Updates

I am a few days behind with the blog so I will try and get you all up to speed with what’s been happening, there may be a few quick fire blog entrys so I apologise for all the reading in one hit.

We will be out of action for the next week as we will be in the GALAPAGOS ISLANDS.

You, will all be at Work.

P.S - read the updates from the bottom up.

Amazon

A few facts for you

1) It’s winter in Ecuador, despite the fact most of the country is Southern hemisphere.

2) It’s a full moon, but they get 4 days of full moon nights every month

3) The sun goes down at the same time all year around

4) Ecuador does not have any Amazon rainforest

Interesting fact that last one, especially as we signed on for an Amazon rainforest experience. The kicker is in the detail as Ecuador does have a bit of the Amazon “Basin”, i.e, the bits that lead into the Amazon. Not to be phased by this small fact, Robyn and I have decided to call the Ecuadorian rainforest we are in “the Aramazon”, no not a typo, but Adam and Robyns AMAZON.

The place we are staying at is owned by a tour company that gets a lot of government business and does a lot of tourism promotion with overseas Journos. Its is quite a nice spot, about 3 ours drive from Quito the quick way, of 8.5 the long scenic way we came in.

The place is called Los Cascades and as the name would suggest there are a few waterfalls on the place which is why we picked it. The best thing of all is that Robyn and I are the only guests. We feel a bit like Posh and Becks, without the stupid accents and the billions of dollars. But we have the place to ourselves which is awesome.

In the info we saw on the place it shows itself as a C level of difficulty with the worst being E, so we figured it would be fine, given they probably scale for oldies and the like. Well, that may have been a little foolish of us.

Yesterday was a “trek” to the Waterfall with lunch and a swim and then a bit of a stroll back to the lodge for a lazy afternoon. Sounds awesome right. It was pretty amazing. They said it would about 5 hours so we set off with a local guide, Fabian, Rob and Myself. It was really interesting seeing the animals, learning about the jungle and rainforest and we saw some amazing stuff. If you want to know more about that, email Rob, ‘cos that’s not what I am going to talk about…..

I have decide that the C level of difficulty could stand for any of the following:

1) Cant be Serious

2) Cardiac Arrest

3) Climbing Skills required

I kid you not, the walk into this waterfall is something to be believed. We are in the rainforest so naturally everything is wet so we need to wear gumboots (Wellingtons to you poms out there), that instantly relieves you of most of your grip which is bound to make things fun.

Mud, these guys came up with the concept. It is everywhere. No grip, mud, big rocks, tree stumps. This had it all, oh, and that timing, 5 hours. About right. 2.5 hours in to the first waterfall, 1 to the next and 2 back out again.

Have you noticed how waterfalls are always in the bottom of valleys? Hadn’t though of it myself until the way in.

At one point in the descent we rounded a corner to find a mud wall with a 30m staggered drop and a rope on each side to “help” you down. God couldn’t have helped me down smoothly, let alone these ropes. I was covered in mud from top to toe. It was too much for my frayed nerves and I was glad at last to come to the first waterfall. Time for lunch and a swim.

Nope, change of plan, walk another hour to the next waterfall and we would swim there. Good Grief! So off we go again, crossing the river, up mountains down mudslides until finally we arrived. The water was freezing but that was not going to deter Rob and myself after the ordeal I had just been through.

Then, oh dear god, the climb back to the lodge. “2 hours away”, the guide tells me. And with a grin adds, “ and mostly uphill”. NOOOOOOOOOOO!! I though we had made some tricky navigation and ended up closer to the lodge, not so.

So up the hill, not on a gradual increase, oh no, straight up the side of the valley wall, with Rob chirping in with” Amazing how quickly we are going up”. Kill me now. And we are only 30 minutes into the climb.

I was lagging at the back, and Rob was making all sorts of excuses for hovering at the back after being admonished by me several times for undue heckling. She was taking pics and inspecting mysterious animals I never saw, in fact all I saw was the next rock, slippery stone or outcrop in front of me. I never for once doubted I’d make it…. I just wasn’t sure which day.

