No comments necessary, except it is glacial material which turns the water chocolately and nothing else sinister. If we did it in the UK and the water was the colour we would be wearing full biohazard suits.
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Rafting pictures
No comments necessary, except it is glacial material which turns the water chocolately and nothing else sinister. If we did it in the UK and the water was the colour we would be wearing full biohazard suits.
Horse riding, rafting and Wine tour
Hey everyone
So we are on our last evening in Mendoza and are gearing up for an overnight trip on the bus to Buenos aires and then another overnight trip to the Iguazu falls. These are massive water falls and on the border of Brazil and Argentina, we really want to make sure we see them hence we are travelling up there before christmas.
We have had a great time chilling out in Mendoza and have had some seriously good wine- both cheap and more expensive, in restaurants, cafes and from the bodegas themselves. We have bought a couple of the nicer Malbecs for Christmas day and New Year to spoil ourselves with.
One of the best days we had in Mendoza was rafting during the day on the Rio Mendoza - which is basically a river which looks like a nesquik advert - but we were assured that was just sediment and not pollution! We have a good DVD of pictures taken by the company and will try and put photos up. It was really good fun, not least due to the humiliation of being made to wear wetsuits. On the same day we did a ´sunset horse ride´where some real gaucho cowboys took us out on some very docile horses across the Andes. There were lots of ýee ha´ from the group as we trotted and felt we were going really fast.... Next day there was lots of sore areas including heads from the wine and BBQ we had after the ride. We do have pictures of Glenn on the horse but it will take some more persuasion before publishing...
Anyway, off to the bus station for our marathon journey across Argentina. We are well armed with pringles, bananas and cheese rolls.
Love to everyone
Nina and Glenn xxx
So we are on our last evening in Mendoza and are gearing up for an overnight trip on the bus to Buenos aires and then another overnight trip to the Iguazu falls. These are massive water falls and on the border of Brazil and Argentina, we really want to make sure we see them hence we are travelling up there before christmas.
We have had a great time chilling out in Mendoza and have had some seriously good wine- both cheap and more expensive, in restaurants, cafes and from the bodegas themselves. We have bought a couple of the nicer Malbecs for Christmas day and New Year to spoil ourselves with.
One of the best days we had in Mendoza was rafting during the day on the Rio Mendoza - which is basically a river which looks like a nesquik advert - but we were assured that was just sediment and not pollution! We have a good DVD of pictures taken by the company and will try and put photos up. It was really good fun, not least due to the humiliation of being made to wear wetsuits. On the same day we did a ´sunset horse ride´where some real gaucho cowboys took us out on some very docile horses across the Andes. There were lots of ýee ha´ from the group as we trotted and felt we were going really fast.... Next day there was lots of sore areas including heads from the wine and BBQ we had after the ride. We do have pictures of Glenn on the horse but it will take some more persuasion before publishing...
Anyway, off to the bus station for our marathon journey across Argentina. We are well armed with pringles, bananas and cheese rolls.
Love to everyone
Nina and Glenn xxx
Monday, 14 December 2009
Torres del paine photos... 2
Some photos again.. not sure of the order in which they will appear but some commentary.1) Glenn and the glacier... this point took us about 7 or 8 hours of walking to get to and we were right on top of the glacier - amazing.
2) Glenn having a cup of coffee by the glacier.
3) Nina and Glenn near a lake just outside the hostel Paine Grande where we stayed the final night.
4)Nina and Glenn in the bar at hostel Paine grande - they had ´happy sour´where two pisco sours where the price of one...
5) Glenn on the snow.. you can just see the ´torres´of torres del paine in the background.
Saturday, 12 December 2009
Hello Argentina....
Hi everyone
So after a long break, we are just going to do a quick update to the blog as this is a slow computer in the hostel. We will try and find an internet cafe in the next few days to post photos etc.
So quick update of December so far!
