While the Corona virus keeps Germany in suspense, we leave Chile for the last time in the direction of Argentina to take a look at the 7-lake region there and the area around Bariloche – we start with the latter. Although Bariloche counts as Switzerland in South America and has many well-heeled summer residences here, the area is very criminal here. Burglaries in campers have been reported here several times, even during the night. That is why CondorCampers advised us to refrain from WIld camping here at the beginning of the trip and to better switch to paid campsites. We are looking for one in the nice suburb of Colonia Suiza, founded by Swiss and now we are confronted with Corona for the first time. In the general kitchen there is a bottle of disinfectant linked to the virus. We also meet our somewhat taciturn German rescuer, who last helped us with the empty car battery.

Bariloche got its nickname not only because of its founding fathers (and the unaffordable living costs for “normal” Argentines), but especially because of its location on the lake in the middle of an impressive mountain landscape. Of course we do not miss this and take two hikes – in the spirit of the Alpine feeling – mountain huts. The first leads us to Refugio Italia, it begins almost directly at the campsite and only leads us through a beautiful jungle only to then bring us up about 1000m within a few kilometers. It’s a good thing that we are now fully in training and so we can do the five-hour climb in about three and a half. We are rewarded with few tourists, a beautiful lake (Negra lagoon) in the Andes and a funny interpretation of a “hut” in a tin hut.

We stumble back in the middle of alpine folklore. It is Sunday, the small village is becoming a tourist magnet and serves the cliché with something that is reminiscent of a beer garden atmosphere. Absolutely weird and we find it so funny that after a regional beer with live guitar music we spontaneously decide to stay one night longer.

A day of rest is also good for us, because the next hike to the Refugio Otto Meiling in the 80 km south of the Nahuel Huapi National Park is again over 1000 meters in altitude. We spend the “day off” with an extensive breakfast, before we slowly make our way along the lake of the same name towards the national park and keep stopping for the picturesque backdrop.

In the national park we find a wonderfully quiet place to sleep on Lago Hess, enjoy the sunset over the “del Manso” glacier, to which we will leave very early the next morning. Because at the start of the hike to the refuge, about 50km have to be mastered in the semi-darkness over the gravel slopes of the park. They have it all, but the sunrise and the great scenery with morning mist during the journey make up for early waking up and the shaken bones. The hike also creates this canvas effect again, because as soon as you have covered the first 700 meters of altitude, you walk in the midst of an impressive scenery of mountains, volcanic rocks and glaciers until you reach the refuge, which is exactly between two glaciers – “del Manso” and “Castano Overo” – shelter for hikers. We don’t stay overnight, but since we leave so early and the buses from Bariloche arrive much later, we have the view almost to ourselves.

Our last stage in Argentina takes us north along the “Ruta de los Siete Lagos” and we are glad to have visited Bariloche next to the lakes. The lakes are in every guidebook, more than a “very nice” flies only once over our lips and that is due to a litter of small cat puppies and not at the lake.

Back to Chile it goes over the Paso Huahum and here Corona catches up with us again. Because we have to sign an affidavit about our stays outside of Chile for the past 30 days. Good thing we weren’t there in Germany, otherwise we would probably be in quarantine! In addition, our camper is examined here for the first time (almost 10 minutes) after Essen. We had never experienced that before. Then we take a ferry back to the volcanically active region of La Araucania, the penultimate stage of our trip …

Das (voraussichtlich) letzte Mal nach Argentinien

Lago Nahuel Huapi auf dem Weg nach Bariloche

Auf zum Refugio Italia

 

1000m nach oben

fast geschafft

da kamen wir hoch

Aber es hat sich gelohnt!

Das Refugio Italia

sorry, only google translate

In addition to the Perito Moreno glacier, there is also a small lake landscape (which we leave to the left due to lack of time) and further north of the so-called southern Patagonian ice field to the Los Glaciares National Park. The largest glacier area outside of Antarctica. For this we drive from El Calafate around 250km to El Chalten, which is often seen as the Argentine answer to the Torres del Paine National Park. Here we “finally” find all the tourists we missed all the time. In contrast to the Torres or the Perito Moreno glacier, El Chalten has the “advantage” that its main attraction is not dozens or hundreds of kilometers away, but can be reached in a few minutes on foot. The mountain Fitz Roy, which among other things adorns the logo of the “Patagonia” outdoor brand. The place has developed into a paradise for hikers and mountaineers and attracts them from all over the world. It offers several day and multi-day tours that start directly in town. The most desirable leads to the foot of the Fitz Roy towers.