Needles to say we made it back, but the afternoon was shot and we all hobbled back to our rooms. For our guide, Fabian, it was also his first time at this lodge and on this walk, and he has sworn never to come back again. Maybe that is what the C stands for ………………… Completed – Never Again.

Ecuador

Ecuador, home of the highest density of active volcanoes anywhere on the planet. That’s not a bad claim to fame. Except for the fact, of course, that mosyt of these active volcanoes threaten to wipe out huge volumes of people when the erupt, and its not an IF you’ll notice, its guaranteed that they will erupt. Around once every 100 years, and most of them are at about 110 now!

Anyway, back to my entry here…..

When we asked a few people, even those in Quito, what to do for a few days when we arrived, all of them said “leave Quito”, so we figured that was the thing to do.

Thanks to our awesome travel agent here in Quito we have managed to get ourselves out of Quito and out to an Amazon Jungle trip for 4 days. All of these trips include days of travel as part of the experience so we are in fact at the lodge for 2.5 days and the rest is travel.

So we were met early in the morning by our guide, Fabian, who speaks excellent English and is quite a funny bloke. The trip took us through a few of the towns south of Quito and oddly they all seem to specialize in something different. There is the town that makes a type of ice cream that is famous all around Ecuador, and another we stopped in that is the blue jeans capital of Ecuador. All of the towns seem to have some sort of claim to fame. Pic below is at the highest waterfall in South America.

We also went through three towns that had been completely destroyed by Volcano eruptions in the last 120 years. Pretty amazing to see the river valley and see 20ft of ash in the soil profile. It is also a bit scarey as we were heading to the Volcano that is currently erupting, Tungurahara. Now T (as I am going to call it to save on typing) is a BIG BIG volcano. 5800m in fact. It started erupting 8 years ago and has been going ever since. But in the last three months it has been going crazy, lava flows, pyroclastic ejections, ash fall, you name it, its doing it.

At the foot of this volcano, no…. more like at the belly button of this volcano is the spa town of Banos. It is in deep deep trouble. If the volcano even slightly moves its crater face to the west, Banos will be annihilated. Experts have predicted that if this were to occur lava flows would reach Banos in 3 minutes. And there is no way out. I am calling it “certain death valley”. And that’s we were headed. Giddyup!

The first thing you notice along the road into Banos is that there is no road anymore, this is because a lava flow destroyed it two years ago, and 4 years ago and 6 years ago and 10 years ago. You get the idea. 4000 m above the town is the smoldering crater and vents of T. Well so we are assured as we couldn’t see jack because of the rain and low cloud.

So we had a lovely lunch in Banos another bit of an ABC episode and a nice wander around the streets, but there is this underlying feeling that noone is at peace here. Everyone is edgy, rob and I were not so much edgy as mortified…… don’t these people know there is a Fuc*&ing great volcano about to destroy them? They have already forcibly evacuated 15000 people from the town edges, but the locals are staying put. We were not.

It was with a great sense of relief that we left the town in one piece, without being engulfed by a red hot lava flow of being obliterated by a pyroclastic boulder. We loved the town, very beautiful and with absolutely no long term future. At least they didn’t have to kid themselves.

On to the Amazon lodge then!

“The Incident”

We just missed the booking agency as they closed at 10pm and we got there about 10:30. too late to make new booking for the grey glacier, but they can book us for the day after if we come back tomorrow. So now, Argentina and Perito Moreno is binned as we can do the same thing here without the 5 hour trip. I am up for this flexibility thing and changing plans as required.

So we book in the next day and we have to be in the park for the 8am ferry. This necessitates a very early departure in the Hyundai, leaving around 5:30am. It’s a long way to the park on some pretty dodgy roads.

Cruising along, enjoying the drive when WHAMMO. A big hare runs in front of the car and unable to avoid it I plough into it head on and the car is not well. The Hare has ripped off most of the wheel guard lining and the front guard has popped most of its anchors and is wobbling loose.

We tried to amble on, but it became painfully clear that we would not make it as we still had 150km to go on some very very rough roads. So I turned us around and rolled gingerly back into Puerto Natales, all hope of Ice Hiking was gone, as was $700 for the trip, as was my enthusiasm for the rest of this leg of the trip.

