On my way back home I spent a couple of days with my friends in London. Since I was living in close proximity to the museums in South Kensington, I decided to take a brief look at these world-class exhibitions on Saturday afternoon.

Firstly, I popped into Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A in short) and focused my full attention to the hall of photography (allow me to remind you that the collection of V&A holds over 500.000 images, which makes it one of the largest and most important photography archives in the world). Half of the showroom was devoted to an atypical subject of camera-less photography. But for me traditional annual photography exhibition was even more interesting. Among a fine selection of some 30 works it featured two sets of images (comprising of 4 photos each!) by Lithuanian photographers Aleksandras Macijauskas and Indre Serpytyte! Wow! I was totally flabbergasted!

Afterwards I paid a visit (quite misleading English idiom, as the entrance to the museum is free) to the Science Museum on the other side of Exhibition Road. Among famous artifacts of our civilization (including original Apollo 10 spacecraft command module, real spitfire fighter-plane, and other fascinating relics of moden history) I was happy to find a copy of Nick Ut’s Leica M2 camera, which was used to take Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs of the horrors of Vietnam War. Maybe the V-Lux 2 will be on display here some day? ;)

On my flight back to Santiago I have accidentally came across several appealing lines in a free travel guide Get South: “Valparaiso… is a charming town of historical architecture built on 45 steep hills that look out onto the Pacific Ocean.” I also got to know that Valparaiso boasts a system of ancient funicular elevators (now protected by UNESCO) and a reputation of being a place for painters, poets, and dreamers. What is more, this unusual metropolis is just 1,5 hour drive away from Santiago! Just enough time to spend the last evening in the South! On the other hand, Valparaiso is said to be amongst more dangerous locales in Chile (Wikitravel), so I was advised several times to hide my fancy camera away and avoid walking alone even in daytime. I took these advices seriously, but could not resist taking a few shots for you! ;)

“How can I photograph such a big chunk of ice?!” – I though to myself even before reaching John Gardner pass in Torres del Paine national park. From there I started a full-day trek along the magnificent Grey Glacier. Together with previously featured glaciers Viedma and Perito Moreno, Glaciar Grey constitutes to just one finger of the Southern Patagonian ice field, which  is renowned as the second largest contiguous extra-polar extent of ice (ice field) in the world!. So it is big… and absolutely stunning! Both from micro and macro perspectives! ;)

And so, we did it all. We walked the full Circuit of Torres of Paine national park, which undoubtedly is one of the most spectacular places on Earth! In less than eight days we hiked 130 kilometres of Andean deserts, Magellenic forests, Patagonian hillsides and wetlands. Oh, and we had more than 20kg packs on our backs (we weighted them at the beginning of the trip) – that was the price for ability to walk independently (besides, accommodation and food cost gold in the private campsites of the park).

Although March is considered a low-season with worse-than-average weather conditions (that can be extreme at times) in Torres del Paine, for us the weather was close to perfect. Indeed, it was changing at least three times per day, usually starting gloomy and ending very windy. But we had just a few rain showers and just enough sun to burn our faces. :)

Perhaps the weather was more challenging for our photographic ambitions than our bodies. Surely, the overcast sky made the scenery more dramatic, but it was also very difficult to balance between such sharp contrasts. Furthermore, clouds stole away the anticipated purple sunrise over Torres del Paine (three needle-like peaks) and crimson sunset over Cuernos del Paine (Horns of Paine – varied shape toothy peaks with dark brown caps)!!! Oh well… The overall experience reinforces my deep belief that Torres del Paine national park deserves more than one visit in a lifetime! ;)

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We also brought a few adventure stories from the trip. Certainly, the most remarkable incident happened on March 4th, when we were half-way on our trek. Upon reaching the camping site Las Guardas, we were informed by other visitors that the forest at Glaciar Grey lookout was on fire! The situation was seriously dangerous, since the place was just metres away from the campsite. Needless to say that in dry and windy conditions the fire could spread very quickly and cause terrible disaster to this natural monument. Hence for an hour or so we were running breathlessly up-and-down together with other 20 people (guides and ordinary park visitors), bringing water right to the burning spot. We used a 30 litre drybag that Paulius took along by accident, which helped all of us a lot. I did not take even one photo on the accident, since were working hard until the fire was completely extinguished. Afterwards we shot a couple of panoramas from the saved Mirador (eng. lookout) and went down to Refugio Grey. We bought a litre of 4x overpriced wine there and walked another couple of kilometres to camp and celebrate our deed.

