Wednesday, February 24, 2010

stinky socks and sore ankles. my story of torres del paine.

in puerto natales i stayed with a couchsurfing family. it was quite different from any other couchsurfing experience i had had up until that point. honestly it was more like a hostel than a couchsurfing experience. a hostel with a very dysfunctional family inside.

as pierre the french couchsurfer said, "you could film a soap opera about this family" and you could and i'm sure it would be wildly successful.

i could go on and on about this family, but honestly it would put me in a bad mood so i wont.

here are some pics from the city.






the aforementioned pierre and i decided to team up and hike the "W" in torres del paine. after a day of prep and armed with gear and food for a 4 night trek, we woke up the morning of february 9 to rain. torrential rain. and wild patagonian wind.

february 9th included many mugs of hot powdered milk with sugar, blogging, and staring out the window as the rain monster teamed up with the wind monster and wreaked havoc.

february 10. more rain. more wind. but pierre and i were determined to leave the unhealthy, claustrophobic, unhappy house with skeletons behind every closet door. we waited for a lull in the sheet of rain and then made our move.

out of the house and along the costanera. two blonde sweedish girls who spoke a million languages fluently picked us up almost immediately. we stopped at the cuevas de miladon. besides the giant sloth statue, there's really not much to write about. so i wont.


we snuck into the park and started walking. wind rain and knee-high-pale grass all around us. the impermeable gray sky wouldn't reveal anything of the skyline, even though I asked nicely.


walk. wind. rain. walk. rain. wind. rinse. repeat.

suddenly the most awesome blue green mint toothpaste pastel colored lake appeared out of nowhere. and the thick legs of tall mountains started peaking out from below the clouds. everything was greener. i liked it.


arrived to refugio pehue soaking wet and exhausted. marcelo from santiago awkwardly served up some mate and gave us some advice on places to set up the tent for free. with the wind and rain raging outside, everyone came into the quincho to cook, clean, chat, and congregate. it was packed. rice and lentils and BOXED WINE! we dodged camping security on the way to the tent.

that night, a chilean family whose tent was adjacent to ours decided to start a quilombo at 11pm, 1am and 7am, respectively. i heard them through my ear plugs. i didn't get a lot of sleep.

the morning of february 11th, i was grouchy due to the aforementioned chilean family. that is until i saw the mountain in the sunrise morning. spectacularly beautiful.


after a breakfast of oatmeal, powdered milk, canela and dried fruit, we dodged security again, adjusted straps on our packs and set off under brilliant blue skies. mountains! forests! lakes! glaciers! i'm not sure if i'd ever seen a glacier before, but this one was absolutely gorgeous. the views just kept getting better. lots of hiking meant lots of thinking time.










on february 12 i felt good. i felt strong. i led the limping frenchman from campamento las guardas past campamento grey to campamento pehue. sandwiches and hot hot hot tea. i took the opportunity to brush my teeth and comb my hair. onward! to campamento italiano.


i did a lot of thinking. as i tend to do on these treks. usually i think about people, situations, dynamics, and energy.

on this particular occasion i thought about weather and power struggle. humans tend to like control things. we like to control situations and people. we build comfortable habitats and hide in them. we fight against things we want to control. we use force. the more force we use, the more things usually bend to our will. but, when you're in the middle of nature, you have no control of the weather conditions you will find. you are completely vulnerable and have no other choice but to surrender completely to the wind, sun, clouds, rain, snow... and there are people who try to fight the weather. one woman on the trail was cursing and struggling against the wind. she was visibly upset and the more she fought, the more upset she got. it got me thinking. if you accept things that are thrown at you and work with them and not against them. there will be things in life that you cant control, instead of pouting and getting all worked up, why not turn them into positive experiences. for example, wind can be a pain... it may cause you to spend double the effort just to put one foot in front of the other. but if you take that same wind and harness it using your backpack as a sail, you can use it to your advantage. wind is wind. it's all how you view/use it.

pasta and tomato sauce and boxed wine! and chocolate. yum!

february 13 was a tranqui day. only 15 km, but without mochilas, up the valle frances. i felt good and strong again, but poor pierre was limping a lot due to a very swollen tobillo. views were incredible. absolutely stunning. i think torres del paine is home to the most spectacular views i've ever seen. mountains and glaciers!! constant avalanches kept our necks craned and our eyes scanning the white slopes. and the best water i've ever tasted.






Here's a video blog.