Since we only arrive around noon, the nice ranger in the visitor center of the park recommends a hike to a glacier lagoon and the associated glacier “Glaciar Grande”, which is a little shorter with only 6-8 hours, not without first following the most important rules of conduct on the trails of the park. Among others (original sound): “Please use the pit toilets, so that we can concentrate the poop in the park to certain areas. If it is an emergency, go 30m away from the river and dig a hole of 30 cms ”. Smile And actually you will find out-of-the-way toilets along the paths at regular intervals, but how to dig a 30cm deep hole with your hands in dry earth remains a mystery for the time being.

The hike itself turns out to be the first endurance test for the wind resistance of our jackets, because the closer we get to the “Laguna Torre”, the stronger and icy the wind blows around the ears with easy 80-90 km / h gusts. When we hike around the lagoon to another lookout point, it blows us almost from the relatively steep slope. But we arrive, but we can only enjoy the view of the mountains and the glacier for a short time, because we have to realize that Tobi has blown the spare battery out of our camera bag somewhere along the way. Even if it seems hopeless, on the way back we look for the gray battery in the gray gravel where we took photos and actually find it at the foot of the lagoon. Tobi happens to be on it …

Back at the car we unfortunately have to make sure that the car battery is empty because we forgot to turn off the light. Ufff … Thanks to a nice Argentinian and the jumper cable from Condor Campers, we are back on the steamer in a few minutes and are looking for a place to sleep. That should be easy, because the nice ranger gave us information about a free parking space. Here we are confronted with the other tourists, because there are 30 other campers. We are so scared that we go unsuccessfully to find other places, but we end up there again. In order to remain fair, one should say that it is the weekend and some Argentinians are also romping around on the pitch. Interestingly, we also see a number of European marks on the campers, including those from the Upper Allgäu. It seems to be quite popular to ship your camper to South America ..

The next day is raining and we are content with doing laundry, a short walk and a long visit to a café to plan our journey a little. We also find a super nice and delicious vegan restaurant for the evening, which we wanted to try out on our camping stove for a change from our usual cooking repertoire. And that in the Steak Mecca Argentina !!!

However, the evening will be a little bit exciting, because we are very hot to find that we are at the start of the section of the route where Danny (our van rental company) advised us to fill up with every possibility because of the sometimes long distances. Actually no problem, but the next three petrol stations only take cash and the only machine in El Chalten has some problem with our credit cards (or is just empty). The nice service in the restaurant increases the bill for a little cash, but that only goes to the next petrol station. This is a bit of a hot needle, but if necessary we have to stay in El Chalten a day longer and hope that the ATM will be refilled on Monday. After we have our laundry again (with an delay of about an hour), we try it at the ATM one last time and the last one now takes at least Kerstin’s card if we select “Savings” instead of “Credit”. Lucky again and we’ll take as much as we can Winking smile

On the last day of our stay in El Chalten the weather should be clear and we dare to climb the foot of the Fitz Roy. Although we start early, there is a lot going on and it takes time until we have made it past the slowest hiking groups, large families and sneaker wearers and can finally run a bit briskly and enjoy the view of the (still) cloud-free Fitz Roy. Then the last part of the climb begins and it has it all again. The total of 10 km to the foot of the mountain is divided into three parts: First it goes moderately uphill, then a long stretch straight and in the last kilometer a little more than 400m upwards. Here we feel like at Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand. Dozens of inexperienced hikers are slipping and stumbling upwards in a caravan step by step. But what to do and it is also worth it, because once again we find a breathtaking sight, even if a small cloud has now formed around the Fitz Roy, which will not resolve in the next one and a half hours of our stay. We still enjoy it and despite the bitterly cold gusts of wind at already negative temperatures anyway. Even if the descent strains our nerves again, we are completely satisfied.

