The next day we drove an hour or so north to a small town situated on Lago Lacar; I think we were experiencing a bit of scenery fatigue because even though the town was pretty but it didn’t seem amazing.

We were in the town for 4 nights Sunday through Thursday and we accomplished lots of school and work and we got back on the wagon with exercising, both Maddy and I did some running.  Julie also had several major melt downs; I had also reached my rope with her one of the days so I took the day off teaching and Maddy took over.  We also had an issue with our apartment booking trying to charge us the VAT tax which is exempt for travelers from the US, I ended up contacting the local tourism agency and was able to clear up the issue but not without quite a bit of aggravation.  We ate in our apartment most days during the week and had a mellow few days, spending our afternoons on the beach near our house.  The town seemed like it was a jump off point in the area for lots of rafting and fishing.  The last day we did venture out to Lago Lolog to get some sun and beach time, we found some great trees for climbing and the girls had lots of fun hanging upside down.

The next day all the girls lined up to pinch me for not wearing green, but I fooled them with a pair of green shorts, mah ha ha ha.  We did some good school in the morning, Caroline might even put a blog post up if she can finish her corrections.  Caroline, Mirabelle and I went out to lunch, Julie did not want to come, she was having a bit of a fit, so we all went to eat sushi, it was decent food and it was a fun to have lunch with two out of three girls.  After lunch we picked up Maddy and Julie and we heard there might be a climbing wall and a zip line at the ski resort nearby so we headed 10 min up the road.  Unfortunately is was pretty much a ghost town so we didn’t stay very long.

We all headed back to town because all needed to do some shopping for Caroline and my birthdays so we headed to Bariloche and walked around.  Caroline and I paired up and got mostly chocolates.  The shops mostly closed at 4:30 so we stopped and the most Irish looking restaurant and got some fries and green beer, Maddy and the other girls met up with us and we headed home.

The next day March 18^th, was Caroline’s 9^th and my 41^st birthdays.  I still believe that she is the best present I have ever and will ever receive.  Maddy and I promised Caroline that we had a special surprise for the morning so we took the girls to a giant Toboggan slide and teleferico ride.  Everybody loved it, although there wasn’t unlimited rides so we each took two, we then had to get home because we had scheduled for Caroline to get video calls from some of her friends back home.  We had lunch at home and then headed out for a boat ride at 2pm.

When we arrived at the harbor there was a huge line of people waiting for the big tour boat; we had chartered a small one for about the same prices; all the people in line were staring at us with these looks like where are they going and why didn’t we do that.  The boat ride was incredible, the weather was gorgeous and we really enjoyed puttering around the lakes for a while.  Our boat captain was an Argentine and showed us to a waterfall and several other inlets, there was basically nobody on the lake and the water was so crystal clear and blue and the scenery was amazing.  It was the perfect birthday gift.

When the boat ride was over we headed back to our house and had dinner and birthday cake.  One of our buddies Pejman that we met on the Carretera Austral was in town so I headed out to see him and grab a drink.  I also found out that Wisconsin had a huge upset over Villanova, the #1 team in the country.  Not a bad birthday at all.

During our travels we heard about Doug Tompkins and his wife Kristine Tompkins and the work they had done in preserving large swaths of Chilean Patagonia.  We also heard about the tragic death of Doug Tompkins on Lago General Gerrera in a kayak last year.  I thought about it when we were visiting the Marble Caves which, and we were struggling in rough water to get back to the port.  We had heard that they had planned to donate the land to the Country of Chile but Were delaying for political reasons.  So I was heartened when my mother sent us an article that on Wednesday March 15th, 2017 Kristine Tompkins donated 1 million acres of land under the condition that the country of Chile will reclassify 11 million acres of land for conservation.  What an amazing gift and how amazing that this woman was able to leverage the gift into 10 times the original gift.  Below is the link to the article from the BBC.  I would echo the sentiment that this is a great achievement to save these amazing lands for future generations.  I am saddened by the sentiment by certain groups of Americans who want to abuse our National Parks and conservation areas.  I have been to most of our major National Parks and they are the best of America and certainly worth fighting for.

Chilean Parks

After fixing the tire in El Bolson we sped out of town, it was a short trip to San Carlos de Bariloche which is the center of the Argentine Lakes region.  The town is well known for it’s chocolate and didn’t disappoint, we promised the girls that there would be chocolate shops on every corner, so driving into town they crabbed that there were lots of corners that didn’t have chocolate on them.  Once we got into the center of town there was as promised chocolate shops on every corner, we had to investigate at least a few of them right away.  The shops were had dazzling displays of a multitude of chocolates; they were usually mixed with fruits, nuts, or another sweet dessert like tiramisu.  It was interesting that there was a definite absence of dark chocolate and not much talk about cacao percentage, I know picky picky.