And another video.


february 14. a lot of walking. we did 9 hours of walking in only 6 hours. hiked super fast. the gears in my head churned. another beautiful day. pitched the tent in campamento torres.

february 15. summited in time to watch the three torres del paine sneak out from behind the clouds. stunning.




packed up and began the descent. no more bread or cheese for sandwiches. we had stayed one night more than had originally planned. we cooked up some quick rice and lentils before hitching to the park limits. we walked a bit before being picked up by some in-park transit. we hadn't showered in 6 days.

at the park border, we got national park stamps for our passports and sat by the side of the road waiting for a friendly car. i smiled at a tourist van and surprisingly they pulled over. they dropped us at cerro castillo, a border crossing to chile. from there we got some construction workers to drop us off at our beloved couchsurfing house. walking in the door was complete culture shock. from the tranquility in nature to the chaos of too much sugar and questionable parenting techniques.

mate, shower and i quickly washed my stinky clothes! my plan was to leave the next morning.

16 of february. escaped the house and had lunch with pierre before sticking out my thumb.

one last photo.

i had a decision to make. there were two border crossings. cerro castillo or rio turbio. puerto natales has a terrible layout for hitchhiking. i had to pick one.

at the end i chose cerro castillo. a polish couple living in brooklyn picked me up. the woman talked my head into a spin. they dropped me off at the border. it turns out that i chose the more inconvenient of the two border crossings. cerro castillo saw almost no traffic. i waited. and waited.

i had also gotten quite a late start to my hitchhiking day. i was worried that i would have to spend the night at the border. i would not return to puerto natales, under any circumstances. no matter how dire. so i waited.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

and then the adventures really began...

on this trip i´ve really gotten used to the idea of the backburner, a concept introduced to me by harry many years ago. the idea goes like this, there is a time for everything and it doesn´t have to be now. sometimes we have a goal or an objective and we want it accomplished now (for example: a destination, a job, a book...), but sometimes the workings of the universe aren´t aligned in a way to allow for aforementioned goal at the moment. it´s ok to set it on the back burner and wait for the right moment to arrive. no sense in forcing something that doesn´t flow.

on this trip i don´t have a rigid schedule nor a concrete path. sometimes the windy roads i tread are made of dirt and my watch skips a beat. sometimes my travel wings lift me up and carry me to previously unheard of destinations and sometimes things don´t work out as i had originally planned. and i´m ok with that.

normally i am a rather impatient person. i have my to-do lists and my new york state of mind. i like concrete ideas and plans that give a certain order to the universe. but traveling has a way of introducing new ideas.

hitchhiking is unpredictable. always. you never know who will stop, when they will stop, and where they will take you. sometimes you are left at an intersection many kilometers away from any sort of four-walled structure and are left to sing, dance and kick stones to pass the time. hitchhiking has no tolerance for rigid schedules or routes. you surrender a certain amount of control and play by its rules.

my original aim for february 5th was to arrive to porvenir in time to catch the 14hs ferry to punta arenas. but as the clock ticked away the hours on the night of the 4th, i realized my very early morning goal would be impractical. so i changed aims: simply arrive to porvenir.

i left nancy´s house around noon and walked to the main route heading out of town. it was not the ideal hitchhiking starting point. no one stopped. so i started walking.

a truck braked and i hopped in. the truck driver had moved south in search of a higher paying job. it´s a similar story to many i´ve heard while here in the south. the pay of oil business is attractive and brings many workers from the poorer north of argentina. he dropped me at the border.

stamp stamp. flagged a ride with another truck driver. we talked and talked and talked. it´s awesome when you can get passed small talk. he dropped me off at the chilean side.

stamp stamp. every car that passed was going north to argentina or punta arenas. no one was going to porvenir. no one.

i made friends with the chilean boarder control who took very good care of me. they asked every vehicle that passed if they were headed to porvenir and if they had room for one more. it got chilly at the border.

i waited and waited. suddenly a red car pulls up and my french friend dom from ushuaia jumps out. it´s amazing how close you become to people you share a few days traveling with. it´s also amazing how much a familiar friendly face can brighten up your mood! dom´s driver´s friend had room in his car so angel (a 21 chilean kid stranded at the border) and i hopped in. destination, somewhere along route 3, close to punta arenas.

our driver was crazy. a frantic chainsmoking nutcase. i´m glad that i wasn´t alone with him and that the chilean kid was in the front seat. there are very few people that i can´t stand, the driver was one of them. i took the opportunity to stare out the window and avoid conversation.

the ferry ride was uneventful, so dom and i spent it gossiping to eachother about our respective drivers.

angel´s family owns a restaurant between the argentinean border and the turn off to tierra del fuego. he and i were happy to be dropped off. i wished my good friend dom the best of luck and we said goodbye.

