Los Glaciares: An Introduction (because I waffle)

Well provisioned and with blisters healed, the four of us walked out of El Chalten and civilisation headed once more for the hills.

Actually it depends on your definition of 'civilisation'. Mine includes a good internet connection and allegedly the fierce Patagonian wind kept on knocking out El Chalten's connection. If your memory stretches back to dial-up...well it was a lot slower. And I suppose I only dare mention it because good free WiFi was the norm everywhere we'd been so far. Well, El Chalten definitely lived up to it's frontier town reputation!

The northern section of Los Glaciares National Park is more famous for it's granite towers and particularly Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy, than for it's glaciers despite being set on the Heilo Sur, the largest ice cap outside the earth's polar regions. Perhaps this is because of a need to compete with the more famous - and Chilean - Torres del Paine, since some unfortunate travellers are actually forced to make the tough choice of hiking one or the other.

It could also be because those peaks are some of mountaineerings greatest prizes. Either way the comparison between the two was constantly at the back of my mind. You know, just in case someone actually asked my opinion on the matter!

Any guide book will tell you that one great advantage of the area is that most of the walks can be done in a day, meaning no need to carry a heavy pack. Yes, we saw plenty of day walkers and smugly thought to ourselves 'pussies!'

Now I'll clarify that I think the word to use here is 'wusses'. At least that's the good and proper Australian school yard term of phrase given that, pussies is more commonly accepted as to be referring to something else unless of course you're in an Agatha Christie novel in which case it's completely different. Anyway, from day one Hannes insisted on the word 'pussy' so that became the official word for the trip.

But what the guide books don't mention is how much the scenery changes. Unlike in Torres del Paine where it gradually seemed to evolve, at Los Glaciares we had a wonderful taste of everything on the very first day.

We started by climbing up the hill alongside the wide river bed surrounded by snow capped mountains.

Next was a detour to Laguna Capri where we got a first glimpse of Fitz Roy, with low clouds hanging around it's peak.

Then we hit the plain where we had lunch observing the granite towers.

And staring at the reflections in the pools of water along the trail while listening to the gurgle of the crystal clear river.

We saw a glimpse of Laguna Piedras Blancas and it's glacier, while spotting little tiny figures down among the moraine debris.

We played in the forest.

And turned towards the Refugio Los Troncos passing through a broad valley flanked by coloured mountains like the ones we had been mesmerised by around Salta.

On the approach to our camp spot we met a couple horses, that try as I may, were not interested in a pat. Well, at least I could still smell them if only from a distance.

Finally we arrived at the refugio and our camp spot for night which was nicely positioned in the shelter of a large rock that had been plunked down in the middle of the valley floor surrounded by more colour in the mountains and the beautiful evening sky.

El Calafate: Sometimes you just have to look away

Argentina has a stray dog problem. Apparently that's because the Argentinians don't believe in de sexing as this would make the males less...well...masculine. You see, the macho culture goes right down to the dogs!

Yet unlike the mangy dogs of Bulgaria the Argentine ones appeared well looked after. It was not uncommon to see little piles of dog food laid out for them on city sidewalks and parks. Obviously they left their own little piles around the place too. Of course they were very friendly, happily chilling out with any human wandering or hanging out in their city. And surprisingly they displayed pretty good road sense which is more than I can say for most of the human inhabitants.

Unfortunately we'd been given strict orders by our travel doctor to not touch any warm blooded creature because of the risk of rabies. While we ignored that directive when it came to horses, the house cat sleeping in the bunk next to us in Salta and when picking fights with coatis trying to steal our lunch, the fluffy coats of the stray dogs mostly went without a pat. Yes, I felt very bad.

But dog poop on the footpath or rabies for that matter seemed hardly an issue compared to what we witnessed the day we were leaving El Calafate.

With a couple of hours before our bus to El Chalten we'd wandered down to Laguna Nimes - a prime bird habitat alongside the shore of Lago Argentino.

Inevitably a few of the local stray dogs had followed us from the hostel all the way down to the tiny administration building. While we went inside to pay the entrance fee, the dogs continued into the supposed nature reserve.

Picking up the loan binoculars and surveying the lagoon we could already see the flamingoes, ducks with their chicks and birds of prey. But the peaceful scene was quickly disturbed by the stray dogs who had made it through the boggy grass and jumped into the water.

Chased down by the dogs the flock of flamingoes took flight in a pink cloud while other birds swam frantically out of the way. Shocked we pointed out to the administration officer what was happening to which he shrugged, acknowledging that they had a bit of a stray dog problem. The solution was to fence the area, but that project was only partially complete.

Most of the birds had moved away, but those with chicks were struggling to find a safe place. The dogs were chasing them down separating the family. But that wasn't all. Slowly the chicks were also disappearing until there were none left. Tears filled my eyes and I couldn't look any more as the guys seethed at what appeared to be a lack of interest in preserving the wildlife unless there was a financial gain.

That scene reminded me of another place in the north of Argentina where we'd spent the day, but were so disappointed we didn't mention it. We'd left with just this photo of Corrientes which shows nothing of the sadness we'd felt that day.

There in tiny public zoo, we'd seen depressed monkeys in enclosures so small that they would have more appropriately housed a large bird. In the same repetitive pattern the monkeys would frantically climb along bars from one side of the cage to the other and then back again. For as long as we'd stood there horrified watching them they just kept going.

So we were delighted when at the parks administration in El Chalten the passionate rangers enthusiastically told us everything we needed to know about walking in the northern section of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. Not only did they care enough to emphasise our role in preserving this pristine environment but they were very encouraging of getting off the tourist trail and to the more remote parts of the park. Admittedly I thought that was as a result of Hannes' travel beard which made him look like a well seasoned hiker.

