Sky and Sand @ Atacama

Calama - Mine del Cubre
I made my way up from Santiago to the driest dessert in the world, the Atacama-dessert.
There I visited Calama, a town where you can hardly find any tourist. Except of the biggest open pit
mine in the world there is nothing to do there...
It is a copper mine, runned by a company called CODELCO NORTE which offers free tours to the mine. And the dimensions of this mine is amazing, 6km long, 3km wide and almost 1km deep.
The biggest hole ever created by human hand in the world.

 Also the 86 trucks, which have a weight of 20t each and carrying 360t raw material per ride, are gigantic. One wheel of this monsters has a diameter of 4m and costs about 15000€. They are all day in use, making 500km a day. The costs are enormous, with one liter of fuel this trucks can just run 250m!!

The copper content is just 1% so the most of the rock is just "waste" and need to be dumped somewhere. Because of the immense costs to run the trucks this place should be as close as possible to the mines. And that's why Cuquicamata, the town next to the mines was resolved and is now a ghost-town, slowly vanishing under a lot of dumped rocks...
CODELCO tells you that the people where happy do leave and it is unhealthy to live next to the mines, but for me it is clear that it was just strategic. It was the cheapest way to get rid of the rocks and it is always a question of money. Who wants to leave his hometown voluntarily and why are there a lots of patrols making sure this town remains to be a ghost-town??

San Pedro the Atacama
Spent one day in San Pedro the Atacama and visited the geysers "El Tatio". They are on the foot of the "El Tatio" volcano at about 4300m altitude. It was very early in the morning and freezing cold (-20°C). But that's when you can see the hot steam of the geysers best. After a breakfast where we used the hot water to boil our eggs we went for a warm bath in one of the hot springs. On the way back we visited some lagoons with different kind of wild life (ducks, flamingos, guanackos).

Back in San Pedro I rented a bike and a board and went for "Sand boarding". If you know how to Snowboard than Sand boarding is also not difficult...
It was great fun and I saved a lot of money by doing it on my own instead of booking a tour.
Hardly anywhere in the world you can see more stars and the milky-way so clear than in the Atacama dessert. In the night I spent a while and just stared at the night sky. It was indescribable, you have to be there on your own to know what I mean... =)

On the Carretera Austral and the lake district

Spent the last couple of days in central Patagonia in a city called Coyhaique and the last 2 days in Puerto Varas, which is in the lake district of Chile.
Here in Patagonia you can already feel that the summer is ending, the leafs are changing their colours and it is freezing cold during the night...

Coyhaique as base in Central Patagonia
Once we arrived in Coyhaique Derek and me stayed on night in a hostel, dropped our stuff there and headed out on the next day to the Cerro Castillo national park. We camped there for two days and did the hike from "Las Horquetas" to "Villa Cerro Castillo".
Because of the bad connections (hitch-hiking did not work...) to the trail-head, we stared hiking very late, at 6pm. So after two hours we had to turn on our headlamps and after a long walk in the dark spooky forest we arrived at the camp side.
On the next day Derek and me did a pretty long hike, up to two passes we arrived totally exhausted at the camp side for the second night. But the views on this day were amazing. Glaciers, waterfalls, snowfields, colourful forests, emerald lakes are just a few of them to be mentioned...
On the morning of the third day we finished the trail, arrived in Villa Cerro Castillo and caught a ride back to Coyhaique, which was pretty easy that time... :-)

The marble caves in Puerto Rio Tranquillo
On the next day after the hike in Cerro Castillo, we took a bus to Puerto Rio Tranquillo on the General Carrera lake. There are marble caves in the lake, which can be visited by boat. Other than that is nothing to do there. And that's why Puerto Rio Tranquillo is not more than a small little village but surrounded by amazing landscapes.
A little bit out of town is a small Kayak-rental. Rented one and explored the caves called "Catedral de marmol" on my own. It was totally worth it, although when the water was freezing cold. With my small boat i could get into the caves where the bigger tourist ships could not enter. And this caves were really amazing... :-)

