Hiking around Patagonia

Patagonia is known for its amazing hikes and views. We were very concerned that having a dog would hinder us from exploring this amazing area as all the hikes and national parks are not dog-friendly. We were able to find ways to do everything we wanted to do thanks to friends, good weather and learning where Rupert can go when we are on a trail. This part of people's trip is the part many overlanders look most forward to and I think our pictures speak to why. We saw some amazing things!!

February 9^th – Friends to the rescue

The original plan was to be in the national park early in the morning, but without a dog sitter this would be impossible.  The park was 150 kilometres away from Puerto Natales with a checkpoint to ensure things like dogs don’t enter that national park.  Thankfully friends of ours happened to arrive in the area last night and had agreed to look after our dog.  Ben and Annie you are our hero’s.

This picture reminds us of the front page
of our South America Lonely Planet Book

By noon we had exchanged pleasantries with our friends and Rupert was handed over.  We drove the 150 kilometres as quickly as we could.  We were excited to start exploring the national park known as the crown jewel within Chile’s Patagonia.  The mountains of Torres del Paine demanded to be photographed as they continued to make the ever changing landscape more and more dynamic.  It seemed we couldn’t go more than 30 minutes without stopping and taking more photos.

Our first hike was an easy 5 km round trip to a viewpoint of Grey Glacier.  The hike was beautiful, easy and made a great introduction to the park.  Between this hike and our next hike of the day we stopped at numerous miradors doing small walks for slightly different views.  Everything felt worth it.

That\s Gray Glacier in
 the background

Our final hike of the day was the Curve Mirador which we had read was the best easy hike in the entire park.  At just over another 7 kilometres round trip this flat walk gave us some of the most impressive views of the mountain range.  It was hard not to just sit and look at these massive towering mountains. 

As a bit of an aside we did still get in trouble in the park, after working up a bit of an appetite we started our stove and cooked some soup since $25 USD per meal in the nearby restaurants in the park seemed a bit ridiculous.  Within 10 minutes we had a random guy run up to us yelling that fires are forbidden in the national park.  We assumed that was campfires, but nope, according to this guy its all flames. 

After getting a fair amount of steps and knowing that tomorrow we would be attempting the Torres Mirador, a challenging 20 kilometre hike, we decided to find a camping spot that was somewhat shielded from wandering eyes where we could hopefully not only cook some dinner but breakfast and lunch for tomorrow.

By 10pm all our food was cooked for tomorrow and our bag was packed.  Our alarm was set with the goal to be on the trail for 6:30am.

Breakfast at sunrise

 

February 10^th – To the towers

As we had planned we were on the trail for 6:30 am.  It was almost too early to eat so we started our ascent.  After 2 kilometers we were starving, luckily the perfect breakfast spot was just a few steps away where we could sit and watch the sun slowly crest over the mountains.  

A mandatory break

The hike itself was tough but do-able.  The hardest section of the hike was the final 1 kilometer where the steepness of the trail got a little ridiculous, but our hard work was rewarded with beautiful views of the tower mountains towering over tower lake.  Because of the time we started we were almost the only ones at the viewpoint making our early morning walk up completely worth it.  We had reached the end of the trail!!

So close...

Halfway back to the vehicle is where it felt like our bodies started to give out on us but after a few breaks and lots of water we pushed until the parking lot was within reach.  We had done it!

We did it, the towers mirador!

We opted to not do the final hike we had contemplated doing while we were in the park, an 11km hike around Laguna Azul, we did however, drive to the trailhead to see what we would be missing.  Definitely another beautiful view but we were happy with what we had done and we needed to get back to town to retrieve Rupert. 

The view from Laguna Azul

Rupert enjoying a tour

The drive back to Puerto Natales was a bit tough with us constantly switching any song that was too slow in fear that it would put us to sleep.  When we did arrive to the town we learned our friends were at the local distillery that we had fallen in love with not 5 days previous so we headed there and spent the next hour or two chatting and giving Rupert all the cuddles.

Obviously we didn’t drink much at the distillery since we were so tired, but when it was
suggested we grab a bottle of wine and head to a campground to continue all our conversations we couldn’t say no.  Needless to say, wine was consumed and by 11pm we were exhausted.  It was time for bed.

