Frutillar - time to discover the German roots in Chile

Jo together with some goose on the campground in Frutillar.

What is an "extremes Bier"?

Eva in front of the Lago Llanquihue. In the background you can see the Vulcano Osorno.

Nice German houses.

Kuchen was everywhere!

We didn´t know that Tom Hanks is a member of the "Bayern Fanclub Küps".

Ruta 40 - A bus on the wrong way on Patagonias dirt roads

Should a normal big bus drive on those roads???? We believe not...

But after more than 24 hours in the bus we arrived finally in Chile.



Around El Chalten

The next day started with an impressive moon corona.

And the sunrise in El Chalten.

And the Mount Fitzroy was really spectecular during the sunrise.

:-) It was worth to get up so early.

The next days we were (of course) trekking around the Mount Fitzroy and had a lot of fun.

But to have fun was necessary, as the weather was again not the best.

But the landscape was pretty even with bad weather.

The "rio el bosque" valley that leads to Villa O´Higgins in Chile.

Effi´s Birthday in El Chalten

After the this glacier highlight we went on to El Chalten and "celebrated" Effi´s birthday. Celebrating is a little bit hard within the lent. So no sweets, no alcohol, no coffee. But it was time for an important present... 

... an appointment at the hairdresser. Time for change!

In the afternoon we were hiking a little bit and had a great view of the Fitzroy massif.

In the evening we had a little party with some doggy guests.

Happy birthday Effi!!!!!!!

Great, greater, Glaciar Perito Moreno

After the Torres del Paine Nationalpark we travelled again over the border to El Calafate. On the campground in El Calafate we met again a Dutch couple that we met a couple of days ago: Ynska and Bas. So we decided to have dinner together and cooked spaghetti bolognese. Bas was struggling with the big amount of pasta sauce. 

Ynska, Jo and Bas.

Together with our two Dutch friends we visited the next day the Glaciar Perito Moreno. One of the most fascinating glaciers and one of the last expanding glaciers in the world.

And we were lucky again and saw a rainbow over the glacier.

The height above the waterlevel of the Lago Argentina is around 70m and below the waterlevel the thickness of the ice is another 100m. In total the glacier covers an area of 250km².

Only three days ago the "icebridge" colapsed. That happens on average only every 5 years. In wintertime the glacier will expand and possibly built a new "bridge",

We decided to join a hiking tour over the glacier. That was pretty touristy but it was worth to join the crowd!

The 400 year old ice tasted very good!

We can´t find any words for the following pics... So just enjoy it.

The next highlight - Torres del Paine - Part V

On our last day we went on a little bit further to get better views of the Glaciar Grey.

Big, bigger, Glaciar Grey!

It was breathtaking and bizarre!

Even better with a small rainbow.

Without any words!!!

But also the wildflowers were great.

Joemul (that name comes from Huemul) admires the burnt trees. 

And finally after 5 days and 96kms hiking we took the ferry over Lago Pehoe back to the bus:

Our conclusion: Torres del Paine is a "Hiking Circus" but it´s worth to go there! Especially the overwhelming "Glaciar Grey" is worth the effort.

The next highlight - Torres del Paine - Part IV

With best weather we started our fourth day. Our destination was the Glaciar Grey.

Lago Pehue.

Here you can see what happens if someone tries to burn his toilet paper... A big area of the nationalpark is burned down. We were hiking for about 15kms through a burnt landscape.

Anyway, Eva was very, very happy at the beginning of the day. After 23kms she wasn´t smiling anymore.

Sharing our lunch at Lago Pehoe.

Rock art in Chile.

And then... The biggest WOW experience within the last days: The Glaciar Grey! It is a part of the Southern Icefield in Patagonia. Only this glacier has a length of about 50kms. Imagine a glacier from Kronach to Bamberg!

More impressions in the next post.