Animal cruelty and the ferry-ride to Puerto Montt
Back in Coyhaique I took the ferry from the close Puerto Chacabuco to Puerto Montt. The ride took 24 hours and was along the pacific coast of the Chilean Patagonia. During the day we had some nice views of the coast and its mountains.
Unfortunately I kept this boat trip not in good memory. Because there was also a truck stuffed with cows on it. (Imagine about 50 cows on one single truck!!) They could not move and if a cow would lay down the others would trampled it. That's why guys with long rods gave the cows electric shocks that they stayed awake. During the night when I was trying to sleep, I could hear the painful screams of those poor animals...

Back in Germany? - Puerto Varas
Stayed one night in Puerto Montt and made my way to Puerto Varas on the lake Tranquilla.
This town was once founded by German settlers. And today you can still see the German influence. Some houses were built in typical old German style, there is a "Club Aleman" and the church is more or less a copy of the "Marienkirche" in the black forest province of Germany.
Next to the lake are some volcanoes and I did a hike up to volcano "Osorno". But to reach the top you need a guide and special ice climbing equipment... So I just hiked as far as possible up the volcano on the "Desolacion"-pass which is in between the volcano and "Cerro La Picada" moutain. The weather on that day was awfully, it was very windy, rainy, cold and you could not see more than 20 meters...

The "monument" which should not be found
Maybe you will ask yourself why on earth I did this hike by that bad conditions?
Well, here is the story:
I met an Austrian guy (Arvid) who runs a hostel in town and he gave me the idea to do that hike.
He said to me, that he build a man out of stone on the top of the pass. And that nobody ever had made his way to this stone-guy to take a picture. He explained me the way to get there, as his "monument" is not next to the trail, you have to leave the trail and hike along some steep cliff for 30 minutes...
While Arvid was talking I already thought, Raphi, you will take a picture of this fu..ing stone figure and bring it to him! And that was the only reason why I hiked up the pass. Not for the view (which did not exist on that day), not for the nice hiking trail on volcano-stones, the only reason for me was to just take a picture of that figure...
After 3h hiking, totally wet and freezing I think I was on the point Arvid described me, but never found "Stony"...
I finally made my way down to the valley and walked back along the emerald lake "Todos los santos". There it stopped raining for a few minutes and I could at least enjoy the last bit of my hike along the lake...
I once saw a nice little slogan, which does fit here: "Well, if you think I am crazy it is not really my problem..." :-)

Quarter of a hundred in the capital
On this day I made my decision to skip the rest of the lake district and visit northern Chile and Bolivia instead.
Right now I am in Santiago, peacefully and quite celebrating my birthday with my 2 new friends "cheap piece of cake from the supermarket" and "bottle of vino tinto". Lets see who else will be joining... :-)
By the way, thanks to everybody who think about me on this day!! Really appreciate that!!

I will head north to the Atacama dessert and Bolivia in the next days. There the weather is warmer and dryer than down in Patagonia right now... ;-)
Bolivia take care, I am coming!! Yess!!! :-)

In Argentinas "hiking-mecca"

Until we arrived in el Chalten the weather there was awful. And then suddenly sunny nice warm days were for casted. It was some kind of destiny or just luck, but Derek and me decided to take use of it and camp for two days in the Los Glaciares national park:

Fitz Roy
After a 4h hike we arrived at camp "Poincenot" on the foot of mount Fitz Roy. The trail to the camp side was already amazing with nice views of Fitz Roy, Poincenot and all other surrounding mountains...

Once we set up our tents we decided to hike up to the viewpoint of Fitz Roy. It was a pretty narrow an icy path, but once you made it, you stand in front of a small alpine lake with the Fitz Roy mountain range in the background, all covered in snow. Simply too beautiful to be true... :-)
The highlight was the sunrise on the next morning. The peak of Fitz Roy was covered in red sunlight from the first sun-rays of the day. We were stoned by this scene and decided to hike up again. And up there we were almost the only ones. It was so quite and peaceful and we just stopped and stared at the landscapes for more than 2 hours...

