole village.
Anyway, the next day we decided we´ve had enough, and started pondering about ways to get out of the village. There were two possibilities: taking a bus back to Cochrane or taking a lift with the micro that was supposed to pick up the volunteer guys and take them to Villa O´Higgins. The micro was full and so we decided to take the bus to Cochrane, get off at the intersection of carretera austral and the access road to Tortel (intelligence reports advised that there´s a mirador - lookout point - there where we can sleep), spend there the night, and in the morning try to catch a ride to Villa O´Higgins. The backup plan for no rides was the weekly bus Cochrane-O´Higgins that was supposed to pass there around 1130. Without pulling the cow by it´s tongue, we bought tickets for the bus, said goodbye to Tortel and headed away.
Walking around the village, we got to the Plaza de Armas, a ¨must have¨ in almost every city in SA (until now except Argentina). Joking about being the last tourists in patagonia, we suddenly heard English. We went closer and talked to the tourists. It appeared that they worked in some volunteer project from British kids, and finished it, and were on their way to catch the boat from Villa O´Higgins to Candelaria Mansilla and cross to Argentina (the boat we didn´t wait for). The volunteers were waiting for a boat to take them to the Isla de los Muertos - Island of the Dead. They offered us to join them and so we did. Island of the Dead is located not far from Tortel, but because we rented the slowest boat in the western hemisphere, it took us some time to get there. The story of the island was, that the Baker company, which exploited the local resources a hundred years ago until a few decades ago, settled about a hundred workers on the island. After not so long, all of them died from unknown (until now) cause.
While getting closer to the island, i had, again, the feeling that i´m in a cheap horror movie. 8 people in their early twenties arriving at and island, holding a terrible secret! The Island Of The DEAD! The island itself was a lot more boring than the story surrounding it. We disembarked, walked for 10 minutes, looked at the old cemetery, and went back (except for the people who disappeared on the island and were never to be found again). All this journey made us hungry, and we started our quest for food. It appeared to be a much harder task than you can imagine. We walked all around the village, but could find only one overpriced restaurant in the whole village. Anyway, the next day we decided we´ve had enough, and started pondering about ways to get out of the village. There were two possibilities: taking a bus back to Cochrane or taking a lift with the micro that was supposed to pick up the volunteer guys and take them to Villa O´Higgins. The micro was full and so we decided to take the bus to Cochrane, get off at the intersection of carretera austral and the access road to Tortel (intelligence reports advised that there´s a mirador - lookout point - there where we can sleep), spend there the night, and in the morning try to catch a ride to Villa O´Higgins. The backup plan for no rides was the weekly bus Cochrane-O´Higgins that was supposed to pass there around 1130. Without pulling the cow by it´s tongue, we bought tickets for the bus, said goodbye to Tortel and headed away.
The bus to Cochrane left us on the junction, and we headed to the promised mirador to start getting ready for the night. The mirador was very comfortably located, allowing us to see the carretera austal for miles in the direction we needed. Besides that we had a nice wind sheltered large room, a balcony and a nice fireplace. A fireplace is a real happiness, because in Patagonia, it is forbidden to light fire anywhere because of massive fires that exterminated large quantities of forest in the 30s. Anyway, we started a nice fire, and called it a night.
