Baths in Banos

Ive been in transit for a few days, first taking a night bus to Santiago.  In Santiago the most interesting thing that happened to me was a street performer decided to make me the butt of most of his jokes in his performance.  He seemed to enjoy picking on the foreigners in the crowd, it made me wish I understood more Spanish.  After spending one night in Santiago I flew to Quito, Ecuador yesterday.  Then the hostel didnt have my reservation and I had to leave today so I decided to get out of Quito since I had to switch hostels anyways.  Plus I really prefer smaller towns to big cities while travelling, and wanted to stop somewhere for a few days because constantly moving around is really tiring.  So I took the bus 3 hours to Banos. Unfortunately on the bus I had my first experience with things going wrong while travelling because my hiking boots were stolen from me.  Ive had tons of warnings about being careful with belongings while travelling in South America but I never figured somebody would just walk off the bus with my boots in hand.  I guess I got a bit complacent because I havent had any problems yet at all.  So that was kind of upsetting for me.  Things got a bit better though, I ended up meeting some locals here and hung out with them for the afternoon.  While I was sitting in the plaza a few guys asked me to take photos with them, they seemed to be entertained by taking photos with an obvious foreigner.  Then they were going swimming and invited me along so we went to a pool.  Banos is a spa town so there are a lot of swimming pools around.  I quickly realized though that I was the only girl in a pool full of Ecuadorian men.  Im definitely going to spend a few days here before making my way to the coast in search of a beach and surfing lessons.  Around Banos you can go canyoning and river rafting on the edges of the jungle, which Im excited to try!

Chiloe

Chiloe is an island off the coast of Chile, with its own very distinct culture and heritage.  Its a quiet place where its easy to spend a few lazy days.  The island historically survives off its major fishing industry and its really easy to get around by bus.  I spent the last couple of days here taking small buses around the island to see the parks, churches (there are over 100 on the island) and tiny little fishing villages where not much has changed in the past 100 years.  I wish I could spend more time here but I have to head to Santiago for my flight to Ecuador in a couple of days.  Im looking forward to some warm weather and sun there!

2 buses, 2 boats, 2 cars and 6 penguins

Today was one of those days that makes me love traveling so much.  I´ve definitely acquired good travel kharma somewhere along the line.  I left Coyhaique and took a bus to Puerto Aisen in preparation for a ferry up the coast of Chile.  When I arrived in Puerto Aisen I had no map or hotel and no idea where I was going.  Then a woman on the bus took pity on me and got the bus driver to drop me off on the road with the hostels in town.  As soon as I got off the bus I ran into an American couple I had met in Coyhaique and they directed me to their hostel, which was the cheapest in town (they had already checked them all out).  Then the lady who ran the hostel then took pity on me that evening when I asked her if I could use the kitchen to make soup for dinner and fed me cake and snacks in addition to making my soup for me.  She seemed really excited that I was from Canada and kept saying something about her son and Canada but I could barely understand her Chilean Spanish.

Then next morning I caught the bus to Puerto Chacabuco for my ferry ride with Navimag up the coast of Chile.  It reminded me so much of taking BC ferries as the scenery was almost the same.  We went through the maze of Chilean fjiords in the south and saw whales and even dolphins jumping alongside the boat!  We arrived in Puerto Montt (our final destination) at 5:30 am and were woken up by the ships horn.  At this point I was a bit worried because my plan was to catch a bus to Chiloe Island that day and I didn´t know when the bus station was open.  Then the American couple offered me a ride in their car to the bus station, which was open, and I caught a bus at 7am to Chiloe.

Apon arriving in Chiloe there was good luggage storage at the bus station, the first Ive seen in all of Chile, so I ditched my backpack and explored the town.  I wanted to go and see the penguins off the coast, so I caught a rural bus that was packed to the brim with people returning to their farms from the markets.  When I got off the bus I met a French girl who spoke perfect Spanish and we walked to the penguin beach together and caught a boat out to see the penguins!  There were penguins and lots of other birds including cormorants and sea otters.  Our guide for the penguins found us a ride back to town with a family travelling on the island, who then tookme to the bus station to pick up my backpack and gave us a ride to the next city that we were planning on going to.  I love it when things work out so perfectly, travelling in Chile is awesome.

