March 2010

Started March in El Chalten Hiking Fitz Roy in the Glacier National park. I bought a sleeping bag here and decided to go camping at the Laguna Torre. Little did I know I what I was in for. This was the coldest night I've ever had while camping. When I woke to go take pictures at the lake at 5:30 in the morning I discovered frost on my tent. I had spent the night shivering wearing all my clothes. lol. Another lesson learned. Even though my sleeping bag said 0 degrees C. That didn't mean it would be comfortable then. Anyways while in Ushuaia I had booked a ferry called the Navimag that would take me through the fjords of Patagonia Chile. It left in about a week so thats why I decided to go to El Chalten and then to Puerto Natales where I went to another park. This one is more famous and is called Torres del Paine. Here I did the "W" going up to glacier grey then into the french valley and lastly the three towers. I only had 2 nights thoughto make sure I was back in Puerto Natales to go on the ferry so I didn't go all the way to Glacier Grey I only went 2 hours in so I could see it then turned around and went to the camp in the French Valley. I ran into Aiofe and Adam who I had met on the Antarctic Dream while going up the French Valley to take pictures. I met up with them later at the base of the three towers(tres de torres).Left Puerto Natales for Puerto Mont via the fjords. It was a beautiful relaxing way to go up the coast. It was a 4 night affair but I had two friends to keep me company. Also met someother people too. Ended up traveling with them after we arrived in Puerto Mont. An Aussie, a canadian aDutch and another American. We split the costs of a car and went to Chiloe which is a little island just south of Puerto Mont. It was a great time minus the fact that my worst case of food poisoning was a result of an Empenada that I got there. It was good though. Went with John and Steven to Bariloche. Slowly lost people to other places. I had broke my DSLR on the boat so I had a bought a Point and shoot when I had arrived in Puerto Mont. Santiago and Buenos Aires are the two places where I could get my camera fixed so I flew to Buenos Aires. I stayed with Nicole a friend I had met while in Ushuaia at the hostel. Met up also with another girl who I had met down there. Went to La Bamba. Which is a percussion show. Very good. Hung out with Antoinette and Nicole for the days I was there. Then flew to Cusco, Peru. So In January there had been some major landslides going on so they had closed down Machu Picchu. So its supposed to be opening soon. So on my way from the airport I got hustled into buying a tour called the Salkantay Trek. Well it left 5 days later. So I got a feel for Cusco. I went and saw some of the Inca ruins around the city like the sacred valley. I hiked the trail with 19 other people. There was a mixture of us. I shared tents with a guy from the States named Chu. Chu and I had an epic trip. Not only did we encounter landslides on the way there but me and Chu got screwed by our travel companies. Me especially. I had to pay an extra $60 for my entrance ticket into Machu Picchu and I had no train ticket back. Lets just say I will shop around a lot more when booking a tour. But we survived.

Pictures

Top to Bottom:

Me with Fitz Roy in the background.

Sunrise at Laguna Torre

Me in the French Valley in Torres Del Paine

Jumping pic at Machu Picchu