Stranded at the end of the world

January 31st, 2010 by David

Twelve hour bus from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia at the southern end of Tierra del Fuego – stamping out of Chile and back in to Argentina again on the way. The landscape passing through the northern half of Tierra del Fuego was quite boring, flat and barren and with the odd nodding donkey pumping oil out of the ground. It got more interesting closer to Ushuaia, the worlds southermost city, snowcapped mountains on the horizon and twisted bonsai-like lichen-covered trees – whole forests made up of trees only two-three meters high. We stayed a bit outside the center with a nice family who kept the house around 26 degrees indoors (Argentina unlike Chile is rich in gas…25-30 degrees indoors is the norm while it’s 10-15 degrees outdoors…nearly the exact opposite combination to super-airconditioned Hong Kong – people are never happy..).

Sealions in the Beagle Channel.

Sealions in the Beagle Channel.

We spent a day around town, then the next day we went out on a cruise on the Beagle Channel (the strait mapped by the ship Darwin sailed on). The boat passed big colonies of sea-lions, cormorants, Magellanic and Gentoo penguins, and a very desolate looking lighthouse. We got to about 54.9 degrees south – the “southest” we’ve been (while in Ushuaia we looked a bit at Antarctica cruises to hop down the next 1000km south, but even last-minute deals were fairly expensive). Going 55 degrees north would only get you about as far as Belfast, but going south it’s the end of the world with only a handful of hardy species surviving on land. Going as far south as Umeå in Sweden (where my brothers are studying and where I went just before starting this trip) is to the north would actually land you on the Antarctic peninsula…

Lighthouse in the Beagle Channel.

Lighthouse in the Beagle Channel.

Lighthouse in the Beagle Channel.

Lighthouse in the Beagle Channel.

The cruise dropped us at Estancia Harberton ranch, to return by land. The ranch was set up in 1886 by a reverend Thomas Bridges who worked with the indigenous Yamana and Selk’nam of the area while they were dying out from introduced illnesses, getting hunted down and shot by sheep farmers, or starving after sealers killed off all the sea lions. Thomas seems to have been bright enough to realize that picking up a new religion probably wasn’t the highest priority for this people at the moment, considering their situation – he set up a safe place for them at his estancia and tried to preserve what he could of their culture, creating the first Yamana-English dictionary and writing down nearly everything that is known about these peoples today. Some of the earlier missionaries down here had been less in tune with the place, one of the least hospitable areas in the world – one group led by an Allen Gardiner sat and starved to death on a beach convinced until the end that god would provide for them if they just had enough faith. Clothes given to the Yamana by other missionaries “to protect their modesty” only helped them catch pneumonia and die..oddly enough covering yourself in sea-lion grease and walking naked like they had been doing for 7,000 years actually works better in this cold wet place where clothes never dry. Today there is only one native Yamana speaker left – two other tribes on Tierra del Fuego (which was named the land of fire from all the camp-fires seen on the coastline by early explorers) went extinct without a trace.

Unnamed nativo grave.

Unnamed nativo grave.

The estancia is still run by descendants of the Bridges family, and a young member guided us around the house, cemetery and a corner of protected Fuegian forest. A tree he pointed out in the forest had been made to grow in an arch by the Yamana long ago, to be useful for boat-building. Trees like this can apparently be found all over the area, but they grow so slow it would never have been useful for the person actually shaping it, or even his kids or grandkids…it would take 300-400 years to be ready! Imagine actually caring that much for your very very distant descendants… While we were walking around the estancia world leaders were gathering in Copenhagen to discuss climate change, and whether we should bother to leave any scraps at all of the biosphere intact for our grandkids… They came up with nothing but that’s ok, most people were too busy wondering how many people some famous golfer had slept with to even notice… Could it be that struggling with your day-to-day survival in a harsh environment like this keeps the brain functioning better than our modern lifestyle?

Skeletons and laundry by the Acatushun museum.

Skeletons and laundry by the Acatushun museum.

