Worrall Travel R's

Worrall Travel R's
Roz and Russ

Worrall Travel R's - Kicking the Bucket List

Monday, February 15, 2016

Fresh Snow on Torres del Paine - WTRD 36






Friday, February 13, 2016 - WTRD 36

Today, the weather is cloudy and windy.  It snowed last night at the higher elevations.   Perhaps this is a good thing for a couple of reasons, our trek has been modified to two shorter walks where we will be hiking only 13 kilometers and take refuge in our mini bus between hikes.  This modified day is also better for those who are recovering from the stomach bug.

Russ is feeling better this morning.  I am too, and hoping that I dodged the bullet. I stop taking the Pepto and feel okay.  Our first hike is to an overlook of the Torres del Paine and the "horns".  The towers and horns fade in and out of view as clouds swirl through the mountains. It's beautiful and well worth the walk.




The wind is so fierce on the way to the overlook that I have to plant my walking sticks, back to the wind, to keep from blowing over.  Our Mountain Guide Joy (Joey) estimates winds at 80 kilometers and hour, and we are instructed to drop to our knees and get close to the ground if the wind gets stronger.



We return by way of a rushing waterfall.

As mesmerizing as a waterfall can be, we do not linger and seek shelter on the bus where we eat our lunch and rest a bit before our second hike which will again be uphill.  We are heading out to see some cave art and hopefully see some Guanaco (wild species of lama), puma, and maybe armadillo.

We pass by a well known puma den, but with no success of seeing a lounging puma. There is evidence though that they have been around, cleaned bones everywhere.


By the time we make it to the caves, I'm not feeling well at all.  We are miles away from the bus.  I hold on as best I can, and even manage to take some photos of the 9,000 year old cave art,















a look out sentinel guanaco that would alert the herd of a stalking puma


and a herd of Guanaco and then.....well, let's just say I stayed far behind the rest of the group because my body began to erupt.

Russ became the sentinel that watched the trail behind me just in case a puma decided to pick off the weakened herd animal.

The guanaco are an interesting herd that lives partly on National Park property and part on private property.  There is a fence that separates public and private lands primarily to keep in the private cattle.  Pumas typically live in cave like ovehangs.  They eat horses, guanaco, and whatever else they can find. There are many whitened skulls and bones, and as we approach the fence line, we saw many small, very bloody bones, just having had its flesh ripped off.  

Our guide tells us that the puma has learned how to chase the herds of guanaco toward the fence.  The babies and the unfit cannot leap over the fence and are easy prey.  I look at the fence and wonder if I could get over it...probably not.

As we walked down the trail we could see sentinel guanacos keeping a lookout for pumas and other threats.  We could see guanaco pits that had been stamped out by the animals to use as group toilets.  Backs to the circle and sentinels watching they can defecate with some security.

Most of the herd was grazing in a large grassy field to our left.  Babysitter guanacos with all the youngsters were on the right side of the fence.  Babies we bleating for their mothers,

Bleat, Bleat!

Milk is on the Way!

Aww!  Guess this isn't in the baby sitters job description.
whether they were frightened or wanted a feeding, and the mothers would coming running and leap over the fence.  It was interesting to watch the behavior and interaction of these animals.

Finally, we get to our beautiful Hotel Del Torres where all I want to do is get to our room so I can explode in private.  I am grateful that tomorrow we will stay in the same hotel, and I can sleep all day.  Russ goes to dinner with the group and raves about the gourmet meal.  I pull the pillow over my head.

The briefing that I did not attend held by our Mountain Guide after dinner, doesn't look really promising for tomorrow's big hike, snow, wind, and high winds, according to Russ.  He won't know until morning what the plan is.  I already know what my plan is. Ugh!

All is Well with Half the Worrall Travel Rs at Torres del Paine.

Up the Fjiord to Torres del Paine - WTRD 35



Friday, February 12, 2016 - WTRD 35

Well it turns out, that it wasn't the rough road.  I started to take Pepto on Thursday night, and all day on Friday.  Both Russ and another  fellow traveler were sick on Thursday night.  But today, we have no choice but to move on.

