Get your Incan on!

After finishing up with the kids we decided to spend a couple of nights in Peru's answer to the states, Miraflores. Not a bad place except for the fact that it lacks the charm of south America that we love... but it had some amazing cliffs overlooking the ocean. A capuara group, kinda like fight dancing were also showing their skills off at the park... very cool.

 

 

from lima, we moved onto Cuzco, located in the high country one hours flight south east. Straight away it hit us, altitude sickness. Makes you feel like the morning after one too many beers. And we considered ourselves pretty fit from all the hiking we have done, but in Cuzco, even a flight of stairs was a tough ask.

 

The city itself, is pretty nice... but very touristy, and everyone has one thing on their mind...Maccu Piccu. We found one guy who potentially might not rip us off and found our way in a van for the 6 hour journey... after still feeling like rubbish from the altitude a hike to 5000m was out of the question.

 

After a quick hike we reached, one of the most touristy places on the planet, Aguas Calientes at the base of MP.

We woke up at 4pm with dreams of seeing the most amazing view possible at sunrise with no tourists, instead we were greeted with rain and tourists. The kind of rain that somehow leaks into your soul and freezes to the core, taking with it any energy that you may have got from 5 hours sleep. The kind of crowds of tourists that makes this magical place seem bit, well, used. So after 1hr on the mountain of shivering through the tour we decided to race back down to AC and regroup.

whilst making for low comfort and viewing levels, the clouds did give us some pretty cool photos you won't see in the guidebooks.

After a hearty meal and shower and whilst keeping one eye on the weather, we decided that after hauling ass to the other side of the world we were going to see this thing.



And we were, amazed. Just as we got there, the heavens parted and we got to see the pure scale of the thing and at that point we understood why Maccu Piccu is truly a wonder of the world. Being later in the day also meant that the hordes of tourists had cleared out due to the busses finishing in the mid arvo, leaving only the hard-core people prepared to walk down some stairs back to AC.

 

 

We then moved on to lake Titicaca, which allowed us to take in the sacred valley once more. Some truly amazing scenery

 

 

 

 

Volunteering in Lima:

“Amigo… parque?”

This was possibly the one sentence/question Dave and I heard about 20-30 times a day on the next phase of our journey. After Argentina, we spent 10 days volunteering at ‘the hogar’ – a home for sick and disabled children just outside of Lima. Each day we were begged by the younger kids to take them to the park for the afternoon. Generally we couldn’t say no to their pleas and thus the afternoons would be spent, somewhat terrifyingly, taking 10-15 kids down the street to the park. Hoping none of them flew off the swing or fell off the stupidly high slide, we’d race the wheel-chair bound kids around the paths listening to them laugh hysterically as they sped around. One memorable trip home involved me walking about 15 meters with one boy who usually had a walking frame, leave him stabalised against a fence, going back to where I started to pick up another chica who was having a bit of a hissy fit and refusing to walk home, leave her where I left the first boy, help him walking another 15 meters, stop and repeat! It was definitely an interesting experience!

The home was started by Dr Tony, a Catholic doctor from the States who dedicated his life to helping these Peruvian kids. They look after kids with all sorts of medical conditions, whose family cannot afford to take care of them. Alongside spending the afternoons taking the kids to the park, we also helped out with meal times, ‘baby hour’, and the ever crazy bus trips into Lima for medical appointments. If you’ve never seen buses in the developing world, picture an old beat-up 20 seater van packed with about 50 people, with a conductor who pulls people onto and off the buses without it ever coming to a complete stop. Now picture having to do this while carrying immobile kids… absolutely insane!

While 10 days was only such a short period of time, and absolutely nothing compared to those people who spend their lives dedicated to helping others, the experience really opened our eyes to how much need there is in the world, and how much bigger life is outside the confines of our narrow world view.

These kids didn’t have nearly any of the luxuries we take for granted; no big collection of toys, books or electronics and no privacy, yet they were always so joyful and extremely compassionate. They looked after the new kids, the babies and each other without judgement and it was inspiring to watch.

