Photo Upload: Cave of Hands

There is a spectacular Cueva de los Manos (Cave of the hands) just off Argentina's Route 40, between the city of Perito Moreno and the village of Bajo Caracoles. Even better than the caves is the setting, the gorge is simply spectacular.

An Australian Flag on the Carretera Austral

We were driving North on the Carretera Austral (a route famous for being rough and beautiful) and just a bit north of Rio Tranquilo I stopped the car when I saw 3 flags on poles: a French, a Chilean and an Australian. 

The sign above the open gate meant nothing to me, so I said to H "let's go in and find out why they have these flags up". "Okay", he replied. We figured the gate was open and there wasn't anything to lose. 

So we drove in. A woman appeared with a look that questioned why we had appeared. We were already out of the car and I pointed at the flags "Soy de Australia" I said in Spanish (I'm from Australia). 

Then she explained in good English that they weren't but they (her family: husband, herself and 4 kids) had spent last year in Brisbane Australia to all have a cultural experience and learn English. The kids all went to school and the Dad went to University. 

The small farm was a summer place for them and they in fact lived in Santiago and just visited the farm on and off, a few weeks at a time, in summer. The man who looked after the place in their absence was of French origin and he had erected the 3 flags as a gift to the family. (And they looked great.)

The family invited us in for a drink and the daughter (whose English was very good) showed me the horses and vegetable garden and suggested we stay the night. So we did (with the parents approval). 

In fact, they invited friends over for food and drinks and H made Belgian French Fries and there was a nice friendly party. 

In the morning they even loaded us up with fresh produce from the garden and green house (it's been difficult to get good produce in these parts so I liked this). Our impromptu stop was wonderful, and proves that it's a good idea to say hello and be curious. 

Photo Upload: Glaciar Perito Mereno

We were amongst the first to arrive at the Glaciar Perito Mereno, this has the advantage of being able to park in the top carpark, which is a shorter walk to the best viewpoints.
We spent hours watching the chunks of ice crash from the Glaciar, then we made lunch in the car and went back to watch some more. (In the pics you can see a littke bird trying to steel my lunch from me).
Watching the glaciar was fun. Glaciars are noisy: they crack and thunder all day as the ice moves and pieces fall. All day long H said a certain large piece was going to fall, I reckoned that people had probably been saying that for months. But at about 4pm H was proven right when a 'finger' about the size of a bus, fell from the front corner of ghe glaciar. It's purely for our memories though, we'd given up having the camera ready!

Photo Upload: Patagonia, Torres del Paine

It's about a month since we were in Torres Del Paine. As I mention in my blog post he had the worst weather on our hike to see Glaciar Grey... and you can see this in the photo with me huddled in the corner looking towards the glaciar.

Two days later we hiked to the Torres base, and had spectacular weather.

The sign with Hendrik says: 'Caution, Zone of strong winds'. So true! 

The Belgian and the Aussie

Months ago I wrote, with chalk, on the back of the motorhome: The Belgian and The Aussie. 

The car has Belgian plates and Europeans recognise it as Belgian and assume the occupants are too. H is, of course. But, I needed to stake my claim... and I was trying to dissuade all those Europeans who kept speaking Dutch and French to me. 

A few weeks ago H redid my chalk with paint.... So looks like he plans to have me stay. ;)

Photo Upload: Sheep in Patagonian Chile

On the way from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales we drove through a herd of 12,000 head of sheep that were being mustered down the road.
A week later H and I returned to almost the same spot for a sheep shearing festival at Villa Telhueche. It had sheep shearing demonstrations, stage events,  a disco, lots of lamb to eat and the other campers cooking their own food. Take a look at the whole lamb being cooked over flames with the fleece still on!
I mentioned in a post about the festival that I was the whitest person there and H was the tallest. In the photo of H dancing with a woman at the disco, you can see he really was!

King Penguins of Onaisin, Chile

We saw these guys and gals at the very beginning of 2014. The location is newly open to tourists,  just near Onasin, which is near the town of Porvenir, in the Chilean part of the Isla Grande at the bottom of South America.

We got a really good look at the Penguins which were separated from us by a narrow waterway, which I think was good for them to feel safe behind. These are King Pengiuns, which are large but not so big as the Emperor Penguins found in Antarctica.  Some of these had eggs hidden behind their fur on their feet.

The little fox: he eats young pengiuns if he gets the chance.

Some people complained about the entry price to this. It was about $24 per person, but the Penguins (about 100) are definately there, and this is a lot less expensive than an Antarctica trip.

Hitchhiking Patagonia

I've only ever hitchhiked a few times... When my other options weren't so viable. But it seems that hitchhiking the Carretera Austral  in the Patagonia in Chile is a popular option. So popular that when we crossed the border from Los Antiguos to Chile Chico we were greeted by about 20 hitchhikers as we left Chile Chilo. 

We weren't going far, just 6km and then turning off to a camp spot, but H decided we could offer what we were doing. So we pulled up and 3 young Israelis joined us. They actually joined us to the camp spot and then again until their intersection the next day. 

They were nice young fellows, just a month into their travels and not yet jaded by their travels like the Israelis I had met when I backpacked Northern South America a few years back. One even said that the campsite was the most beautiful place he'd ever seen. 

The campsite was 11 kms from the main road at a place called Bahia Jara. It certainly was a specially pretty place. 

Our hitchhikers got lucky, especially as there were 3 of them, as they waited less than an hour. They said some of the people had been waiting 7 hours. 