Puerto Natales greeted me with a lot of surprises. First, I was invited to stay with Albornoz family that appears to be the most active member of CouchSurfing society in town. These friendly people host a lot of travellers from all over the world and treat them as family members. I was the first Lithuanian in their house, so the family was really excited. But to our mutual surprise, none of them spoke English! So, for the rest of the evening we were communicating with the help of gestures, dictionaries, and google translator. Muy complicado! :)

Today I woke up to the sound of rain pouring on the roof of my new home. Hence the plan to climb Dorothea hill for panorama shots of the region failed. After a lazy morning the weather cleared up a bit, so I spend the most of the day wandering around in Puerto Natales. My first impression was true. It is a very colourful city. Besides overwhelming industry servicing Torres del Paine visitors, it has maintained a spirit of a small harbour. The town also features a lot of really big cars (old Fords, Chevrolets, Dodges and Toyotas) and packs of dogs running free in the streets (some of them actually have owners, but are allowed to run free).

Since the only museum in town was closed on Sunday, I visited municipal cemetery instead. Surprise surprise! The cemetery was as colourful, as the town itself. To my greater surprise, when asked to show the most beautiful spot for the vistas of the town, a boy from my new family brought me to the cemetery again (the house is just behind the cemetery wall). But this time we were walking on the tombstones instead of pathways! I can only hope that god understands the importance of unique sunset shot or I will burn in hell for ages… ;)

At the end of the day I learned that my old friend Paulius from Lithuania is also arriving to Puerto Natales for Torres trek tomorrow. I haven’t seen him for so many years and now we meet at the other end of the world! Wow! Despite rather sad weather forecasts (clouds and rain showers pretty much all of the time for a week to come), we are prepared to walk the Circuit trek around the whole national park. It will take us some good 8 days, so I will update my blog when I get back.

Hasta luego amigos!

P.S. Some of the photos below are shot using HDR setting on my Leica V-Lux 2. In my opinion this feature works great when you have sharp contrasts, e.g. in intense sunset light.

A good traveller has no fixed plans, said a philosopher of ancient China.

Yesterday I did not leave El Calafate, since the bus to Puerto Natales was fully booked upon my arrival to the bus terminal. Hitch-hiking for 2,5 hours did not help to move any closer to Chile. So, I came back to camping El Ovejero for another night.

I left early in the morning for a 5-hour ride to Puerto Natales. Looking at the stamps in my passport I understood I am entering Chile for the third time in this trip (although I have never been to South America before!). :)

Puerto Natales used to be a tiny fishing village established on the shores of Seno Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope Sound). The water here is a bit salty, as the ocean is so close. In recent times, however, the town does not see a lot of fishermen or sailors. It is now packed with tourists from all over the world that come here for trekking in Torres del Paine national park, which is commonly referred to as the most beautiful trek or just TREK #1 in Patagonia.

Although originally I was planning to go back to Santiago right away, after spending a couple of hours here I understood that I cannot leave this colourful and cosmopolitan town without bringing home the best views of Patagonia. So I am staying here to prepare myself for Torres del Paine trek.

As the night approaches, I still have to find a place to sleep. Hence I am leaving you with just a few grim photos of a Puerto Natales church clock. I believe these snaps will contrast a lot with the views to come. ;)

It appears that Glaciar Moreno is well guarded, day and night, hence sneaking in before sunrise did not work for us. Hence we developed another plan to save money – pay for one person instead of two. That meant that I had to hide myself in a little locker at the back of Dan’s jeep… The locker was indeed very very small – at first I did not believe there’s enough height for my head alone! But after some acrobatic tricks I managed to get into that little space… and we got into the park for 25 USD only.