angel said that i was welcome to pitch my tent out back behind the restaurant. he offered me hot water for tea and advice on punta arenas. it was getting late, so i took him up on his kind offers. i pitched the tent and fell asleep super super inexplicably happy. in the end, i never made it to porvenir. and i´m ok with that. i ended up sleeping right off the highway in my awesome green tent, which was better than anything in porvenir anyway.


february 6 provided more unpredictable entertainment. tent came down and steam rose up from the mate water. before i knew it, i said goodbye to angel and turned my attention to the road. goal: get to punta arenas.

pulled over a pickup truck. two guys. wouldn´t give me a straight answer to my inquiry of their destination. i took a better look at them, missing teeth and facial scars. i thanked them and politely declined. this was the first car i had ever rejected.

pulled over a oil company supervisor. talked. he left me at the intersection to tierra del fuego.

pulled over a couple in a pick up. they were not used to picking up hitchhikers, but they made an exception because i was a girl and traveling alone. they didn´t quite understand my motives for traveling as much as i tried to explain it to them and after a little while the conversation fizzled out.

i didn´t have a particular destination in punta arenas. i didn´t know anyone. i didn´t know the city. the driver, who ended up working for the chilean government, snuck me into an official looking building to use the internet. sent a quick note to my parents that i was ok.


saturday afternoon means that everything is closed, including the tourist information office. which meant no map, no orientation, no idea what to do. so i did what seemed appropriate, i took a seat on a park bench next to an artisan stall and pulled out my mate and thermos.


i don´t know why, but i felt a force pulling me towards a particular stall. an older woman sat selling hats, bags, earrings, and scarves. i started pouring mates.

she turned towards me and started talking. elisabet, her name, was from valdivia but lived in temuco. she had a mother, 10 brothers and sisters, a husband, two children, and three grandchildren. but she was bored in temuco. her husband sat around the house and she wanted adventure. so a few months before her 60th birthday she took a chance, followed her dream, and left her family to come down to punta arenas. she rented a small room in her brother´s church and supported herself by selling her handsewn products. she praised my courage and i praised hers. it´s not easy to leave your whole life to persue a dream.

upon hearing that i didn´t have a place to sleep for the night, she invited me back to her apartment. i helped her take down her stall and carry everything back. we showered, did laundry, and cooked a generous lunch at her pastor brother´s tranquil, hobby-adorned house.

somehow we simultaneously knew that we could trust eachother. we talked about religion and fate briefly. a lot of things on this trip have me thinking.

i slept on a mattress on the floor. i slept very well.

on sunday, february 7, i went for a walk around the city. most things were closed. not much to see. i followed my feet.


saying goodbye and thankthankthank you to elisabet and her brother, i shouldered my heavy pack and headed toward the road to puerto natales. vladamir, the chilean with a russian name, dropped me off at the roundabout. i stuck out my thumb and a police car stopped. just as the officer was explaining to me that i shouldn´t be hitchhiking, a nice couple and elderly father stopped to see where i was going. they took me to puerto natales.


i read the newspaper, listened to la oreja de van gogh, and talked. they dropped me off at the door of my next couchsurfing experience. and what an experience it has turned out to be.

to be continued... and photos to come in esquel!!

Monday, February 8, 2010

ushuaia! and more!

29 de enero. rio gallegos.

after just two hours of flimsy sleep, i ate some leftover pizza and downed some coffee before being dropped of at the ypf gas station on san martin. no luck throwing the thumb. at the roundabout i had better luck as a car of mendocinos pulled over with jack the dog. we made a quick stop at windy laguna azul and continued to the monte aymond border crossing.


complications arose with jack the dog´s papers and the mendocinos had to return to rio gallegos. i finished the aduana alone. my tierra del fuego sign made an appearance and i flagged down a truck. ariel the truck driver mildly sketched me out at first. but after making some small talk, i figured out that he was just a quiet intense guy and i ignored the frown wrinkles in his brow and his hardened look.


at the estrecho de magallanes we waited 3 hours for ferry service to start up again. plenty of time for mate and for me to meet a lost new zealander with no passport. he was of the lonelyplanet-toting, hostel-frequenting, no-spanish-speaking variety of backpacker. we made small talk, but really had not much in common. i amused myself by hanging around the port´s playground.







once on the boat, i stretched my wandering legs and talked my way into the main control room. edu, the ferry driver, taught me how to navegate.


here´s a quick videoblog for your viewing pleasure... !



gravel roads for 130 km. it was slow bumpy going in the anonimal-owned semi-truck. bump bump. talk talk. silence silence. bump. talk. silence.

we passed houses, sheep, and a few rolling hills. the border to argentina posed no threat.


i stayed with nancy in rio grande. a frantic chainsmoking woman who stressed me out. but she did heat me up a plateful of food and offer me a glass of wine upon my arrival. i had been hitchhiking for 14 hours by that point. i was very grateful.