 

February 11^th – Re-entering Argentina

Thank you so much Ben and Annie

It was a slow start for the morning, but by noon we had finished socializing, eaten breakfast and was ready to finally leave the Puerto Natales area towards Argentina.

The border was uneventful as we are quite used to travelling between Argentina and Chile now.  Paul almost drove right through the border without a final inspection from Argentina but after slowly driving through the border an army official ran out and waved us down. Obviously we had nothing to hide and all the proper documents to import Rupert into Argentina, so after a 5 minute chat we were back on the road.

This area of Argentina (Calafate/Chalten) is known to be quite expensive so we stopped in at the small city of Rio Turbio to purchase everything we would need for the next week or so.  We had hoped to get pretty close to Calafate tonight, so we drove until we couldn’t mentally drive anymore, to a little camping spot off the highway overlooking some mountains.  We found a little spot with some wind protection and settled in for the night.

 

February 12^th -  The Purge

All our purged items

Arriving to Calafate was surreal, it was absolutely full of tourists and would fit in well with any major touristy town in Canada such as Banff or Whistler.  The streets were lined with companies offering tours and bars selling expensive cocktails and beer.  After dropping off our laundry, exchanging some of our USD for Argentinian Pesos and finding a campground we started discussing how we would spend the remainder of the day. We debated about wandering around the community but we were not in the mood to spend any money due to the cost of our tour tomorrow, so we decided to do a purge.

The random business that exchanged our money

Since leaving Canada we have slowly accumulated random things, some we need and other’s we didn’t.  We also had learned that some of the things we had travelled with for the entirety of our trip we had never used.  We decided today we would put an end to that and do a large purge of all the things we don’t need.  We ended up getting rid of 2 medium garbage bags of stuff, which may not seem like a lot but when everything you have and use can be stored within a Dodge Grand Caravan we can assure you that this felt like a lot of stuff to get rid of. 

 

February 13^th – Trekking on a Glacier

We had to set our alarm to ensure we would be at the pick up point for our tour by 7:40am.  Paul was a little concerned that we would be late, especially since he remembered selecting a 7:30am option.  Little did we know that time was for hotel pickups, and our pickup point was one of the last stops.  That didn’t stop us from getting a little stressed that we somehow missed the bus.

That rainbow highlights this glacier perfectly

It was a pretty long bus ride into the area of Perito Moreno Glacier with many curves and turns reminding Paul specifically why he enjoys being an overlander rather than a backpacker.  Within the last 20 minutes his face was starting to turn white and he was drinking water frequently to calm his stomach.

Eventually we arrived at the glacier which had only started receding for the first time in its history.  The Glacier was massive and awe inspiring, definitely a worthwhile thing to see.  The sounds of it caving and pieces falling into the water below was mesmerizing.  We seemed to luck out with weather as when we arrived there was a bit of rain creating a rainbow over the glacier.  When it was time to board the boat to do our glacier trek the sun had come out and the blues of the glacier started to become surreal. 

The hike onto the glacier was good, but we debated at length after the tour was done if it was worth the large price tag at almost $200 CAD per person, becoming one of our most expensive tours.  We did like our photos and experiences, but we had been on glaciers before in Canada within the Stewart BC and Jasper AB area.  We have no regrets, but we wouldn’t do the tour again and wouldn’t recommend the tour to anyone on a tight budget.  What we would recommend is to grab a bottle of wine go to one of the many balconies overlooking the glacier and sit and enjoy the show for a couple hours.  Although we didn’t have the wine, that was probably our favourite thing we did near the glacier.

After returning to El Calafate we grabbed the dog and checked out a music festival that had just started as well as the various artisanal markets that had sprung up around the area of the concert.  We did think about sitting and taking in the music, but in the end decided that our day had been busy enough and it was time to retreat to the van for some shut eye.  We only stopped to grab some sparkling wine to celebrate the last few nights.

 

February 14^th – Preparing for another long hike

After spending most of the morning hanging around the campground, and a cute café a quick walk away, it was time to head to our next destination.  The hiking paradise of Argentinian Patagonia, El Chalten.

Beginning of the day

End of the day:
Happy Valentines Day!

