Patagonia - left or right / Chile or Argentina
Why decide when I have plenty of time? Well, as a socalled land rat (coming from a land-locked country) there might be one argument: left side there is no road that runs all the way up or down. There is only way (beside unfashionable flying out from one of the few airports down South) - the unique experience through Patagonia and its fjords: the Navimag ferry that runs on a weekly basis between Puerto Montt and Puerto Natales, taking four nights (and 550 USD) in return of an unforgetable trip through narrow fjords.
So you may understand my concerns. But a highlight of a trip through South America deserves some courage, and indeed, four nights and days on a big ferry are hopefully less challenging than Magellan in 1520 in search for the passage around the continent.
But let me start from the beginning. Arriving on the continent in São Paulo, I decided to move clockwise: Brazil, Argentine, Chile, Bolivia and Peru, that serves as entry point to the Amazonas from Iquitos, down the stream to Manaus and Belem (again on the other side of the continent). Anyhow, my fascination about mountainious landscapes in mind, there was no doubt to ride the Argentine "Route 66" through Patagonia on a bus - the 'Ruta 40'.
27 hours on an old bus from the trendy and expensive ski resort Bariloche down to El Chalten - to end up in hiking wonderland. Still a small charming village, El Chalten offers straight from the door amazing trails into the Patagonian mountains. Well, not only mountains, the village settles in the shadow of Mt. Fitz Roy, that quickly became my beloved 'Traunstein' in the southern hemisphere.
I could not stop hiking that day I met Mt. Fitz Roy. 12 hours up and down on a day blessed with 'Kaiserwetter' and that drive of joy in front of such majestic formations of rock, snow and ice. Sitting now in a hostel in Puerto Natales - already on the Chilenian side of Patagonia - I am relaxed. Yes, and that despite the probably more famous 'Parque Natural Torres del Paine' is just in sight (and for tomorrow in my mind). So why worry now about a land rat on a ship?
But let me start from the beginning. Arriving on the continent in São Paulo, I decided to move clockwise: Brazil, Argentine, Chile, Bolivia and Peru, that serves as entry point to the Amazonas from Iquitos, down the stream to Manaus and Belem (again on the other side of the continent). Anyhow, my fascination about mountainious landscapes in mind, there was no doubt to ride the Argentine "Route 66" through Patagonia on a bus - the 'Ruta 40'.
27 hours on an old bus from the trendy and expensive ski resort Bariloche down to El Chalten - to end up in hiking wonderland. Still a small charming village, El Chalten offers straight from the door amazing trails into the Patagonian mountains. Well, not only mountains, the village settles in the shadow of Mt. Fitz Roy, that quickly became my beloved 'Traunstein' in the southern hemisphere.
I could not stop hiking that day I met Mt. Fitz Roy. 12 hours up and down on a day blessed with 'Kaiserwetter' and that drive of joy in front of such majestic formations of rock, snow and ice. Sitting now in a hostel in Puerto Natales - already on the Chilenian side of Patagonia - I am relaxed. Yes, and that despite the probably more famous 'Parque Natural Torres del Paine' is just in sight (and for tomorrow in my mind). So why worry now about a land rat on a ship?
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