After buying our compass in Puerta Natales, we went to the national Park Torres del Paine and spent 6 days hiking with huge backpacks on - often uphill on difficult trails - and it was absolutely amazing, the best thing by far. Hopefully the photos will do it some justice, but we saw impressive mountains, beautiful clear lakes, and glacial streams (and obviously glaciers).
We stayed in little refugios, which are basically hostels providing basic accomodation in 6 bed dormrooms - Glenn always had the top bunk as less likely to bump his head! We carried food for brekky and lunch, and some of our favourite memories are meals outdoors - such as pasta and soup in the sun, cup of tea by a glacier and noodles halfway up a valley. The 3 course dinners we had in the evening were brilliant robust food, which is what you need after 12 hours of hard trekking (well, other days, it was more like 4 hours!). The refugios had a ski-lodge type atmosphere in the evening which was cool - lots of people tired but happy after being outdoors all day wanting to have a drink or two... We generally went to bed early-ish before 10 as we were getting up for 6 am or so, but we still managed to have the odd glass of wine, beer or Glenn´s Glenfiddich (small hip flask for ´emergency purposes´).
One of the highlights was a day we covered a lot of distance with 12 hours trekking, the midpoint of which was a trek up the tip of the valley frances (middle of the W) which involved trekking up a snow covered piste to reach a mirador (viewpoint). It was slow going upwards - imagine walking in deep snow in trainers, without walking poles (which we noticed, everyone else had) but coming down was ace. We basically skied down but on our posteriors. We have a couple of wicked videos for when we get home. It was probably dangerous with submerged rocks and glacial streams but it was totally fun and so much easier than walking down, we don´t care. We couldn´t feel our freezing backsides for half an hour but, hey, it was cool.
Overall, we had great weather - sunny but often really windy - but it would have been a totally different experience in rainy, snowy, foggy weather.
So we finished the W circuit and then got up at 5.30am (driven out by the worst snorers we have ever heard) to do a 5 hour trek to get the bus back to civilisation. We then spent a few days travelling back up to Santiago via Puerta Natales and Punta Arenas and then a 7 hours bus ride across the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina.
We are staying here for a few days to have some fun - and have booked up for some rafting and horse riding (Glenn only convinced after 6 weeks of nagging) and will be doing a wine tour as well. This is serious wine country and we are looking forward to doing lots of tasting of top wines. The weather is beautiful and it is nice to walk around without packs on our backs (all our cold weather gear is being stuffed down the bottom of our luggage).
Love to everyone and hope the xmas parties are going well!
Nina and Glenn xxx
So after a long break, we are just going to do a quick update to the blog as this is a slow computer in the hostel. We will try and find an internet cafe in the next few days to post photos etc.
So quick update of December so far!
After buying our compass in Puerta Natales, we went to the national Park Torres del Paine and spent 6 days hiking with huge backpacks on - often uphill on difficult trails - and it was absolutely amazing, the best thing by far. Hopefully the photos will do it some justice, but we saw impressive mountains, beautiful clear lakes, and glacial streams (and obviously glaciers).
We stayed in little refugios, which are basically hostels providing basic accomodation in 6 bed dormrooms - Glenn always had the top bunk as less likely to bump his head! We carried food for brekky and lunch, and some of our favourite memories are meals outdoors - such as pasta and soup in the sun, cup of tea by a glacier and noodles halfway up a valley. The 3 course dinners we had in the evening were brilliant robust food, which is what you need after 12 hours of hard trekking (well, other days, it was more like 4 hours!). The refugios had a ski-lodge type atmosphere in the evening which was cool - lots of people tired but happy after being outdoors all day wanting to have a drink or two... We generally went to bed early-ish before 10 as we were getting up for 6 am or so, but we still managed to have the odd glass of wine, beer or Glenn´s Glenfiddich (small hip flask for ´emergency purposes´).