In the morning, we started waiting for passing cars in the direction of Villa O´Higgins. Didn´t pass a long time, when a nice jeep stopped by. In the jeep was a woman, driving from Coyhaique almost until Villa O´Higgins. The only problem with her, was that she had only one spare place. Since passing cars in the carretera are not that common, without thinking too much we both sat on the same seat. As the smaller one, i was sitting on top, trying not to bang my head in the windshield each time there was a stone on the road. Like this, after not much time we entered Puerto Yungay.
Puerto Yungay, a small village (10 houses), used to be the end of the Carretera Austral, as a nice sign, signed by Pinochet himself sais. In the year 2000, the carretera was extended until Villa O´Higgins, and in Puerto Yungay, the government has put a free barge service to cross the canal.After crossing the canal, we continued driving down the carretera, and this time we managed to locate ourselves better, and even could smalltalk with the driver. In the south of Chile, everyone are occupied with the Baker river hydro electro station. Chile doesn´t have much electro stations, and she needs to buy electricity from Argentina and Bolivia. The same situation happens with natural gas, so in all chilean houses (in the south at least), besides the gas stove, there is a wood stove, on which most of the cooking is done. About 6 kilometer from Villa O´Higgins, the woman took a turn to the farm she was headed to, and we started walking towards the village. Pretty soon, a tender passed by, and picked us up and brought us to Villa O´Higgins. The bus to Cochrane left us on the junction, and we headed to the promised mirador to start getting ready for the night. The mirador was very comfortably located, allowing us to see the carretera austal for miles in the direction we needed. Besides that we had a nice wind sheltered large room, a balcony and a nice fireplace. A fireplace is a real happiness, because in Patagonia, it is forbidden to light fire anywhere because of massive fires that exterminated large quantities of forest in the 30s. Anyway, we started a nice fire, and called it a night.
In the morning, we started waiting for passing cars in the direction of Villa O´Higgins. Didn´t pass a long time, when a nice jeep stopped by. In the jeep was a woman, driving from Coyhaique almost until Villa O´Higgins. The only problem with her, was that she had only one spare place. Since passing cars in the carretera are not that common, without thinking too much we both sat on the same seat. As the smaller one, i was sitting on top, trying not to bang my head in the windshield each time there was a stone on the road. Like this, after not much time we entered Puerto Yungay.
Puerto Yungay, a small village (10 houses), used to be the end of the Carretera Austral, as a nice sign, signed by Pinochet himself sais. In the year 2000, the carretera was extended until Villa O´Higgins, and in Puerto Yungay, the government has put a free barge service to cross the canal.
After crossing the canal, we continued driving down the carretera, and this time we managed to locate ourselves better, and even could smalltalk with the driver. In the south of Chile, everyone are occupied with the Baker river hydro electro station. Chile doesn´t have much electro stations, and she needs to buy electricity from Argentina and Bolivia. The same situation happens with natural gas, so in all chilean houses (in the south at least), besides the gas stove, there is a wood stove, on which most of the cooking is done.
About 6 kilometer from Villa O´Higgins, the woman took a turn to the farm she was headed to, and we started walking towards the village. Pretty soon, a tender passed by, and picked us up and brought us to Villa O´Higgins.
That´s all for now,
Almost coming back,
Vova, Huaraz, Peru