We board a tour boat in the morning to start our way up the Senoret Canal and Fiordo Ultima Esperanza to see Glaciers Balmaceda and Serrano.  We pass by waterfalls,


cormorant colonies, and the beautiful and retreating glaciers Balamaceda.










We learn that all of the glaciers in Patagonia with the exception of Pietro Moreno are receding. It is a good morning for relaxing and watching the scenery.


The tour boat docks around a curve from the Balmaceda, and we disembark for a short 3 kilometer hike around a glacial lake to the base of the Serrano Glacier. When we return to the boat dock, we are met by a zodiac to first take across the fjiord to restaurant for lunch then up a narrow river 35 kilometers to the Torres del Paine National Park. Our drive planes the Zodiac and enjoys swerving back and forth.  If it weren't for some of our roiling stomachs and desire for a slower ride for photographic reasons, the Zodiac trip would have been fun! I am able though to catch a good shot of a flock of Black Faced Ibis winging their way in front of Torres del Paine.


Eventually, as we were traveling up river, we came to a non-navigable waterfall where we disembarked, walked a short distance past the waterfall,


Terrific Clouds

and embarked on a second Zodiac with another driver (father of the young man who had been our first driver) who delivered us to the the rustic Tyndall hotel with beautiful views, limited if any hot water for showers, and poor Wifi.

We retired early.

All is Pretty Good with the Worrall TravelRs on the Rio Serrano.




Thursday, February 11, 2016

A Walk About in Patagonia - February 7-11, 2016

Sunday, February 7, 2016, WRTD 30, Perito Moreno Glacier

Ha! I worked so hard on the bizillion photos I took of this magnificent glacier, I forgot to write the blog.  This is the only advancing glacier in Patagonia.  As the glacier moves down the mountain, the snout of glacier moves across a glacier melt lake and bumps up against a peninsula of land damming the lake and splitting it in two.  The pressure of moving water underneath, eventually erodes a tunnel allowing the water to flow through, but eventually the entire tunnel collapses, damming the flow once again.  This seems to be an endless cycle every 4 years or so.  The glacier is magnificent.  Here are a few photos.
Where the snout meets the land and splits the lake.



If you wish to see more photos including a massive calving, CLICK HERE.

Monday, February 8, 2016, WRTD 31, On to Patagonia

We leave with our group at 8:00 am.  Russ and I leave our larger bags in the storage room at the hotel, and each take a small duffle and a day pack, as we will be returning here at the end of our walking adventure.  We are in the van all morning and travel from El Calafate to El Chalten.

Chalten is an indigenous people's word for "smoking mountain".  The early people thought the clouds that appeared from behind the prominent mountain was smoke from a volcano.  Argentina's scientist hero Pietro Moreno, renamed the mountain Fitz Roy after the captain of the Beagle that brought Charles Darwin to this part of the world.

We get a glimpse of Fitz Roy and the town of El Chalten after a three hour drive from El Calafate.

Our hotel is a cozy two story chalet.  Our ground floor rooms have a nice view of Fitz Roy.  Luck is with us, the mountain is often shrouded in clouds, but today the clouds whisp by and the mountain fades in and out.

Once we get settled in our rooms, we set out for lunch, and then a 3 kilometer walk up the first small mountains to get a better view of the Andes.  They are tall, jagged, and the tops slightly dusted with snow, but little snow clings because these jags are nearly vertical.

Tomorrow, we will take our first trek up and back to  Laguna Torre. A glacial lake at the foot of the most recent moraine. 

Tuesday, February 9 , 2016, WRTD 32, Laguna Torre

Although, I felt prepared, I was a little concerned about a 14 mile trek up to the most recent moraine left by the glaciers.  We would be doing a lot of uphill and downhill trekking.  The coming down part is the most difficult for my knees and hips.  But I have two walking sticks and this will help as we go up  ancient moraines and down into now dry lake beds revegetated with scrub bush.


