It is the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Greetings friends, family, and faithful readers. I apologize for the delay in postings. I am currently in Ushuaia, Argentina, which sits at the very end of the South American continent. The trip through Patagonia has been amazing so far. I last wrote in Bariloche. From there I have been meandering down the continent between Chile and Argentina. There have been a lot of days on the road covering a huge number of miles, but there is plenty to look at. The size and scale of Patagonia is really hard to comprehend. I may have seen mountains and plains that are as attractive in other parts of the world, but Patagonia offers an unparalled amount as far as I know (maybe Alaska or the Himilayas, I don´t know because I haven´t been there -- yet). It sometimes feels like I have been driving or riding through a postcard for the last 3 weeks.




Our first big stop after Bariloche was the town of El Chalten. The town is not much to speak of. Actually, it feels a little how you would picture a touristy Old West. The roads are all dirt, there are dogs running around, the wind is blowing, and it is fairly desolate. What El Chalten has though is world class scenery and hiking. What is lacks is great weather. One day some friends and I went for a hike and after some confusion about the signs, our intended 7 hour hike became about 12 hours. In total we covered around 40 Kilometers (24 miles) through woods and hills in the rain, sleet, and wind. By the end I was longing for another volcano to climb.




From El Chalten we drove to El Calafate, which is a very nice little city. El Calafate serves as the base to visit the Moreno Glacier, which is stunning and one of the most active in the world. At the Moreno Glacier, we hiked around looking for good vantage points to watch enormous chunks of ice splash down before taking a boat ride near the glacier. Waiting and watching the giant ice blocks was very addicting. My friends and I had to pull ourselves away knowing that as soon as we did a hug chunk would break off.




From El Calafate we headed back into Chile to visit the Torres del Paine national Park. On the way we stopped by the Cave of the Milodon. A Milodon was some sort of prehistoric bear-sloth thing. Anyway, it had a huge cave the reminded me of something from the Flinstones. If any of you have read the travel memoir classic ¨In Patagonia¨ by Bruce Chatwin, you may remember this as a partial inspiration for his visit to Patagonia.



With visions of Milodons dancing in our heads, we made it to Torres del Paine, which turned out to be amazing.






The weather of Torres del Paine can be summed up as extreme. We had a couple good days (rare) there to hike around and explore. We also had a day of torrential rains (common) with wind that snapped tent poles. Luckily I was able to put my tent up in an sheltered area and did not have the 4 am wakeup call like some others.



From Torres del Paine we continued south and caught a ferry to the island of Tierra del Fuego. At the end is Ushuaia, which is a nice little city with a bustling cruise ship crowd. The city serves as the most popular jumping off place to visit Antartica, which is about 1000 kilometers away (600 miles). Sadly, I won´t be hitting continent number 7 on this trip, but I did take a nice boat ride on the Beagle Channel and got to see the ¨lighthouse at the end of the world.¨ Today was spent hiking through the Tierra del Fuego national park, which was quite nice.

I am not sure when the next place we stop at with good internet will be, but I know we are heading north. I should be in Buenos Aires in about a week. Hopefully I can post again there.

Cheers,

Ben

Joe (or in this case Ben) vs. the Volcano

In Santiago, Chile, I met up with the overland truck group I would be travelling with for the next several weeks. For New Year´s we drove to the attractive ski town of Pucon, which sits below the Villarrica volcano. New Year´s was fun and my new friends and I joined a few thousand Chileans as we watched fireworks on the edge of the lake and toasted 2007 in the rain.



On the 3rd, I decided to climb the volcano. In the beginning this seemed like a fairly good idea. While Villarica is apparently the 2nd most active volcano in South America, the guides assured us that scientists think they can give the town at least 24 hours notice before a major eruption. Comforted by that and looking forward to the attractive views at the top I signed on.



After we were outfitted with all the necessary gear it was off to the mountain and eventually we headed up. The first few legs we not too bad. I trucked along somewhere near the front of the group and enjoyed the experience.



Somewhere just past halfway it became a different type of experience. I am not sure if it was altitude, being out of shape, or a combination, but things started to get a lot harder as I slowly made my way towards the top.

Around the 3/4 mark, I thought there was no way I was going to make it. I was now taking roughly 10 small steps between breaks and was exhausted. Also, my left leg had started to cramp up. The only thing I really had going for me was stubborness and the guide behind me who was kind enough to shoulder my bag for about 20 minutes so we made some actual progress. I think my guide thought I was done when we hit the last rest stop before the summit, but he was unaware that I had been thinking about the original Rocky for the previous 20 minutes. I decided that I didn´t need to defeat the mountain, but rather just go the distance like Rocky.

When I finally got to the top, it was a massive relief. I called it a draw and like the end of Rocky when Apollo Creed says "There isn´t going to be a rematch" was committed to not climbing any more mountains or volcanos. (Of course there went on to be several more Rocky movies, so we´ll see if I climb any more mountains)



At the top, we were occassionally overwhelmed by sulphuric fumes and could see lava spurts in the crater. The views both of the crater and the surrounding country were awesome, but eventually we had to go down.

Thanks to gravity, I am much better at going downhill than up. Most of the return trip was spent sliding on my backside and using an ice axe as a rutter to slow down. The slide down was really awesome and nearly made the climb up worth it.

I assume that someone somewhere has said that you can learn a lot about yourself by climbing a mountain. If not, I am saying it now. In my own journey up, I learned that I am a mountain admirer and not a mountain climber. In the future I aspire to go up mountains, but preferably in a ski lift.

From Pucon we headed for the city of Beriloche, Argentina. The drive was very attractive and after I leave this internet cafe, I will be able to report more on the city of Beriloche.

-Ben