After walking around the estancia we went to a very impressive marine mammal museum next-doors. There’s a very long shallow peninsula a bit further north on the Tierra del Fuego coast where whales often get stranded, and the ones that can’t be rescued usually end up here. Overflowing around the museum building there was a fantastic amount of cetacean spare-parts lying around – the skeletons of some of the biggest animals that have ever lived, lying in the grass next to the laundry hanging out to dry! The exhibition inside was well laid out, the living animals painted on the walls behind the mounted skeletons, and there was another house with a second bone-yard a bit further down by the shore. Two volunteers were sitting outside (..in the fresh air) each cleaning a dolphin skull – inside the house a big wooden box contained dozens more still waiting to be cleaned..we nearly passed out from the stench when the lid was lifted!

Flag tree.

Flag tree.

 

Bus back to Ushuaia with a couple more stops packed in along the way – twisted “flag-trees” on an exposed hill, bent over by the constant westerlies – another stop by a beaver dam (a Canadian species introduced for a failed fur-trade business, now busy eating its way through the slow-growing native forests) – and finally a stop by a husky-farm (wrong season for dog-sledding though with no snow around). One of the dogs there was a half-wolf breed, and the owner had taken part in the Alaskan Iditarod race.

 

We had planned to spend only a couple days in Ushuaia and the Tierra del Fuego national park, but it was getting quite close to Christmas and when we went to check about buses everything out from Tierra del Fuego was fully booked for well over a week. The bus north to Buenos Aires would have been about 52 hours long, and we weren’t particularly looking forward to it, but now there wasn’t actually any bus at all that could get us up there before the 25th. Flights were sold out also – except for one on Christmas Eve, landing at midnight, so we booked this for lack of other options (it was actually about the same price as the bus too).

In the Terra del Fuego national park.

In the Terra del Fuego national park.

Decided to make our Tierra del Fuego national park trip an overnight one now that we had the time – who doesn’t want to go camping at the end of the world? The park begins an hour west of town, where the road ends and we got an “end-of-the-world” stamp in our passport from a crazy pirate captain (seriously, he had the jolly roger hoisted!) who immediately gave us a couple bottles of stout upon learning that there were Irish among us! The trek from there followed the shore mostly, passing old Yamana settlements and making a dip in towards the mossy forests every now and then. In a few spots fallen trees were lying in big piles, tossed around like matches – they must get some serious storms here during the winter… (Cape Horn isn’t far off). In some areas many half-fallen trees were leaning on eachother, moving in the wind and we could hear loud creaking sounds from every direction around us – the singing forests of Tierra del Fuego!

Indian bread in Terra del Fuego national park.

Indian bread in Terra del Fuego national park.

The forest was full of an orange parasitic fungus growing on the trees, called Indian bread (edible apparently, though we didn’t risk it) and small white orchids growing by the thousand through the thick moss. It started raining a bit just as we got to the campsite – they didn’t have enough tents to rent us it turned out, but they did have sleeping-bags and there was a cabin that we could stay in (tents would probably have been very cold and soggy anyway…the campsite was partly flooded). We lit a cozy fire in the cabin stove, and drank our pirate stout! In the morning we woke from a huge bird of prey banging on our window (..I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just the stout) – the whole campsite was actually full of birds of prey, as well as some dare-devil rabbits who must have liked living on the edge.

Loosing the path..

Loosing the path..

After breakfast we started another trail along the lake shore – a bit overgrown and hard to follow but not to worry – I found a great shortcut (see photo). A side-trail up a 970m mountain called Cerro Guanaco had a sign saying it was closed off but we started it anyway to see how far we could get. Patching up a broken bridge across a stream on the way with a few more dead tree-stumps, we managed to get as far as the snow-line 600m up. Big views towards the lakes below and the Beagle Channel far away before we turned around to trek back down.

Mossy Fuegian forest.

Mossy Fuegian forest.