That was the last longer stop in Argentina for the time being, because now we’re going back to Chile, which we take a little bit because of the almost 1000km …

Unser erster Blick auf den Fitz Roy

Start der Wanderung zur Laguna Torre

Laguna Torre

Glaciar Grande

ganz schön steil

 

der Wind weht uns fast um

Das Flussbett um El Chalten

hier gibt es wirklich viele Touristen

sorry, only google translate

When you travel through Patagonia, there are two things you cannot avoid and many of them fly so far for a few days to the south of the South American continent. We already had the Torres del Paine and the second one is so close that it is almost inevitably our next stop. The Perito Moreno glacier. Every climate change skeptic knows it and is therefore probably one of the few glaciers that even Donald Trump can find on a map. It is one of the few intact glaciers, has even grown over the past 150 years and moves up to 790m per year in the direction of its calving front. That is why it has to be used repeatedly as a “yes but” argument against the man-made global decline in glaciers (which is easy to disprove, but we don’t want to be too political here clip_image001).

For us, however, the glacier is actually interesting for another reason, namely that another of these “I’m standing in front of a kitschy canvas” moments is imminent. The way there leads us back to Argentina in El Calafate. A small town that actually only seems to exist for tourism. Since it is a bit of a drive despite only a few kilometers as the crow flies – and we still have to deal with our Argentinian SIM card for a while – we only arrive in El Calafate in the evening and spend the night on a quiet beach directly on Lake Argentino which the city is located.

After a short tour of the city the next morning, we decide to postpone the visit to the glacier until the next day, because bright sunshine is predicted. That is why we enjoy a quiet afternoon at Lago Roca in the Los Glaciares National Park, where the Perito Moreno Glacier is located.

The next day we arrive at the entrance to the national park at 8 a.m. to avoid the biggest tourist crowds – which are predicted for around 10:30 a.m. Unfortunately, the weather today lets us down, only sometimes the sun blows through the cloud cover, but the glacier still pulls us under its spell.

The Perito Moreno ends in Lake Argentino and due to some local geological and climatic peculiarities, the glacier ends relatively abruptly in front of a small island. In front of it, its end rises at a height of 40-70m and since it is squeezed by the mountains on the edge of the lake, it calves almost continuously and we see small and large chunks of ice falling away. The glacier and the island are only about 10-20m apart and the latter forms a kind of natural barrier, which is why the glacier has been producing ice continuously since its last permanent enlargement in the early 20th century, but its area and volume remain constant. Now one wonders how a small island can prevent a glacier from growing. Every few years the glacier grows up to the island and builds up the lake by up to 30m, this rise in water and the current in turn cause the lake to “eat” through the glacier, form a tunnel and cause it to collapse.

We are denied this phenomenon, but we can hardly see or hear the glacier and the constant sound of calving. Therefore, despite the less than optimal weather, we spend almost 6 hours on the trails along the island and watch the glacier. In the early afternoon it gets so full (and also cold) that we leave the sight and drive back to El Calafate. Again, however, for such a highlight in the high season we would have imagined the number of tourists to be much worse.

We will explore the Los Glaciares National Park even further, but further north and hiking is again the order of the day. But that’s another story …

Schlafplatz bei El Calafate

Der Lago Roca

Ein Carancho

 

Perito Moreno - ganz schon monströs

Wir kommen näher

Die Ausmaße sind einfach unbeschreiblich

 

Hier wächst er manchmal bis an die Insel

Nachdem sich das mit der Antarktis wie erwartet zerschlagen hatte, gingen wir zu unserem ursprünglichen Plan zurück und campten für 2 Nächte im Nationalpark “Tierra del Fuego”.