The bycicle accident, or Carretera Austral part I

Shalom gente,
First, let me assure you that indeed, there was a Taxkir, and the maskanot were published in ¨Argentina Taxkirei Kimat Ve Nifga Daily¨. Anyway, we left El Chalten for good. Got in the bus and never looked back. Actually we did look back, because the bus driver was stopping every now and then to smoke and for us to take pictures (all the bus were tourists). After 12 hours, we made it to Los Antiguos, a small nice town on the border with Chile. The name ¨Los Antiguos¨ - The Old People, was givven to the town because in the previous times, Tehuelche indians were coming here to live their last couple of days. Indeed, this town makes you sleep well. Everytime we were going to take a nap for and hour, we ended up sleeping ¨without our back legs¨ for 5-6 hours. We happened to be in L.A. on sunday night, and had the privelege of participating in the weekly parillada (barbeque) of the family in whose house we were staying. I have to say, it´s a very nice tradition. You make a fire in your yard, take a corpse of a nice, young lamb, crucify it and stick it near the fire to cook a bit. And then you eat it :)
When our plan codename ¨Lago Desierto¨ failed, we decided to buy bicycles in Los Antiguos, and do some cycling down the Carretera Austral (the southern highway).In Los Antiguos, we found a bike shop and negotiated two pairs of used bikes. As the future showed us, the only thing, cheaper in Chile than in Argentina, was bicycles... All the ____. After buying the bikes, we ate our last meal in L.A, and headed off to cross the border to Chile, to a nice small town called Chile Chico. I won´t go into long explanations about how we managed to put all our equipment on the bikes. Let´s just say, it was very heavy and uncomfortable. According to the map, there were 7 km from L.A to C.C, but when we arrived at the Gendarmeria Nacional of argentina, they informed us that it´s 15 km until the Carabineros of Chile. Anyway, we started paddeling. Luckily for us, half of the road was paved, and in general, it was very plain. And still, with 20 kg on your back, the bikes were the source of all evil. After a lot of suffering, we finally arrived in C.C. A very grey town (like most chile towns), windy and cold. After finding an hospedaje, we started analizyng which bodyparts we need to cut.In the next couple of days, we were making ¨tipul 10000¨ to the bikes - brakes, bought grills for the bags. Besides that, we were mostly watching TV. 3 times xXx (not the porn, the movie with Vien Diezel). I have no idea why they decided to play this movie every day.
Anyway, after lots of television, we finally hit the road. The road was aweful. Lots of steep accents, where we needed to get of the bike, and walk with it. To add to that, my ¨grill¨ broke at some point, and I decided to take a ride about 20km from where we were (we wanted to do 30km that day) and wait for Roman while trying to fix the grill. A small truck came by, which was going to a road workers´ camp just about where I wanted to wait for Roman. While we were passing through Roman (about a km in front of me) I signaled him, and unfortunatelly, because i was sitting in the back of the truck, I couldn´t tell the driver to stop so I could explain where will I be, so I just hoped Roman will not abandon the plan and I will meet him in the camp as I planned. After arriving to the workers camp, i set up a headquarters, wrote my name in stones, and put my bike where it could be easily seen from the road. A couple of hours with the leatherman (a real life saver :) i managed to fix my grill. In the evening, some guy coming from Chile Chico, told me he saw Roman, and Roman told him that he´s coming tomorrow noon. As i found out later, i just didn´t understand him correctly. But at that point, i decided to stay with the workers, who kindly gave me dinner and a bed. In the evening we talked a bit. Most chileans, make about 300K pesos (around 3000 shekels), while prices are mostly like in Israel, and some things are even more expensive. Most chileans don´t go on vacation, not even to neighbouring latin countries. The economy is good, but it serves only a small layer of the population. These guys work like in the army, 26 days on the road, 6 days at home. Most chileans (everything here, refers more to the south of chile) get married very young, 22-23.
In the morning, i continued with waiting for Roman. At 1300, i started asking passing cars, and no one saw him. Since he might have taken a ride and passed by me, i decided to get as fast as i can to Cochrane, where there is internet, and send Roman an email, and wait for him there. Luckily for me, there was a guy going from that camp, to another camp near Cochrane, and he agreed to take me there. After a couple of hours we made it to the Carretera Austral. On the road we passed a couple of small villages - Mallin Grande and Puerto Guadal. These are very funny places. Puerto Guadal, for example, is a very touristical place, with lots of cabañas (zimmerim) and hostels and stuff, but the roads inside the village look like a tank platoon just had a massive lashab training on them, and a lot of houses had the toilet outside. After passing these villages, we came to the end of the lake, and the road connected to Carretera Austral. Carretera Austral - the Southern Highway, is really a 1.5 unpaved lanes going from Puerto Montt to Villa O´Higgins. On the way, it´s passing through chilean Patagonia, a very beautiful region. On the way, we passed a river called Rio Baker, a very beautiful river, on which, a spanish firm is building a hydro-electro station. This station, is talked about in all southern chile. I´ll tell about it more a bit later.
Finally, we made it to a point, 30km from Cochrane, where Marcus (the driver) had to turn right to his camp, and i stayed on the road waiting for a ride. I waited for about 3 hours, only 2 cars passed by, and they didn´t have room, so i was very happy to see, that by the road, there´s a small house (like really small, 2X2). But because i didn´t have a tent, it was a real saviour. Besides, in the cabin was a small stove, and a bit of wood, so i could make fire and not die from cold. While i was making these plands, suddenly a pickup came from the camp, and it was going to Cochrane, and had place in the trunk. So i loaded all my belongings, sadly abandoned the cabin plan and climbed to the trunk.
After a VERY cold ride in the trunk we made it to Cochrane, where i asked the locals and they showed me where to find a hostel. I won´t bore you with the details of what i did in Cochrane. Only it really reminded me of the Bahad. To get a map, i was sent to the city hall, which sent me to the library, which sent me to the cultural center, which sent me back to the library, which called the city hall, and gave me the stupid map. After two days, in which i was basically just walking around the town, i met Roman in the only internet cafe in the city where he told me how he got to Cochrane on a vegetable truck, with stuff flying around him. That´s it for now, next time, we´ll get with the brave travelers to Villa O´Higgins.
Chao, Vova,
Santiago de Chile

