...and then there were two...

In the states, summer seems to be marked by the giant S'mores displays in the grocery stores. In Cochrane it is marked by the popsicle delivery at the local store. Everywhere we looked- Popsicles!! We had definitely walked out of winter and into summer. Hard to believe we were in waist deep snow a few days before. As the thick of summer approaches, we can't wait to bathe in these glacial rivers and will soon be swearing off the extra weight of our down pants/jacket and thermals.

Semi-healed after a few days in Cochrane, we were back on the road! As you probably know from Trinity's uber long adventure, her bright pink reebok-type sneakers gave her giant blisters and she left Sarah and I while we began our trek through Conservacion Patagonica, Valle Chacabuco, Reserva Nacional Lago Jeinimeni and Chile Chico. As Trinity mentioned, Doug Tompkins (owner of The North Face) has started another project here in Chile regarding the national parks- Conservacion Patagonica. The idea is to remove all traces of the previous ranchers in Valle Chacabuco and turn it into a national park, thereby connecting Reserva Tamango and Reserva Jeinimeni. Fellow travellers had told us this was a beautiful valley, but the trails were still "in the works". Sarah and I headed down the canyon and assumed we would stumble onto the trail at some point. Alas, with over ten years of regrowth and minimal use we realized we were not going to be able to follow the old "cattle trail" and started forging our own path.

The natural history is hard to ignore when looking out over these valleys. You can easily see how the plates shifted, where the erosion has been the greatest and how the regrowth has begun on top of the boulders. The stones in the wide valley floor look like they are covered in corral and range from emerald to purple to burnt orange to robin's egg blue, evident that we are walking on land that used to be filled with water. Luckily, Sarah kept me on track so that I didn't spend all day staring at rocks.

Our trail varied between a faint cattle trail, bushwacking through throny bushes, boulder hopping, navigating through dense forrest or hiking for hours in flipflops down the middle of the canyon and crossing the river every 20 feet. At the birth of the river there are so many veins it seemed impossible to choose a good path- but local guides told us if you know where to go, it is possible to cut them down from 14 to 4. We eventually stumbled upon cairns (rock piles) which led us finally to a legit trail around the cliff-lined lakes, back to a road and on to Chile Chico. We took the ferry across Lago General Carrera to Puerto Ibáñez and hiked to the 10-house "town" of Villa Cerro Castillo with plans to meet Trinity on Thursday. A couple days to get a bit of reading done! We just keep saying "it always works out in the end."

Highs:

-Getting to the first lookout over the valley to have lunch and being able to see for miles

-Eating fresh spinach out of the greenhouse at the Estancia Chacobuco

-Seeing herds of guanacos numbering 50+

-Swatting at horseflies and being able to kill 3 in one blow (there were seriously a ton of horseflies...)

-The temperature outside is hot enough now that we sometimes look forward to river crossings

-The rocks in the valley and their wide variety
-Waking up in the middle of the night to a sky full of stars and an orange glow from another full moon rising over the patagonia peaks... really breathtaking.

-Lago Jeneimeni, as blue as the sky (maybe even more blue), framed by gorgeous rock faces

-Actually getting a good night sleep on the road in a nook among thorn bushes to snuggle up

-Meeting some French travellers and attempting to "go out" on a Saturday night in Chile Chico (NOTE: if you guys read this we are sorry we never said goodbye! We thought for sure you would make it on the ferry!)
-Paying for a family's dinner via credit card in a restaurant in order to get a little bit of cash

-Being able to pay for the hostel by buying the señora groceries with our Visas (we are getting very creative)

-Seeing puma tracks

Lows:

-Seeing puma tracks... while bushwacking in the woods, realizing my knife was in the bottom of my pack and Trinity had taken the pepper spray

-Discovering all the various types of pokey bushes

-Lacking a good night sleep on the road: one night we were on big rocks, another on lumpy/pokey bushes, another on sand with tons of wind...etc

-Waking up at 6:30am sweating and having to get out of the tent...
-Crossing a waist deep river which knocked me off balance and stole my flipflops, even after swimming downstream after them I exited the river soaked and one short of a pair

-Going to bed at night with the buzz of horseflies ringing in our heads from constantly swarming us all day, they might drive us insane by the end of summer (supposedly they are only going to get worse)

-Arriving in yet another, and another, and another town that has no ATM that accepts Visa

-Missing our trecera amiga, Trinity, as she battled her own adventure on the road

Guanacos are not nearly as skiddish in Chacabuco as they had been in Tierra del Fuego

Enjoying lunch with a view, the wind up here kept the horseflies away!

Amazing canyon showing the power of water

Sarah navigating through pokey bushes

One of the many gorgeous waterfalls

LOVE these rocks! Just a couple examples...

We call this one "African Sunset"

My brother called me his "crazy sister wandering through the woods in South America"- this pic is for you Ry

Cairns! Not that it is hard to find your way down this wide valley but still good to see...

Lago Verde or Lago Jeinimeni... not sure, but beautiful all the same!

Reserva Nacional Lago Jeinimeni

Happy to see "a road"

Sarah showing off her Parisian pastry skills to the Frenchies

On our 35km hike from Pto Ibánez to Villa Cerro Castillo (that is Cerro Castillo, the peak)

Our nook! Too windy to actually set up the tent, so we just cuddled up on the tarp

We look forward to spending Christmas with other "holiday orphans" at the NOLS Patagonia headquarters and maybe even a night in a hotel! After Coyhaique we have quite a bit of ground to cover to get to Bariloche for mid January, where I will fly to my brother's wedding and Sarah and Trinity will be one short of our threesome yet again...