Over the last few weeks while in Patagonia I have done some long coach journeys and got some serious mileage under my belt. The long journeys have been well worth the effort for the rewards are great. After my last post from Baraloche I went to Puerto Madryn which is famous for being the main stop off point to see whales. At the moment they are in the breeding season, around Peninsular Valdes just outside Puerto Madryn. I did a day tour to the peninsular to view the whales as well as elephant seals and penguins, all up close. The whales were amazing as we got to see plenty of them and really close. The highlight was when one whale came right up to the boat and actually nudged the boat right below where I was standing, that close I could not even get a photo of it, just standing there gorping at it! Managed to get a couple of shots of some tail action but with them having young they were not playing much. The boat cruise was quite hard work as I was well hung over after a few too many of the local brew (Quilmes), after watching England's sporting effort over the week finally end with Hamilton blowing the F1 title.
After the wildlife viewing, the two English guys I was travelling with (and myself) headed back over the border into Chile to the famous Torres de Paine National Park on a 4 day trek. On this trek we were not doing any camping, thank god as it was well windy there. We were staying in nice dry warm hostels and having food cooked for us, which is nice. The weather was OK apart from the first day where we got seriously pissed on, Christ it was worse than Snowdonia on a bad day! I have to say though, over all, it was one of the most scenic treks I have ever done. The sights were so varied with snow peaked mountains next to cream coloured mountains, lakes of different colours and some serious glaciers thrown in - a photographer's paradise. The main glacier was massive as well going on far as I could see it finished off with sheer ice walls dropping into a huge lake. Overall, I reckon we did around 65 kilometres over the 4 days. The main difference between this one and other treks I have done on this trip is Torres de Payne; not as high altitude and not as much sheer up-hill as the others. Still, me legs and feet were well tender for a few days.
The next stop was back over in Argentina at Calafate which is the stop off point for the Glaciers National Park. The main reason for coming here was to see Perito Moreno glacier and if I thought the glacier in Torres de Payne was big - this boy was the daddy! Its one of the only glaciers in the world that is still moving and the size of it is breathtaking. The front of it is over 5 kilometres long with a height of 60 metres and against a lush turquoise lake and surrounded by snow peaked mountains. We did a boat cruise which takes you right up to the front of the glacier to get a good close up view of it. Again - My God it was windy and cold up on the top of the boat but the Bear was last down after having to change memory cards in my camera I was getting that carried away with the photos. After the boat cruise we went down to a series of viewing platforms near one end of the glacier giving good views of the glacier, lake and surrounding mountains. I have seen some sights on my travels but this baby had my jaw well on the floor, amazing!
Calafate was my last stop in Patagonia and we then took the longest bus journey I have ever done, to Buenos Aires, around 40 hours. I now know what cabin fever is like, I could have kissed the tarmac when we arrived. Buenos Aires is a great city and the last stop I was with Phil and The Sweed. They were top lads and I had a good laugh with them and a very messy Saturday night out where we stumbled out of a club at 7 am to the amusement of a few locals. At the moment I am still in Buenos Aires and will probably stay till after the weekend as I might go watch Argentina play Bolivia. I will send another post let you all know what it was like, plus the Boca Juniors game I went to watch a few days ago which was amazing. Shall be in touch soon... the bear
Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Patagonia, its massive and its windy... but christ the sights are awesome!
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5 Comments:
Hey up son!!!
Good to hear from ya mate. Yeah - I'm all better now. I haven't been able to spend much time on the blog of late, what with work stuff, trying to do a bit of work on the house and a bit of extra work I managed to get. Last weekend I did some work for a pyrotechnics (fireworks) company. I say some work - I worked Saturday & Sunday, did 35 hours with 3 hours sleep, jeez I was sha**ed! Good experience though, did 2 shows each with a budget of £12,000, that's a lot of pyro mate let me tell ya! It was awesome to get to see how it's done on a big scale (as you know I do some shows for my landlord's wedding & party functions but that's tame to what I got to do with this company).