One of the highlights was a day we covered a lot of distance with 12 hours trekking, the midpoint of which was a trek up the tip of the valley frances (middle of the W) which involved trekking up a snow covered piste to reach a mirador (viewpoint). It was slow going upwards - imagine walking in deep snow in trainers, without walking poles (which we noticed, everyone else had) but coming down was ace. We basically skied down but on our posteriors. We have a couple of wicked videos for when we get home. It was probably dangerous with submerged rocks and glacial streams but it was totally fun and so much easier than walking down, we don´t care. We couldn´t feel our freezing backsides for half an hour but, hey, it was cool.
Overall, we had great weather - sunny but often really windy - but it would have been a totally different experience in rainy, snowy, foggy weather.
So we finished the W circuit and then got up at 5.30am (driven out by the worst snorers we have ever heard) to do a 5 hour trek to get the bus back to civilisation. We then spent a few days travelling back up to Santiago via Puerta Natales and Punta Arenas and then a 7 hours bus ride across the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina.
We are staying here for a few days to have some fun - and have booked up for some rafting and horse riding (Glenn only convinced after 6 weeks of nagging) and will be doing a wine tour as well. This is serious wine country and we are looking forward to doing lots of tasting of top wines. The weather is beautiful and it is nice to walk around without packs on our backs (all our cold weather gear is being stuffed down the bottom of our luggage).
Love to everyone and hope the xmas parties are going well!
Nina and Glenn xxx
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
It´s snowing.....
Hey everyone and HAPPY birthday to Granny Guy - 21 again today - lots of love and we hope you have a great day.
So, we have gone from balmy cafe culture in Santiago to freezing cold in currently snowing Puerta natales. Yesterday was fun - another 3am start to get our flight, uncomfortable plane, then bus for 3 hours with lots of snoozing on the way. We passed the ferry terminal in punta arenas where, if you want to, you can get the boat to Antarctica. We decided not to (no pubs or chip shops, we think).
So we are staying at a really nice hostel called Los carretas with a nice big warm room and private bathroom, with hot showers. Bit of hostal luxury before our next adventure. Tomorrow, we are setting off for the Torres del Paine national park for 6 nights. We are staying in little refugios (small basic huts with bunk beds and toilets) so we don´t carry tents but we do carry food, sleeping bags and clothes for 5 to 6 days of trekking. The wikipedia link below gives a sense of what we are doing (´w´ circuit).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torres_del_Paine#Hiking
Obviously, we won´t have internet access for a few days - in fact most areas of the park will just be connected by radio signal. So, we will update (probably with lots of pictures!) when we get back to civilisation, currently planned to be on Dec 8th. If it is any earlier it will be due to getting lost or picked up by the helicopter of shame courtesy of our insurance company. The route is supposed to be well marked and idiot proof, but still nina will not be directing this trek - glenn is in charge of getting the map the right way round. We are now off to buy a compass....
Love to everyone
Nina and Glenn xxx
So, we have gone from balmy cafe culture in Santiago to freezing cold in currently snowing Puerta natales. Yesterday was fun - another 3am start to get our flight, uncomfortable plane, then bus for 3 hours with lots of snoozing on the way. We passed the ferry terminal in punta arenas where, if you want to, you can get the boat to Antarctica. We decided not to (no pubs or chip shops, we think).
So we are staying at a really nice hostel called Los carretas with a nice big warm room and private bathroom, with hot showers. Bit of hostal luxury before our next adventure. Tomorrow, we are setting off for the Torres del Paine national park for 6 nights. We are staying in little refugios (small basic huts with bunk beds and toilets) so we don´t carry tents but we do carry food, sleeping bags and clothes for 5 to 6 days of trekking. The wikipedia link below gives a sense of what we are doing (´w´ circuit).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torres_del_Paine#Hiking
Obviously, we won´t have internet access for a few days - in fact most areas of the park will just be connected by radio signal. So, we will update (probably with lots of pictures!) when we get back to civilisation, currently planned to be on Dec 8th. If it is any earlier it will be due to getting lost or picked up by the helicopter of shame courtesy of our insurance company. The route is supposed to be well marked and idiot proof, but still nina will not be directing this trek - glenn is in charge of getting the map the right way round. We are now off to buy a compass....
Love to everyone
Nina and Glenn xxx
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