Patagonia

Patagonia

To go to Patagonia was the question hanging over my head during the christmas holidays. Going would mean meeting up with Hilary, but spending a lot more money than my budget had planned for. The night before the fam was suppose to fly home I decided to book a ticket from Nicaragua to buenos aires, then a 24 hour bus to bariloche where I would meet up with Hilary if she received my email. 
I made it and waiting for me at the bus terminal was Hilary. Our Patagonia adventure was about to start. 
After climbing our first mountain (we were to cheap to take the chair lift) we had the idea that it just wouldn't be right if we didn't camp the whole way south. So we bought a tent and sleeping bags and got on a bus to El Bolson, Argentina as our next destination. In Patagonia one of the common things to do is crisscross your way through chile and argentina. So we crossed the border to futaleufu, chile. The futaleufu river is rated number 5 in the world according to national geographic in terms of rivers to raft or kayak down. It's just that extreme man! So of course we decided to sign up and hit some rapids. We got a recommendation from a friend we kept bumping into that he had a friend who was a guide there so we used them. Very glad we did! We were in a group of all Americans, an ex army man and a couple from new York. Our guide was from Montana and his name was Josh pronounced jaaash in american.
So Hilary and I fit in quite well... 
We were to ride rapids that ranged from class 3 to 5+ which is the most intense. The class 5 was called the terminator. We paddled hard into this rapid but it still managed to knock us on our side. Almost all of us stayed in the boat luckily, but Hilary and the other woman with us fell out. This for us in the boat was very scary, the look on their faces were horrified and we watched as they rolled through holes and the biggest rapids we would see. I can't even image what they were going through! Thank goodness for our safety kayaker who saved Hilary and then josh who pulled them to safety. Water had never terrified me more. 
In total we were on the water for five hours. What an adrenaline rush, and so much fun! 
Of course we needed some beers after. We had met some awesome people so we ended up staying longer than expected. futaleufu turned into one of my favourite places on this trip. 
A huge thing that is happening in north chile Patagonia right now is the government wants to put in damns on these huge strong rivers. There have been huge protests against this obviously. These damns will damage huge ecosystems that are unique to the area. Patatgonia sin repressives.
In the following days we spent many hours on buses making our way down. We would stop places to camp and continue on. The bus rides were beautiful, filled with mountain passages, mountains snow peaked or completly green, and then of course the bright green and blue lakes. we made it to el chalten which is on the Argentina side. This place is know for it's treks through the national park of glaciers. We camped in the town and did day hikes through the national park. The famous cerro here is fitzsroy. It is breath taking! In el chalten we were attacked by a baby horse. In the mornings we would be woken up by it stepping on my face through the tent. A few bruises later we had woken up the campground and people telling us that the horse might not speak English. We decided we should move on from here to el calafate. Here is known for the HUGE glaciar perito moreno. It is said to be the siZe of buenos aires. And as tall as the monument in the centre of the city. Hard to describe because it is just unbelievable!

The gateway to the "W" trek is  pueto natalas on the chile side, this was our next stop. Here is where we rented our stove and planned our route. We were unable to do the whole W route due to some guy who decided it was a good idea to burn his toilet paper. This lead to half of the route burning down because of 125 km winds and helicopters not being able to fly for 5 days because of the crazy winds. This was quite a disappointment because it requires you to back track a lot on the trail. All the negative aside, We planned a three night four day trek. 
The first day was pretty straight forward in terms of up and down mountains. We were walking by huge glaciar lakes that were bright blue in the sun, in front of us stood snow peaked mountains. The hardest thing about the trek is the fact we had to carry all of our gear. It made walking up and down hills a lot harder. On the second day we hiked up hill for 5 hours beside a very large snow peak mountain. It was a rainy day and On the top of the mountain there was a lot of thunder, which created avalanches. It was pretty spectacular to see! we then hiked back to base camp to make our spagetti. Spagetti and oatmeal were our only meals we brought. The third day poured and we almost bailed because of the Wind and cold, but we were hoping the sunrise the next morning would be worth continuing On.
Was it ever! We woke up at 4 am to climb the stepest hill that you almost had to crawl up near the top. In the dark i might add. We Waited until 6:45 for the Orange of the sun to hit the Torres. Which is the thing to see On the "w". It was an absolutely perfect day for it and the colours were beautiful! I am so happy we decided to continue On!
Last stop On our Patagonia adventure was ushuaia. Fin del mundo as it is called. It is the port for antártica. The seafood is great here, and the highlight for me was seeing penguins!

Patagonia: we saw more rainbows in one month than I have seen combined in my whole life!