Mountaineering Ben´s Camp and Hiking out (day 20)

This was our last long day of hiking, and we met up with the trip organizer Ben at the end of the day, who had hiked in to meet us. We were all pretty tired, but happy to see somebody from the outside world. At dinner that night Cece informed us that it had been daylight savings while we were hiking and so we had actually been getting up an hour before what time we thought it was. It was her trick to get us up earlier in the mountains. But then Ben told us that daylight savings had actually gone the other way and so really we had been getting up an hour later than we thought! At this point we realized we had to get up at what we thought was 4am (actually 5am) to be hiking by 7am the next day and all promptly went to bed.

The next day we hiked out in the morning, then packrafted across a river and walked across the second to reach the trailhead. Packrafts are small personal rafts that just you and your pack sit on, and then you float down a river. The second river crossing froze my feet and my legs, with water up to our thighs. But then we reached the car and celebrated with fresh oranges to eat! Finishing the trip and bringing ourselves back into the real world was a bit bizarre. I finally realized how badly I smelt, and how dirty I was. You just stop caring and noticing stuff like that after a few days in the mountains. We joyfully put on cotton clothes and running shoes, which felt inredibly light on our feet after days of mountaineering boots. And then went for a giant steak dinner!

´We do not deceive ourselves that we are engaging in an activity that is anything but debilitating, dangerous, euphoric, kinesthetic, expensive, frivolous, economically useless and totally without redeeming social significance.  One should not probe for deeper meaning´ – a mountaineer

Mountaineering Windy Camp (day 19)

The hardest day of the trip so far.  We hike up and up and up over a mountain pass, which is supposed to be along an easy cow trail.  But the trail is covered in 4 feet of snow so we have to navigate by looking for tree cuttings, and thinking like a Gaucho (Chilean cattle farmer).  This works pretty well until we get up to the top of the pass and Cece starts talking about setting up ropes for us to prussik up to get over the pass.  This ensues a conversation about how the hell do the cows prussik over the pass anyways …

We finally make it to the top of the pass, at this point I am the most exhausted I have been for the trip.  I felt as if either my legs would give out on me with each step, or the intense winds would blow me over.  But we had to keep going as we were descending through an avalanche zone and couldn´t stop.  I felt as if I was drunkenly weaving my way down the pass because each gust of wind would knock me to the side, until we finally reached the bottom.  It took 7 hours to go up and over the pass, and I was completely exhausted by the end of it.  We camped that night in the windiest campsite we had, again tying everything down to every tree and rock available.

Mountaineering Cow Camp (day 18)

We postholed our way through a river valley on a gorgeous clear day so we finally got to see the views around us.  Part way through the postholing Amanda decided it would be easier to walk in the river rather than in the snow beside it, and eventually we all had to get our feet wet crossing the river.  We all crossed the river and then looked back and realized that poor Nigel who still had dry feet at this point was staring at the water, he had serious issues with getting his feet wet.  After this the worst postholing of the trip occured and we attempted to drag our packs instead so we would punch through the snow less, but this didn´t work so well and the entire group got really frustrated.  At this point I started to experience what is known as the screaming barfies – when your frozen feet start to get feeling back into them and are intensely painful.  The idea is that its so painful you want to scream and barf at the same time.  This was probably the hardest moment of the trip for me because I just wanted to keep walking to try and get my feet warm but was getting stuck in the snow with every second step.  Eventually Cece forced me to stop and warm up my feet by sticking them on her tummy.

Finally we reached camp and discovered the cow trail we were to follow for the next few days out of the mountains!  I have never been so happy in my life to see cow poop.

