Walking in a winter wonderland...

Today we decided to do a short walk to see Glacier Luis Martial. The day was looking a bit gloomy so we didn't hold out much hope for views.

Started off the walk on what seemed to me to be a cross between a ski slope and a path.



This soon turned into a proper mountain and the weather started to clear up quite nicely. Bit windy though...



Finally reached the base of the glacier. Of course, you can't see it, it's covered in snow, but it's behind that rock formation...



The view back into town is pretty amazing.



However the weather quickly started to close in and it started to snow quite heavily.



So it was a quick run/slide back down the snow to the refugio for some hot soup and mulled wine.



Felt slightly lazy getting the chairlift the rest if the way down...



Off to El Calefate tomorrow for more glacier excitement.

Laguna Esmeralda

A few of us went on a short walk today to visit Laguna Esmeralda, we knew that the lake would be covered in ice and snow so there would not be that much to see of it, what we didn't know was that the path to the lake was pretty much knee deep in mud all the way...

Here's a picture of one of the bogs we had to cross:



But it was all worth it in the end, a nice pleasant place to have lunch and skip stones.



Back down at the bottom of the walk we had time for some interesting coffee and to play with the huskies that are bred there:

Ushuaia - Parque National Tierra Del Fuego

Went for a walk in the local national park, beautiful day. Stopped off at the guard post near the Chilean border and they made us a cup of coffee! Excellent bunch of people.

Ushuaia

I am now just about as far south as you can go without getting very cold - the town of Ushuaia.

The trip over her from Chile was quite interesting, we drove along the coast of the Straits of Magellan.


We even got to go for a quick boat trip!



Ushuaia is a surprisingly nice town. We'd got used to these isolated towns in Patagonia being a bit run down and not that nice, but this is very nice place.



There is even a ski-resort down here!

Trekking in Torres Del Paine

We went on a three day trek of the "W" circuit of Torres Del Paine national park.



Started off the morning of the first day a bit earlier than we should have as my alarm clock was still set of Argentinian time which is an hour ahead of Chile... Luckily the hostel owners found it quite amusing and didn't mind too much making us breakfast extra early. There then followed a 3 hour bus ride and then a minibus to our refugio at the start of the trek. Around 11 we set off walking towards the Torres.




It was a tough walk up there with maybe an hour of scrambling up some moraine, but the view was definitely worth it.



It was then a long walk back in the crazy wind to the refugio for a well deserved night's rest to get ready for the next day of walking.

This next day took us past a beautiful lake with a most amazing aquamarine colour.



We stopped at refugio Los Cuernos and sheltered from the wind for the night. After a slightly worrying start the day cleared up nicely and we walked up the center of the W to take a peek at glacier frances.

Quite a few avalanches on the way made this walk quite exciting...



And there was a great view back to the lake.



We then walked onto the next refugio, Pehoe. We got here just in time before the weather closed in and it started to rain.



Fortunately the next day came and the weather held for us so we got to walk for an hour or so up to a mirador to see Glacier Grey.

You can see a few icebergs on the way:



And then you get a pretty good view of the actual glacier:




After a few photos and some chocolate biscuits it was time to head back to the refugio and catch a boat out of the park and a bus back home.



Just in time too, the weather really closed in and it was nice to get back to a nice warm hostel and some decent food...

More photos here.

Tomorrow I'll be catching a bus to Ushuaia, the world's most southernmost city.