In the afternoon we hiked to the camp side "De Agostini", next to the Cerro Torre mountain and set our camp up there.


Cerro Torre
We got up very early so see the sunrise and how the first sun-rays of the day striked the peak of Cerro Torre. It was very spectacular but fu**ing cold. Again we stood at the shore of a small alpine lake and were watching the Cerro Torre and its glacier on the other side of the lake. Occasionally an iceberg calved into the lake and were swimming to the shore next to us.

We relaxed till noon, did some small side trek to a viewpoint and made our way back to Chalten in the afternoon.
In the evening we joined the national trekking festival in town. It is every march and commemorates the first attempt to climb Fitz Roy mountain. A Chilean band were playing in the gym of the school for free, was pretty nice.


Loma del Pliegue Tumbado:
On our last day in Chalten we made a day-hike to the viewpoint "Loma del Pliegue Tumbado".
We climbed a small mountain next to the viewpoint, where an unofficial trail leads to the top.
From there we had an amazing view of all surrounding mountains of Chalten, Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre inclusive.

 
Every now and then we saw condors gliding on the steep mountain sides, using the thermal winds to getting high in the air. Sometimes they passed us very close and this birds are huge man...!!
Back in Chalten we took the night bus to Los Argentinos, which is on the border to Chile.

My further plans are making my way up to Puerto Montt and Bariloche in the lake district.
Visit some more national parks on my way up, climb a vulcano or do some wild water rafting... :-)

At Perito Moreno glacier

Spent two days in El Calafate in Argentina to see the famous Perito Moreno glacier, which is 78km away. El Calafate is a typical touristy town with one big main street where lots of restaurants, souvenir shops and tour agencies are located. But once you left El Calafate on the way to the glacier you are in the wilderness of Patagonia in the Los Glaciares national park... :-)
The Perito Moreno glacier is located at the lake Argentino, is one of the less glaciers which is still expanding and is about 75 meters high! Fu^^ing amazing, eh?
Sometimes it can happen that the glacier totally splits the lake Argentino into two lakes. Then the difference of the water-levels between the two "lakes" can reach up to 30 meters, until the pressure of the water is so high that the ice finally breaks and the 2 lakes reunite to lake Argentino. This phenom happens all 4-5 years and the last one was 2012.
When Derek and me arrived at the glacier, unfortunately the weather was awful. It was raining and freezing cold. But because of the rain I think we could see more often than usual big parts of the glacier calving into the lake...

You also have options to do some ferry ride or some trekking on the glacier. But both options were too expensive for poor backpackers like us, so we did the free boardwalk instead.
It was damn amazing and the boardwalk, to be honest, takes you closer to the glacier than the ferry ever can do. (And who wants to hike on the slippery icy glacier surface on this rainy and cold day...?) :-)

In the evening I went out with 3 girls and had an amazing lamb with red wine for dinner. And guess what, as desert I had a lamb-cake filled with lamb meat. Tasted very weird, sweet and salty at the same time...

The waitress was pretty surprised that I ate the whole cake. She told us afterwards that this cake is normally ordered, tasted, decided as "not eat-able" and left over... :-)

On the next day I made my way to El Chalten, which is said to be the "hiking-Mekka" of Argentia...

Torres del Paine trail

Returned from the famous Torres del Paine hike, located on the Chilean side of Patagonia.
Did the "Q", which is the longest hiking route with about 130km in this park.
Before I started hiking I went to the free 3-o-clock-talk @ Basecamp next to erratic rock hostel.
There you get a bunch of information about the trail, what to bring, the possible trails in the park, how to get there and the available camp sides and Refugios. It is totally worth it to go to the talk because you also meet other hikers who want to do the trail and if you keep asking around you will find someone who wants to do exactly the same route like you. So I met Derek, a guy from the USA and we did the hike together...




On the first day we had awesome weather and started hiking around noon from the bus stop at "Administation" to "Campamento Italiano", 24km away from the trail-head. It was pretty tough and we hiked for 8 hours but we passed some really nice view-points, where you can see the emerald colored lakes and snow covered mountains of the national park.