Parque Nacional Los Glacieres, part II

So, ladies and gentlemen, after 5 hours bus ride, we arrived in El Chalten. El Chalten is a very small village, very touristical. It´s sole purpose is to be the base camp for trekkers, mountaneering parties and just bored tourists who come to walk around, climb and look from far away (respectively) on the Fitz Roy massif. Actualy, in the winter, most of the village population leaves. The town is located in the park itself. Just exit your hostel and start walking. El Chalten, is actualy the Indian name of the Fitz Roy mountain, it means The Peak of Fire (they thought it was a volcano).
Anyway, we arrived in El Chalten, and the first thing i saw when i stepped out of the bus, was Alex (Sarit´s husband) who was checking if we were on that bus. It turned out that Sarit, Alex and Alon were still in El Chalten, so we made a little reunion dinner and celebrated Roman´s birthday. The next day everybody left, and we started planning our trek. We didn´t want to do the traditional trek, so we decided to walk on the first day until the far end of the trail (after the limit of the national park), climb Cerro (mountain) Electrico - about 2400m, we were climbing from 900m, and then on the third day return to El Chalten.
Before going on that trek, we found a tour agency who might be able to get us to a place in Chile called Villa O´Higgins. It´s an isolated village, who didn´t have a road leading to it until 2000. We were supposed to take a bus to Lago Desierto (30km from El Chalten), then walk 13 hours and catch a boat in Candelario Mansilla (already in Chile). The only problem was with the boat. The agency didn´t know when the next boat leaves (off season...). If we were to take that boat when we thought it might be on, we were to return in three days.
That was the preface. The first day of the trek went without much adventures. We got to the first camping (Poincenot) where most of the people stop, and continued 3 more hours to Los Troncos where we were to camp. In the middle, there was a very nice valley called Piedras Blancas (white stones) with a glaciar, a lake and all the happy stuff. Near the last camping, i suddenly heard a sound of an animal jumping on the leaves on the path just behind me. ¨A puma! Finally!¨ i said to myself happily, but i turned out to be a regular cat. Well not too regular. It ate some wrong mushrooms, and got megalomania. The poor cat thought it was at least a tiger, with a definite mission: protect Vova from the dangerous beasts of the forest (rabbits and woodpeckers). It was walking right behind me, meaw-ing at the forest. Everytime i stopped to rest, it was making circles around me, climbing on fallen trees and looking very angry at the forest. Anyway, with that guardian angel i safely got to Los Troncos where we camped. Usually, this was a paid-for camping (private property and stuff), but the owner went somewhere, and the camp was deserted. It looked very much like a cheap horror movie: broken toys lying everywhere, locked cabins, squeaking chains... Besides us, there was another couple who climbed the mountain that same day, and a strange guy, who was alone, but with a HUGE tent, with lots of wine, food, gas and stuff in it. Later we talked, and he turned out to be the keeper of the museum in Chalten, and his friend, a guide, asked him as a favour to be a cook for some rich tourist couple who were coming the next day.
Next morning, we started the accent. It was hard, but interesting. It took us about 4.5 hours. All the time a very strong wind blew, and we had to climb on snow the las couple of hundred meters. Unfortunately, the visibility was not so good (snow), so we couldn´t see much, only the really close mountains. After taking some pictures, we climbed down from the mountain (a lot scarier) back to the camp. As usual, we started cooking our pasta, while 2 meters from us, the ¨chef¨ was making some meat-potato meal for the rich guys, while they drink wine and chat. At some point, we had a full detailed plan, of how we murder them, eat their food and hide their bodies (they won´t be found in a long time) but the plan didn´t get the permission of the parlament so we abandoned it and went to sleep.
Next day was supposed to be very easy - retrace our step back to El Chalten. Or so we thought...The morning was very beautiful. Perfect sky, not a cloud, shame we didn´t have that weather yesterday on the mountain. After walking about an hour, we got separated (Roman was going a lot faster), and then i got the feeling, that the path is not taking me in the right direction. Mefaked toran talked to kzin agam, and the final decision was to cut through the woods to the river (by which we were going all day1) and turn right. Somehow i managed to find (or make) a path between the thick woods, and made it to the river. Roman wasn´t waiting for me at the corner (which is very untypical), but i decided that he´ll probably wait for me in Poincenot, so i continued there. In Poincenot i didn´t find any signs of Roman. Because he´s much faster than me, i decided that he probably waited for me, but because i got lost and it took me an extra hour to get to Poincenot, he continued to El Chalten. Just in case, i waited for him for 45 minutes, and then continued to El Chalten. After arriving in the hostel, i started questioning the receptionist if Roman already came. He told me that he didn´t, so i rented us two beds and went to check if we have a boat, and if Roman is there. The answers to both questions were negative, there was no boat until the 25th, and Roman didn´t pass by. I went back to the hostel, and started waiting for him. When the sun was starting to set, i decided it´s time to call the cavalry (the guardiaparque) to look for him. I made only 100 steps from the hostel, when i suddenly saw in the twihlights a familiar figure. It turned out that Roman got lost more than me, and that he was running around the parque trying to find the correct entrance from the private property part of the trek. When he finally entered the parque, he assumed that i´d wait for him in Chalten, and made another 2 hours side trip.
After all these nerves, we decided not to cook this evening and went to make some restaurant owner happy. Because we didn´t want to wait a week until the 25th, we decided to change the boat plan and go north until Lago General Carrera, buy there bycicles, and go south on the carretera. We bought ourselves the last two seats on the last bus from Chalten to Los Antiguos (on the shores of Lago Buenos Aires - the argentinian name for Lago General Carrera) - else we would have returned to El Calafate, made another day trip to Laguna Torre - a very nice lake underneath the Cerro Torre, a very beautiful and tecnically hard mountain, and left with peace.