There are so many stories I could share about the kids who stole our hearts, the people who do so much for them and the heartwarming moments of actually seeing kids health improve, but I’d be writing forever. So instead I’ll leave you with a some photos of these beautiful souls…

 

 

 

 

Gringo Baby Walking.... !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Segundo and Bresney  - Two kids who absolutely adored dave - or 'davita' as he quickly became known!

 

 

Park fun

The Lakes District: Argentina

Amazingly at half way through our trip, we were yet to experience the pain of a 24 hour bus ride… that all changed when we decided to head back to Patagonia, albeit northern Patagonia this time! All things considered, the bus ride was not nearly as bad as you imagine (picture a business class flight type seating), but it does feel like a bit of a time warp.

 We arrived at Barriloche, part of the Argentines lakes district, with adventure on our minds. We’d eaten far too much and moved far too little in Buenos Aires – and Dave had been itching for a chance to get on a bike again. So it was decided, a 4-day bike ride through the ‘siete lagos’ (seven lakes) route was on order.

 We hired all our riding and camping gear and set off on a 130km ride. Day 1 – the morning started with a relaxing boat cruise across to our starting point. The sun was shining, the lakes were brilliant blue and the snow peaked mountain tops surrounded us…. Truly it couldn’t get much better than this. The good-will lasted until we had to carry our bikes, loaded with all our camping gear, up and down a ridiculous amount of stairs because the ‘proper’ track was closed! With my moral low, and doubts creeping in that I’d never be able to complete this ride (keeping in mind, my riding history includes a couple of 2 hour rides in the past 12 months!), we decided to call it a day and set up camp at serene camping spot number 1.

 

 

 

Day 2: Today we were actually riding on road, which was much nicer than the dirt tracks of yesterday, but dave had to keep convincing me I wasn’t going to die riding next to trucks! Again, blue skies, shining lakes and stunning mountaintops surrounded us as we went. Thoroughly exhausted (well I was anyway) we set up at campsite numero dos – another tranquil lakeside spot, next to all the holidaying Argentineans. This was one thing we’d noticed, this route was not full of gringos, rather we’d found where the locals go on holidays… it was rather refreshing.

 

 

 

 

 Day 3 was tough – this section of road was in the process of being paved, so most of the day was spent coughing up the dust from the road as all the cars and buses passed us. We met up with another group of riders who put my whinging to shame fairly quickly: they had been riing from the southern-most tip of South America and were heading all the way up to Alaska, a full 18 months of riding every day… kudos to them!

Once we passed the dirt, we had a blissful descent to campsite numero tres – you guessed it, another serene lakeside location.

 

We started early on day 4 and were rewarded with having the road to ourselves, spotting a few eagles that were pretty happy to pose for some photos and a stunning 19km descent to the finish line. Definitely an awesome reward for the effort.

 

 

 

Our next stop in the lakes district was El Bolson, a hippy community a couple of hours south. It just so happened that a couple of girls from our hostel were desperately trying to find another couple of people to join them paragliding. The sun was shining, and they were heading to where we wanted to go, so on a whim we signed up and were off. A couple of hours later we were up and away, flying above the Andes and watching the world go by…

 

 

 

In El Bolson town, we managed to find the most inconvenient Laundromat in existence, they refused to wash socks! As we walked away dumbfounded, we found a good-old regular Laundromat and pondered how on earth our original find was still in business!

After stocking up on raspberries and artesian chocolates at the local market, we were off to a secluded lodge about an hour out of town to have a well-deserved rest. No cars, the most beautiful river I’ve ever seen, awesome hot showers, home grown, home cooked food, horse riding to hidden hikers refugios, a drumming circle and a few nice bottles of Argentinean wine made the next few days absolute heaven. A perfect end to possibly our favourite country so far. Argentina, you were good to us!

 

 

 

 

 

Buenos Aires… Food Glorious Food!

 

Our next stop after El Calafate was off to the bustling metropolis of Buenos Aires. We were greeted by the hustle-bustle of the domestic airport, thankfully leaving with all our luggage in tow, and into the blistering 40 degree heat outside (although we were careful not to complain knowing back home in Melbourne was sweltering through 46 degree days). The drive from the airport to town shows the vast contrast of the city, firstly the absolute slums of the outer suburbs – unfinished buildings, big rubbish piles everywhere, washing strewn between buildings and generally a pretty typical scene from a 3^rd world country, which surprised me because I thought Argentina was one of the more developed of South America.