Trees and older growth are on the ancient elevated, lakebed shores. The path winds through these treed forests and through the lakebeds.  We glimpse the Rio Fitz Roy from many vistas high and low.  As glaciers advance they push rubble forward making mountain size moraines and dams, then they retreat and the dams capture the glacier melt forming glacial lakes.  Again the glacier advances pushing up another moraine and once again retreats. This glacial dance repeats for tens of thousands, millions of years.  Our hike is through a wide valley cut by glaciers, up, down, across, up, down across several times until we reach the last moraine, and lakebed filled with latte colored water.  There is another moraine at the back of the lake that has been deposited by a now retreating glacier.  The glacier walls are behind the lake, and behind that rises the glacier and the Cerro Torre Mountain.


Roz, Russ, Mary, Annika, Ian Nicola, Michelle After the Wind Starts to Blow
We collapse on boulders and eat lunch.  The day is warm and beautiful.  We are in short sleeved shirts.  Our mountain guide tells us how lucky we are to see the mountain, and luckier that there isn't any wind at the moment otherwise we couldn't have made it this far or could only be here long enough to take a quick photo before retreating and sheltering behind the moraine.  No sooner has he spoken and we feel a puff of wind.  Our guide puts on his parka.  He knows.  It's coming!  

The velocity from calm to full gale force is a matter of minutes; we struggle to get into warmer clothing and pack up our belongings before they are blown away forever. The dust is kicking up, and I tuck the camera in my backpack.  The glacier wind descend on us and digs in its frigid claws, whipping our hair around our heads. Wow!  We hurriedly retreat from the lake and make our way to the back of the moraine, where we find relief.

Newcomers hiking to the lake shelter behind boulders to  eat their lunch hopeful the wind will subside. and they will make it all the way to the lake for at least a photo.  We trek back to town, and find a torrent duck in the glacial river flow.

 It must be paddling 10-15 miles per hour to stay in place and to swim upstream in the glacial rapids of the river.  It disappears and resurfaces farther up river. Our guide tells us that the duck eats small crustaceans.  There are no fish in the glacial river.


We return to El Chalten around 5:00 pm.  My pedometer informs me that I have walked 30,600 steps, 13.7 miles, and have burned 1,100 calories.  The group plops down in chairs. Beer first, showers second, dinner third.  It's been a good day; exhausting, brutal on our feet and knees, but the scenery was spectacular.

Tomorrow, the hike is harder, longer, steeper.  Oh boy!

Wednesday, February 10, 2016, WRTD 33, glacial lake Laguna de Los Tres at the base of Cerro Fitz Roy and fresh water Laguna Capri on the Rio Blanco.

Our muscles ache as we pull ourselves out of bed at 6:30 am.  Is it morning already?  How easy it would be to just pull the covers over my head and sleep some more.   But it is a beautiful clear morning as the sun rises on El Chalten and Fitz Roy.


 We prepare ourselves for the day, layering with clothing, putting on sunscreen, bandaging hotspots.  Yesterday as the temperature rose, I peeled off my thermals when I had the chance.  In so doing, I took off my boots and socks. As I redressed, I accidentally pulled on one of the socks inside out.  By late morning the the rougher texture of the outer sock created enough friction that a hotspot developed.  

Mary, one of our hiking companions, offered me some New Zealand Hiker's Wool.  You place the soft light weight wool agains the hotspot.  The texture of the sock holds the wool in place.  It worked quite well in lessening more damage, but some of the damage needed to be bandaged this morning before we started off again.  Of all the hiking we have done, I wish I had known about this hiker's wool before.  I seem to be prone to blisters regardless of how comfortable my boots feel.

By 8:00 We were boarding our van for a 30 minute ride up the trail head   where we would start.  Unlike and up and back trail of yesterday, we would be walking one way and back into El Chalten.  The first part of our hike was along a stream that paralleled the Rio Blanco.  