It was devastating to me, it still is. It was the one thing I wanted to do, and with a series of bad decisions, bad luck and poor planning it had all gone to crap. I vowed that this was not the last time I was going to be here and the rest of the time in and around Patagonia would serve as a Reconnaissance for the next time we come here to do it properly.

The following day we had a trip booked for two days into the park. The first day was a boat trip into the Serrano Glacier with an overnight at a lodge across the river from the Glacier. It was very beautiful, but I had developed a cold so I was quite keen to linger in bed. This was perfect for this lodge as there was little else to do.

The Following day has us on A zodiac up the Serrano river into the Torres Del Paine national park with a trip through the park in a van to see the key highlights. It is a stunning park as the pictures here and on Flickr will show, but as I said before, this is a reconnisance mission and while beautiful, it is not as beautiful as being in the mountains and seeing it all up close.

The following day we had our last night in Patagonia as we made our way to the airport bound for Santiago for a very quick stop over of about 12 hours before boarding our flight and heading to Ecuador and the Galapagos islands.

Catch Up

At the end of the cruise we were dumped into to another city that claims to be the southernmost in the world, Ushuaia. It is in Argentina and is more south than Punta Arenas in Chile. However, none of them are the most southern. This honour belongs to Puerto Williams in Chile.

So we spent a short day in Ushuaia took some pics and bought the obligatory trinkets to prove we were there. It is a spectacular setting for a city and it was great to see it. We booked a seat on the first flight we could get and hopped back to Punta Arenas that afternoon.

The plan was to head up to Torres Del Paine national park and do some day treks in and out of the park, with maybe an over night. However all of the lodges were full for the whole time we had left. So they we thought we’d hire a camper van and sleep in it and do hikes in and out from there. So we hunted around and could not find a camper van for hire anywhere. Plan out the window.

So we decided to rent a car, head up to Puerto natales ( the town outside of the park) and then drive across into Argentina to visit the Perito Moriano Glacier and do an day’s ice hiking on the Glacier which is the one thing I have wanted to do since being down here.

So we rented a car. There were no cars left in th town because we were last minute, so we ended up getting shafted and renting a heap of crap Hyundai excel for $100 US a day. We had no choice as all other options were exhausted.

This has been a bit of a learning curve for Rob. She is the big fan of doing things last minute. I am not. We have been shafted from pillar to post on this leg of the trip because we are trying to do it last minute. It doesn’t work. Well it doesn’t work if you have a short amount of time somewhere, are traveling in peak season, and in the middle of school holidays. A lesson learnt.

So we get to Puerto Natales and head out for one of the best meals of the trip so far. Patagonia is known for its lamb and the way they cook it. We had patagoninan lamb and it was spectacular. While at the restaurant we bump into some WA miners and they tell us they are off to iceclimb grey glacier in the park the next day an just booked it. We determine to get on the same trip.

Old Salty

the thing is you see, I hate boats. not so much hate them as the seasickness effect they inevitably bring on, at even the slightest hint of a ripple on the surface of the water. It has been said that I would get sea sick in the bathtub if left there for long enough.

So it was with great trepidation, and outright fear that I stepped onto this cruise with my seackniss drugs and my straps and all the rest of the gear you need to mentally prepare for such an arduous sea going venture as this one. yes I know its only 3 days, but still ^....

So this boat as its 3rd day agenda has us heading for Cape Horn. THE Cape Horn. The one where experienced salt encrusted sailors fear to go. The same Cape Horn that has claimed 10000 lives and 800 ships, damaged many more and has the reputation of the wildest seafaring weather on the planet.

And here am I, adam the sea wary, lilly livered land lubber, on a boat that is going to attempt to land on this place. Good God what am I thinking!!

So Morning dawns, I have had a very restless sleep with the fear building in me. I feel suprisingly well for the mountaious swells that must be outside the window that I dare not open the curtains too. I am even quite sure footed on this heaving deck, I must be aclimatising.

So it is we don the life vests in the room and make our way up to the deck as the Captain has said we will be able to make landfall. Incredible given the foul weather that must be about.