I have mixed feelings about the hitchhikers. If they are Chilean or Argentine then I have no problems, but when a foreigner has spent so much on airfares to get here and then expects others to give them a free ride ... Well, part of me says it's a bit much. I kind of fell that they should buy a bus ticket. 

We certainly feel the weight difference when we add 3 men and heavy packs to the load, in fact H dumped some of our water in the morning to compensate. 

On the other hand I like giving a ride to the young people, of all nationalities, as I think seeing our travel style, our lifestyle, can be quite inspirational for them. I think that we can show people that this can be done, that if you like travel then here's an option. 

Stove top cake cooking! Chocolate cake!

H just turned 40. It was just the two of us, but I wanted to make it a bit special so I made him a double layered chocolate cake - on the Gas cooker!

Recently I learnt to make stove top pizza in a frying pan using SR (self raising) flour, salt and water for the base and regular toppings on top. It worked very well, in fact better than many bought pizzas. 

So then I got the idea of making a cake on the cooktop, in the frying pan. I do not have an oven. 

I like baking when I have a 'real' kitchen and my mum taught me some pretty good things about baking when I was a kid. If course, many of those things couldn't be done in this kitchen of limited facilities. So I used one handy piece of advice.... By making a layer cake you can hide and disguise any 'faults' your baking had. 

I assumed right from the start that this would need to be a layer cake - obviously it would be less than perfect. Also, by making 2 layers I could experiment a bit (my second cake turned out better). I simply used SR flour, egg, milk and drinking chocolate (I had it already, and it's easier to find than cocoa). To make 'an oven' I turned the wok upside down over the gas flame for a couple of minutes before I slipped the frying pan (with my cake mix) under the upside down wok. And it worked! 

Between the layers I sandwiched whipped cream and cherry jam (we were in a town famous for cherries) and on top I put this chocolate stuff that you get here, and 40 candles. 

Okay, it's possibly the worst cake I've ever made, but better than a bakery or supermarket bought cake. And most importantly, H loved it. 

Fail! No crossing to Chile via Entre Rios

We have a map from from Chilean Tourism board that gives information about the Carretera Austral, which is a rough but scenic road in Southern Chile which we are headed to 'do'. This map shows connections from the Southernmost town of the route, Villa O'Higgins, to 2 places on the Chile-Argentina border. 

The Southernmost crossing is the common choice for the bicycle overlanders (ie the people who have chosen to cycle these long, windy, and hilly roads). But, due to the involvement of a passenger ferry along a lake, this option isn't for cars. 

But, rather than taking the advice of other travellers we decided to ask the police (and they have so many types here) if the next choice could be done in a vehicle like ours. We were told that it could be done, but the road was extremely rough. Yay! We could do it, slowly!

So off we headed. 

The scenery was absolutely beautiful. At around 4.30pm we found a great camping spot (most importantly it was protected from the wind), so decided to stop rather than reaching the border that day. After all, we had fresh food to eat, and Chile doesn't allow you to bring fresh food in. 

We lit a campfire and had almost finished cooking our early dinner when the owner of the neighbouring estancia came past. He was very helpful. He told us we couldn't camp or have a fire there (private property.... But it is estancia after estancia through there). Then I told him what where we were going and he told us that we couldn't cross to Chile there. Basically it's a winter (April to October) crossing, as in summer the water is too high (snow melt and rain). He said we could go have a look if we wanted, we only had 50km left. 

So, with many more daylight hours, and having been told to move, we ate, cleaned up and continued on. 

The scenery got even better as we followed a river in a valley through some excellent sheep and cattle country. And, driving later as we were, there were hares going everywhere too. 

Finally we crossed the first river, wide and about 50cm deep, and kept following the muddy, puddled, road. We were now on the final estancia (ranch/station), Entre Rios (translates as between rivers). We photographed the yellow roofed estancia buildings, and kept going. 

Finally we got to the border police building and there the road pretty much ended. Five men were stationed there and they invited us in for a cuppa and a chat. 

We couldn't cross, the river was much too high (and we didn't get to see it as it was another 6km and too late in the day to walk). The police had just started their 1 month assignment there that day, we passed the 5 who had done the previous month earlier in the day. And we couldn't park there overnight... So we were required to turn back. 

So, that's why I said we'd be 'out of reach' but I'm back online again... The project failed! (But, we did ask.....)

Out of reach

Haha, this is kind of like an 'Out of Office' reply. 

Anyway H and I don't expect to have Internet for 10 days or so. So there will be no blogs while we go to a very isolated part of the world. 

Sheep shearing festival in Southern Patagonia

After Torres del Paine H and I backtracked about a 150kms to a little place called Villa Tehuelches because they were having a Festival of sheep shearing and I was very keen to go. 

It was fun and interesting. The event included shearing demonstrations, singing and dancing events, sheep dog trials, a disco and lots of lamb to eat. 

This event was in Southern Chile, but in a sense it seemed quite Argentine. Most events didn't seem to run at their scheduled time, but not that it mattered much. 

What I most enjoyed was the camping amongst the Chileans. We looked out Saturday morning to see a skinned sheep riding on the rear mounted spare tire of a SUV. It seems that each camping group brought a large grill, wood and coal and plenty of sheep/lamb. 

The Saturday night disco was scheduled for 10pm. We arrived at 10.30 to an empty hall and no music, things didn't kick off until about midnight. We stood out (H being the tallest there, and I being the fairest skinned and the only blonde) and at 2am we were probably the first to leave. 

All in all we enjoyed the Festival del esquila in Villa Tehuelches.