Im Touristenbüro von Ushuaia wurde uns aber noch eine Wanderung zu einem kleinen Gletscher “Glaciar Martialis” aufs Herz gelegt und nachdem wir relativ früh dran waren, nahmen wir diese einfach noch mit. Nicht nur wir hatten die “leichte” Wanderung mit 500 Höhenmetern ein wenig unterschätzt, denn einen Großteil des Höhenunterschieds legt man auf dem letzten Kilometer im Geröll zurück. Wir sind uns nicht ganz sicher, ob das wirklich Teil der Wanderung war, aber allzu viele Menschen verirrten sich nicht bis ganz nach oben direkt unter den Gletscher. Dort angekommen wurden wir dann auch erstmal enttäuscht, denn der Gletscher lag in tiefem Nebel versunken. Aber das Glück war diesmal auf unserer Seite und gerade als wir umkehren wollten, reist die Wolkendecke auf einmal auf und belohnt uns nicht nur mit einem herrlichen Blick auf den Gletscher, sondern auch mit einem tollen Blick ins Tal. Es ist wirklich fast wie immer alle sagen, das Wetter in Feuerland ändert sich alle 5 Minuten…

Da es nach der anschließenden Dusche in einer etwas heruntergekommenen Tankstelle (die anderen 3 YPF-Tankstellen die wir davor ausprobierten hatten keine Dusche ) doch etwas spät geworden ist, sind wir erst gegen 21 Uhr am Nationalpark und werden vom Ranger mit einem kostenlosen Eintritt belohnt. Auch nicht schlecht und nachdem es hier im südlichsten Süden noch bis locker 22:30 Uhr hell ist, ist die späte Stunde auch kein größeres Problem für ein gemütliches Abendessen im idyllischen Park neben einer Gänsefamilie.

Der nächste Tag sieht dann leider nicht ganz so rosig aus. Bis auf paar Sonnenstrahlen am Morgen bleibt uns die Sonne den ganzen Tag verwehrt und es regnet immer wieder leicht. Wir machen trotzdem ein paar leichte Wanderungen und genießen die Ruhe des Parks. Denn bis auf ein paar Hotspots, die von den geführten Touren angefahren werden, sind wir hier wirklich fast alleine.

Die tagsüber fehlende Sonne beschert uns dann eine bitterkalte Nacht mit (zumindest gefühlt) negativen Temperaturen und wir haben ein wenig Bammel, dass das Wetter auch am nächsten Tag nicht umschlägt. Denn wir wollen auf jeden Fall noch das wandertechnische Highlight des Parks bewältigen. Der Cerro Guanaco, 973m hoch und die Wanderung soll so schwer sein, dass man sich vor dem Loslaufen registrieren muss. Das klingt zwar nicht nach so viel, aber wir starten auf ca. 20m über dem Meeresspiegel und die Wanderung führt durch ein Moor und an einem Geröllhang entlang recht steil nach oben. Nasse Füße sind faktisch unausweichlich. Wir schaffen es trotzdem in 3 statt der angegebenen 4 Stunden nach oben und haben wieder Glück. Zwar reist morgendliche Wolkendecke nicht komplett auf, aber die Aussicht hat den Aufwand auf jeden Fall gelohnt. Insbesondere das Hinterland des Nationalparks ist wolkenfrei und erlaubt einen schönen Fernblick auf die Gletscher.

Zurück am Ausgangspunkt wird es dann noch richtig warm, denn mittlerweile haben sich auch die Wolken über Ushuaia verzogen und wir suchen uns für den Abend einen Parkplatz außerhalb des Parks aber auch außerhalb der Stadt. Denn letztere treibt uns nach unserer der langwierigen Suche nach einer Dusche zwei Tage zuvor nochmal zur Weißglut. Zwar schaffen wir es erst noch halbwegs unbeschadet durch die Einbahnstraßenhölle um unsere Wäsche in einer Wäscherei abzugeben. Dann aber quälen wir uns 2 Stunden erfolglos durch mehrere Supermärkte – die für unser deutsches Herz einfach vollkommen ineffizient sortiert und bedient werden – immer auf der Suche nach einer Gasflasche für unseren Campingkocher. Zu allem Überfluss hat der letzte Supermarkt dann einfach geschlossen und uns bleibt nicht anderes übrig als an einer Tankstelle teuren Nachschub zu besorgen.

Dementsprechend genervt genießen wir die schöne, warme und klare Nacht umso mehr und am nächsten Morgen sind sogar fast sämtliche Wolken verschwunden und wir verlängern unseren Aufenthalt spontan um eine weitere Wanderung zur Laguna Esmeralda. Hier ist zwar verglichen mit dem Nationalpark die Hölle los, aber es lohnt sich allemal. Danach geht es zurück Richtung Chile und zur Fähre zurück aufs Festland…