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Days 325 - 327
December 15th 2010 - December 17th 2010 Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine National Park We drove from El Calafate to Puerto Natales, It wasn't a long drive but we had to go through the border to Chile again. This time everything went fast and smooth. Customs didn't even check for "contraband honey".... We drove to Puerto Natales not because it is the most amazing city in Chile but because our pantry was empty. We needed to find a supermarket. We spent the night in Natales and drove to the Torres del Paine the day after. There we met Olaf and Christiane again, and their son was happy to see Marissa again. Marissa was thrilled, too. Torres del Paine National Park (Parque Nacional Torres del Paine) is a national park encompassing mountains, a glacier, a lake, and river-rich areas in southern Chilean Patagonia. The Cordillera del Paine is the centerpiece of the park. It lies in a transition area between the Magellanic subpolar forests and the Patagonian Steppes. The park is located 112 km (70 mi) north of Puerto Natales and 312 km (194 mi) north of Punta Arenas. Bernardo O'Higgins National Park is its neighbour to the west, while Los Glaciares National Park is located to the north in Argentine territory.  The landscape of the park is dominated by the Paine massif, which is an eastern spur of the Andes located on the east side of the Grey Glacier, rising dramatically above the Patagonian steppe. Small valleys separate the spectacular granite spires and mountains of the massif. These are: Valle del Francés (French Valley), Valle Bader, Valle Ascencio, and Valle del Silencio (Silence Valley). The head of French Valley is a cirque formed by impressive cliffs. To west rise abruptly the colossal walls of Cerro Cota 2000 and Cerro Catedral. Cerro Cota 2000 is named for its elevation; its highest contour line is about 2,000 m (6,562 ft). Cerro Catedral is named so because its east face resembles a cathedral's facade. To the north stands the granite arête called Aleta de Tiburón (English: Shark's Fin). To the east, from north to south, lie the peaks Fortaleza (Fortress), La Espada (The Sword), La Hoja (The Blade), La Máscara (The Mummer), Cuerno Norte (North Horn), and Cuerno Principal (Main Horn).  The Southern Patagonian Ice Field mantles a great portion of the park. Glaciers include the Dickson, the Grey, and the Tyndall. Among the lakes are the Dickson Lake, Nordenskjöld Lake, Pehoe Lake, Grey Lake, Sarmiento Lake, and Del Toro Lake. Only a portion of the latter is within the borders of the park. All are vividly colored, most due to rock flour suspended in their waters. The main river flowing through the park is Paine River. Most of the rivers and lakes of the park drain into Última Esperanza Sound via Serrano River.Guanacos are one of the most common mammals found in the park. Other mammals include cougars and foxes. It is also home to the endangered Chilean Huemul. The park contains breeding populations of 15 bird of prey species. and two others are likely reproducing here. Among them are Andean Condor, Black-chested Buzzard-eagle, Rufous-tailed Hawk, Cinereous Harrier, Chimango Caracara, Magellanic Horned Owl, Austral Pygmy-owl, to name but a few. Other birds occurring in the park include the Chilean Flamingo, Darwin's Rhea, Coscoroba Swan, Black-necked Swan, Magellanic Woodpecker, Magellan Goose and Black-faced Ibis.  Guanaco Torres del Paine is a amazing Park. Unfortunately the weather didn't play along. We had snow, rain, sun and lots of wind all in the same day. We couldn't really hike a lot and the park is best discovered by hiking. After one night in the park we drove back to Puerto Natales and just after we reached the city we heard a "thump thump" noise from the rear. I got out of the truck and found our first flat tire of the entire trip. I was going pretty fast on the bumpy gravel roads in the National Park and a stone punctured the right rear tire. I used our compressor to fill the tire with air again and with the help of a taxi driver we found a "Gomeria". That's a place where they fix flat tires. We were surprised how fast the guy worked. 6 Dollar and 20 minutes later we were ready to go again. Thanks to "El Gringo" Gomeria. We spent another night at a campground in Natales and left for Argentina early next morning. Argentina Days 312 - 318 December 2nd 2010 - December 8th 2010 Puerto Montt - Chaiten - Parque Nacional Queulat - Coihaique - Puerto Tranquillo - Chile Chico (Carretera Austral) Today we took the ferry from Puerto Montt to Chaiten. The ferry left at 7pm and drove through the night. We arrived in Chaiten at 8am the next day. The town was evacuated in May 2008 when the Chaitén volcano erupted for the first time in more than 9,000 years. The eruption, which commenced May 2, became more violent on May 5,throwing up a high plume of ash and sulfurous steam that rose to 19 miles (31 km), from which ashfall drifted across Patagonia, and over the Atlantic Ocean.  