Bought a LCD TV the other week, well whacked it on the plastic! I managed to persuade the better half to let me hang it in that humongous fireplace of ours! Don't know which was more difficult - talking Lee into letting me put in there or hanging the damn thing on the wall! Well I've gotta say mate - it looks good in there, got my surround system working again - tree-men-dose!
Hopefully I'll get some time this week to get some work done on the blog, stuff needs updating. Looking forward to your next post & batch of photos. Take it easy kid...
Well Steve what can I say about your latest trip to Patagonia and Torres de Paine and those lovely mountains. I liked to see the whales although it was only tails, it must have been a bit scary to have one coming right up to the boat, and I also loved the penguins and the elephant seals, you have certainly covered some miles, but it is all worth it. The snow capped mountains are really breath taking, Jordan got a bit scared when he saw you standing so close to the edge, honestly Steve I really must say that the photographs you have taken on your latest trip are really your best yet, your Mum says that I always say that but these were superb, you must have been really knackered in all that snow I what a trek but well worth your while, the scenery of the lakes is really great, you seem to get a bit of everything with snow and then the turquoise lakes and then the greenery. I am glad you are enjoying yourself and what a long bus ride, I bet you were glad to get to the hostel and have some nicely cooked food and of course have a bevvy or two, you enjoy yourself, you are really bringing pleasure to so many people, I know that lots of people are looking at your photographs, its a pity more people dont write a little note, I get all excited when I read your blog and then I am really glad when I see your photographs, I never realised there were such different places in South America. I do look at a map which I have got along with my pictures and follow where you are and look up where you are going to next, and then we come to the glaciers,what can anyone say about those, they are really beautiful, I just cant imagine how you feel when you are taking the pictures of scenery like that, I keep going to your photographs over and over again, but I can honestly say that these latest ones are my favourites. I just like the wide open as I was born and bred up them there hills at Ipstones in the wilds, I will always be a country wench at heart. Well Steve it is less than six weeks now before we are in Guardavalaca in Cuba, we fly to Holguin airport and then we will have an hours bus ride from the airport to our hotel so I will see a bit of the Cuban way of life, I am really looking forward to going now as long as those hurricanes have finished, anyway it is a pleasure to keep in contact with you and I can honestly say that I will miss your blog when you get back but it will be so nice to see you, you really do look well, keep enjoying yourself lad and see as much as you can while you can, your Mum and Dad are very proud of you, I know they will be glad to see you again, we all will. Well done Steve Look after yourself and dont have too much whallop, Janet, Lyn and Jordan.
Well now I've seen it all, I'm not having it, either you have nicked them Galapagos photos off Google or you have had some serious lessons from Bill Odie !! No seriously, them shots are unbeleivable son, you should apply to work for National Geographic or summat. Winking at a croc ? close up tropical bird shots ?? Not to mention the snow capped mountainous photos, looking into Crators ? truly superb Mr Bear, keep em coming. Up the Potters.
Impressive - truly impressive!
The last lot of photos of the glaciers are stunning mate. I loved the Galapagos ones as well. Finally managed to get them sorted & uploaded. I've had to do em bit by bit at work as a lightning strike on Monday blew my router at home - nice!
They were a bit confusing as there were duplicates on the discs. You'd better check I've tagged them right too. I tagged & mapped them all but if you get the chance to add captions for the viewers that'd be cool. The actual glacier shots have been mapped to Calafate your last stop in Patagonia for ease (basically - I couldn't find the glaciers on the map).
You've certainly raised the bar of your standards with the EOS kid - keep it up!
Hope you enjoyed the Boca's - great experience.
Best not mention football at the moment though - nuff said!
Anyways, keep on keepin on - take care mate - ciao for now...
p.s. -
José Mário dos Santos Félix Mourinho
IS gonna be England manager!
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