The drive was longer than we had expected since most people talk about Calafate and Chalten like they are spitting distance from each other.  What we envisioned was an hour drive took almost 3 hours meaning when we arrived it was already around dinner time.  We found a perfect spot at the municipal camping area (more like parking lot) and headed towards the nearest pub for a valentine’s drink.  We considered having a meal but the meal costs were a bit eye watering and consisted of pizza and burgers so we grabbed another bottle of wine and cooked a nice chicken dinner as we once again prepared for another long hike to the base of Mountain Fitz Roy.

 

February 15^th – Sick

The view from the Mirador de los Condores

Paul did not sleep well.  By the time it was time to theoretically start the trail it was evident that he had a sinus cold and was in no condition to take on a 20 km hike.  He instead decided to rest up watching House on Netflix trying to get better. 

Kendra decided instead to do a small hike to the Mirador de los Condores for some nice views of the valley.  Hopefully tomorrow we can attempt the hike we want to do, together.

 

February 16^th – Up the medicine and the Vitamin C

The alarm went off at 6:30am with the hope that Paul would be well enough to hit the trail.  Unfortunately, once again it was not meant to be.  Paul, slightly frustrated about being sick in such a beautiful location, marched to the nearby pharmacy to pick up some cold medicine.  He then went to the nearby supermarket for fresh orange juice.  The Fitz Roy hike is our last must do hike in southern Patagonia and not one we want to miss out on.  Hopefully tomorrow we will slowly be heading towards the viewpoint famous among many hikers.

 

February 17^th – Forced up Fitz Roy

The alarm went off at 6:30am to a cold wet morning.  For many reasons we thought about once again delaying our hike up to the viewpoint of Fitz Roy, mostly due to Paul still feeling under the weather and the weather being less than ideal.  However, according to google the weather was supposed to improve by the mid morning and the following few days the weather was supposed to be terrible.  By 8am we made the decision, we would do the 20 kilometer hike up Fitz Roy.

After parking at the trailhead and preparing the van for Rupert we started our ascent.  We had read the hike is split into 3 sections, a moderate uphill for 6 kilometers, a relatively flat section for 3 kilometers and a very steep section for 1 kilometer.  Although Paul was feeling unwell we climbed the first section relatively easily, passing many hikers and feeling really “fit”.  Obviously the flat section was a breeze and took us through a mountain forest with what should have been beautiful views of Fitz Roy but unsurprisingly google was a bit off with its weather predictions.  We had read it was supposed to be nice but alas the mountain was hiding behind some thick clouds.  We did have a daunting worry that we would do the hike only to be greeted by dense clouds.

Fitz Roy in all its glory

The final section was brutal and it seems to be the point where Paul realized he was still sick.  He constantly was battling his stomach and his head trying to find the willpower to continue.  Thankfully he did and we made it to the top.  Although the last kilometre was tough our views were well worth our struggles. 

After catching our breath (which seemed to take an hour) we decided to explore the viewpoint area.  We had noticed a small number of people head to a mound on the left hand side of the mountain lake and wondered what they were doing over there.  Our fear of missing out kicked in and we walked another 0.5 kilometers.  Wow are we glad we did, this mound gave us a totally different perspective of Fitz Roy and even gave us a view of another glacier lake.  Once again our little extra push was well worth the effort.  We even met another British Colombian at the top who we chatted with as we took in the views.

We made it to the top!

The hike back to the van was amazing, the weather just kept on improving giving us more great views of the mountain.  By the time we returned to the van we both agreed that this was one of the best “day” hikes we had ever done and couldn’t believe that 12 hours ago we considered not doing it.

It looks better than it tasted :(

Running on a bit of an endorphin high we decided to extend our adventure a little bit and drive down a scenic road within the national park that borders El Chalten.  In guide books it had been described as beautiful, and although it was, it reminded us of home giving us and odd homesick feeling.  In general the drive probably wasn’t worth the gas but we find it hard to not do something, as always the fear of missing out drives us, at least we got to see a nice waterfall.

The celebratory meal did not compliment the accomplishment like we had hoped, El Chalten is a touristy town and as such most restaurants cater to one time patrons.  Quality is not something they strive for.  This was fine for Paul who ordered the cheapest thing on the menu as he was feeling quite ill after pushing himself a little too hard, but for Kendra who decided to splurge on a smoked lamb dinner it was quite disappointing.  At least the wine we purchased after the meal was a predictably delicious Argentinian wine!