Mountaineering Invisible Glacier Camp (day 17)

We pitch camp at the base of a lake by the invisible glacier.  The next morning we have to start out early because we must cross below a morraine wall to actually get to the glacier and it is only safe in the morning because all the rocks are frozen to the wall and less likely to come tumbling down on us.  More fun with walking on snow covered morraine ensues.  When we finally reach the invisible glacier and begin roping up the sun comes out! Nigel starts performing ritualistic praying to the sun gods and we all joyfully break out the sun screen.  Walking roped up across the glacier was really cool.  Its a challenge to keep things moving safely and at a good pace for everybody, but a neat experience.

Mountaineering Snowy Camp (day 15-16)

We wake up to discover our tents have survived the storm but are covered in a foot of snow.  They are dug out and the morning spent drinking tea and reading until we begin our day of learning snow skills!  Self arrest and walking roped up are practised in preparation for the next day when we are to cross the invisible glacier, which is snow covered and thus has the added danger of people punching through snow into hidden crevasses.  It continues to snow all day long …

We wake up the next day and are completely snowed in again, with a couple of feet on our tents.  Any footprints in the snow are covered up after an hour due to snowfall and we have to dig out our water source each morning and punch through the ice.  After a half day of sitting around doing nothing the leaders decide its not going to get any better and so we should move camp despite the snowstorm.

  Earlier in the trip when we had been complaining about how hard walking on morrain was Cece and Jeff had joked that at least it wasn´t as bad as walking snow covered morraine … and we would never see that!  So began our descent of the snow covered morraine wall down to the invisible glacier.  This was the hardest terrain by far.  You cant see where youre putting our foot because all the rocks are covered by snow, and the boulders underneath are unstable and liable to move on you.  Cece fell badly at one point while scouting and seriously scraped up her face.  When we finally reached the bottom of the wall we were all really relieved.

Mountaineering Bonsai Camp (day 13-14)

We move to Bonsai camp, apon arrival the guides ask us if we want to push on to the rappel station of make camp.  We are already wet and feel like we can keep going but the guides decide a rest would be good and so we make camp.  Myself, Holly and Amanda have tea time in the tent all afternoon since it is pouring rain, writing a letter to our trip organizers (mountaineering feedback letter) and making a birthday card for our guide Jeff.  When I return to my tent that evening I discover that the stream that was a few feet away is now 1 foot away from the tent.  Im too tired to do anything about it though so I go to bed hoping for the best.

We wake up to a repeat of Squelch camp, its very wet underfoot.  Our guides take off to find the rappel station and return in the early afternoon telling us to prepare for a day of ´bad-ass mountaineering´.  We posthole up Mt. Wank into winds that could easily blow you off your feet, this is the first time in the trip I actually feel scared-due to the heavy winds.  We reach the rappel station and in the pouring rain with super strong winds all around we rappel 40m down a cliff face.  While at the base of the rappel Amanda and I realize that Holly is verging on hypothermia as she declares to us ´I cant feel my legs!´ and we frantically set up a tent and start boiling water for her while the leaders set up a zip line for our backpacks.  When Cece gets to the bottom she informs us there is a huge storm coming and our ridge top campsite is badly exposed so we tie our tents down to every tree available and hope for the best.  That evening was spent coming in and out of sleep as the winds whipped around our tent, hoping they hadnt ripped up any of our anchors.

Mountaineering Squelch Camp (day 11 – 13)

Day 11 of the trip we moved to what we called Squelch Camp and our guides called Amazing View Camp.  They had seen an amazing view of Mt San Valentin from it but by the time we got there the clouds had rolled in.  Getting to Squelch camp involved our first experience with prussicking up fixed ropes on steep slopes, and bushwacking through the forest.  As well as our first snow!  (which we were excited about, little did we know how much snow was to come).  I woke up sick the day we moved to this camp, carrying a 40 pound pack with a head cold over sketchy morraine is definitly a ´character building´ experience.  Ive come to dislike that phrase after this trip …

Squelch camp day 2 we did a forward carry of gear up the ridge we were camped on.  This was our first bad weather day, which really affected people´s spirits.  It was wet and windy and there was lots of snow, which meant lots of bad postholing.  Or at least what seemed like bad postholing at the time.  Little did we know what the weather had in store for us.