Argentina - El Calafate/El Chaltén

Eighty kilometers from El Calafate we visited one of the most famous attractions of Argentina, the Perito Moreno Glacier, located in the Los Glaciares National Park.

This icefield of 250 km2 advances, forming a natural barrier cutting in two the Lago Argentino. 

From the walking circuit – a set of walkways and lookouts at various vantage points – we could see both faces of the glacier (one on each side of the Lake), a  five kilometers wide wall of ice. The wall rises up to 70 meters above the level of the Lake and hides 170 meters under the water.

The glacier seems nearly alive as every three to four minutes a piece of ice collapses utturing the noise of a cannon-shot or a flash of lightning which echoes in the immensity. The show is fascinating and we spent hours waiting for the next break of ice with our camera on.

 

Splash!

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To recover from our intense program of the previous days (with a lot of hours spent in buses) we decided to stay three days in a small mountain village in the middle of the Argentinian Patagonia: El Chaltén.

The road leading there is straight and not very busy. From time to time we passed small groups of people of all ages on bicycles. The road offers quite amazing panoramas in particular just before arriving in the city.

The unique activity of El Chaltén is tourism. Trekkers and climbers from all over the world come to El Chaltén to enjoy the divine landscape and trekking trails. 

We went to the Park ranger office where we got a map and a few orientations about the trails we could follow. So two days in a row we went out for nature exploration. The local landscapes are gorgeous and the paths well-marked.

As January is the peak season, all hostels were full. It was actually hard to find one, even booking four days in advance. We ended up in a Hostelling International accomodation, one of those sleeping factory that only international backpacking can produce. It felt like staying in a busy and dirty train station. The hostel was crowded, the bathrooms dirty, there was an infestation of flyes and no toilet in the entire hostel had a deadbolt! 

 In a bus. The foot odor is not only annoying in the dorms! :/

Argentina - Ushuaia

Leaving Punta Arenas, we headed toward Ushuaia the southermost city of Argentina. We crossed the Magellan Strait to get from the continent to the archipelago called Tierra del Fuego.

Ferryboat Primera Angostura

Ushuaia is located at the south of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, the biggest island of the archipelago which is actually the largest island of South America! This island is divided between Chile and Argentina.

The bus took seven or eight hours to go through the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego to Ushuaia. At the beginning, the horizon is quite flat and the dry vegetation melts brown and green colors.

After a few hours this lanscape becomes quite boring. But getting clother to Ushuaia some hills are emerging and then mountains, the Andes!

On our way out of the Tierra del Fuego we had to cross Chile again before arriving on the Argentinian mailand. We had bought some fruits to eat during the 18 hours trip to El Calafate. Unfortunately we learned at the border that it is forbidden to enter Chile with fruits. The only option we had: to eat all the fruits we could before going back to the bus. Or how to eat five plums, three bananas, two apples, two peaches, and two tomatoes in less than ten minutes and in front of a border officer? :/

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Ushuaia appeared to us as a strange mix between a ski resort and a small harbour. The city who was once a village populated mostly by convicts has become a tourist center.

Calle San Martín

As a matter of fact the former prison has been transformed into a huge museum, the Museo Marítimo y Ex Presidio, including various sections: about Ushuaia, the Antarctica, the convict system and it even hosts a contemporary art gallery! Very informative!

The last prisoner... ;)

Historic wing

Gift shop

Art gallery

Coming to Ushuaia is quite expensive. So are the various activities, cruises and trips starting from here. For example 90% of the tourists going to Antartica departs from Ushuaia. In fact the south of Latin America is one of the few places of the world where we saw a lot of mature people traveling in a nearly backpacking mode. For example we shared a dorm with a Danish couple in their sixties. And the town restaurants were full of seniors at lunch and dinner time.

Ushuaia harbour at 4.30pm

Ushuaia harbour at 4.30am

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To make the most of our time at the self-proclaimed "End of the world", we went on a six hours cruise along the Canal Beagle. A few operators offer similar excursions of wildlife watching. All boats seamed to be full. In our ship, there were at least 200 people. The cruise took us to the local attractions: islands covered with cormorants and sea lions.

Isla de los Pájaros

Isla de los Pájaros

Isla de los Lobos

We went then to the Pingüinera passing in front of Les Eclaireurs lighthouse. From Canal Beagle's grey water we admired rocky isles and the mountainous shores covered by a few glaciers.