After Chaiten the Carretera Austral becomes a gravel road and the landscape becomes amazingly beautiful.  There is not a lot of traffic and sometimes hours pass without any other car on the road. Sometimes the "Highway" turns in a narrow one lane road. Our first stop was the Parque Nacional Queulat, famous for its hanging glacier. We camped inside the park and all we saw were low hanging clouds and rain. The next morning was a lot better. A little sunshine. We decided to go for a 3 hour hike to see the Hanging Glacier up close. It was a tough hike as it was going uphill all the time and with Marissa on our backs it felt even steeper. But the work was worth it. We had a nice view of the glacier and the sound and sight of the ice falling down into the river was amazing. After two nights in the park we moved on south to Coihaique. With 40000 inhabitants Coihaique is the biggest town along the Carretera Austral. At the campground we met Olaf and Christiane from Germany, traveling with their three year old son Wim. Marissa finally found a friend on this trip. Initially we had planned to take the ferry from Puerto Ibanez to Chile Chico in order to save some time. But the ferry was sold out well in advance so we had to drive around the Lake General Carrera to get to Chile Chico and the border with Argentina. Wow - we would've missed the most beautiful landscape if we would've taken the ferry. The lake has a surface of 1,850 km² of which 970 km² are in the Chilean Aisén Region, and 880 km² to the Argentine Santa Cruz Province, which makes it the biggest lake in Chile, the second biggest in South America and the fourth largest in Argentina. In its Western basin, Lake Gen. Carrera has 586 m maximum depth  The weather in this area of Chile and Argentina is generally cold and humid. But the lake itself has a sunny microclimate, a weather pattern enjoyed by the few settlements along the lake, such as Puerto Ingeniero Ibáñez and Chile Chico in Chile, and Los Antiguos and Perito Moreno in Argentina. The area near the coast of the lake was first inhabited by criollos and European immigrants between 1900 and 1925. In 1971 and 1991, eruptions of the Hudson Volcano severely affected the local economy, especially that of sheep farming. The Argentine side of the lake is relatively easy to access, through strip of plains that was first used by the Tehuelches, and then by explorer Francisco Moreno. The National Route 40, created in the 1920s, also makes uses of it. The Chilean side of the lake has been mostly isolated, and was for years accessed through Argentina, until the creation in the 1990s of the Carretera Austral, which connected it to the rest of Chile. Somewhere south of Rio Tranquillo a car passed us and a couple of miles later the driver got out of his SUV and signaled us to stop. We did and that's how we met Fred from New York City. Fred is in his sixties and used to live in the middle of Manhattan. He worked at Wall Street "until he got disgusted by it". Six years ago he and his wife Temuco moved to the middle of nowhere. After we chatted for a while he invited us to visit them in their house, about 3 hours south from where we met. We had other plans so we told Fred that we would stop by in the next couple of days. That night we camped in Rio Tranquillo and the campground got the 1st prize for cleanest and best bathrooms on this trip. It was almost like home when Mum was still cleaning your bathroom... Early next morning we took a small boat to see the "Catedral del Marmol", which is basically some marble rocks with caves. It was great. High winds and a rough lake made the trip rather difficult but we still enjoyed the "Cathedral" We got back around 10 am and got back on the road towards Chile Chico and the border to Argentina. When we passed Kilometer Marker 273 I noticed a small cardboard sign. I stopped and backed up. The sign read "NY here". Must've been Fred. We took the turn off and drove 2 miles to the beautiful house Fred and his wife now own. They invited us in. Knowing where they used to live and seeing where and how they live now was amazing. Fred used to live on 38th Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan. You can find everything from Hardware Stores to Sushi Restaurants within a 1 mile radius. Here in Chile there is nothing in a 50 miles radius. They just build an oven in their backyard to bake bread and pizza. They have 200 sheep, hundreds of rabbits and five cows. When we met Fred on the road he just got back from a friend and had two dead pigs on the bed of his truck. There is more or less reliable electricity and satellite communication. But the location and the view of the lake and mountains is beautiful. They served us coffee and noodle soup and we chatted for a couple of hours before we hit the road again. We reached Chile Chico in the early evening. On the campground we met a Canadian guy who rode his bicycle all the way from Canada down to Chile. We also met Franziska, a girl from Berlin traveling by herself. She was riding her bike, too, but left it somewhere else and switched to