And on top of the rangers enthusiasm, the glimpses of Fitz Roy from the bus had certainly got us excited in anticipation of the next 4 day hike.

I'm sorry, I tried to write a blog post, but the view was just too distracting!

 

Road to Salta & Quebrada de Humahuacha

Given our slow progress the previous two days, we still had a lot of driving to do and only one day left to do it in. Of course there would be more stupidly beautiful places so we tried to make a rule that we would only stop to take photo's of the most spectacular places.

Five kilometres later we spotted our first Llama sign!

Should we have hired a car to drive around Salta? Absolutely. Should we have learnt the road rules? Probably. But, seeing as few Argentines followed them, if they even knew them, we were just like the rest of the rabble on the road. Driving down this road, we wondered if the speed limit could really be 60 and sometimes down to 40 kilometres per hour. Figuring it must be in miles per hour even though that didn't make a lot of sense either, we drove at 100 and we were still overtaken.

Next came the hairpins on a dirt road wide enough for 1.5 cars. There were very few places to stop as we descended through the clouds.

Cafayate is south of Salta and the next place we wanted to head to was north. Unfortunately there seemed no obvious way to avoid the city and we found ourselves in the very centre battling the traffic. Despite no lane markings, no use of indicators, cars moving fluidly around each other and right of way rules at intersections that seemed based on a battle of wits we made it through thanks to Jeff's skilful driving. He blended in so well with the manic drivers that no one even honked!

On the other side of town, the road narrowed to 1.5 car width and wound through leafy forest that was a total contrast to the desert landscapes of that morning. But past Jujuy, the next provincial capital north of Salta, we were back into the colourful, barren canyon.

It was already getting late and our destination, Humahuaca was a fair drive away, so we made few stops and for the first time in the last few days we weren't blown away by the view.

Other than the colourful walls and pavement made out of local stone, the town of Humahuaca was a disappointment. Around the main square, make shift stalls were full of souvenirs, their vendors hassling tourists who walked past. And there, amongst the native people we stood out, but we didn't feel very welcome. On top of that the streets were littered with rubbish.

In contrast Tilcara back along the route to Salta was a lot friendlier and prettier. From the top of the hill where we ate burgers in the company of a stray dog, we watched the sun set over the coloured peaks nearby.

Quebrada de Cafayate

It was supposed to be a quick 190km to Cafayate, a small town near Salta! We picked up the car and after a jittery start which may have involved some very irritated Argentinian drivers in the no-longer-quiet town, we were on the open road.

So we set off towards Cafayate in search of the mysterious Quebrada de Cafayate that we'd been told was 'not to be missed'. Except it wasn't clear exactly where it was so we hoped we would get more information in town. We reached Cafayate a little before sunset after a 6 hour drive. It took us 5 hours to drive the 70km of the Quebrada de Cafayate, a stunning gorge.

At every corner the landscape seemed to change until we figured that it simply couldn't get any more beautiful. And then of course it did. We took an endless stream of photos, almost all of them right from the side of the road. There were so many, we should put them together into a video and we'd have a pretty complete picture of the drive, which must be one of the most beautiful in the world.

By the end of the day we were wondering how any other place we would visit in Argentina could compare. Until the following afternoon that is!

 We had to walk away from the road only twice. Spot the little person in the Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat).

And then in El Anfiteatro (The Amphitheatre).

What do you do when there's a stunning view everywhere you look? You take a panoramic video! Thank your lucky stars that we are not travelling with a real video camera.

But wait, there's more!

Salta! Not Salt-a

The guy at the bus ticket counter stared at us blankly when we said we wanted two tickets to Salt-a. Of course it was one of the many pronunciation mistakes we would make on this trip. We tried saying it a few different ways before he realised we were talking about Salta! He said it in a beautifully staccato way that I have since repeated to myself frequently while walking down the streets of Salta! An exclamation mark is required every time.

To be honest, it's a long way from Mendoza and San Juan and I genuinely wondered if we'd made the right decision to head so far north when our next destination would be Iguazu on the other side of the country. But whenever we mentioned we were headed to Salta(!) the reaction was always 'Ahhh, Salta(!) muy linda!'

And yes, Salta really is beautiful, with its old buildings, cobblestone streets and citrus trees whose fruits you can pluck while walking down the footpath.

We'd decided to rent a car to drive to the nearby canyons but we arrived on Sunday afternoon during the seemingly perpetual siesta, so we figured we would accomplish little that day. On Monday it turned out it was a public holiday for Columbus Day (which was actually the following day but they moved the holiday to Monday) and we could only hire the car from Tuesday.

So we ended up with a whole day to wander the streets of Salta! Now there isn't a huge amount to do in town, with just a few pretty churches (which were already closed for siesta by the time we organised the car hire) to look at and a nice town square. We had a lovely lunch of Super Panchos while sitting on a park bench watching the activity in the square of which there was actually quite little. In fact, with the amount of traffic that day, we figured driving would be a piece of cake.

After checking out the churches we wandered to another park, where most of the locals were hanging out and celebrating their day off. They had row boats for hire in the tiny lake which were very popular and everyone was eating ice creams, fairy floss or fruit cups. We wandered through the markets which were primarily selling gourds for mate. In fact, I can't imagine there is sufficient tourist demand for mate gourds and I'm sure every Argentinian already has 20 at home, so I'm not sure how so many stalls selling this and only this actually stay in business.

We then checked out the cable car that would take us to the top of the hill, but decided the view probably wouldn't be that exciting. Of course we could have walked to the top to get some exercise, but sitting in the park eating a fruit cup seemed like a much better idea. Hey, do what the locals do right?

Next Stop: The slowest 190km in Argentina