Faro Les Eclaireurs

Pingüinera

Chile - Santiago/Punta Arenas

Surrounded by Andean mountains, the cityscape of Santiago de Chile is amazingly flat except Santa Lucía Hill separating in broad outline the commercial and business part of the city from the cultural and entertainment part.

View of Santiago from Cerro San Cristobal

The capital of Chile is a really modern metropolis. We discovered it through an informative four hours tour leading us in various downtown areas. We love that kind of tours for the many anecdotic stories we learn about the city and some of its unusual inhabitants.

Our group

Calle Ahumada, a pedestrian street

Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins

The most significant site we visited in Santiago is the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. This brand new museum displays a complete History of the the military dictatorship and exposes the sufferings during the Pinochet years. The stories of survivors of torture – in films, drawings or letters – are poignant. And the museum gives a good overview of the contemporary History of Chile.

Museo de la memoria y derechos humanos

Moneda palace which was bombed during the military coup in 1973

In a lighter vein we tried the typical drink of Chile called Mote con huesillo, made with iced peach juice, peaches and wheat. We did not feel very comfortable drinking something we had to chew as well. But it was worth trying! ;)

Mote con huesillo

In the Chilean supermarket we were amazed by the mayonnaise packaging: one liter bags!! :/

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Change of scenery: after a four hours flight we landed at the extreme south of the Latin American mainland. Located on the Strait of Magellan, Punta Arenas was a convict colony long before becoming a cosmopolitan town. It is now an ideal starting point to explore the Strait's shores and Patagonian wildlife in Chile. 

View of Punta Arenas from Cerro de la Cruz

On Plaza de Armas

We were fortunate to see three very different side of Chile in two weeks: the dry desert in the north, its temperate capital and beaches in the center, and then Patagonia at the extreme south. Quick changes of temperature and time of day light! 

Sunset over the Strait of Magellan at 10pm

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What does chatting with a penguin look like?

From Punta Arenas we sailed two hours to Magdalena Island in the middle of the Straits. This island hosts the breeding and nesting of Magellan penguins. It is literally colonized by 69.000 breeding pairs plus their progeny. In total, at least 200.000 small black and white penguins. Walking among the cute penguin families is a wonderful experience!

On various occasions we had seen penguins but always in a zoo or an aquarium. To be able to see them without being separated by a thick glass and in their own environment is fantastic. We could interact with them and see they were also curious about us! One was indeed so jealous when Axelle posed for a picture with its mate that he came from behind and bite Axelle's ass... :)

Chile - San Pedro de Atacama/Valparaíso

To recover from our emotions at the Bolivian/Chilean border, we stopped for the night at San Pedro de Atacama, only one hour after the border. This small town sprawls around an oasis in the desert. The climate there is dry and mild. What a change after the snow!

The main asset to San Pedro de Atacama's charm is its terra cota houses and therefore its brown narrow streets full of tourists. However, the whole lacks of authenticity. In the handful of streets forming the city center line up only restaurants, souvenir shops, internet cafés and hostels.

Plaza de Armas

Church of San Pedro

San Pedro de Atacama can be an interesting basis for trips in the desert and open-air activities like trekking or sandboarding but we did not stay long enough to enjoy these opportunities.

Landscape immediately outside San Pedro de Atacama

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Actually we were eager to go to the Pacific Ocean so we took a 26 hours bus to Valparaíso, bus that arrived three hours late.. well our road crossed the caravan of the Vuelta Chile 2012 (cycle racing)!

Valparaíso is one of the main harbours and conurbations of Chile. The port is surrounded by various colorful hills called cerros. A touch of San Francisco, Guayaquil and Lisbon, all at once.

Some cerros are dedicated to popular housing while others are subject of much attention and carefully maintained. Cerro Bellavista also called Museo a Cielo Abierto (Open Air Museum) is one of the lasts.

Just above the port, other cerros form a maze of streets with hotels, restaurants and artists' studios.

Mural painting in the pasaje L. Bavestrello

In one of them we visited the house of the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The man had a taste for collecting the most various objects and antics. And his house, in addition to its unusual architecture, contains lots of odds and ends.

La Sebastiana, house of Pablo Neruda

The study

View from La Sebastiana

Unfortunately for us, Valparaíso is not a place to go to the beach. We found two beaches: one was closed to swimming because of the presence of scrap metals less than 100 meters from the shore; the other one was just glued to port facilities..

As usual we took public transportation and tried a new one: the collectivo which is a taxi with a pre-defined route, as if instead of waiting for a bus you wait for a car. Very convenient!