We still had a few days to spend in Ushuaia before the flight out – used them to visit another couple museums to learn more about the Yamana and early Antarctic explorers. A display on the local fauna in one of the museums was sponsored by the Total oil company, which apparently without any irony lamented the 90% loss in some penguin species due to rising sea temperatures… The maritime museum was housed in the old prison – Tierra del Fuego (being a fairly miserable place to live during the winter) has of course been used as a penal colony. The prisoners among other things had to work hard in the snow to build a pointless little railroad that is now only used as a slower alternative for tourists to get the national park. One prisoner, featured as a life-size replica in his old cell, was a young psycho-killer with huge ears – learned men of the day were convinced that “his wickedness lies in his ears” so they were operated on. Surprisingly it didn’t work – he was still wicked, and legend has it the ears even grew back overnight! His prison mates eventually beat him to death when they got fed up with his “wickedness”.

Anne crossing a stream.

Anne crossing a stream.

During the day on Christmas Eve, before catching the evening flight, we climbed up the mountains behind Ushuaia to see a small glacier. We got up to 750 meters altitude (cheating a little with a cable-car that gave us 200m in the middle) and it was really quite miserable up there. Snow, strong winds nearly pushing us off the trail and freezing cold – and this is practically midsummer here… How on earth did the naked canoe-nomads survive this place in the winter? At the Harberton estancia they mentioned a recent winter of 3 meter snow that had killed most of their sheep. We thawed on the way down from the mountain, the forest of the lower slopes giving us a bit more shelter.

The views when we flew out from Ushuaia were fantastic, still bright at half past nine in the evening. We spotted the Beagle Channel and Magellan Strait during the first few minutes in the air.

Leaving Ushuaia.

Leaving Ushuaia.

Punta Arenas: Surrounded by clowns in black-and-white

January 26th, 2010 by David
Magellanic penguin on Isla Magdalena.

Magellanic penguin on Isla Magdalena.

From Puerto Natales we got another bus south to Punta Arenas – the last major place on mainland South America before Tierra del Fuego. We spent one day around town, visiting a huge cemetery full with the names of early settlers from all over Europe (even Klädesholmen in Sweden and Sligo in Ireland). Our major excursion from Punta Arenas was to the Isla Magdalena penguin colony, after two hours across the Magellan Strait by boat. We’ve been to penguin colonies in other places before (even snorkelled with the little torpedos in Galapagos) but I’ve never seen anything like this. The entire island was dug up – one hole in the ground for every meter, all the way up to the lighthouse at the top! Somewhere between 70,000 and 120,000 Magellanic penguins in total. Some of them were in the middle of performing mating dances, clicking the beaks together or skypointing with a strange song that sounds like a donkey braying. (video of penguin singing)

The Punta Arenas cemetery.

The Punta Arenas cemetery.

Magellanic penguins on Isla Magdalena.

Magellanic penguins on Isla Magdalena.

Magellanic penguins on Isla Magdalena.

Magellanic penguins on Isla Magdalena.

Magellanic penguins on Isla Magdalena.

Magellanic penguins on Isla Magdalena.

Última Esperanza: Cruising below the frozen rivers

January 25th, 2010 by David
The Última Esperanza Sound.

The Última Esperanza Sound.

For a very relaxing day to rest our legs after five days of trekking in the Torres del Paine we booked a cruise up the Última Esperanza Sound to two glaciers, the Balmaceda and Serrano. The area looks quite far inland on the map, but is connected all the way out to the pacific by the fiords carved by enormous ice-age glaciers. The landscape reminds a little of Milford in New Zealand, with tall waterfalls crashing down the mountain-sides into the fiord. Snowcapped mountains, waterfalls, rainbows, glaciers – completely stunning! The boat passed sea-lion and cormorant colonies on the way, and gave us a final quick view of the Torres del Paine mountains 60 kilometers away, before arriving below the first glacier. The Balmaceda was running down a steep slope from mountain tops hidden in mist, a frozen river of blue ice that doesn’t quite reach the sea any more – it used to a couple decades ago… The Serrano still does, and we disembarked close to it later to do a short walk on the edge of the Bernhard O’Higgins national park (the biggest protected area in Chile which runs the whole way to the coast and covers some of the biggest ice-fields outside the poles). Walking up close to the glacier we played “which-animal?” games with the oddly shaped ice-blocks floating below – better than ink blots! On the way back to Puerto Natales the boat stopped for some good food by an estancia, a big farm accessible only from the water.