The beginning part of the path was rounded rocks that shifted under our feet and rolled unsuspecting ankles and knees.  Before we had traversed 1/2 kilometer, one of our group knew that this was too much for his knees and that the promise of 13 more miles was not going to work for him.  He and our tour leader returned to the van and back down to the hotel.  Leila, took a taxi back to the start and caught up with our group led by our Mountain Guide Pablo, a little bit later that morning as we were trekking through a lovely forest.




We could hear the rushing of the river, the chirping of the birds, the swish of the persistent wind and the low rumble and thunder of collapsing ice and avalanches on the mountain. I could also hear Leila leaping and panting behind me as she caught up with us nearly an hour and half into our hike. She must have run most the way.  

Our group reaches an option point about 1/2 way through the hike.  Pablo explains we can split up into groups if we wish.  Those who want to hike up to the upper lake, and those who wish to continue the walk to the lower lake.  The first option will add about three hours to the hike and about 2 more kilometers straight up hill and back down again.  The second option will return to the hotel 2-3 hours earlier, but the downhill trek back will also be difficult, and even more so if the first option is chosen.  Russ is eager to find a geocache at the upper lake, me not so much!  

It turns out, I am the only one not wanting to go up the hill to the lake.  Somehow that just looked like a lot of effort, that my telephoto lens could do and my legs didn't have to.  I just don't think my left knee and hip or my toes on the steep downhill would thank me. So I continue on my trek with Leila toward the fresh water lake, Laguna Capri, while the rest of our group pushed upward to Laguna de los Tres with Pablo.

Leila and I continued our trek to Laguna Capri and enjoyed birds and beauty while eating our lunch on the beach.



The water of Laguna Capri is the drinking water for El Chalten.  There are no signs posted, but Leila tells me that the couple who have just stripped down to their bathing suits and are taking plunge in the cold water, really shouldn't be doing so.

We continue our hike downward back to El Chalten and arrive about 4:30.


My pedometer is at 26,000 steps, 991 calories, and 11.58 miles.  I feel a bit like a wimp not going the distance with the rest of the gang, but 11 miles is decent, and I have a blister the size of a large bean on the top of my middle toe. The wind kicked up at lunch time and is blowing like crazy once again pushing dark clouds ahead.  The mountains are becoming less visible.

I spend the rest of the afternoon, washing dusty clothes, showering, packing, and backing up photos on my travel drive.  Russ and the rest of the group return about 7:00 pm and have just enough time for quick showers before we gather for dinner at 7:25.  They had a great time, and found the geocache.


Thursday, February 11, 2016, WRTD 32, On to Chile and to Torres del Paine National Park.

We get to sleep a little later this morning as we do not leave until 9:00 am.  One of our group is not feeling well today, the rest of us are a bit creaky after we sit too long.  It is nice though to sit still as we drive along to Chile.  So far this morning, we have seen a fox and some rhea (big birds like Imu).  There is another strike by workers and border control between Argentina and Chile is going to be slow and tedious.

No organic (fresh fruits, vegetables, cheese, meat) can pass over the border, so we are eating our lunches and organic snacks before we arrive.  
  
It takes us a couple of hours to get through border control.  First we check out of Argentina, go through no man's land, and check into Chile.  We unload our baggage and empty the van for inspection.  Our bags are run through a scanner. One of our group has probiotic pills in her baggage.  The scanner picks them up as organic.  The officials look them over and pass her through.

We arrive at our hotel around 4:30.  It may be the rough road or the snacks we have eaten, but my stomach isn't feeling all that well.  I pass on the alcoholic welcome drink and get hot tea.  Our hotel looks over Pacific Ocean water.  It is a fjiord in Chile.  We are in Puerto Natales  for the night.  Tomorrow we will take boats up the fjiord into Torres del Paine.  

The weather has turned.  The sky is dark and it has rained a bit.  We can expect wetter weather the next couple of days.