Once in the (massive) city however, the site changed dramatically and depending on which suburb you were in, you could mistake it for the streets of Paris or Spain or Italy. Once we arrived at our hostel, we were quickly informed of the ‘blue rate’ exchange rate, which, while I had heard of it previously, was still a foreign concept. Basically the Argentinian Peso is inflating currently at about 25-30% per year, with no end in sight, making their money worth less and less every day, so everyone prefers to hold their money in US cash rather than the local bank. So for us fortunate tourists, we can exchange US currency with one of the hundreds of people yelling ‘cambio’ on the street for basically double what the banks will give you. While the practice is technically illegal, the Argentinians seem to like loop-holes (such as the floating casino to get around the law that no casinos are allowed in the country) and police walk straight through all the locals yelling ‘cambio’ without a second thought!

Anyways, after being informed of this magical way to make double our money, we quickly booked a day trip to Uruguay (an hour boat ride away) as it is the only place you can get out cash in US dollars, with all the other gringos at our hostel to make the most of this spectacular country.

 

Prior to this however, was the important event of Dave’s birthday present – a polo lesson and day out at a typical Argentinian Estancia (ranch). While for me, the idea of trying to stay on a horse and hitting a ball at the same time seemed far too difficult to comprehend, it was just perfect for Dave and it turned out he was a bit of a natural, (after he finally worked out how to make the horse go when and where he wanted it to!)

 

 

After two full days in Buenos Aires without actually seeing the town, we though it time to actually explore the city and see what it had to offer. What did we discover? Steak, tango, icecream, markets, wine, all-you-can-eat buffets, more steak, a crazy cemetery, amazing patisseries, houses with hidden underground tunnels and even more steak! Unfortunately, we missed out on increasing our cultural knowledge of the city with our usual free city walking tour because it was so damn hot, the idea of walking around in the sun for 3 hours made you want to sit down and have a nice cold drink! Instead we just ate a ridiculous amount of food… PS – thanks Steve and Kathy for the recommendations of the steak place with the 40% off happy hour menu + patisserie, both were incredible.

 

First up, a tango lesson, as well as dinner and a show, taught us who out of newly made friends from the hostel were dancers and who were certainly not! From there we saw some incredible vintage markets in San Telmo. It’s a pity my bag is already overflowing, otherwise I would have gone a little crazy here! Dave was just content listening to the flamenco guitar played in the street with some spontaneous tango thrown in!

 

 

 

 

Lastly, you cannot comment about Buenos Aires without including a trip to the Cemetery. I still haven’t decided if I liked it or not, but it seems that everyone with money who dies in this city needs a majestic looking house/church to be buried in rather than a simple tombstone to make your location. It was a bit of a ‘come look at me world – I had money’ kind-of feeling, but to their credit, everyone was actually coming to look at them!

 

All in all, we fell in love with Buenos Aires, part Paris with a bit more grime; the city was enchanting, we survived without getting mugged and the food was incredible. We were thoroughly spolit! Now back to northern Patagonia to some nicer weather, fresh air and a chance to ride and hike off all our eating in BA.

 

Till next time,

Sharon

 

 

 

 

 

To the end of the earth: an expedition through Patagonia

 

 Our party arrived in the sleepy town of Puerto Natales after leaving the hospitality of the Hernandez Family of Victoria de Chile. At this stage, the expedition consisted of myself, Dave ‘the nut’ Coutts, a trekking veteran of 25 over years, whose feats have included climbing Everest whilst maintaining a handstand, armed with only an elastic band, a can of WD40, duct tape and a hairdryer. Accompanying the nut was his adoring wife, compañero Sharon ‘Shazbot’ Coutts with over 20 years’ experience, known for her uncompromising stamina often compared to that of a mule. Sharon has demonstrated this by braving the extreme conditions of the Sahara for 86 days, surviving solely by extracting the moisture from Camels.    

After one day in town spent gathering provisions we set off. Upon arrival, which involved a bus and boat we arrived at the origin, where we were greeted by 100kmph+ wind, whose gusts resulted in lashings of rain and hail battering down against our already fatigued bodies. It was now that we realised – we have really made it to the end of the earth. The sideways orientation of the vegetation, and the extreme ruggedness of the areas animal populations, was evidence that for survival in Patagonia, life needs to adapt to the conditions.