In the morning of the next day we hiked with our day packs into the valley "Frances" and "Britanico", then back to "Italiano". There we shoulder our big backpacks and headed to "Campamento Los Cuernos". During the night it started heavy raining, and on the next morning we packed our wet stuff and started our hike through the rain and heavy wind to "Campameneto Torres".

But we did not make it to "Torres", because half way up to the camp side we heard that it was closed due to bad weather. So our only option was going down the valley and stay at the camp side "Las Torres" at the foot of the mountains next to the the only hotel in the park.
From the sunny camp side there, we could see the famous Torres-mountains covered in dark rainy clouds. Those mountains are the highlight of the park and we really wanted to see them, so we spent one more day at the camp, waiting for better weather. During that time we met another couple from USA (Chris and Trisha). We spent the rainy day together in the hotel next to the camp side, playing cards, domino and drinking red red wine... :-)

On the 4th day the weather was getting better, so we decided to hike up to the towers. When we arrived there, they were covered in fog and clouds, so that you barely can not see them... We were very upset and already made plans how to get back here on another day, as suddenly the sun burned through, the fog vanished and it became a very nice day. And then we could see the mountains and it was amazing. I can not really describe it, you simple have to be there on your own! :-)
On the same day Derek, Chris and me hiked to "Campamento Seron," which is already on the backside of the mountains.
For me this was the nicest part of the whole trail, because you hike through a spectacular lost valley (like in a fairy tale) with rivers forests and mountains in the background.

 
On the 5th day we were again lucky with the weather. It was very sunny and you could hike in short pants and shirts. It was a very nice hike along the Rio Paine to "Campamento Dickson". Which is located next to Lago Dickson, where you can see a glacier coming all way down from the mountains to the lake. Every now and then small icebergs passes by the camp going down the Rio Paine. Looks very spectacular!! :-)

On the next day two girls from Denmark (Heidi and Line) joined us and together we headed to "Campamento Los Perros" on the foot of the John Gardener Pass, which we had to pass on the next day. It was a pretty relaxing hike, so that we could rest for the next day...
But the camp side was very muddy and it was pretty cold on that day. We made a small fire
in the Refugio, dried our wet clothes, warmed up a little bit and played again cards... ;-)

I remember asking Chris on the next morning if it is raining outside and he responds, "No, not raining but snowing!". I got out of my tent and saw a winter-wonderland. During the night it snowed a lot and our tents were covered in snow. On this very cold morning we packed our stuff and together with a guide we made our way to the John Gardener Pass.
Because we were a big group of hikers, we were very slowly and at one point somewhere on the way up, we left our group to find the way over the pass by our own. It was a very cool experience. Due to the lots of snow and very strong wind you barely can not see where the trail is going to and you have to cross icy rivers and big snow fields...
Somehow we made it over the pass and on the top we had an amazing view of the glacier "Grey", spreading down in the valley in front of us. It looked very bizarre, like a big frozen ocean...
Without waiting for the rest of the group we went down to the valley and slowly the snowfields turns into green forests and the path from an snow-field to a muddy narrow and steep trail.
Once we arrived at the camp side after the pass (6hrs) we had a cup of Whiskey, Chris brought for successfully passing the most difficult part of the Torres del Paine trail.:-)
We decided to carry on to the next camp side ("Campamento Grey"), because there it is warmer and dryer than staying on the foot of the pass, so we hiked for 4 more hours and were totally done when we arrived there.
At "Grey" I met David and Anne (Portugese and English couple i stayed in Buenos Aires with) again and at that time I thought, "Oida, the world is small!". It was so nice to see them again!! :-)

On our last day Derek, Chris, Heidi, Line and me finished the "Q". We ended at "Campamento Paine Grande", from there we took the catamaran back to the bus stop and then back to Puerto Natales.
We ate lamb and pizza that evening and I think we really deserved it after having just
fu^^ing noodles and soup for 9 days in one of the most beautifully national parks I have ever been...