hitchhiking, which is easy and safe in Chile and Argentina. Chile Chico was the end of the Carretera Austral for us. We enjoyed every minute of it. At first we were skeptical if we should do it. We heard horror stories about flat tires, broken headlamps and windshields or worse. It would've been not so nice if the road was paved. It looks like the entire road will be paved in a couple of years and we travelers will loose yet another adventure. The magic of the Carretera will go away. There are already paved parts and it's just not the same. But I guess for the sake of the "average tourist" it has to be done.... Argentina Days 295 - 311 November 15th 2010 - December 1st 2010 Santiago/Isla de Maipo - Villarrica - Pucon - Ensenada/Lago Llanquihue Once again our brakes had to work hard. We had to go from about 10000ft at the border to about 0 ft in Santiago. The only reason to go to Santiago is their shopping malls. We liked Santiago very much when we visited it six years ago. But it's a big city and that is not really fun in a big camper. We found a campground about 20 miles south of the City. From there we went to the Mall and found everything for Marissa's Christmas. Ooops..of course we did not find or buy anything. Santa did... After we gave Santa the shopping list we drove further south to Villarrica. We've been to Villarrica in 2005 and loved it. Back then we climbed the snow-covered Villarrica, one of Chile's most active volcanoes and had a ball... The volcano rises about 9000 ft above the lake and town of the same name. The volcano is also known as Rucapillán, a Mapuche word meaning "House of the Pillán". It is the westernmost of three large stratovolcanoes that trend perpendicular to the Andean chain along the Gastre Fault. Villarrica, along with Quetrupillán and the Chilean portion of Lanín, are protected within Villarrica National Park.  Villarrica was founded as Santa María Magdalena de Villa Rica in 1552 by Jerónimo de Alderete. Abandoned after his death in 1554, it was refounded five years later by García Hurtado de Mendoza. It grew into a small city, despite suffering destruction by a great earthquake on December 16, 1575. It had opened communications with Buenos Aires in its last years. Following the Battle of Curalaba in the Arauco War, the last Spanish city to the south of the Bío Bío River was destroyed after a three-year-long siege, surrendering on February 7, 1603. Before its destruction it had more than 600 Spanish inhabitants, not counting its Indian servants. At its surrender only 11 men and 13 women were taken captive. The city was refounded on the site of the old city in the 1880s during the occupation of Araucanía. The population in 2002 was 45,531. Population growth and economic development has increased, due to a global reputation as a tourist destination for nature lovers, summer recreation and winter sports enthusiasts, and to purchase vacation/second-homes by European and American expatriates. After the city's refounding, the Chilean government established a land sale program to encourage settlement and invited European, esp. Swiss, German and Austrian immigrants in the last half of the 19th century to populate an area previously under control of the indigenous Mapuche. Every August 1, Swiss National Day festivities are observed in the old city to commemorate the Germanic roots of Villarricanos. Also in large numbers are descendants of Basque, Dutch, British, Scandinavian, Italian and Greek immigrants.  Last time the weather was great in Villarrica. Not this time. Three days of rain. We didn't do a lot. Just some walks through town and then back to the cup of tea in the camper. At least we got some support. Another German couple from Tuebingen (about 50 miles south of our hometown) arrived. We already saw their blue bus in Humberstone, Chile. They invited us to a glass of wine and Pisco into their camper and we chatted the evening away. Carsten and Ulla left the next morning and we "tried" to leave, too. We parked on grass and because of the nonstop rain the grass was wet and the sod and dirt very slippery and deep. We were stuck. The rear wheels buried almost half in heavy, wet dirt. Well, we haven't used our folding shovel, yet. This was our chance...The owner of the campground brought some other tools and helped me. After about 4 hours we were about to give up, when some students and their teacher arrived. They were on an excursion and stopped at this campground to spent the night. All the male students, the teacher "el profesor" and the bus driver where summoned to "dig, push, and get dirty Duty" by the owner of the campground. With their help we finally made it out of the hole after 5 hours. Of course we did stay another night since it was late afternoon already. The owner of the campground was pretty cool about the fact that I had "destroyed" a nice part of his campground. He was happy about the wine, though. The next morning we drove on to Pucon, 15 miles south. But we didn't get rid of the bad weather. We stayed for one night and moved on towards Puerto