left Ushuaia

After camping for two nights I staied another relaxed day in Ushuaia. Well, for those thinking about the travling, Ushuaia, is very far away from everything. It´s hard to get connections there and it´s quite expansive. I was surprised how much the city is actually developed, compared to many other places I saw. The reason for this might be the cruisers, which bring thounds of tourists for some hours, which are flouting the city and spend spend spend...

The actual exciting thing was the nature, which is still kind of intact. Well, the glaciers are seriously melting here, the forrest grew extremely slowly and every impact is visible.

We camped in the nationalparc, and had a kind of a nightmare experience with city travellers from Isreal. There people come there, the more the nature will suffer. I feel partly bad of going so deep in this sensitive envirement. Micha and me did a atour to some peaks of the last Ants in the south. Not really hight, just some 1200m altitude, but starting at 300m and finishing at 0m above see level. It´s advance terrain and not for city travellers!!

We were very lucky, on the day of our mountain hike we had excellent weather, very little wind and my noise good again sun burned ;)

The rest of the city is not too bad, I found. The Yakush hostel in the centre was excellent, the supermarkets are full of verything you wish for,... the only thing is... it does not really feel like "el fin del mundo".

I liked the Yamana museum, the others were really bad (and overpriced).

Ushuaia = camping

I meet my travelbuddy from Puerto Mardyn, Micha. We are going for a hike and camping in the Ushuaia national park for a night or two...

Will have to update the blog at a later time...

Ushuaia, Terra del Fuego

Arrived at the end of the world, and I am very tired! The bus takes forever, crossing the border to Chile twice takes forever, the roads are really bad. Made a boat trip, which was expensive and alright...

Couchsurfing in Rio Gallegos

I was invited for dinner by couchsurfer Carolina, at their tiny place for 7 people, 9 dogs and a cat! The food was really good and everybody was very nice, openminded and interested... However, I seriously reached my limited of spanish skills. Thanks again to all of you!

Rio Gallageos

1- To the lost soldiers of the Islas Malvinas (Falkland) war in 1984, somehow political Argentinia pretends to have won the war and still claim owner ship (as well as for Antarctica)
2- Pre-Jurasic Dinosaurier
3- The winner for best Calafate icecream is Rio Gallegos!

Couchsurfing in El Calafate

The best part of Calafate was, again, Couchsurfing. I met Amy and Luis, with great chats, cooking action, cañjon hike, coffee, Calafate cake, some beers andlastbutnot least,... Mate! Great couple, it was a pleasure meeting you!

Pertito Moreno (the glacier)

1-3: Homo Touristicus

Well, I had a tour to the Glacier today and it´s really phantastic what typ of cameras are around. Those big once where for about 80% Nikons, from the basic models up to the high-end stuff. Same Canons, some Panasonics, and lots of compact ones. It was a lot of pieping and snapping digtal noises and "there", "aqui", "esta", "DaDaDa" yelling...

We did the boot as well, which was worth it. Well, the dimensions of this thing is just not possible to be understand by a human brain, and particular trying to understand the timeframe is just out of space for humans to be understood...

The bigger event for me was the glacier Grande next to El Chaltén. It was closer, colder, and just more intensive, more nature. Well the galcier Moreno is hugh and in our 2 hours we stayed a couple of big ice pieces well down with a lot of noise. They say it is still crowing, to me all evidance says something different. Olderpostcards from 10 years ago sho clearly a contection to the peninsular, which is gone since 2005.

Glacier Perito Moreno

El Calafate - 14.159 kms from home

1- I arrived in El Calafate and it´s a nice climate here. It´s locted just outside the clouds trapped in the Ants. The village is very touristic, worse than whatever I have seen so far. Well, it´s not a bad place, just very touristic. Me included, see the picture above

2- The homies in the hostel admiring Davide´s photo skills. He caught a Puma hunting a rabbit in el Chaltén. Hardly any ever sees a Puma! I believe it´s just luck :P

3- From my hostelroom I can see Flamingos, at least 30 or 100, or so...

