Three days Santiago. Seems enough for me. It's a big city, yet an other one... Not bad, though. A bit smoggy at times, but mostly alright. Nothing wrong. Nice people. Liked it more at night, as my photographs may reflect. Nice museums - especially liked the one on pre-columbian cultures in South America (very good exhibits!).

Had a funny conversation with a nice Bolivian doctor last night in the restaurant who had come to Santiago for a Herbalife convention. Asked him what Herbalife was. Seems that I actually missed in the past that I urgently need the 84 special ingredients for my nutrition which only the Herbalife products contain! How I managed to get as old as I am is a miracle... The funniest part was when he explained to me how I could earn up to a million dollars and more a month by joining the "family"! Yet an other pyramid game. And fairly successful as far as I can tell from the number of "members" he mentioned (was it 900.000 worldwide?). In the restaurant were many other Herbalifters - from Chile, Colombia, Venezuela. Obviously making enough money from their distributions for long journeys to such "extravaganzas" as the convention was called. Very nice chap, the Bolivian doctor, but very fanatic, too. Dollar signs in his eyes... At least a free Spanish lesson for me.

Have been pondering an Aconcagua attempt for several days. Finally decided against it. Too much gear I would have to organize (rent or buy). Not a difficult climb in itself, but very cold - hence the equipment necessary (mountain tent, very warm sleeping bag - going to -30 degrees, plastic climbing boots, mittens, crampons, ice axe, and a lot more...). Too much effort. And then the altitude (i.e. time required to aclimatize...). But I am still tempted. Anyone possibly interested in changing my mind and teaming up?! Or any other (not too technical) mountain?

So today Valparaiso. First impression - OK. Yes, it is a nice city on funny hills. Yes, its architecture is slightly chaotic and relatively old, odd, and colorful. And a port. Impressed? Not so much. Nothing wrong, though. Good place to hang out for a while, I guess. At least smaller than Santiago, but still quite big. Staying with lovely Signora Maria, a tiny but very cozy room near the center. Good to have my own room for a while!

After a couple of days in Pucón, Chile, I am going to Santiago on an overnight bus later on today.

The night before yesterday was a little short as we had to get up at 3.30am in order to get an early start with our guide Claudio, who also happens to be the owner of the hostel some of us were staying at. It had taken me quite a while to get used to the idea of a tour, but you are simply not allowed to climb volcano Villarica on you own... Those of you knowing me better will be aware that I am actually heavily allergic to "guided tours" and "tourist excursions" organized by agencies. The good side to the organized tour, however, was that we got all the necessary equipment (including ice axe, crampons, gloves, helmet, gaiters, over-trousers, jacket, backpack, even mountaineering boots if needed), so I did not have to rent any of these things. And the transport was sorted out, too, of course.

So we got onto the minibus at 4am, reaching the ski center on the slopes of Villarica at about 5am, from where we started walking. In the next hour I almost fell asleep again, trudging through volcanic scree and rubble. To our surprise it was almost warm at about 1900m! Given the time of day (read night) almost a miracle. Almost now wind made for ideal condictions. Soon, we would start walking on snow, first without, later with the crampons. The pre-sunrise light and later the early morning light created marvelous vistas of the partly cloud covered landscape far below. With only a few short breaks, we reached the crater rim at 2847m after only four hours ascending. A really easy stroll, as far as I am concerned.

The sulfurous fumes from the crater made breathing quite difficult at times, but the view of the splashing lava was certainly compensating for that. Also the vistas of the surrounding volcanic and non-volcanic peaks are spectacular. The walk down across the glacier and snow fields was sped up by long and fast slides in snow tunnels. Very good fun indeed! When we descended we came across about two hundred(!!!) people plodding through the snow. All from the regular groups departing at about 8am from Pucón. Volcano mass tourism. At this stage I was really glad to be on the "early bird" tour, also avoiding the burning sun for the longest part of the walk.

We are either travelling to fast or I am too lazy to keep the journal up to date! Anyway, after having arrived in Bariloche yesterday it is high time to write a few lines. (Is anybody reading, by the way? I might stop writing much and just upload a few images in the future, so let me know if you are interested in reading this journal.)

So Puerto Natales first. It was a great pleasure to hang out in this slightly boring town which certainly still has some of the frontier town feeling to it, which already fascinated Bruce Chatwin. The town, however, is undeniably rather touristy now after a significant increase of the number of tourists flocking in to get into the National Park Torres del Paine during the last decade. We had a good time strolling around, hanging out in cafes, reading, and ‘preparing’ for the boat trip ahead. The view from the waterfront is actually truly impressive.

The first thing we got to see from the Navimag ship (the Magellanes) was actually Gitana, the cute ship dog which (as so many dogs before!? Do we smell???) decided to accompany us for a while while walking around at the water front. She was wearing her collar with her mobile phone number on it while freely strolling around in Puerto Natales, probably enjoying some real trees for a while and catching up with the local dog gossip in town.