The town was located on a huge system of lakes that stretched for many kilometers into the mountains, the views were amazing.  There also seemed to be a Cerveceria or Brewery on every corner, lots of guilty pleasures to try.  We learned that the town is close to a ski hill just up the road so the area is an all year tourist mecca.  We settled into our Cabana which was owned by a nice Irish gentleman, how appropriate since St. Patrick’s day was only two days away.  We ate at home that night and enjoyed our terrace overlooking the lake, Que Rico.

The next day num num blegh school (sewas in session in the morning and went up one of the telefericos to the top of cerro campanario one of the nearby mountains.  The views were spectacular with nearly 360 degree views of the lakes area.  I took a time lapse of the ride down the teleferico which is posted on our youtube channel here:

We ate our lunch and started on the Ruta Chica a paved road through a spectacular lakes area south of Bariloche.  We stopped at the Llao Llao harbor to inquire about a boat ride for my birthday, then headed on our way, the views were great including a fancy hotel that looked like it was out of the sound of music or something, lots of Alps/swiss influence.  The kids were getting a bit punchy being in the car so so long so we stopped at a dinosaur nature park.  We had a Spanish guide but between his poor English, my poor Spanish and my healthy knowledge of dinosaurs we had a good time.  Julie didn’t like the guide so she and Maddy left early.

We then decided that we would stop at the Berliner Cerveceria and have a pint and some fries before there was an insurrection from the back seat.  The place had bruschetta, fries, beers and a playground, something for everyone.

We ate dinner at home again and spent the evening back home on our porch overlooking the lake.

We arrived in El Bolson around dinner time, our dinner time 5pm not the South American dinner time 7-11pm.  We checked in a day late but the place we booked was amazing overlooking the town with a pool, kitchen, grill and even a small stream nearby.  We were just happy to chill out somewhere and not go anywhere for two days.  We cooked at the house during our time, I cooked steaks on the grill and the girls seem to be liking the meat.  The next day we completed our schooling and Maddy caught up on work then we went out for a hike to Cascada Escondida, the kids seemed to be rebelling against hiking so we only did a small hike and then found a play ground and let them run wild for a bit. There were plenty of fruit trees around plumbs and rasberries so we collected a bunch to bring home.

We grabbed lunch and went down to the confluence of the two rivers that went through town, Rio Azul and Rio Quemquemtreu.  There was a metal bridge that we crossed and played around on the beach at the other side of the river, the rivers was a brilliant blue, hence Rio Azul.  The Argentinians seem to name their geography after the colors of said geography.  After walking through town we headed back to our cabana and the pool, it was warm enough and the pool was warmed from a solar heater so we all played in the water for a couple hours before starting dinner.  The kids were happy and exhausted and went to The next day we packed up and headed out to Bariloche.  Of course when we went to pack the car up we noticed that the tire was flat on the car, number 3 for the trip, with all the dirt roads I am surprised we haven’t had more.  We threw the spare on and got it fixed, with only minimal delay in town.

After an amazing couple hours in the park at Torres del Paine, we headed north crossed into Argentina without much trouble and drove north along Ruta 40 past El Calafate and El Chaiten.  We reached Tres Lagos and discovered that there was a barricade at the road going north.  There was no sign that the road was closed so we decided to drive around the barricades and continue.  We did see one vehicle coming south but it was a big 4×4 vehicle and after hitting the unpaved section of road we realized that we had made a mistake… the road was totally muddy and impassable with our van without large tires and four-wheel drive.  We reluctantly headed back south, we needed more money and Mira’s blanket was left in El Calafate so this seem like a logical place to go back to. 

We arrived in town and went back to our old rental, they didn’t have room but they did have Mira’s blanket which was a great relief.  We also figured out our old friend and hitch-hiker Rachel was in town.  We met up with her and chatted the night away; so fun meeting up with our traveling friends.  We did figure out that the Ruta 40 would not be opened anytime soon and so we were forced to back track all the way to Rio Gallegos before heading north along the coast road on the Atlantic side of Argentina.

After grumbling about this major detour we set our minds to the task and drove for our second and third days of 10 hour and nearly 700 km driving each day.  We stayed in Caleta Olivia on the first night and then made it to El Bolson only one day delayed.  We did drive 2,360 km (1,500 miles) and an extra 867 km (546 miles) out of the way, I had Caroline do the math for a school math question.  It was interesting to see the Atlantic coast in Patagonia, but the Argentine Steppe was otherwise flat and uninteresting. 