El Chaltén, Cerro FitzRoy

1-When the weather was alright, 200m deep cañyon, glacier on the top right, which are dificult to picture, as they are so white, the camera does not focus on them in glowdy conditions.

2-"Lagos de los 3", hail, the jacket proofs to be waterproof

Today we went by taxi for some 12 kms, getting with our camping stuff to the food of FitzRoy (3700m high) and hoped that at some stake the clouds will lift. The camping was just no option - heavy rain and really cold... It gave me a climps of how the camping is here, as I consider to do the Torre del Paines in Chile, another 400km (estimated) south from here at the end of this week. I gave the idea up. We ate some pasta on the camp side and hike the major track to "Logos de los 3". The weather was just bad bad and no sight of Fitz Roy, who was just 400 meters away from myself, rising another 2.5 kms into the sky...

But the idea to see it, was cool too :)

El Chaltén, Cerro Torre

1- This forrest is about 20kms distance to the Patagonian desert.

2- Seba´s first Glacier "Grande"

3- Klaudia, Stefan and Sally still excited - will the clouds lift?! No, they didn´t...

4- Sally and me next to the fridge (I felt the Galcier from kilometers distance...). This Glacier is part of one of the biggest ice fields in the world.

5- tough guy looking cool passing the glacier´s stream (cold)

6- Cerro Solo, "only" about 1500m high, with it´s own little Galcier.

I met nice group of people in th hostel from England, Austria and Germany and we made a tour in the afternoon. Just when we left the hostel, the heavy rain stopped and the longer the day the more the sky cleared up.

The village of El Chalten is only 400 meters above sea-level, but the peaks El Torro and FitzRoy are far above three thounds. They are extremly difficult to climp, as you might imaging, as they risein 400 meters 3kms high. We made a trekking to El Solo and the Glacier El Grande, watching the rocks, fauna, flora, rivers, glaciers. Even at the end of the day it did not to clear up to see El Torro, but it is very rare anyway. Rarely anybody sees them.

The hikes are not difficult at all. A maximum of 1000 meters for the advanced tracks. However, the path is really moody, waterproof shoes are essential!

Arriving in El Chaltén

El Chaltén is dead in the winter. If there are no tourist, nobody stayes there. We arrived in the middle of the night and the morning was really bad weather. Well I got an autograph from Benno Fuermann, a German actor, conincidatenly the main actor of the last movie I saw back in Germany with Natascha.

Cueva de las manos

1- The watch-dog of the Unesco protected sights
1- Guanacos (click on the image to enlarge)
2- Los Manos (the Hands)
3- The Cañjon, plants and water in the desert... the refuge for the native americans in the winter.

After I was a bit unlucky with the N40 and lost a day in Rio Mayo, I missed by one hour the tour to the famous caves "Cuevas de los Manos". This a sight in the middle of nowhere (literally!). So i waited a day, the next expetion did not happen, as one was full, the other guy crashed his car, so i waited another day. Well, as I read "Darwin" on my travel and went to the Dinosaurier museum in Trelow I knew a bit already about the history of this huge landscape of Patagonia. Geographically it is actually quite young. Only when The Pasific platform and the south American Platform hit each other, Patagonia rose from the ocean. It was a jungle for a little while, but when the platforms kept going the Ants lifted and all the rain from the Pacific stopped suddenly. 10.000 years ago the first men came down from northern America. And for any unkown reason they where semi nomadics in Patagonia, hunting Guanacos. The caves are just a huge mysterious. Over a period of almost 9.000 years they printed their weaker hand most are left hands) on the caves. In total about 950. About 5.000 years they starting to paint as well hunting sences, but they never actually used painting for teaching following generations. The last guys greated some "contemporary art", which does not make sense... Maybe they found acid or something wierd to smoke,... they had fired, is what we know.

Well, we don´t know and all the original Patagonias are dead, mordered by the regieme from Argentina. Very bloody...