Make love not war,
Vova, Bariloche, Argentina

Back to Argentina or Parque Nacional Los Glacieres, Part I

Hola,

And so, we made it back to Argentina. It was nice, because Puerto Natales is a very grey and windswept city, and finally we saw some sunshine, and people smiling, and stuff is cheap.

The park divides into two major parts: the southern, in which the famous attraction is the glaciar Perito Moreno (or the ¨cracking¨ glaciar), and some more expensive-to-see glaciars and the northern part, with the Fitz Roy mountain. From El Calafate you leave to see Moreno, and from the touristic town of El Chalten you leave for the treks around the mountain.

We didn´t want to spent too much time in El Calafate, so we decided not to tie ourselves with the bus to the glaciar, but to rent a car. We found a british couple that wanted to join us, and that way it turned to be almost the same price as the bus. The car we rented was a Folkswagen Gol. That´s right, Gol, it´s not a typo. That´s what they have here. It´s like Golf, but a little shorter...

Driving to the glaciar (about an hour from the city) reminded me of the racing computer games from the 90s - the road twists and turnes, and in the background you have a static image of mountains.

Finally, after a very beautiful drive, we arrived at the glaciar. It´s really an attraction for old people. You don´t have to do anything, just sit and wait for the stupid glaciar to crack. Luckily we brought food, so we made a little lunch while waiting for a big piece to fall off. It really reminded me of wild west: a bunch of people standing, looking at the glaciar. Who will be the quickest to draw the camera? Aweful. At some point, it got so boring, so we all started taking macro shots of an unlucky caterpillar with the glaciar in the background.

Anyway, when we got sick of it, we returned to the car and drove back just in time to catch the bus to El Chalten.

Who will they meet in El Chalten? Will the mighty Cerro Electrico be conquered by the brave voyagers? Will they return safe from the trek?

All this and more, next time.

Pictures, as usual, by mail.

Vova, Esquel, Argentina

Torres del Paine, part III

Hola guys and girls!
The final chapter of the story.
I believe you are sick of this story (i know i am), so i´ll move on.
Actually, nothing especially interesting happened. We continued to the next camping, it rained like hell, we almost died, mice ate out cookies, met a guy from my hashlama, weather didn´t get any better, finished the trek.
The next day we took a day off (internet and stuff) and then moved on the El Calafate, Argenting.
So expect the next story to deal with Parque Nacional Los Glacieres.
Cheers,
Vova, Esquel, Argentina