Rainbow over the Última Esperanza Sound.

Rainbow over the Última Esperanza Sound.

View over the Última Esperanza Sound.

View over the Última Esperanza Sound.

Waterfall in the Última Esperanza Sound.

Waterfall in the Última Esperanza Sound.

Blue ice of the Balmaceda glacier.

Blue ice of the Balmaceda glacier.

Blue ice of the Balmaceda glacier.

Blue ice of the Balmaceda glacier.

The top of the Serrano glacier.

The top of the Serrano glacier.

Definitely an elephant!

Definitely an elephant!

Torres del Paine: If Carlsberg made National Parks…

January 24th, 2010 by David
Cuernos del Paine seen from Lago Pehoe.

Cuernos del Paine seen from Lago Pehoe.

Torres del Paine in Chile is so fantastic that it is even mentioned in the Rough Guide to Argentina book as one of the highlights for that country…just for being close to it. The national park, which is also on the cover of the Rough Guide to Chile book we’ve been carrying the last couple months, is where we’re heading next. We bussed down from El Calafate in Argentina, crossing the border back into Chile and arriving in Puerto Natales, the closest town. Puerto Natales itself is a bit rundown looking but fairly nice, with some good cafes and restaurants. We spent a day stocking up on everything we’d need to go trekking in the park – renting tents and sleeping bags (there are some refugios in the park but they were booked out since ages..we’re getting dangerously close to high-season) and buying pasta, porrige, bread and lots of dried fruit and nuts. Unlike the 10-day trek we did in Nepal a while back there are no tea-houses, porters or people serving dal-bhat, so a lot more carrying to do. My 75-litre backpack was nearly full with just the two thick sleeping bags and the tent. Water is drinkable directly from the streams everywhere in the park though, so no need to bring, filter, treat or boil which is handy.

View to Lago Grey from our picnic spot.

View to Lago Grey from our picnic spot.

We got a bus to the park in the morning, and crossed turquoise Lago Pehoe on a ferry to get to the trail-head for the five-day W trek. It is named W for the shape of the route – in and out of three separate valleys between the mountains. The ferry crossing served us some stunning views towards the granite Cuernos del Paine massif – 2000-3000 meter high peaks, strangely shaped and multi-coloured from different layers of rock, the harder layers on top shaping how the lower layers are eroded. A nice introduction to the scenery of the park – the five days would be nearly uninterrupted with one incredible view after another…probably the most sustained sensory overload of any place we’ve ever been.

View over Glacier Grey.

View over Glacier Grey.

Dead tree in Torres del Paine.

Dead tree in Torres del Paine.

The western of the three W legs leads to lake Grey and the glacier of the same name – up from lake Pehoe with views back towards its turquoise waters, crossing a wind-swept pass with lots of tilted bonsai-shaped Lenga and Antarctic beech trees fighting the elements. We had lunch looking down towards Lago Grey far below, watching little blue icebergs float around on the surface. A while later along the trail the first views towards the Grey glacier opened up, from a second windswept pass. There was quite a bit of climbing on the way with the tents and all the gear, but the views more than made up for it.

Edel, Teresa and Anne at the Lago Grey campsite.

Edel, Teresa and Anne at the Lago Grey campsite.

The Grey campsite was right by the lake shore, on a sheltered beach close to the glacier but out of view. Bits of millenia-old ice were lying on the beach, with bigger icebergs further out – we’d hear the odd roar from the glacier letting another block loose while we rigged up our tents and started cooking. Great appetite from the trekking!

In the evening we walked a bit further, to a viewpoint closer to the glacier. With the evening light dancing across the cliffs, ice and water, and blue jagged mountains peaks towering behind the glacier…huge amazing ice sculptures floating on the lake just in front of us, this is one of the most stunning views I have ever laid my eyes on.

Icebergs in front of Glacier Grey.