Montt. The Plan is to take on Carretera Austral from Puerto Montt. The Carretera Austral (CH-7), formerly known as Carretera General Augusto Pinochet, is the name given to Chile's Route 7. The highway runs about 770 miles from Puerto Montt to Villa O'Higgins through rural Patagonia. Carretera Austral provides road access to Chile's Aisén Region and southern part of Los Lagos Region. These areas are sparsely populated and despite its length, Carretera Austral provides access to only about 100,000 people. South of the highway's start in Puerto Montt, Coyhaique (population 44,850 is the largest city along it. Construction begun on the highway in 1976 under the presidency of Augusto Pinochet in order to connect a number of the remote communities. Before that, in 1950s and 1970s, there had been unsuccessful attempts to build access roads in the region. It is among the most ambitious instrastructure projects developed in Chile during the XX Century. Carretera Austral has a strategic meaning due to the difficult access by land to a significant portion of Chile's southern territory. This area is characterized by thick forests, fjords, glaciers, canals and steep mountains. Access by sea and air is also a complex task due to extreme winter weather conditions. For decades, most of the land transportation had to cross the border to Argentina in order to reach again Chile's Patagonia. These difficulties were deepened during the 1970's due to the Beagle Conflict crisis. In order to strengthen the Chilean presence in these isolated territories and ensure the land connection to the rest of the country, the government planned the construction of this road, which was executed by the Chilean Army's Engineering Command. More than 10,000 soldiers worked in its construction. Many of them lost their lives during this effort. The highway opened to traffic in 1988, and by 1996 was completed to Puerto Yungay. The last 100 kilometers (62 miles) to Villa O'Higgins were opened in 2000. In 2003, a branch road to Caleta Tortel was finished. More about the Carretera as soon as we are there. This and the fact that we needed some work done on our car were the only reasons for us to go to Puerto Montt. We've been here before and it is not the nicest city in Chile. We found a Ford Dealer and they were able to fix most of our problems. It took them almost a week, but hey - this is not NY, right. The Carretera Austral goes through a lot of fjords and bays. Therefore we need to take a ferry to get all the way down. We booked one for December 2nd as all the earlier crossing where already booked. After all this "work" was done we took some time to enjoy the beautiful landscape. We camped at a campground at Lake Llanguihue. How to pronounce that? I give you some help. There is a Lodge in town. The owner named this lodge "Yankee Way" . That is the Chilean way to make fun about the Spanish of us Gringos.  We hiked a little, visited Lago Todos del Santos and drove around the lake. Llanquihue Lake is the second largest lake in Chile with an area of about 330 square miles. The lake's spectacular views of Volcán Osorno make the surrounding cities such as Puerto Varas beautiful places to visit. We were running out of Propane. Not good. We heard there is snow further south. We thought that we could fill our bottle in Puerto Montt but we where told that they only sell bottles. If we want to fill our bottle we had to drive to Osorno - about 80 miles north. 160 miles for 20 lbs of Propane? We didn;t have a choice so we drove. Tomorrow our adventure "Carretera Austral will begin. Days 270 - 279 October 22nd 2010 - October 30th 2010 Arica - Iquique - San Pedro de Atacama On October 22nd 2010 we crossed the border from Peru to Chile. The border crossing to Chile was already a pain in the a.. six years ago. And back then we didn't travel with our own vehicle. So we knew that it wouldn't be easy. The first part - getting our passports stamped - was easy. Then I had to find someone from Customs to get the paperwork for the car done. Either my spanish is that bad or they didn't care. It took a while and five customs officials to get the temporary import permit done. No was time for the grand finale. The check for fruits, vegetables, milk products and other stuff like honey or fresh meat. Chile doesn't want anybody to bring stuff like that into the country. I filled out the customs form and checked "Nothing to declare". After that a inspector - climbed into our camper and began the search for "contraband". He opened several cabinets but didn't see the old onions nor the honey from Guatemala - the half oz left in the bottle. After his search he asked me whether I was bringing veggies, fruit or honey into the country. Of course I was and I told him. With my help he found the onions and the honey. He confiscated the items and since I checked "nothing to declare" on the customs form, I had to fill out a new one. After all that we were allowed to move on and we drove 8 miles to the town of Arica, where we spent the night on a campground close to the ocean.