Torres Del Paine, part II

I´m back ladies and gentlemen, and so, we have arrived at the Dickson camp by the dickson lake. While sitting and resting on a bench outside the camp keepers´cabin, I looked at the window of the cabin,and suddenly I saw Che Guevara looking back at me. Of course it wasn´t the real Che hiding in the woods of Torres Del Paine park, but it was very close. The whole camping was a very strange place, inhabited by ¨The Dickson Gang¨ how Roman called them. The Gang, consisted of an ärs¨, a ¨kusit¨, Che Guevara and Sancho (know to his family as Iglesio). Very funny guys. There were a couple of australians that came a bit before us, and they didn´t want to pay on the grounds of ¨we-didn´t-know-it´s-a-pay-site¨. So israeli of them. Anyway, by how it looked, we thought the gang was going to kill them. At first, sancho went to persuade them. When he miserably failed, he sent the ars and the kusit (while operating something in the garage that sounded like a chainsaw) who failed also. Finally he fired the dooms day weapon - Che Guevara on a horse. Fun to watch, but nothing came out of it. The australians just didn´t pay. Sancho told the authorities, but we don´t know if they did anything. Next day was avery nasty one. It was supposed to be fairly easy - only 4 hours walk, without much elevation to camping Los Perros (The Dogs). We even though to go see the glaciar Punta Puma, an hour walk from Los Perros. But, someone had other plans. In the morning it started raining. While we were walking in the woods, we didn´t really feel the might of the rain and the winds, because the trees were shielding well, but 30 minutes from the camp, i suddenly felt that i´m about to be ill. Worry not, because i always have in my backpack the perfect kit against all sorts of illness - advil and fine argentinian brandy. Feeling better, i continued walking, and found out that i was only 50 meters before the end of the forest. Coming out of the forest, i suddenly felt the rain and the wind, but after climbing a hill in front of me, i stood up before a nice glaciar, ¨Los Perros¨ and the lake to which it melted (including small icebergs swimming in the lake). Nice view, and i continued to look for the camping. Coming down from the hill, i found myself on a bank of a river, which always pisses me off because everything is rock, and it´s hard to find the trail. Anyway, i continued in the direction i thought was correct, and after 10 minutes walk, i started seeing the path again. After 5 more minutes, i entered the Campamento ¨Los Perros¨.Camping Los Perros, was usually a pay site, but it was abandoned for this season. We armed our tent and went inside to get warm and play cards. This night was one of the worst. Because of the rain, we were cooking in the tent, and the fumes, by morning, made all our stuff wet. Besides, my sleeping bag stopped closing so i was a bit cold all night. Of course, we didn´t go to Punta Puma... The morning surprised us with the pirfect weather to climb the paso John Gardner. Sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky, and so, after breakfast we started our accent. The first part of the accent was through a muddy wood, and we needed to be very creative not to step in the mud, which was up to our knees. After the woods, came the part of the rocks. It was a hard, but very fun accent, with a lot of wind, snow and nice view.Rising to the paso, was (and untill now i think it still is) the most beautiful thing i ever saw. Underneath us, we saw glaciar Grey, like a river of ice, coming out of Campo Grande de Hielo Sur - the largest piece of ice outside the poles. You saw the picture, it´s an amazing view. After smoking a sigaret, and taking a lot of pictures - vova with campo grande de hielo sur in the background, campo grande de hielo sur with vova in the foreground, glaciar grey and us and more - we started the descent. The accent from Perros to the paso was about 650m, and the descent to camping Paso was supposed to be something similar. The first part of the descent was nice - rocks and nice view. But after 15 minutes, we entered the forest and the not-so-fun part of the descent started. All you can see is the stupid woods, and the descent goes on, and on, and on... After a couple of hours, we made it to Campamento Paso. We left our mochilas there, and headed down for the glaciar. After an hour descent we made it to the glaciar - a large and dirty piece of ice, and with that pretty amazing. There was a crack in the ice (10 points to whoever guesses the conotation) and you could see the glacier from inside - gradient colours of blue and white. Amazing. But, after 10 minutes we got bored, and went back up to make food and go to sleep. Next time, i hope i´ll manage to finish this story and move on the Parque Nacional Los Glacieres. But meanwhile, peace out, cska sucks. Vova, Cochrane, Chile. P.S. Pics in the mail