Icebergs in front of Glacier Grey.

Lago Grey ice sculptures.

Lago Grey ice sculptures.

 

The sun sets slowly down here at 51 degrees south – it was still light at 9pm, and the real sunset colours came out closer to 10pm. We watched some of the last rays filter through the blue ice floating on the lake, while sitting on the cliffs waiting for the final show of the day.

Sunset over Lago Grey.

Sunset over Lago Grey.

View towards Lago Pehoé.

View towards Lago Pehoé.

The second day we took another long look at the glacier before starting to backtrack to the turquoise Lago Pehoe where we had started. From there we continued east, following the dark blue Lago Skottsberg towards the central valley – Valle Frances. The campsite here was free and a little more basic – toilets but no showers or water, but there was a river nearby to fill up the bottles with fresh drinkable glacier water. This day was a bit of a hard slog – longer than the first and carrying the full gear the whole way. The next day would be easier – just a return trip up the valley with only the daypack to bring.

Cuernos del Paine and Chilean fire bush.

Cuernos del Paine and Chilean fire bush.

View in Valle Frances.

View in Valle Frances.

The third day we climbed up Valle Frances, as far as the snowline. The valley lies right in the center of the Torres del Paine mountains, the black-capped Cuernos massif on one side and the even higher Paine Grande standing guard on the other, steep and with glaciers that kept loosing big blocks in avalanches down the side throughout the day. The walk was stunning – Lenga forest at the base of the valley and more and more tormented looking trees the higher we climbed, views to the mountains above and turquoise lakes below. At 900 meters altitude the path ended by a large rock looking down over the green valley – perfect spot for lunch. When we got back we packed up the tents and moved camp to the next campsite two hours away to shorten the next day. The walk led down by another lake – turquoise like Pehoe – this one named Nordenskjöld (lots of Swedes here exploring back in the day) with a lovely black-and-white pebble beach.

Trail above Lago Nordenskjöld.

Trail above Lago Nordenskjöld.

Day four the big bags were starting to get a little lighter with most of the food eaten. We continued along Lago Nordenskjöld before branching off towards the third valley – Torres – after passing a higher darker lake on a windswept plain. It was quite cloudy this day but that’s not a bad thing as the landscape was more open and barren here – your skin burns easy in the deep south, even with factor-50 sunscreen on…from the first time we broke the atmosphere (at least with the ozone-issue we banned the gases as soon as we found out…with the CO2 climate-issue we’ve barely gotten as far as talking of maybe cutting down..slowly).

Chloraea magellanica orchid.

Chloraea magellanica orchid.

We set up our tents in the Torres camp, from where it would be possible to climb up to a viewpoint of the famous granite towers the park is named after in the morning. The classic way to do it is to be up there for sunrise, red morning light hitting the rock, but it had been cloudy in the evening so we decided to sleep a bit more. Edel woke me at 5am (not an easy feat) when it was already light but it was raining a little so the girls decided to stay and sleep. I had a look at the day while rubbing the sleep from my eyes and decided to try – wasn’t sure the climb would be worth it with the clouds and rain but it was nice to be up at dawn when the forest was waking up. It stopped raining about an hour later, soon after I left the forest and started making my way the 900 meters up towards the towers. I met one or two people coming down from the sunrise climb – saying they had seen practically nothing, but once I got up it had cleared enough for the famous vertical rock pinnacles to jump in and out of the clouds and occasionally rays of sunlight to wander across the granite surface. It was crazy windy at the viewpoint, and I hid behind a big boulder, eating my sandwich and jumping out to snap another photo whenever the light was good.

The Torres del Paine towers in the early morning.

The Torres del Paine towers in the early morning.

I was back down from the towers again at 9am, just as Edel was waking up, and we packed up to do the final slog up the hill to leave the valley, exit the park and find a bus back to Puerto Natales. Back in town a few hours later we handed in an enormous bag of laundry, had some well needed showers and went out for a great post-trek dinner. It is probably the only time ever that I’ll manage a full Argentinian-sized steak plus starter and dessert!