The van was very steady and did have any problems, we will likely get a break job and a tune up in Mendoza but otherwise the car is great!

The next morning we woke up and looked out the window like excited kids on Christmas morning as we knew it was supposed to be clear.  You couldn’t see a thing… everything was obscured by a thick fog bank.  It took a few minutes but we were able to see the top of the mountains and realized that it was a perfectly clear day other than fog.   We finished our breakfast and paid for the two nights stay with a credit card, we were happy they accepted cards because there was no place to get cash anywhere near the park.  We left the area near Rio Serrano and once our car climbed up onto the bluff and out of the river valley got our first views of the clear mountain range that we had been struggling to get views of. 

It was spectacular, the spires of Torres del Paine were out as well as volcano Reclus to the west and lots of other mountains in the distance.  We decided to drive through the park on our way out and took pictures at what seemed like every bend and curve in the road. 

We got some especially nice ones with the reflection over Lago Toro. 

We exited Chile for the last time without much trouble and headed north….

We set out for Torres del Paine in the morning and crossed the border from Argentina to Chile around lunch time without much incident except for having to wait in line.  The day was pretty gloomy and we weren’t able to see much of the mountains, we headed to the park and purchased our passes before heading to our cabana for the night.  We crossed the park to get to our cabana for the night and at one point we did just see part of the mountain peek out and we all went a bit crazy because it was so immense and beautiful. Even though we didn’t see much of the mountains there were lots of interesting rocks as we wound our way through the park as well a plenty of wildlife including the guanaco lama, an ostrich type bird called a Rhea, Armadillos and lots of different birds.  We did stop and take a hike to  a set of water falls in the park before we settled into our place on the south side of the park near Rio Serrano.  We got another small peak at the mountains before sunset.

The next morning we got up peaked out the window and got a pretty decent view of the mountains although still had some clouds.

A great start to the morning, with breakfast in our belly’s we set out on a hike to Mirador Glacier Gris.  The hike was nice with only minimal whining, we got to the view point just in time for the clouds to dissipate some.  The hike back was very muddy and we were beginning to understand why so many of the trails in the park were being closed down to hiking, it was wet and muddy.  The kids were slipping all over the place, with a bit of mud and water on our clothes we got to the our lunch spot at the hotel glacier gray and had a nice and expensive lunch.  Since there are not too many spots to buy food, and we had to eat most of our groceries before crossing the border we were stuck with eating out while in the park.  We did have enough energy to hit up another water fall before heading back to our cabana for dinner and an early to bed.

A bit more of the mountains were visible before we headed off to la la land.  One last morning in the park before we head north for the rest of our trip and out of Patagonia.

The next day was sunny from the time we woke up, we ate our continental breakfast at the hotel whick included poppyseed cake, dulce de leche and other treats, I think we finally realized the kids are probably getting too much sugar in the morning.  We set off for a hike to the Mirador Cerro Fitz Roy trail.  Our most difficult trail yet with the kids, 8 kilometers, the first half all up hill.  The hike started out with Julie having a huge fit over who got to wear mittens that were brought on the hike.  The rest of the girls took turns whining the rest of the way up the hill and we busted out bars and other food well before we thought necessary but it got us through.  We brought our lunch with us and the ranger suggested a loop at the top to a lake but we were lucky to get to the lookout point.  There were incredible views all the way up the trail of the Rio de las Vueltas and it’s respective river valley.

Then at the top the view of Cerro Fitz Roy was something to behold, worth all the whining and dragging the kids up the hill.  The way back down it was a bit easier but the sun went behinds some high clouds so the temperature dropped a few degrees.

As a reward for finishing the hike we all went and got some ice cream and got some well deserved ipad time.  We packed up our stuff and headed out for El Calafate the next day.

El Calafate

The drive to El Calafate was very easy, all paved roads, we picked up hitch-hikers as this seems to be our default these days.  We entered town and dropped our passengers off and headed off to our hosteria, which turned out to be a good deal for the town, the folks at the place were trying to get us to pay the VAT tax that Argentineans pay but foreigner are exempt from.  They finally relented and we got into our place.  We had a kitchen and living room with beds upstairs but the stairs tread would not meet standards in the U.S. and are a bit scary in the morning.

