Que tal amigos?

I'm back from my 20 days 'into the wild' adventure throughout the Patagonian landscapes. The 8th my American travelmate (aka West-Side homie Rachel), our two CS hosts and I took off with our backpacks filled with food and hiking gear from San Carlos de Bariloche towards the Chilean border. The weather started rainy, but once on the road the Gods changed it in our favour for the next five days! We hiked about 70km in total through the most beautiful variation of landscapes and flora. We decided to take it easy and whenever we encountered a mind-blowing view, we settled down and enjoyed the sounds of nature until the sand- and horseflies started attacking us!

Because the sky stayed clear day and night, we didn't even bother anymore of putting up the tent and just slept under the twinkling stars of the Milky-way.. I just did not want to remove my glasses and sleep.

We barely encountered other hikers, maybe this is due to Pablo's pathfinders skills who made us climb steep rocks fully loaded with our backpacks! But all the risks and efforts were totally worth the views and silence we got in exchange.

After five days of living on crackers, tuna, dulce de leche, mate and camping food we were so happy to have made it to Pampa Linda, a little town consisting of five houses and a little more horses, at the bottom of the Mt. Tronador. Exhausted we fell asleep on our way back to Bariloche dreaming of the half a kilo of Bife de Lomo that Don Alberto would prepare for us that night! I assure you, this is by far the best meat men can find on this planet! This with some fine Belgian fries, and we felt immediately reconciled with civilization.

The next day we wandered around town from chocolate shop to chocolate shop (Rachel's mission was to try them all out.. and there are A LOT!) With a slight indigestion we left Bariloche the next day to find Vincent, another friend of mine from Belgium, in El Calafate. The three united we made up our tight planning for the coming weeks (Rachel and I both had to catch a plane out of Patagonia on the 27th) and with no time to lose we went straight to the second most stunning natural phenomenon I've seen out here in South America: the Perito Moreno glacier! This massive wall of ice constantly moves and crumbles down into a lake and making these enormous thunder sounds!

That night we were quite in a rush to get to El Chaltén to start our second hike around the massive Mt. Fitz Roy. Unlike what our guidebooks told us, free camping in town is not allowed, so we got nicely shown the way to a legal camping by some park rangers. Again, fully geared up we took off in the morning and went looking for our first campsite at the base of the mountain. We immediately went to the mirador (viewpoint) to sit there for an hour waiting for the sun to set in absolute silence and only the sounds of the wind and Rachel's hungry stomach to disturb it.

Sadly we woke up to some rainy weather, but we had to continue hiking in this cold and wet Patagonian weather towards another stunning glacier where we could set up camp again! Due to the cold we never stayed out long during the nights and tucked ourselves in our sleeping bags as fast as we could. The last day we did some speed-hiking to be able to catch an earlier bus to El Calafate.

Once back there we took a well deserved and needed hot shower and dressed up to celebrate our successful hike! Pizza, a hamburger, beer and wine had to do the trick, because don't forget that we are still travelling on a shoestring! Unfortunately we enjoyed that night a little too much and missed our early bus the next day and had to take the only other one in the afternoon.

We arrived quite late in Puerto Natales and got the news that we could only leave at 7am to the national park, so we had to go buy all our food, rent some gear en book everything in no-time to be able to leave in the morning which was mandatory according to our schedule! Luckily we made it and slept only five hours before heading out into the wild one more time for five days! On the bus we met a Swiss guy and a Norwegian girl and invited them to join our adventures! And again during the next five days we've been hiking through amazing scenery's and all kinds of weather. We also got violently introduced to the famous Patagonian winds! When they come, they just blow you off the trail and give you no time to duck and avoid getting sand blown at 90km/h in your face!

The downside for me was that just before the hike I bruised my right heel, soI had to do the hike limping on my left foot. It is as if I was hiking 80km on high heels. Now I understand and fully respect why women complain at the end of the night in clubs!

Sadly on day four my amazing hike-buddy Rachel had to leave to catch a bus to Ushuaia, so we had to continue only the four of us. The weather Gods were as sad as we were, which made us continue in the pouring rain. Finally the next day we made it back to Puerto Natales and again we deserved a good fiesta to celebrate another successful hike! All together Rachel and I will have hiked around 150 to 200km in Patagonia!

The 27^th I had to catch a plane in Punta Arenas at 4am for Puerto Montt to continue my travels in Chile. I am currently recovering in a cute little house in Castro (Chiloe Island) with an old woman taking care of me. It is quite cold down here, so I might go sit next to the stove and drink a nice hot cup of chocolate, prepared with some motherly love.

Hasta luego gringo's! I'm off to part two of my trip! I have by the way decided to extend my stay until around the 23^rd of July. Life is to good down here and I still have a lot to do before I can come home!

G. on the road!

PS: I finally had the time to upload some pictures

- Brazil

Pantanal and Bonito: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=157983&id=634868429&l=d66e6b6d7d

- Argentina

Foz de Iguazú: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=158252&id=634868429&l=06d69e9c42

Bariloche (hike #1): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=158283&id=634868429&l=28a40c1fb8

Patagonia (hike #2&3): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=158449&id=634868429&l=b9d3d239c6