Photo upload: End of the world

Here's some photos from making it to Ushuaia,  the southernmost city in the world, and the end of Route 3.

The one with H and I is at the Martial Glacier above Ushuaia.

Photo Upload: Estancia Haberton

Here's the pics from our overnight camping at Estancia Haberton. The history of the estancia is very interesting, and the place is beautiful in its position on the Beagle Channel. The area is also famous for the trees which grow completely to one side from the constant strong winds blowing at them.

Photo upload: Camped at a Beaver Pond

We camped at a beaver pond twice between Christmas and New Year. On the first occasion there was good snowfall overnight and in a photo here you can see the beaver lodge (the mound in the pond at the closest edge) topped with snow and a beautiful snowcovered landscape beyond.
I've also chosen photos of the dam and a couple of shots of beavers,  you can see we had good viewing, the beaver pictures were taken from the camper roof.

Photo upload: Christmas in Ushuaia

The 2013 overlanders Christmas at the Pista del Andino campground in Ushuaia was a lot of fun. We met so many overlanders from all over the world. It's great to trade stories, advice, and see all the different camper styles.

In the photos I'm in the red trousers and santa hat.

The best and worst for Torres del Paine

Torres del Paine National Park is Patagonias best known National Park. They are saying it's the 8th wonder of the world, famous for its dramatic landscapes and tall natural towers of rock which reach for the sky. 

We had decided to do a boat ride and a hike to see the Glacier, and a park ranger also suggested we do the day hike to the Torres (towers) base. This hike had seemed too much to do in one day but with her advice we added it to the itinerary. By doing this we'd be hiking both sides of what they call 'the W'. 

On our first day we caught the boat across to the point where we would start the hike. The sky gave us a fantastic view of the Torres. It seemed like a nice day, but 10minutes into the hike it started gently raining. Weather changes fast in the mountainous part of Patagonia. I had a rain jacket but it rained just long enough to make me very cold. It rained on and off all day and in parts it was so windy it was difficult to get one foot in front of another. 

When we got to the Glacier viewpoint we could hardly get to the top for the strength of the wind, and then that same wind brought pellets of ice hard against our faces. I'd bought sunglasses which H and I shared to take turns looking at the Glacier, the rest of our faces already being covered. The winds were reported as 95km per hour. 

We were pleased to have made it despite the weather. 

That night the strong winds continued and the camper rocked back and forth. I woke from a dream that we had been going around Cape Horn in a boat during a terrible storm!

Two days later we did the last part of the W. The weather was perfect! It was a long hike, 11km each way, with the final part being a steep ascent through big rocks. At the top we sat and waited while the clouds revealed the Torres, one by one. 

As we reached the parking lot at about 6.30pm we were astounded by the amount of people just leaving (there are 2 campsites on this hike). Each seemed to be a complete novice, backpack on back, new tent in carry bag in hand, and a roll mat still in plastic strapped to the backpack... And leaving on a long uphill hike at 6.30 in the evening. 

Photo upload: Eating King crab in Ushuaia

2 days before Christmas H and I spoilt ourselves with a lunch of King Crab (Centolla) and bubbly. H chose the biggest (I knew he would), and although I think Australian Mud crab is nicer, this was a very delicious meal.

Photo upload: Monte Leon National Park

In December 2013 we visited Monte Leon National Park in southern Argentina. Whereas we had earlier seen the Magellanic Penguins nesting with eggs at Peninsula Valdes and Punta Tumbo it was now a month later and they penguins were with chicks. The chicks proved difficult to get a good photo of.

The park also has Puma, but the closest we got was a paw print, masses of cormorants, and sea lions.

Eating Guanaco!

Ever since H and I saw the vast numbers of Guanacos at Peninsula Valdes we've had ideas about trying their meat. (Guanacos are related to Llamas, Alpacas, and Vicuñas, but live in Patagonia). 

On Peninsula Valdes we asked the fishermen in the fishing village (where we bought local shellfish), and were told that officially they weren't killed or eaten, but unofficially it might happen when tourists weren't around ;) . 

We asked more times and at another place we we told that the cleaner who came on Mondays could get some for us, but we didn't wait there until Monday. 

Later we were told that the butcher at a wee small place called Cerro Sombrero sold it, but we weren't going that way. 

Finally, we figured that it just wasn't going to happen. And then, we went to the museum Puerto Bories, 5km North of Puerto Natales. The museum, housed in The Singular Hotel, is about the previous use of the site and buildings as a meat processing facility where they used to process up to 250,000 sheep a year for shipping to the UK and Europe. 

The museum entry included a drink at the bar, which gave cause for me to take a look at the restaurant menu. Guanaco! I went back to H and told him it was time for us to dress up and have dinner out. He readily agreed. 

Guanaco is a 'healthy meat'. Like Kangaroo, it is virtually free of fat and cholesterol, but very tasty. We both enjoyed it very much. We asked if there was a butcher in town that sold it (to try cooking it ourselves), but were told that supply within Chile is limited because most Guanaco meat is exported... to Holland! 

Anyway, at least we've tasted it now... I read that you can eat Rhea (a bird like an Emu) in Calafate.... Maybe we can look for it next. 

The Puerto Borries Museum was also worth the visit. The sheep processing numbers were amazing. And just the day prior we had driven through sheep being mustered along the road, after we'd passed through them we paused and asked a helper the number of sheep there... 12,000!  