The campground we stayed on last night was probably the safest place in town as the local police force had a party there. We knew that Chile would be a little bit more expensive than Peru or Ecuador but $ 30 for a night on the campground? We moved to the beach, half a mile south. Free, nice breeze, nice neighbors and no noise - only the ocean. If you've never been to South America you need to know that the latinos always find a reason to party. They fire up the grill, plug in the biggest stereo the Peso can buy. Throw in a couple of barking dogs and some roosters you can imagine the "quiet nights" in South America. It was nice to get away from that by moving to the beach. We met some other travelers there. A dutch guy and Norbert and his wife (www.sparrow-live.de) from Germany. From Arica we moved on to Iquique where we stayed at a Paragliding School with a wonderful view of the ocean. We met the two Globetrotter Augsburger Weltenbummler Horst and Gerlinde from Germany. Both over 70 but fit as a Nike Sneaker. We visited the besichtigen the saltpeter refinery Humberstone. Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works are two former saltpeter refineries located in northern Chile. They were declared a
Humberstone and Santa Laura are located 48 km east of the city of Iquique in the Atacama Desert in the Region of Tarapacá in northern Chile. Other saltpeter works or "nitrate towns" include Chacabuco, Maria Elena, Pedro de Valdivia, Puelma and Aguas Santas among many others. Chacabuco is a special case since it was also used as a concentration camp during Pinochet's regime, and to this day remains surrounded by lost landmines. In 1872, the Guillermo Wendell Nitrate Extraction Company founded the saltpeter works of Santa Laura, while the region was still a part of Peru. In the same year, James Thomas Humberstone founded the "Peru Nitrate Company", establishing the works of "La Palma". Both works grew quickly, becoming busy towns characterized by lovely buildings in the English style. While La Palma became one of the largest saltpeter extractors of the whole region, Santa Laura did not do well, as production was low. It was taken over in 1902 by the Tamarugal Nitrate Company. In 1913 Santa Laura halted its production until the Shanks extraction process was introduced, which enhanced productivity. However the economic model collapsed during the Great Depression of 1929 because of the development of the synthesis of ammonia by the Germans Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, which led to the industrial production of fertilizers. Practically bankrupt, both works were acquired by COSATAN (Compañía Salitrera de Tarapacá y Antofagasta) in 1934. COSATAN renamed La Palma into "Oficina Santiago Humberstone" in honor of its founder. The company tried to produce a competitive natural saltpeter by modernizing Humberstone, which led to its becoming the most successful saltpeter works in 1940. Both works were abandoned in 1960 after the rapid decline that caused COSATAN to disappear in 1958. In 1970, after becoming ghost towns, they were declared national monuments and opened to tourism. In 2005 they were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. From the ocean in Iquique we drove hundreds and hundreds of miles into the Atacama Desert. We've been hier six years ago and not much has changed since. They have an ATM now.... We had a lot of fun on daytrips to lagoons in the area and the "Valle de la Luna" (Valley of the moon)
Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) is located 13 kilometres (8 mi) west of San Pedro in the Cordillera de la Sal, in the In Valle de la Luna, there are dry lakes where the composition of salt makes a white covering layer of the area. It presents diverse saline outcrops which appear like man-made sculptures. There are also a great variety of caverns. Valle de la Luna is a part of the
After three days in San Pedro de Atacama we crossed the border to Argentina for the first time. That's gonna happen a lot in the next couple of weeks. We are going to "zig-zag" our way down to Tierra de Fuego so you have to jump back and forth between the reports for Chile and Argentina. Initially we wanted to drive from San Pedro de Atacama all the way to Salta in Argentina. But I had such a bad headache that we had to stop about 2 hours north of Salta in a small and beautiful village. Must've been the side effects of the high altitude. We crossed the Andes Mountains on the Paso de Jama and the highest point was on 15748 ft.
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