 

February 18^th – What we will do to save money

Preparing to switch the tire

We woke up to a flat tire and of course today is Sunday meaning that nothing is the small tourist town is open.  We had a few options. The first was to stay in Chalten, but we were out of groceries and food in the town was, no exaggeration, 50% more expensive that a normal community and the person who would fix the tire was also very expensive.  The second option was to leave the town and stop every 30 minutes to pump up the tire with our air compressor, the lazy option meaning we wouldn’t need to remove the tire from the roof and mount it on the van. The final option is what we did, the smart option, take the spare down from the roof and find a place to put the flat tire in the van.  Definitely the best option, just sometimes it would be nice to just get away with taking the easy route.

Switch complete

We left El Chalten and drove to the “real” community of Gobernador Gregores which had a proper supermarket with normal priced good and a gas station that had showers for $2 CAD.   Although the highlight of many people’s journey to Argentina was El Chalten we were ready to leave.  We did thoroughly enjoy our time there and enjoyed the knowledge that we had done it as cheaply as possible by camping in a parking lot and mostly cooking out of our van with groceries we had purchased in other communities. 

The drive to Gobernador Gregores took us longer than planned, mostly due to poor road quality making us very happy we had taken the time to swap tires, unfortunately the tire shop in the community was closed until Monday so we did the only logical thing, slept down by the local river in our van.

 

February 19^th – The Cave of the Hands

The Cave of the Hands

A tire repair that would have cost of $25 CAD in El Chalten cost of $7 CAD in Gobernador Gregores.  It would have cost more if the guy had swapped the tire back on our vehicle, but Paul decided to do the work himself and save that $3 CAD.

There was not much more to do in the community so we headed back to the highway towards the last thing we wanted to see in the Santa Cruz Province, The Cave of the Hands.   This historical area was home to local indigenous people starting 8000 years ago.  These people were nomadic following the guanacos.  The caves were located in a long canyon with a temperate climate near a water source.  In the cave they painted various animals but mostly there hands using the negative space there hands created.  Because of where they were placed they were incredibly well preserved making it a surreal hike to see things placed by humans thousands of years in the past that look like the could have been placed a few decades ago.  The hands looked so…human, so much like our own.  For some reason we envisioned these Neanderthals' with hands different than our own.  Sometimes it feels like we think about people from so long ago as these subspecies of humans.  Beings that will evolve into modern humans but here were hands that looked just like ours.  There were hands of children and elderly besides drawing of beasts and the night sky.  It was humbling.

After finishing our final must see in the area we turned off the highway down a small dirt road indistinguishable from some of the roads going to random homesteads in the area.  The only difference is this road had a small sign saying Paso Roballo.  This mountain pass marks the most rural border crossing between Argentina and Chile a normal vehicle can take and the border we had chosen to drive to.  The only issue is that the gravel road, which was over 200 kilometres long, would take us through the middle of nowhere.  The drive was supposed to be beautiful and worth it but we were having flashbacks to the last rural border we had driven to which consisted of a gravel road; our drive from Bolivia to Chile where we had to be towed into Chile.

Thankfully the road was in far better condition than we expected and was as beautiful as people had described.  However, after 50 kilometres we decided it was time to relax for the night so we pulled into a spot known for beautiful sunsets.

 

February 20^th – A Retro Border crossing

Leaving Argentina

Our breakfast this morning consisted of every fresh or perishable item we had as we knew from experience that Chile was very strict with what items were not allowed in the country.  After making sure we were adequately full and hiding the few random items we could bare to eat (raw garlic for example) we drove the remaining 50 kilometres to the Argentina border post.

The drive was beautiful but getting to the border felt like we had gone back in time.  Since there was no internet connection at this border everything was done on paper and by hand.  Our information was placed in a ledger where we confirmed everything was correct.  Even the building didn’t fell like it was part of the current era.  It was a small two room log cabin where the room was lit but the sun shining through a large window. There was something so beautifully simple about the process.

Made it to Chile

There were many reasons we chose this border.  As we said before it was a beautiful drive, and it also got us closest to where we wanted to be in Chile (the southern section of the Carretera Austral) but the final reason may be a little odd to most people.  By coming to this border, we would get a stamp in our passport.  Argentina does everything electronically meaning that unless you require a visa to enter the country which requires a stamp to indicate it has been used, you do not get a stamp, ever.  Many overlanders make jokes how they will have multiple pages in their passports full with Chillian Immigration stamps.  Well because there is no internet at this border we got an Argentina exit stamp.  Our passport contained proof we went to Argentina!