Torres Del Paine, Part I

And so, as i promissed, the story of Torres Del Paine national park.
When we arrived in Puerto Natales, we stayed in a hostel, belogs to a guy called Juan, who basically rules the world. He quickly realized the potential of israeli customers, and learned hebrew. He owns half of Puerto Natales: he has a hostel, an internet cafe, bus agency, money exchange, equipment rental and what not.
The next day, after a korean ¨shakshuka¨ (made by the recepee of Jeehong Chan, a korean guy we met on the bus), we went to a lecture about the park Juan was givving. After the lecture we bought tickets to the park, and went to buy supplies for the trek. As it seemed, Alon and Oron were going to do the W (4 days) trek, while me, Roman, Sarit, Alex and Roee were going on the longer circuit (8 days +-).
The next day, we headed for the park, which was about 2.5 hours bus ride from Puerto Natales. At the entrance to the park, you have to pay 10,000 peso (100 shekels), and of course we saw a lot of israelis trying to get in without paying. It was funny to watch how the ranger spots them one by one and sends them to the booth to pay. After paying for the entrance, we had to pay a 1000 peso more for a minibus to the starting point of the trek.
Anyway, we finally made it to the starting point, and started the accent to the Torreses, which are three granit towers which are very beautifull during sunrise.
After a horrible accent, we finally made it to the first stop - Camping Los Chileanos. From there it was an hour to Camping Los Torres, where we were going to camp and then in the morning climb to the Torreses (another hour, but without the bags). While climbing to Las Torres, I suddenly found myself all alone - Roman and Jay were very quick and were first, I was 10 minutes after them, and the rest were 15 minutes after me. It´s a fun expirience walking in the woods all alone.
After setting the tent, we waited for everyone to arrive, and went to climb the viewpoint on the Torreses. We wanted to see them by day and at sunrise tomorrow. The climb was not easy but fun. A lot of boulders to climb and jump from one another.
After spending half an hour looking at the stupid towers, we went back to the camp to eat. When night fell, we found out that the quantity of stars you can see in the area is phenomenal. I think itñ´s the first time I saw the Milky Way, with the ¨black-spot-center-of-the-galaxy¨ thing.
That evening, we decided to divide differently between the treks. Everyone decided to go to the W, while only me and Roman continued to the full circuit.
The next morning, we woke up at 0530, and headed up for the lookout. The weather was as we ordered, not a cloud in the sky, and we saw the Torreses coulored in yellow, gold, red and every other colour possible. The view was fantastic, a lot better than in the evening.
After breakfast, we headed back to the point where we (me and Roman) were heading left, for the circuit, and the others right for the W. In the middle of the way, we re-divided our food supplies, said goodbye to everyone (we thought we´d probably never see them again) and headed off.
Right in the beginning of our descent, I almost lost my camera. It was connected to the waist belt of my backpack, and when i decided to take off my jacket, i unziped the belt, and the camera fell. The problem was, that it started rolling downhill instead of just falling to the ground as i expected. As a lightning, i ran downhill after the camera trying to catch up with it. At some point, it stopped rolling, and i found it hanging on a rock above a river. Of course i made a ¨taxkir erua¨, made a ¨vaadat xakira¨ headed by two 1st leutenants and the ¨maskanot¨ were to ¨leshapzer¨ the camera to the bag with another rope, which i did.
That day, we were supposed to go until Campamento Seron, about 4 hours walk from the place we started the trek, so after we returned to the beginning point, we had lunch and headed to Seron. The rest of the trip to Seron went without too much adventures. Near the camping, we were passing through a very beautifull valley. A valley like all others, but somehow the contrast of colours between the trees, the plants and the mountains wes very beautifull.
When we arrived at Seron, we found out that it´s a camping you need to pay 3500 peso to put a tent. To give a point of reference, in Puerto Natales, it costs 2500 peso for a bed in a room with a bathroom. Bu we were already used to Chilean goverment robbing us so we payed, made our tent, and started cooking dinner.
Next day, we were planning to walk 6 hours to the next camping (Lago Dickson), and eat lunch in the middle, where it was supposed to be another camping. After walking 3 hours, then 4, then 4.5, i started worrying about that camp and our lunch. It appears, they decided to close that camp so there wasn´t anything between Seron and Dickson. At that point, i was walking of food fumes, and everyting around me looked very tasty - the grass, the trees, the frogs... Finally we made a stop and ate, only an hour walk from Dickson lake. Dickson lake lies in a Beautifull valley (with a capital B). There´s the lake, and a peninsula which is making a smaller lake connected to the larger lake, and a river flowing out from the lake. To sum up, there was a huge glacier hanging above the lake. Awesome view. The camp was located on that peninsula.
That´s all for now, next time:
Who were the Dickson Gang? Is Che Guevara alive? Will they make it up the Paso John Gardner? Wait and you´ll find out. :)

Cheers,
Vova, El Chalten, Argentina.

P.S: as usual, i´ll send pics by mail.