Restaurant Viva la Pepa, El Calafate

Good, cheap, and large pizzas here. Didn't try their creppes as they were more expensive.

El Calafate is a small clean tourist-oriented town: lots of cafeterias, boutiques, restaurants, travel agencies. We spent some time finding out how much is the flight ticket from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires, as we don't really want to travel 48h by bus. The cheap airline is called LADE, we walked to their office at the edge of the town (the town is really small, so the edge arrived quickly). Unfortunately, the whole March had been sold out, and they fly only on Fridays anyway. So we might fly with Aerolineas Argentinas, which is a  bit more expensive (around 210 USD) than the bus but will save us a couple of days.

Will go to Rio Gallegos in 1 hour, and from there to Ushuaia tomorrow. Expected to arrive at "the end of the world" at 8pm tomorrow.

Restaurant Nativos de la Patagonia, Glaciar Perito Moreno, Argentina

Took a 7-o'clock bus from Puerto Natales to El Calafate (Argentina), and upon arrival there (13 o'clock) jumped almost immediately on a bus to visit the Perito Moreno glacier. After seeing the other blue and large Patagonian glaciers, Pio XI and Glacier Grey, Perito Moreno is not that surprising any more, but is probably the most impressive one.
The glacier has the height of a 20-storey building and every 10 minute or so a large piece of it falls off and splashes into the water. The glacier can be viewed only from the distance as it would be too dangerous to go close (between 1968 and 1988 32 people died being hit on the head by a piece of ice).
We have been here already for 4 hours and almost finished a bottle of Pisco Sour (0.7l, 20 deg, 1750 CLP at UniMarc in Puerto Natales). Will go back to El Calafate in an hour (20.30) and then think what to do next.

The Net House Cibercafe, Puerto Natales

Back from a 6-day hike in Torres del Paine. Fought strong winds, heavy rain, snow, and intense sun (which comes straight through a hole in the ozone layer). Saw blue glaciers, icebergs, weird rock formations, rivers, lakes, animals (guanaco, fox), birds, and plants many of which grow also in Estonia (v6ilill, karikakar, ristikhein). Met many people (Lonely Planet has really done a good job hyping up this park).

Tomorrow will go to El Calafate.

(Can't write longer now as they will close the internet place here).

The Net House Cibercafe, Puerto Natales

Puerto Natales is a little windy town, where the houses are made of wood and covered by tin sheets. People drive Dodge and Chevrolet pick up trucks. All the modern facilities (ATM, WiFi, supermarket, good pavement) are here because travellers from all around the world start their multi-day hikes to the Torres del Paine national park from here.

We arrived here yesterday afternoon after 4-days/3-nights of sailing through the desolate Patagonian landscapes: there was cell phone signal for only 15 minutes close to S45.2 / W73.7. Otherwise the only human presence that we encountered was in Puerto Eden (200 inhabitants): the only place in Chile where one can buy handicraft made of sea lions. Because of bad weather (rain and wind) however, the
crew did not let us off shore to visit the village. The nature was a bit monotone and less impressive that I hoped for (Kaarel says that, Csilla was very much impressed): forest covered islands and peninsulas, kind of like in Finland, but with snowy mountains in the background. What was big and impressive however was the intense blue Pio XI glacier (the boat made a detour into the Fjord Eyre to visit it), part of which cracked and splashed into the water in front of our eyes. In terms of animals we saw sea lions, dolphins, even a killer whale (very rare!, spotted by Csilla), cormorants (who look like penguins), and penguins (who were maybe actually cormorants, Csilla: no they were not, they were penguins!!!).

The ferry provided more than just transportation from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales: there were a few lectures on fauna and glaciers (also in English), movies, a salsa party and we could also visit the bridge to see the radars and GPSs. Food was good on the ferry and we had a 4-person cabin only for ourselves, as the other 2 passengers did not show up. Most of the people on the boat were non-Chileans: a large group of German students and a few French, Dutch and Americans. (The Germans completely ruled the Bingo competition on the last night.)

Today we will go on a (probably) 5-day hike in the Torres del Paine, to do the so called W-track there. So won't be online before Sunday.

Some internet place, Puerto Montt

Bought the ferry ticket (480 USD pp, in a 4-person cabin, incl. all meals) to Puerto Natales this morning. Takes 4 days/3 nights to get there. The ferry passes through fjords so the views should be magnificent. Around Puerto Natales will try to do some hiking (Torres del Paine, Los Glaciares) to see more magnificent landscapes, then go to Ushuaia to visit the southernmost town in the world (at least according to the Argentinians). (Note that Puerto Montt is situated already more south than we have been before during this trip, the Cape of Good Hope was the previous record holder.)

Puerto Montt is much different from other South American towns that we have visited. It's late summer here, smells of hay, houses are made of wood, some streets almost resemble Tartu. And there is nothing to do here except for surfing in the internet. Will go to buy some wine now as it might get boring on the ferry after the first impressions of the passing fjords have worn off.

A hostel, Puerto Montt, Chile

After 19h to Bariloche, and then 7h we are back in Chile. Tomorrow will try to get the 4pm Navimag-ferry to Puerto Natales.

Hostel Ruca Potu, Mendoza, Argentina

Arrived in Mendoza after 7.5h in the bus going over the Andes (highest altitude was about 3200m). Mendoza is a nice European-looking town, surrounded by massive vineyards. In a couple of days the annual wine festival will start, today there was only a little festival on Plaza Italia to honor Italy many of whose people have come to live in Mendoza over the years. From nine to ten o'clock the police brass orchestra played and some opera arias were sung, as well as an Argentinian war song which everybody in the audience sang along. I tried to buy a cup of (Italian?) wine (for 2 pesos, i.e. 0.5 USD) but nobody had change from 50 pesos.

Staying at a hostel that offers free wireless and free wine. (The wine tastes horrible.) Tomorrow will have to check out already at 10.30. Our overnight bus to the next destination Bariloche is at 20.00.

Residencia en El Cerro, Valparaíso, Chile

Arrived in Valparaíso yesterday night and checked into a cute old wooden villa on Cerro Concepción. The street leading to the villa is filled with cats and nicely smelling trees (one was an orange tree, the names of the others I don't know). The accommodation is the most expensive one that we have had so far, 11,000 CLP (21 USD) per person in a private double room without a bathroom (but a basic breakfast is included, and there is wireless internet and one can use the kitchen).


Today walked around in Valparaíso, mostly climbing up and down from cerro (i.e. hill) to cerro. Many artists seem to live in Valparaíso, every second building in the hills is covered with graffiti, there are small restaurants and cafeterias.
Very few signs indicate that an earthquake hit this area just two days ago: at the port the pavement was cracked a bit, and the facade of several buildings has fallen off and some sidewalks have been sealed off for that reason. In the hills many of the buildings are old and shabby but strangely the earthquake doesn't seem to have harmed them at all.

We finally ended up at the bus station and tried to buy a bus ticket to Puerto Montt for tomorrow. All companies except for one claimed that the roads are broken and at the moment there is no service to the South. So we decided to buy tickets to Mendoza (Argentina) and will try to reach Patagonia from the Argentinian side, i.e. on the other side of the Andes.