30 de enero. rio grande.

the menocinos messaged me in the morning. they were going to tolhuin and there was room in the car!!

tolhuin is a small town of which i saw nothing because there were no windows for the back seat of the mendocino car. we went to the campgrounds alongside a lake. i set my tent up in a teepee and quickly heated up mate water. roberto, the crazy owner with the guanaco-dented pick up, invited us all (2 argentinos, 2 chilenos, 1 italiano, 2 ingleses, 3 mendocinos, 2 frances, y yo) into the main house where we set about preparing the party.

highlights included: sitting in the back of the pickup with cold wind and rain in my face. everyone-grab-an-instrument-and-play party until 2am. hot mate. moon rainbow. playing (and cheating at) chancho. what a fantastic night!


31 de enero. tolhuin.

after the morning mate and friendly chat with some porteños, i set off around midday to do the laguna negra hike. i was inexplicably happy to see trees for the first time in many weeks. trees and snow covered mountains. super super excited.


nice tranquilo hike with pájaros carpinteros taktaktaking and scurrying.




roberto dropped me off at the ypf and i started thumbing. 2 minutes later a car pulls over. friendly couple and french hitchhiker. USHUAIA!!


mountains and tourists everywhere. couldn´t get in contact with couchsurfer even after spending 4 pesos for 15 minutes of internet. yikes.

got my ushuaia passport stamps and sat outside the oficina de turismo eating what was left of my bread. saw ariel the trucker eating popcorn and checking out girls. dom, the french hitchhiker, passed by. talk talk talk. neither of us wanted to spent 22 pesos to put up our tents so we heard of a place outside the city where we could camp. free.

quick stop at anonima and ariel, the super awesome trucker friend, drove us 6km to the river. we walked down away from the highway and found a nice place to put up tents and started a fire. salty rice was ready and was accompanied with boxed wine. i slept fantastically with the river playing the background music.



1 de febrero. ushuaia.

ham and cheese. ham and cheese. dom, the french artisano, watched the stuff. i hitched into the centro with a camioneta. the driver sells the biggest crabs ever.


wasted time in centro. got a lot of thinking done. mate with couchsurfer. decided to stay on his floor that night. dom and i moved our stuff into his house. in total there were 6 couchsurfers.

2 de febrero. ushuaia.

called a remis for 7am. french dom, canadian meghan, and i got dropped off at the entrance and snuck in. walk walk walk. think think think.


walked along the shore and stared at the beautiful paisaje. i was in my head a lot and didnt take too many photos. pitched the tent and dodged park rangers.




walked to the end of ruta 3. walked to laguna negra (every town´s gotta have one), which was a turbal in the making.


animal alert: bunnies everwhere. so many bunnies. a corageous fox. lots of wierd looking birds.

tak tak tak. it rained all night.


3 de febrero. parque nacional tierra del fuego.

ham and cheese. ham and cheese.

cerro guanaco: hike hike hike. hike hike hike. photo! hike hike hike. photo! hike hike hike.


swamplications arose. squish squish.

up up up. rock and snow. up up up.



CUMBRE! what a view!!! mountians. lakes. forests. mountains. and rain clouds closing in. ham and cheese.

here´s another video blog from the top of the cerro



hardly had we turned around to head back down, a white-all-encompassing-cloud came out of nowhere and covered everything. everything was white. very very white. on the hike back down from cerro guanaco we saw a fox, a group of loud unhappy israelis, american with a lost glove, and a porteña mother and two daughters. it started snowing.

squish. squish. forest with slippery roots. tired legs. blister on right foot.

it rained all the way to the campsite. took down tent and started hitching. car pulled over. porteña mother and daughters! we squished to make room. they drove us right to the anonima chatting all the way.


we arrived wet, cold and exhausted. mate. internet revealed messages from nate. i was overjoyed. food. bed.

4 de febrero. ushuaia.

morning presented camera complications. the hostel with cheap internet gave my memory card a severe virus. i had to erase my photos. lo barato sale caro.

said goodbye to dom, bob, and luz. left ushuaia with a dark cloud hanging over my head. woman and daughter dropped me off at the rotonda. wait wait wait. two guys in a truck. i was running late, so i hopped in. sketched out at first. but buena onda. we talked about everything and ended with sustainable living and farming.

they left me at the tolhuin ypf. nancy and i met at the ypf. water for mate. frantic car ride. funny what we put up with in exchange for alojamiento.

food. talked with nate for 2 hours. so good to hear from him. fell into bed exhausted.

to be continued...