Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego is “the land of fire” our adventure for today. But I will start with yesterday when we hiked to Glacier Martial. We thought there were minivans to the base of the glacier hike but that was not the case so we took a taxi (about $9 from the center of town-you can just wave one down and say “glacier”). The taxi dropped us off at the chairlift (which isn’t running) and trailhead. We started hiking and it started to snow. The irony that I was complaining about the heat four days ago is not lost on me.

We hiked through the flurries uphill about 3km to the base of the glacier.  The glacier itself was nothing special but the views of the surunding peaks and the bay below were stunning. It took almost 2 hours roundtrip, a nice little workout.

After the hike, we tried to go to a cafe with better wifi, but that was a bust. I heard from a German girl at our hostel that wifi goes out in the whole town sometimes.

We had a chill evening cooking pasta at the hostel and trying some local beers (Beagle Blonde for Rich and Cape Horn Pale Ale for me). Eating out is pricy so we’re trying to mix it up. I doubt I will become a better cook on this trip. I am getting better at lighting a gas stove with a match though.

Today we took the 9 am minibus from the corner of Maipo and Fadul to Tierra del Fuego national park. We got off at the Esmerelda campground stop (first stop after paying the 170 peso entrance fee) and did a 5 mile hike around the bay and through the forest. We saw a fox at the campground which was pretty awesome.

After the hike we ate the sandwiches we brought by a lake and did a few shorter hikes around Lago Lapataia to viewpoints, past lakes and to a beaver dam (about another 3 miles in all). We saw a bigger fox close up and watched a rather disturbing equine sexual molestation (for a very scary moment,  I thought Rich was going to get trampled- he’s fine though, I promise Nancy). We saw ducks, cormorants, and other birds on our hikes before we took the 3 pm bus back to town. We’re getting ourselves in shape for our 4 day trek in Torres del Paine next week.

Tomorrow we head to Punta Arenas, Chile on a 12 hour bus ride. Country #2 coming up- but we’ll be back in Argentina in a couple weeks.