While still in Puerto Natales on Thursday we came across a few other travelers which we had met before who would also be on the boat, so we were looking forward to catch up with them. We boarded on Thursday evening at 9pm, spent the evening chatting with our new and old fellow travelers before turning in. The next morning we left port at 6. The weather was not too bad, cloudy and very windy. The windmeter was showing wind speeds typically around 40 – 70 knots, with peaks going up to above 100 knots (equaling about 180 km/h)! The latter are hurricane wind speeds, i.e. your facial features start flopping around uncontrollably… Quite impressive, given that we were continuously in the fjords. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the crew and our ‘guides’ were truly going out of their way to make us comfortable, there were several breefings and educational talks given during the trip every day. We got informed about the route, the fauna, the indigenous population and so on, both in Spanish and English. I had expected merely a ferry ride without any frills. So together with the sumptuous meals we felt almost pressed into a tight schedule given that we had to take nap in between all these events from time to time.
On the first day the ship made a small side trip to the Glaciar Amalia, which was a great sight, unfortunately in rather mediocre weather. When not napping, eating, or being educated we spent a lot of time chatting with other travelers or watching the sea and the fjords most comfortably from the bridge which we could enter almost any time. Brooding over the sea charts, chatting with the captain or the first mate, having a look at the GPS, checking the course and radar screen, what is the current wind speed? Not that it really mattered since the autopilot would steer the 120m long ship without any risk through the fjords… A typical days activity would approximately look like this: get up, breakfast, nap, chat, watch dolphins/seals/sea otters/birds outside, educational talk, nap, educational talk 2, lunch, nap, chat, watch documentary, hang out on the bridge, nap, chat, lunch, chat, drink Pisco Sour in the bar, turn in.

On the second day we had an excursion to Puerto Eden scheduled, the only stop en route. Gitana (the ship dog) got really excited to get ashore for a while! So when we arrived there in the morning, we could see a flock of  tiny boats and floats coming towards the ship. “The Indians are coming to fetch us in their canoes.”, I said, tongue in cheek. And indeed they were! So we got onto one of the nutshells to be shipped over to the settlement. Puerto Eden is a truly remote little village of less than 200 inhabitants boasting the last seven surviving full-blood Kaweskar indios. No streets and entirely dependent on the Navimag ferry which delivers all there is to have to the village. It was pouring with rain and so the locals sensibly stayed inside their huts and houses to watch the crazy tourists through their window wandering around getting drenched. The place actually has a hostel, a supermarket, and even an internet hook up (via satellite, I suppose)!

Then we had the “best Bingo of Patagonia” on the last night, which was truly hilarious! After the Bingo, the pub turned into a disco and the whole scene into something like a high school party con booze-up. The atmosphere was very funny indeed and we kept dancing until the pub closed officially at 2am. After this I ended up having very elaborate and interesting (but probably not very intelligent – given the alcohol) conversations with a few fellow travelers I had not been connecting with before (Christin, Collin, and Juan – it was great meeting you!). I turned in at 4 just to get up again next morning at 7 to be fed the last breakfast aboard before stumbling out into rainy Puerto Montt. What a great journey, I had almost forgotten how to organize my day without continuous announcements of educational talks, meals etc. Together with Anna, who we had met already a while before in El Chalten, we went to find some accommodation in town and then a little later we headed for lunch. Stumbling into the next best seafood restaurant we happened to have the best seafood I have had in South America yet! Copious amounts of yummy shellfish, sea snails and raw fish marinated in lemon and vinegar. After this lunch we did not even really wanted to eat anything that day anymore…

The next day (Tuesday/yesterday) Volker and I said good-bye to Anna and caught the morning bus back to Argentina, to Bariloche. The border formalities took about two hours. What a silly game! The difference in the way people interact in Chile and Argentina is truly striking. Although everyone was really friendly in Chile, they seem much more closed up and shy. The Argentineans on the other side seem always to be in for a chat and happen to be almost always really funny and open. Quite impressive. The first person we came across, the guy running the kiosk at the Argentinean border post immediately asked us where we were from and what we were doing… And all the people we came across running the hostels in Bariloche were overwhelmingly charming and helpful, even when their place was actually already booked out. To me, returning to Argentina is almost a little bit like coming home! That said, I am looking forward to getting back to Buenos Aires for a while, in a week or so! Where am I going to spend Christmas and New Years Eve?! No idea yet. Any recomendations?

A few more pictures can be found here.

Back to Puerto Natales. I truly did sleep well during the three hour bus ride yesterday afternoon back to town! Maybe this was due to the beer I had for lunch, or the fact we had to get up at 4:20 am that day to catch the sunrise on the mountains, or just due to the strenuous eight days of hiking the Circuito Entero all around the fabulous mountains. The nap was a little surprising since the ancient ramshackle bus went at a tremendous speed of about 120 km/h along the bumpy dirt track, everything shaking and rattling, about to fall apart...

The mountains had greeted us with mixed weather, but all in all not too bad. Mainly cloudy or sunny, just occasionally snow and hail, wind and drizzle on and off on most days... And yes - the weather is changeable in Patagonia! But in fact we have been really lucky, the day we had designed to be our 'rest day' without any walking turned out to be the only really horrible day weather-wise. So we stayed in the hut nearby the camp site playing chess and watching other travelers arriving drenched. The landscape of the park is truly beautiful and very varied. Lush valleys, alpine forests, fairy-tale lakes, massive glaciers, serrated mountain scapes. Some 'interesting' swamps to cross, lenghty snow fields to scale on the 'pass day', mainly good camp sites. So many beautiful big and small impressions and encounters. I reckon a few pictures say more than I can.

At the moment we are enjoying some lazy time in sleepy Puerto Natales before boarding our ship bound for Puerto Montt on Thursday night. It is a pleasure to have clean clothes again! And fresh food - not just the noodle / porridge / soup variety...

Some more pictures of this week can be found  here .

Also have a look on Volkers great pics  here  which give a good impression of 'daily life' during the trek.