Budget travel, overland.

Sometimes I get a little frustrated with the other overlanders. Just like backpackers they seem often to be in competition to see who can travel the cheapest. 

When I was a backpacker I remarked that I often heard a backpacker, in places like Guatemala, Peru, Asia, say something like 'the locals think we're all rich, but I'm not!'. I'd reply with something like 'fact of the matter is that you've spent so much on getting here, money that they'd love to have for practical purposes .... so, of course you are rich compared to them'. 

Likewise I see overlanders spending thousands on vehicle shipping, adding airfares, and then constantly complaining that things are expensive. 

At Christmas, many complained about paying 150 Argentine pesos ARS ($16-23USD depending on how you changed your money) for a campsite, but I believe it was worth it for the common area with fireplace to chat the evening away and the lovely hot hot showers. 

Then there were the overlanders waiting to sneak into 'Tierra del Fuego' national park after 8pm. When we said we were going to the park the next day we were asked 'why not go in with the others tonight?'. I replied that I didn't think it was unreasonable to be charged 110 ARS per person (a price that allows 2 nights free stay). We had identified 3 vehicles waiting in the municiple campsite (free, but no facilities) to go in after 8. The next day we entered the park and I smiled when we discovered that the others had all been caught and ordered to pay, and by waiting they'd missed the first day or part of it (whereas we entered in the morning and could still have 2 nights, they'd entered late and had that night and one more).

The other common gripe is just the price of general expenses: fuel and groceries. Fuel is cheaper in Argentina than Chile. And groceries are cheaper too if you converted dollars at the better (dolar blue) rate. But the prices aren't expensive, especially with the extremity of things considered. I think to buy fuel (diesel) for 70c - 95c per litre at 'the end of the earth (Ushuaia)' is in itself a 'wow'. Even to pay $1.25 on the Chilean side isn't horrendous, it's actually surprisingly good. 

Then consider produce. This isn't the best climate for growing much fruit and vegetables, so much of it is brought in. Yet I bought (in Punta Arenas, Chile) tomatoes for $1.60 per kilo, a lettuce for $1.90, a mango (from Peru) for 70c, minced beef $9.50 per kilo and wine is really cheap, starting at about $3 for a bottle. So, again, it's not terribly expensive. 

And to those travellers complaining that the entry price of some attractions is three times what the guide book says (published a few years ago, and no doubt  researched before that...), well, we can go home if we don't like it. BUT, imagine being an Argentine and living with 25-35% inflation each year. Argentine friends tell me that their price of bread is now 10 times what it was a couple of years ago. At least we've got choices, I'm sure it's harder on the locals. 

$ indicated are converted to USD. 

Camped at a beaver pond

I have 3 favourite animals but I think one of them might have to give up its position for a beaver. These animals are wonderfully interesting. 

I had been wanting to observe some beavers and lucky for us the Alaskan overlanders told us of a spot they'd found, suitable for quiet camping and beaver watching. We stayed there on the  nights of the 26th and the 31st (December). 

Beavers are active in the evening, so if you want to see them being 'busy beavers' you need to be there late, and camping in a vehicle with windows looking out from the bed (like this one) is perfect. 

We spotted 4 beavers at this site. If you don't know much about beavers I recommend you do some reading on Wikipedia or similar, they are amazing. These beavers had made their pond by constructing a dam wall about 40metres long and about 2.5metres tall at the highest point. Their lodge (that's the correct term for a beavers house) was about 30m from the dam, in the pond. 

Canadian beavers were introduced to Tierra del Fuego for the industry of fur pelts, but animal rights activists killed the international fur trade industry and in 1960 the pairs were released into the wild. Without predators (in North America they have bears and wolves, but here nothing) the population has reached plague proportions and they are destroying waterways. 

I'd read that Canadian beavers can fell a tree up to 250mm in diameter in a single night. But at this pond there were beaver felled trees (the marks a different to an axe) up to 350mm. This may be accounted for in that Canadian beavers in Tierra del Fuego have become bigger than their ancestors.  

On our first night there we woke up in the morning to everything covered in snow. So I didn't get a white Christmas, but I got the white 2 mornings later. On that night the Alaskans also camped there. 

And then we spent New Year's Eve with the beavers. We could have spent it at the campsite in Ushuaia (the beavers are only about 15kms from town) with the other overlanders but I actually don't like seeing in the New Year. H agreed that the beavers company would be fine. So we had champagne and finger foods while watching the beavers. It was lovely. 

Between Christmas and New Year we visited an old estancia (ranch) 'Haberton' which has a fascinating story because the founder of it was sent out from Britain as a missionary to convert the natives but he preferred saving them to converting them and put his main life's work into that. Unfortunately the natives have been all but wiped out with just one old lady currently left. 

The estancia is 27000 hectares but with rising costs and after loosing 80% of its sheep stock in a terrible winter about 10 years ago they've given up sheep farming and now just rely on tourism. 

We then visited Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire, so called because the natives used to keep fires everywhere) National Park, the end of the Route 3 Highway. We hiked and had photos with the end of the road sign. 

Then on New Years Eve the weather was spectacular so we took the cable car and hiked up Martial Glacier for absolutely breathtaking views of Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel. 

And then we left Ushuaia for the Beaver pond, and from here there is only one way to go.... North!