The Chilian side of the border was unique as well.  Once again there was no internet so we filled our PDI cards (a tourist card that is normally printed out for you after you pass the immigration process) and stuck it in our passports.  Our vehicle import permit was filled in by hand, by Paul which again is typically done by the customs officer on the computer.  The stamp we got was even unique.  We received a stamp from the Chilian military since the border was controlled by the military rather than typical immigration/customs officers.  The whole process was so foreign but somehow familiar.  It was a process based on trust and conversation.  It was unique but comfortable and met our expectations!

The final 100 kilometres into Chile was through their Patagonia National Park.  We plan to visit this park later, but since we were low on water and food we had to go to the largest city in the region known as Cochrane, which was south of the park.  This community would mark the first community we would visit on the Carretera Austral a route famous for mountains, lakes, hikes and general ruggedness.  It had become a must do highway for anyone thinking of doing a roadtrip in Chile.  Our plan was to drive south on the highway to near the end of it before slowly starting to drive up.  We had no plans to send any time in Cochrane today but destiny seemed have other plans.

Relaxing in Chile!

As we walked down the street of the small community, which reminded us of small communities in the Kootenays, we see a tall bearded man run up to us saying “I knew I recognized that van”.  Within a few moments we recognized it as Sebastian a US resident we had first met in Mexico and again in Guatemala.  He and his partner Diamond had become friends of ours, we had messaged dozens of times throughout this trip and we had hoped our paths would cross again but where unsure if or where it would happen due to poor cell service within these rural areas.  As you could imagine we headed to the nearest pub ordered a couple of pints and a couple pizzas and before we knew it hours had passed.  We would have to change our plans and camp nearby but we could not have been happier to see these two again.  Unfortunately they had to head to Argentina so we once again parted ways and headed to a small lake just south of the community to relax for the rest of the night.

 

February 21^st – Boardwalks on the sea

One of the historical top destinations on the Carretera Austral was the small community of Cartel Tortel.  Only in the last few years has it fallen out of favour among guide books due to its lack of affordable, anything.  It’s a small community, it does not have the hotels, restaurants or even grocery stores that so many tourists expect.  However, for a van with a bed, and a fridge full of food it is the perfect destination.  Today we would head to this rural community that fell off the backpacker’s route.

Cartel Tortel was a logging community built on the shores of a fiord previously only accessible by boat.  As there were no need to think about the modern automobile there was no need to think about how to accommodate vehicles so the entire community is only accessible by boardwalks with the community itself stretching for a kilometer or so on the shore.  Most “major” destination are within its downtown which happen to be at least 750 metres walk from the only place to park a vehicle to access the community.

We arrived relatively early to Cartel Tortel and immediately started exploring.  The community was unlike anything we had previously explored in both the experiences we encountered and the views of the community.  Cartel Tortel was cute and desirable but also seemed at odds with whether or not to embrace the tourists that would surely come of they invested in them.  For us it was the epidemy of a community to wander joyfully.   We walked up and down boardwalks to various miradors looking at the historical buildings built next to the water.  Without much effort we had traveled from one end of the community to the other walking up and down various side “streets” to get alternative views.  The only one who did love the walk was probably Rupert who had attracted the attention of all the local street dogs who were extremely curious of this weird smelling outsider.

Now that is one dirty dog!

One of the many things that attracted us to the community was the you could do a hike around it that would consist of an “urban” section and a forest section.  Through our general exploration we had completed the “urban” section so the only thing left was the forest section which took us up through the marshy low lying areas to marshy hilly areas getting both our feet and Ruperts entire body extremely dirty.  Thankfully the views were worth it!

We had planned to only spend a few hours in the community before returning to the spot we had camped the previous night, but the sun had started to set by the time we reached the van and ended our hike.  After trying out a few random campsites seen on iOverlander we settled on a spot used by highway maintenance during the winter to deposit and pick up gravel.  It wasn’t perfect but did give us a nice view of a couple mountains in the distance.

Made it to the top!