 

After 2-3 hours of battling the elements, we were exhausted and in need of a rest, and still at least 3 hours away from our destination of Refugio Grey. We established Refugio Coutts on the Southern Edge of Lago Grey, in a rocky outcrop, which provided a small amount of protection from the Patagonian weather. After a stop to recompose ourselves and rebuild our shattered morale, we left the safe confines of Refugio Coutts and headed north, in search of a glimpse of our first glacier of the expedition, Glacier Grey.

 

Refugio Coutts

After two or so hours, we reached Glacier Grey, and immediately we were rewarded as it was truly an impressive sight. We then pushed onto Refugio Grey and spent our first night in a valley, which offered some respite from the wind. It was here that we added another compañero to our expedition, Johanna ‘Unbreakable’ Baron.

 

Our first glimpse of Glacier Grey

 

Close up of Glacier Grey. Our faces tell the story here

The following day, after a short detour to gaze upon Glacier Grey one last time our party set off for Campamento Italiano, at the entrance to the Valle de Frances. The walk was difficult – even stronger winds combined with ankle deep swamp crossings meant that our advance was frustratingly slow, however shortly before nightfall we were able to set up camp in the swamp/camping area, known as Campamento Italiano.    

Shaz and I with Jo

After spending the night, we set off at dawn for the next segment of the journey into the Valle de Frances, where we experienced some of the hardest terrain for the trip, caused mainly by the fact that the path which was actually a stream for most of the way. After struggling for over an hour, we reached a clearing where we were able to view the whole valley, another amazing site. Frozen waterfalls and glaciers clung to the side of the mountains, and even an avalanche were seen from our vantage point. However, as we left the protection of the forest, we were hit by extreme winds and horizontal rain which caused us to be frozen to the bone. With morale hitting all-time lows, we made the decision to return to Italiano to have some tea.

 

The conditions even got the better of our toughest compañero, putting on wet shoes was a tough job

After returning and regrouping, we pushed on to the next location Refugio los Cerenos, where we were greeted with one of most amazing sites of all… blue skies!

Los Cerenos

 

From Los Cerenos, we pushed onto the final segment of the hike, to the base of the Torres del Paine, where we set up camp, and waited eagerly for our first glimpse of the towers at sunrise the following morning.

4am on day five. We managed somehow to move our frozen, battered and bruised bodies from our slice of heaven: a 1cm thick bedroll and soggy tent, slammed a granola bar down our throats and commenced the 45 minute march to the towers along with around 100 lights coming from the headlamps of 100 other very dedicated individuals. 

 

While the hike up was the very definition of pain, we found our rock and waited until the sun rose over the mountains. Soon enough, the sun appeared and we were greeted by the most magnificent view imaginable; the morning sun setting the towers ablaze against a backdrop of an almost cloudless blue sky – apart from the few wisps of cloud which where bright orange.

 

 

The towers at sunrise...wow

After some time the clouds rolled in, however it made for an amazing photo

 

Everyone scrambling for the best spot!

After basking in the view for 2 hours with tea and porridge in our stomachs, we set off to pack up camp and finish hiking the last 28kms to the exit. Wet socks, empty stomachs and lack of sleep all were a distant memory as we pushed towards a hot meal and a warm bed back in Puerto Natales.

The hotel at the end of the trek, for those who prefer the more luxurious things in life!

Upon returning to Puerto Natales and parting with compañero Jo, we crossed over to El Calafate on the Argentinian side. Given the fact that El Calafate was about as touristic as you can possibly imagine (picture a town version of an airport, every third shop sells the same, expensive stuff. Also cheap meals were completely non-existent ), we quickly renamed the town to El Calasharte. Calasharte, did however have 2 amazing things. An absolutely massive glacier, Perito Moreno Glacier, which was absolutely breathtaking, as well as our first taste of Argentinian BBQ, referred to in this part of the globe as an Asado. Basically lamb cooked over coals for over eight hours. I’m sorry fellow Australians, we ain’t got nothing on the Argentinians!

 

 

 

Cheers,

The Nut