Backpacking South America

So many of you may wonder what we did for Jared’s birthday. Have no fear, it was something FUN! Well your curiosity may now be killed: he got a CAR (rented, of course) and we, with 3 other travelers (Jude, Cayley and Maaike) took a road trip to Los Glaciares National Park. There we saw one of the most amazing sights, Glaciar Perito Moreno and spent the day listening and watching the glacier crack and drop large chunks of ice. It was incredible!

Glaciar Perito Moreno is part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, which is the world’s third largest ice field and fresh water reserve. It is also one of three glaciers in the Patagonia region that is not retreating. It grows daily up to about 6 feet. It is about 3 miles wide and extends more than 180 feet above the water.

While there, you have the opportunity to take boat rides in and around the glaciers, but we found it more fascinating to just walk along the walkways opposite the glacier, sit and watch the glacier fall for as long as we wanted. You are able to get so close! It’s nearly impossible to capture the size and color with the camera.

After an amazing day visiting Cerro Torre, we decided to press our luck and do a two-day hike to the base of the legendary Mount Fitz Roy the following day. Learning our lesson from Paso de las Nubes, we packed light and got going around 11.

After a quick 6 mile hike, we arrived at Campamiento Poincenot, set up our tent and gazed at Mount Fitz Roy, just waiting to get a bit closer.  What’s incredibly amazing about these mountains is that people come from all over the world to climb them or even try to summit them, particularly Mount Fitz Roy and may wait months for good weather. I am in awe of the kind of people who can even attempt this kind of feat.

The guide books all say the sunrise over the Fitz is an amazing experience, so we got in our tent shortly after 9pm, while it was still light out with an alarm set for 4:30 am. We thought we were crazy. Fortunately, we found another couple to climb to Laguna de los Tres at the base of Fitz Roy with us. We met just shy of 5am, headlamps and every piece of warm clothing on and made our way.

After weeks soaking in Chilean rain, it was a welcome change to arrive in El Chalten to a brilliant sunrise, only to be surpassed by the sunrise we would see only a few days later.

We have met countless travelers that had visited El Chalten – all had the same comments, it’s incredibly beautiful, but it is always windy and raining. So, we went, hoping for the best. We were not disappointed. We arrived to clear skies, no wind and no sign of rain. Our overnight bus along the desolate, gravel, legendary Route 40 (it was very beautiful) dropped us off shortly after 7 am. We dropped our gear off at a hostel, grabbed food for lunch and hit the trail, because we had no idea how long the weather would last.

Our first hike was up to the base of Cerro Torre, a granite spire that sticks straight out of the earth like a dagger. It was an amazing site that just got better the closer we got.

With the side trail, it was a 7 hour day of hiking after a less than perfect night of sleep – but we were so thankful to be blessed with the weather.

After Bariloche, we were looking for something a bit more “tranquilo.”  Our next stop was El Bolson, once a  small pueblo, then hippie enclave and now a tourist mecca.

The highlight of our stay in El Bolson (aside from the delicious ice cream at Jauja), was our hike up Cajon del Azul.

We set out, planning to reach the end of the canyon, stop into a refugio for lunch and head back, a 7 hour hike.

We reached the river about 30 minutes into the hike and crossed two forks on cable suspension bridges with missing wood planks.  It was a bit sketchy, but sturdy enough to not induce too much fear.

We spent the rest of the morning following the iridescent green waters of the river up the canyon and retraced our steps back to the beginning.

It was a delightful hike and we rewarded ourselves with another helping of ice cream.

Yes, crossed the pass of the clouds (Paso de las Nubes).  It’s a two-day hike, but wasn’t quite as simple as our guide book made it seem (our packs were also a bit heavier than they needed to be…).  As we prepared for the hike, we asked about the condition of the trail, and everybody told us, there is some water – but it wasn’t until we reached the ranger’s office at the trailhead, that we heard we were going to have to go through shin-deep water.  We were both concerned, but figured what’s a little water going to do?

Day One

The trail map said the first day should take 8 hours.  We headed out despite a few clouds accumulating on the horizon.  We found ourselves some good bamboo walking sticks and kept trekking on.  We were making great time and reached the first campground in 2.5 hours, much sooner than the map said (4 hours).

At the campground, we had to ford a river that turned out to be knee deep.  The current was very strong and our backpacks had some minds of their own.  I changed my shoes in for my flip-flops and crossed first, dropped my pack and went to the middle of the river to help Carra across.