 

February 22^nd – Not really feeling it

We didn’t have much of a plan for the day.  We knew the next “must do” for ourselves was a 21 kilometre hike within Patagonia National Park which would be impossible to do today, unless we woke up at 6 am.  The starting point of the hike was a few hours away from where we had camped and the weather was set to be poor most of the day.

When we finally arrived back at our small lake camp site we had stayed the previous night we became more confident in our plan as we watched dark clouds approach the areas of the hiking paths we wanted to follow.  We knew we had absolutely made the correct decision when we looked up at the mountains to the north of us and saw they were white; the clouds where snow clouds.

Throughout the last few weeks, we had become more and more happy with our decision to take Argentina Route 3 and “rush” to Ushuaia.  We had seen the trees slowly change colour in Punta Areana and now we were seeing snow, be it at high altitude.  Regardless, it was clear the seasons were changing.  

We did go into Cochrane, the community closest to our camping spot for a few provisions.  We purchased mostly comfort food for the hike we plan to do tomorrow and a couple beers to drink beside the lake which we thoroughly enjoyed.

 

February 23^rd – Watching Cougars hunt their prey

The wildlife decided to greet us
 as we entered the park

One of the hardest things for us to do in Patagonia is do things “with” Rupert.  In general, all national parks are not dog friendly and frustratingly that means they are not welcome even if they stay within the vehicle.  This means that if we do do anything in a National Park we have to hide Rupert then once we park make sure that no one will notice that a dog is relaxing in the van.  To accomplish this task and ensure we have the best weather we can have while doing the “must do” 21 kilometre hike within Patagonia National Park we wanted to be on the trail for 9am.

Since we had still camped an hour or so away from the trailhead it was an early morning wake up so we could have a hardy breakfast, pack our day bag and quasi prepare the van for Rupert.  We would have been on the trail by 8am; however, we had a disagreement of where the trailhead was.  When we had driven from Argentina into Chile we had passed a large sign indicating a trailhead was a few kilometres east of the visitors’ centre.  However, according to one of our apps the trailhead was on the road south of the visitors’ centre.  We decided to follow the route furthest away from the visitor’s information center in fear that they would see Rupert and kick us out; unfortunately, we learned that this was a trailhead that would extend our hike by an additional 8 kilometres.  On the positive side we saw the animal that Patagonia National Park was famous for, the puma. 

Dinner for a "Puma"

A few of our friends had previously entered and explored the park but had not seen the famous “puma” highlighted heavily in its promotional material.  We were ecstatic to be driving through the park and see one, which started another big discussion.  What is a Puma?  Paul was convinced that they had not seen a Puma and had instead seen a Cougar.  Kendra was convinced that a Puma must be a large cat, not unlike a cougar, but with a bushy tail.  When we started our 21 kilometre hike we finally had our answer of what we had seen and we were both, kind of, incorrect.  In Spanish Puma means Cougar meaning we were in a national park famous of cougars and we were lucky enough to have seen one.  We laughed at this realization; glad we had seen one while we were in the safety of our van.

This was the 3^rd 20+ kilometre hike we had done in the last couple weeks.   We had been told it was the best hike within this national park but it was not comparable to the amazing hike we had done to Torres del Paine and Fitz Roy.  We did enjoy it and it would have been quasi forgettable until the last 4 kilometres of the hike when some Guanacos in the distance started to make a sound we had never heard before.

A bit too close for comfort!

We frantically took out the camera and started to film the odd sound the guanacos made, trying to figure out why they were making such an odd sound.  We thought maybe it was mating season or maybe it was just general communication until we learned the truth; there was a cougar stocking them.  After a couple minutes of making the unusual sound they ran as fast as they could up a steep hill.  It was at that point we noticed the cougar, maybe 75 metres away from us.  It was silent and stealthy making calculated moves to reach the guanacos.  All of a sudden we became very aware we had no bear spray or anything really to defend ourself if the cougar decided that we would be easier prey.  Needless to say we spent the remained our the hike watching our back becoming hyperaware of our surroundings, praying we wouldn’t be a cougars consolation prize.

We survived, obviously.  We never did see the cougar stalking us and felt quite relieved when we arrived back at the van.  So much so we didn’t stay too much longer in the park.  We quickly got Rupert settled and prepared the van to be driven.  Our final stop of the night was near the confluence of two rivers making a perfect backdrop for a homecooked meal out the back of the van as we looked at pictures showing a cougar that was a bit too close for comfort.