To the end of the Earth

Its the 18th of April and we have just been left behind in the town of coyhaique, the previous day we had been told we were taking a road trip 400km south to a glacier called the exploradores to do some glacier walking by a mildly insane chilean man. Louis had clearly become a fan of us gringos and decided to show us the delights of the region in his own way. After picking up enough food to sink the titanic and enough pisco to float it we drove down the Carreta Austral towards the Northern Icecap. He had hired a pick up the day before and was now trying to convince us that it was a four by four by taking the scenic route on to pure mud tracks, after 2 hours of muddy madness we returned back to the road via a bridge for cows only, louis had now convinced us that this may be a one way trip.

Our two fellow explorers Danny and Ed of umpalumpa proportions were running around in the back of the truck whilst me and teo were experiencing chilean driving at its best with knees touching ears. After 7 hours of driving we eventually came to the final valley, with hanging glaciers above the ´road´ and frozen water falls around us we arrived at the our destination, after some smooth talking by our chilean guide we managed to blag the floor of a refuge in the woods, and spent that night drinking pisco sour and eating some massive pinenuts by a wood burning range. The next day we woke early and climbed for two hours to the end of the moraine field to the start of the open ice, after attaching crampons and roping together we strolled further into the glacier. Teo decided that it was too easy to walk on a glacier and decided to pick up the pace, two seconds later, he was face down 6 foot from a crevass with a bloody arm.. a warning not to mess!!! 3 hours was spent on the ice in the shadows of Mnt St. Valentine, and we returned 2 hours later to the truck battered but satisfied. 5 hours back to coyhaique, and more pisco sour and the night was partied away in the local gringo trap. Having planned on staying only 3 days , we stayed 5 on Louis´s floor with his mum baking us some Sopapia´s and just generally recovering after 3 months of tent action.

Last saturday,we flew south to Punta Arenas and then to Puerta Natales by bus, after waiting for Danny to recover from some particularly nasty tenacious D, we got the bus to Torres del Paine national park, for another 4 days in the wilderness. The two of us went for a small stroll the first evening to check out the view of the Paines , which turned into a random assualt of the summit, worth everyminute we returned from the top in the dark by torch light. After meeting a 30yr old vegetarian who abused us for rations and insisted on pointing out she got her meat in other ways...we trekked as fast as we could for 27km to get to the next camp. After K.O´ ing, we woke up the next day to find we had been raided by mice, and there were holes in everything. Another few days and a total of 50 km and with the weather closing in we called it a day on the wilderness, and left for Ushuaia the southern most city in the world. After listening a to a remarkably irritating canadian for 12 hours, we arrived at our hostel only to find him already there and pointing out to the kind receptionist that he was not to be anywhere near us. After an all you can eat buffet last night,we are going even further south in a boat today to check out some sealife, and hopefully see some whales.


TL