Blog of the Little Bonsai

Personal Blog of Steve Baumber

Having once been where the sidewalk ends, it seems only fitting to finally be where the road runs out. We are currently in Ushuaia, almost the southernmost community in the world. At the southern tip of Argentina is Tierra del Fuego, a national park that sits a scant 1,000km from Antarctica. Within its borders are the tail ends of the Andes overlooking the Beagle Channel and on a clear day (which we've had very few) the Straights of Magellan. This is an historic part of the world in navigation and biology, lessons in introduced species running amuck (who knew 25 mating pairs of Canadian beavers would cause so much trouble?), and our own species running amuck in the elimination of the native peoples of this region. In fact there is only one old pureblooded woman left of the Yamana who lives in a small fishing village near here. A bit apocalyptic if you think about it too long.

But those of you who have been waiting for me to blog, I must apologise. One thing that seems to happen on a 'short' trip is that internet time is sacrificed in favour of eating and moving to the next mini-adventure. On longer trips entire afternoons can be devoted to checking email, uploading photos and writing eloquent blogs. So anyway, this is it until we get home. Unless something extraordinarily blog-worthy happens.

We began our travels in Santiago (Chile) and traveled south the next day to Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in the world. We then promptly traveled north by bus to Puerto Natales. From there we headed into Torres del Paine, the northern tip of the Patagonia region that runs along the Andes spanning areas in both Chile and Argentina. Like swarthy mailcarriers we hiked for five days through cloud, rain, snow, wind and some sunshine, but luckily spent nights in refugios along the way. It is a beautiful park filled with river vallies, jagged mountains and glaciers. Who knew spring at the other extreme of the latitudes was tempestuous? It's like holidaying in Alaska in March. Maybe April.

We crossed the Andes, and the border, and arrived in El Calafate, Argentina. The town is the staging ground to Los Glaciars national park which has within it… glaciers! We visited Porito Moreno, a huge 60m wall of ice and one of the few glaciers still moving forward at 1.5m per day. This means that huge chunks of the fractured face of the glacier calve off into the lake it feeds causing a big splash and the whirring click of a thousand of camera shutters. I was a little too slow to catch the big drop while we were there, but I bet somebody has posted it on Youtube by now.

We then headed a bit further north to El Chalten and the home of Mt. Fitzroy for an overnight camping trip and a chance to trek out onto a glacier and try our hand at some ice climbing. Of course, the weather followed with us and as we hiked through the linga (beech) forests wind and snow swirled into our faces and ears. We had a freezing night in a tent, having to double bag sleeping bags to stay warm. However, the next day was a stunningly beautiful blue-sky day, and our trek to the glacier was flawless. We stayed an extra day in El Chalten to gain the view of the famous Mt. Fitzroy that we were unable to enjoy two days before due to the socked-in conditions. We hammered our way up to Laguna de Los Tres, a small lake at the foot of the Los Tres Glacier that spills from between Pincenot and Mt. Fitzroy. For Pete and Paul, we made it! We hammered back down the trail in time to catch our bus back to El Calafate.

A long set of bus rides south brought us to where we are now, in Ushuaia. It has been a fantastic trip to a beautiful part of the world. We have been cold, hungry, tired, elated, and rewarded, sometimes all at once. We fly to Buenos Aires in two days, and in six days we will sadly be winging our way home. Despite our worries about the weather, it hasn't hampered us too much and in fact has given us a true flavour of the Patagonia experience.

posted by Steve @ 1:03 PM

11.17.2007

Oh my gosh we're leaving tomrrow!! Another trip, this time for three weeks to Patagonia, which is a region that spans both Chile and Argentina. We fly into Santiago and out of Buenos Aires - an open jaw as they say. We decided to go south, but as the late spring weather in that part of the world seems to be holding around the "chilly" mark perhaps we have chosen poorly...

I will blog and post pictures as much as possible, but three weeks goes by so quickly, we may be home before the ink dries on the first posting!

posted by Steve @ 5:33 PM

11.02.2007