I pop my head out and to my extreme disappointment I find that infact I have not acclimatised at all. The weather is in fact, spectacular! Some of you are familiar with the phenomenon of LAGO, well this was EMGO. It was as smooth as glass with barely a tickle of movement and a glorious sun beating down on us.

So onto the Zodiacs and we land on Cape Horn. I Adam the land Lubber, has made it to the southernmost point of any landmass (excluding antartica of course) on the planet. Me! On Cape Horn.

Throughout all of this, sailor robyn had been taking the weather in her stride and looked a little disappointed for the weather not being a bit rougher. Lunatic!

So we fiddled about at the Cape Horn Lighthouse for a while and took a lot of pics of the beautiful monument to all fallen sailors and it was a surreal experience that we will both remember for the rest of our lives, but the best was yet to come.

We reboarded the ship and the Captain decided that the weather was good enough for a circumnavigation of the actual Cape itself. OH MY GOD. We were about to sail around Cape Horn.

We set off and it was breathtaking. To think of all the people who have lost their lives in the area, the awe with which this place is talked about by those who have sailed past, the respect it earns from even the most experienced of captains, and here were we, going around the Horn. It is still unbelievable.

Weather like this is rare as down here. To give you an idea, our ship had done the trip to Cape Horn 66 times, and in only 6 of those, have they managed to go around the Horn, in fact three weeks before the weather was so bad, noone got off the boat in the entire 3 days. pussys.

All of the crew were on deck as we went around, and as we went past the bottom of the Horn, three loud blasts from the ships horn, signified the moment and nearly brought Robyn and I to tears from the emotion of the moment.

We will never forget the feeling or the sight of Cape Horn.

Until next entry then.... Adam and Robyn, Cape Horners, signing off.

One of the great days of my life

This was one of the highlights of my life so far.

I am calling it Glacier day.

Today dawned a very very wet day, as we expected. It was very grey and misty with very low clouds. It was dead calm though which made for an amazing effect as the mist and cloud was stuck to the valleys and channels as we sailed through them. It was spectacular.

Today we got to see one of the most amazing things anyone can experience in their lives. A Magnificent glacier in full cry. The glacier in question is caled the Pia Glacier, and is one of the few glaciers that is still advancing. There are only a few left in the World that are advancing so it is an honour to see one. And we got close!

As we pulled into the fjord we started seeing small bits of ice floating by. This Glacier actually reaches the water still and is about 120m above the water. As we came in closer we could see it emerging out of the grey at the end of the fjord. It was breathtaking. Even as we were on the ship we could hear it exploding as parts of the face were falling (carving) off into the water with resounding huge BOOM as it hits the water. It was an unbelievable experience that gave me goosebumps, and still is as I write this.

We jumped in the zodiacs and headed right in through the icebergs to land beside the wall about 100m away from the face. The run in the zodiac was an experience in itself through the ice.

So we hotfooted it off the zodiac and made for the best vantage of the front wall of the Glacierand it did not disappoint. It was in rare form and was dropping some huge sections of the face into the water. This was unusual according to the guides, and they believed it had something to do with the very hot (25 degrees) weather the week before. To see something so huge and to realise that this is constant motion at its best is just mind blowing. Its huge. I mean really huge. I also have a video of it carving a large slice as well. The sound is huge but not done justice by the camera.

We spent about 2 hours around the glacier and just before we left had a scotch and coke with iceberg ice that we had fished out of the water as it is so pure. Best scotch and coke I have ever had! I fished out some ice on the way back from the zodiac and ate the whole thing. It was an amazing experience.

In the afternoon we sailed through Glacier alley which was 5 glaciers one after the other. The best was Italy which is the only one which still reaches the water and reaches 1200m from the water level and is 8km deep. 8km!!!! That is an incredible amount of ice. It really makes you realise what we are messing with if we are going to add all the ice we have to the sea levels. Seriously, if you live on the coast.... move!

It was an unbelievable day, we have thousands of photos of this day alone. So I wont add them all to flickr. I probably wont add a lot until we get to Santiago and I get access to the laptop as resizing these is a real bugger.