The canyon is really beautiful! I would love to spend 2 or three weeks with the rangers there. They don´t leave the side, for that timeframes,... the next settlement in this dessert is in a 140 kms distance... and a route with 50km/h maximum speed.

On this tour I met Davide from Milano, with whom I spend some days as we had the same route...

First Sight of the Ants

1-As I had to wait another day for the "caves" I checked the lago Buenos Aires. As I was not able to cross the border to Chile Chico (comunication-issue with the bus company) I only got a first sight.

2-Coming back to Petito Moreno I got a very good coffee and cake in the local museum and made some diary homework... On the wall the first peioneers of Petito Moreno.

3-Another amazing street dog: I gave him the name Marylin Manson, but it did not listen to it :P

Perito Moreno (the village)

1- The guide dogs
2- Perito Moreno, the N40 shining on the horizont

In Patagion are about 123 things called Perito Moreno. It´s the name of a pioneer, who lived in Buenos Aires and made several tours into Patagonia, which was a white field on the map. He was a person who liked to be by himself a lot, and is responsible for the todays border between Chile and Arentinia. Therefore the massive Galcier is called after him, as well as another national parc. the village is called after him, as he changed the natural border. The agreement with Chile was, that if a stream follows into the Pacific the area is chilienen, if it runs into the Atlantic, is argentinien. Mister Smart channelazised a stream in that aera to turn from the Pacific to the Atlantic, a national hero in Argentinia... In his writting he was expremely possitive about the nativePatagonian people. Very friendly and helpful.

I arrived in the middle of the night in Petito Moreno and met in the bus station a nice women from Spain, who just come up from south to tell me a bit about the area and camping options. She works for Greenpeace Spain and we had a great chat about transport and housing costs... in the enviromental sense... of course.

As the clock turned 3am when she left to Comodoro I was afraid to check hostels and wake people. But I made new friends - with the streetdogs. When I started walking around two dogs followed me each step. They did not beg for food, they just did not want to be alone. After walking the main street up and down to get some orientation, they were still with me. I got my sleeping bag and we rested in a former fruit field. My night below Patagonian stars. I felt very well protected - a phantastic experience!

N40

1-The Señor, who recuded me with his red italian sportscar,
2-N40
3-Rio Mayo

The guesthouse in sarmiento could not host me, but they were kind tooffer me a lift to Rio Mayo, which is hell! Dont go there!

The R40 treaded me badly, when I tried to hitch-hickthe 120 km to Perito Moreno. About 20 cars in the tfour hours I waited, but all going north. So I rather went back to Perito Moreno, to get away from this place, I dont care where, just far! Again a lift from a nice Argentinien person, who followed my questions consering going south at the petrol station. He brought me with his red italian sportscar 300 km east to Comodoro (where I started the trip to the west), and I got the bus to Pertito Moreno (450 km) in the last minute.

Bosque Pertificado

Me in the Dessert with stoned wood,... not really burning it...
A child staarting talking, and not stopping in Spanish, while actually understanding i don´t understand.
An Oasis in the desert: Sarmiento.


Tuesday I made my way to Salmiento to the "Stoned Forrest", which has nothing to do with drugs... This forest was covered by vulcanic ashes and the wood become stones. Millions of years of weather made the ashes go away, not so the stones. It{s in the middle of the desert, really!


However, Sarmiento is a small town like a paradies in the middle of that desert. I had a couple of really phantastic hours there. However, the guesthost could not host me, so I got a lift to Rio Mayo, which is hell! Dont go there!

The R40 trieded me badly, when I tried to hitch-hickthe 120 km to Perito Moreno. About 20 cars in the tfour hours I waited, but all going north. So I rather went back to Perito Moreno, to get away from this place, I dont care where, just far! Again a lift from a nice Argentinien person, who followed my questions consering going south at the petrol station. He brought me with his red italian sportscar 300 km east to Comodoro (where I started the trip to the west), and I got the bus to Pertito Moreno (450 km) in the last minute.

There I stayed three nights, the first under the sky, prodected by two street dogs...