We ate lunch out in the town and it cost us nearly $100 for a basic lunch ouch, guess we will be eating in.  We grabbed some food at the grocery store and ate dinner at home after walking through town.  Although the El Calafate is very spread out and much larger than El Chalten the down town seemed more condensed into one area.  After dinner we identified a playground out near the shores of Lago Argentino, so we grabbed the kids and walked out with glass of wine in hand.  On our way out we ran into some folks that were staying in our previous hotel lodging.  They of course couldn’t have been nicer, they were drinking wine too and we chatted for a while before being dragged off by the kids to a very nice playground with one of the best that we seen.   The kids played for a while, Maddy chased them for a while and then I took over; we were having a great time until another kid punched Julie in the face, the boy apologized but we decided to leave.  I did go back out for groceries and caught an incredible sunset, just reminded me that we should be doing a better job of watching the orbital bodies in our sky.

The next day was clear-ish so we ventured out to the Puerto Moreno Glacier, the biggest attraction in this area, the glacier is pushing out of the mountains into a system of lakes.  We were able to approach the glacier from the opposite lake shore and got very close to the edge of the glacier.  The glacier was very active and you could routinely see calving of the of ice off the glacier.  When we were there many small bits came off which made spectacularly loud noises when they hit the water.  Overall the glacier was awesome and probably the largest and most active I have seen.

The glacier is also unique that it extends and retracts pinching off the lake from time to time, this can cause an icebridge to form and eventually when the water breaks through a flood of water comes racing between the two lakes but this only happens every 5-10 years.

The next day was a work and school day, the kids and I went to the glacier museum and learned lots about the history and formation of glacier in the area including a 3D movie.  The museum had a good warning about global warming and its effects on glaciers and other issues caused by warming temperatures.  It turned sunny in the afternoon and Maddy watched the kids after she was done with work so I got some time to wander the town after putting the kids to bed I met up with our friend Pejman from Casa Ludwig that night for a drink.  The next day it rained nearly from morning to night, another good day for working and schooling, we did manage to get out to the local natural history museum (museo – centro de interpretacion historica calafate; http://www.museocalafate.com.ar).  We braved the rain and had fun looking at the dinosaurs that inhabited this area of the world hundreds of millions of years ago, they also had a great exhibit on pre-historical man in the area, much of it was in Spanish so I had to continually remind the kids that humans and dinosaurs didn’t live at the same time.  The kids then reminded me that birds were descended from dinosaurs, they are too smart for their own good sometimes.  We packed up our apartment and set off for Torres del Paine the next day.

Heading into Argentina the landscape shifted dramatically, the mountains faded away and a vast arid plain was our landscape for the long drive to El Chalten.  We had mostly paved road for the drive except for 74 kilometers which seemed to go on forever.   Upon entering Argentina we traded the Carratera Austral for the Ruta Cuarente (40) a road famous for running the length of Argentina parallel to the Andes mountains.

Once we turned off Ruta Cuarente toward El Chalten we headed west toward the mountains, the view could not have been more dramatic rising over the Argentine plains growing bigger and bigger with each mile.

Unfortunately the spires of Cerro Fitz Roy were not visible on our approach but the remaining mountains and glaciers made for an amazing introduction.

We stayed at the Vertical Lodge along the river and a massive vertical wall on the other side of the river.  We didn’t have a kitchen so we ate out most nights which was rather expensive; Argentina is more expensive than Chile and Bolivia.  On our first night in Argentina I did treat myself to a rather large Argentinean steak as they are known for their beef.  The next morning it was still cloudy and rainy but we got out of the house and headed to Chorillo del Salto a waterfall just outside of town.

The hike was small but the kids seemed like they were aching to run around because they bounded up the hill ahead of us.  After the waterfall we drove further up the road and got more views of the cloudy Cerro Fitz Roy and several rainbows.  Maddy had a call so we went back to the hotel and finished our school, we concentrated on writing and all the girls wrote journal entries and reports.  Caroline was very interested in the Ozone layer after we mentioned it as the reason we needed to wear sunscreen this far south.  So she completed a report about the hole in the Ozone around the south pole and what caused it.

After completing our writing we went for a short hike and crossed the river over a quite rickety bridge and walked along the vertical wall, it was get starting to get sunny out for the first time since arriving in El Chalten so the views just kept improving.  We chased down lots of moths, picked flowers and had a great time in the sun.

We went back to our hotel to pick up Maddy and we went on another hike up to the Mirador del Condors and we finally got some spectacular views of the Cerro Fitz Roy pinnacles.  The hike was only two kilometers but it was uphill and I was so proud of all the girls for making it to the top.  The views were amazing.

Once we were finished we played on the playground in the middle of town, we met some Australian parents who had kids the same age so we had dinner with them and swapped stories of traveling with kids.

……..Unfortunately the wi-fi is not great in Patagonia, so uploading pictures has been painful.  Come back later for updated pictures.