Going into Chile (for the first time)

Hello,

I´ve got 30 mins in an internet place in Torres Del Paine before I need to go and catch my ferry so a very quick update...

I seem to have been bitten by a mosquito on my eyellid and it looks like Ive been punched in the eye, its all swolen - nice! It doesnt hurt though fortunately.

So Im nearly a week into my overland trip now. It´s basically all camping which was a bit of a shock (but my fault for not reading the trip notes properly before I left!) The first night I kept laughing to myself saying "you´re in a tent... in Ushuaia... what the hell were you thinking!!" but actually its been quite fun. It was really cold the first few mornings trying to get out of bed, and trying to boil water for 22 people to have a cup of tea in the morning when the wind keeps blowing the flames out and its snowing and freezing cold, but other than that, once you get warmed up, its fine. My warming up task in the morning is usually 5 minutes trying to cram my sleeping bag back into its little holder.

We all have to cook and clean and everything for the truck and we get assigned to task groups and cook groups and things. My group has made the best meal so far, we did a lovely stew and it went down really well when we were all freezing, I think we might be outdone tomorrow night though because that group is planning a 3 course meal...! Interesting cooking on camping stoves, and Ive never had to consider catering for so many people!! But its good fun and the group is really nice. theres a good mix of people, mostly Aussies and Kiwis as Intrepid is an australian tour but theres some europeans too, its a nice mix.

Anyway, we went on a trip on the Saturday to Tiere Del Fuego which was nice. It was a lovely day for it and we saw some condors and the most southerly post office in Argentina, it was a shame I posted my postcards the day before I went there... And we went to the most southerly spot in Argentina on a little walk and tere was a museum about the first people that lived in this area. They used to walk around naked covered in seal fat to keep warm - glad I didnt have to do that. Then we learnt how those people were wiped out when western settlers moved into the area and the number of native people dropped from about 3000 to 300 in a few years due to disease, westerners trying to make them wear clothes, but they didnt tell them they had to change them when they got wet so they died of `pneumonia, or they got hunted if they took sheep from farmers land. It was really harrowing reading what happened.

The next day was a drive up through the border into Chile. The border crossing took about 3 hours which was a pain. We were just sat on the bus for ages. Then we camped at teh side of the road that night. The next day we went to Puerto Natales to stock up on provisions for the 5 nights were staying in Torres del Paine which is an amazing national park in Chile. We set up the truck at base camp and then got a catamaran to the park to do some walks. We had the option to do the famous ´W´walk which is a 4 day walk carrying all your food and camping gear, or you can do the ´V´ walk instead and stay at the one camp site both nights and come home earlier. I opted for the V just because I didnt think I could walk all that way carrying a tent, I thought it might take the fun off the walk. In the end, because I did want to see all 3 peaks I opted to cheat :-) So Ive done the V being based at a camp site, then I,m getting a bus with Maria up to the final camp site for the W walk and then walking the last bit without having to lug heavy bags! Im glad I could do that.

THe V walk that Ive done so far has been awesome. The first day was up to the Grey Glacier. Ive never seen a glacier before, it was incredible. And walking up next to the lake before we got there, there were icebergs in the lake. They looked blue. I thought that ice got blue under extreme pressure, but it turns out theres an element in it called silica or something that makes it blue. And that melts into the lakes and turns them an amazing azure colour, its gorgeous!! The weather was really nice, we´d been given all these horror stories about how its going to rain all the time and be horrible, but I guess they had to prepare us for the worst, but it was fine. A bit of snow but that helped cool me down with all the walking. It was quite snowy and cloudy at the glacier and it was a shame you couldnt see it fully, but you still got the effect of it! The first day up to the glacier and back was 22k.

Yesterday we went up between some mountains which was about a 30k walk. That was a long day but worth every step! Again the weather was really good, a little bit of snow and some cloud but otherwise fine. The scenery was really different to the first day and we went past a mountain with loads of snow on it and saw an avelanche - it was amazing!! Only quite a small one but still watching it and the noise it made was incredible! We were just in the right place at the right time to see it, but once we had seen and heard it, you could hear avelanches for ages happening all over the mountain. It was awesome!

Hmm, my half hour is nearly up so Id better go, Ill write again and finish the story when I have more time! Hopefully when I get to El Calafate on Saturday... were staying in a hostel for 2 nights - looking forward to that!! Also thats where the Moreno glacier is and thats supposed to be incredible. You can go trekking on the glacier and go on boat trips right up close to it - cant wait!