We had poor internet and some computer difficulties in El Chalten, so I am a little behind in photo editing and posting.  There now photos posted on my Picasa Web Site.  Click Here.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel Rs in Port Natales, Chile.


Saturday, February 06, 2016

No Gas in El Calafate, Argentina WTR Days 28-29

Friday, February 5, 2016, Worrall Travel R Day (WTRD) 28

Today, we have nothing special on our agenda.  There is a small golf course associated with a hotel in town that we might check out, a natural history museum, and also we would like to return to the bird preserve.  The skies are clear and the temperature is warming up to upper 70's.  We need to turn our rental car in tomorrow, so we plan to gas it up early, as we will not be driving after this afternoon.

Since the town is small, we thought we should get our gas first.  The stations are government owned, and there are two of them, one on each end of town.  These are mega stations that serve tourists and commercial vehicles (tour busses) that travel the length of Patagonia.  The first station only had diesel and it looked liked their regular gas pumps were being repaired, so we could not get gas there. Next we traveled across the little town to the station on the other side.  We could not believe our eyes; the queue into the station was not moving and several miles long!  Well, we would try again later.

We checked in with the Spa that operates the golf course.  Yes, the course was open to the public not just the hotel guests; we could rent golf clubs.  This course is an 18 hole, par 3 course on perhaps two acres of land.  How is that possible? There are only 6 holes, but 9 tee boxes.  The golf manager drew lines on our course map to show how we would zigzag around.  We could play 18 holes if we wanted, but we weren't eager to play more than 9 as we knew we would be spending most of our time figuring out where to go.

Originally, Russ wanted to play on Saturday.  But today, we would be the only ones on this little course.  Tomorrow there were six filled tee times starting at noon.  If you look at the map and the way the balls fly from every direction through the middle section (the death circle) and my history of being hit in the head by an errant tee off, you can imagine my reluctance to want to be on a course like this with other players.  So we opted to play on Friday, right there and then, skipping lunch and settling for an apple and a couple of granola bars.

We spent a couple of hours on "our private" and challenging little course, having a great time.  















After our game, we went to the Natural History Museum and spent a couple of hours learning more about the geology, dinosaurs, ice age, and indigenous people of Argentina.  It was very interesting.

My head is as big as his eyeball.  This dinos were gigantic.
By now, we were parched and hungry, so we headed back to a little cafe across from the bird preserve, where we drank a bottle of wine and ate empanadas (little meat and cheese pies).   We asked our waiter what was going on with the gas stations in town. Apparently, there is a blockade "workers strike??" on the roads coming into town preventing the gas trucks.  Yipes!  What a nightmare.  Glad we aren't traveling north on Route 40 anytime soon.

After our dinner, we took another 3 kilometer walk through the bird preserve. The weather was so warm and the air so still, most of the birds must have been hiding.  We saw few compared to the first day, but never the less enjoyed the walk.  

Before we returned to the hotel, we tried again to get gas.  No luck, no gas.  The queue was longer, and I think people were starting to camp in line.  We returned back to our BNB and got ourselves packed up, as we change accommodations in preparation for our Patagonia Adventure Tour.  Lights out at midnight!.

Saturday, February 6, 2009, WRTD 29

We bid farewell to our wonderful hosts, brother and sister team Javiar and Andrea, at South BnB.  By 10:00 am we are on the road, we deposit our bags at the new hotel, and check out the gas station situation before returning the car. One station is still not working, the other the queue goes on for as far as the eye can see.  Cars are in line, locked, and vacated.  People must have gone home for the night, or are taking turns sitting in the family car waiting.  We give up, bite the bullet, and return the car with a half full tank, and pay $50.00.

We enjoy one last day walking around town, shopping, eating at a cafe, returning to our new hotel to relax, read, and nap.

Tonight we met our group on the Patagonia Adventure tour.  Their are 8 of us walkers, and our tour leader.  We leave tomorrow morning for the Pietro Moreno Glacier.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel Rs in Patagonia