I must admit, glacier Perito Moreno is something everyone should see once in his or her lifetime… It is an enormous sea of ice, roaring and throwing massive chunks of ice into Lago Argentino just in front of all spectators. This view grabs attention for hours just like a good action movie! I’d just recommend to do this when you’re old, fat and rich, unless you enjoy riding in small spaces on bumpy Argentinean roads. :)

Afterwards we went on a hike to 1268m high Cerro Cristal. The sign kindly informed that we should be prepared for a 4 hour rugged walk up to the peak, but we were there in less than 2 hours. We had enough training in El Chalten, of course, doing six-hour-long trips in 4 hours or less. Although it was extremely windy on the summit, we observed striking panorama, overseeing everything from Torres del Paine to Glacier Moreno under our feet.

We spend an evening in free campground at the shores of Lago Roca and came back to El Calafate early in the morning today. Now Dan goes for the so-called “most beautiful road in the world” in Chilean Patagonia, and I leave on an evening bus to Puerto Natales (also in Chile) in hope to get on a plane to Santiago soon.

Don’t cry for me Argentina! I am coming back shortly! ;)

Haven’t got any news from me for a while? So, here’s the story! ;)

In El Calafate it’s all about the famous Perito Moreno glacier, which is a must-see for all travelers in Patagonia. Locally referred to as Glaciar Moreno, this glacier is 30km long, 5km wide and 60m high. What makes it exceptional? Despite the climate change, when absolute majority of glaciers is receding, Glaciar Moreno is actually expanding – up to two meters per day – causing huge icebergs to fall into Lago Argentino in front of a crowd of spectators packed on a terrace at Peninsula de Magellanes. However, this comes with a price tag. For an opportunity to visit the Parque National los Glaciares (80km away from El Calafate) and stare at the glacier for a couple of hours with no less than 100 best friends one has to pay 200 Argentinean pesos (approx. 50 USD). This was not an option for a traveler like me, hence I went looking for other ways to get to the park.

I have contacted a couple of persons from CouchSurfing, went to the office of the National Park (but my fake International Press Card did not impress them at all), and started thinking of hitch-hiking closer to the glacier. At that time I ran into a dude at car parking of the camping. After a couple of words I’ve got to know that Dan is also thinking of getting to Glaciar Moreno, but beforehand he wants to do some hiking in El Chalten – a unique and symbolic place for any climber. What is more – Dan had a jeep, I mean, a REAL JEEP, and he did not mind if I come along with him. How cool is that?!

It appears that Dan has been driving his jeep for 1,5 years from Alaska to Ushuaia (check his amazing blog at www.theroadchoseme.com). He lived in “into the wild” bus in Alaska, hosted a hostel in Ecuador, climbed Cotopaxi volcano, and done a lot of other things on his way, so we had a lot of talk for the days to come. And so we started with a 5-day hike in El Chalten.

El Chalten, located 220km from El Calafate, is a new village artificially created in 1985 to claim Argentinean land rights from Chile. It has only 600 of inhabitants, yet thousands of people from all over the world come there because of two reasons: the toothy summits of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. I’ve seen so many movies and read so many scary stories about climbing these notorious peaks that I was filled with anxiety to see those peaks with my own eyes. We were lucky to get to the village in so-called “brecha”, the weather window, because most of the time these peaks hide themselves in clouds (Fitz Roy’s original name is “smoking mountain” or a “mountain of fire”). So we packed our tents, sleeping bags, food for a few days and went to explore the other national park of Argentina.

I must admit that it was one of the most tiresome and also one of the most enjoyable treks I’ve ever taken. We hiked almost every trail in the park, visiting Laguna Torre guarded by the impressive Cerro Torre, Laguna del Los Tres with climbers high above on Fitz Roy, Piedra de Blancas hanging glacier and much more. Excluding the first day, we were walking no less than 10 hours a day (one day I got up at 4 a.m. and went for sleep at 11 p.m. only) in order to grab the most of this unforgettable experience. For the last couple of days we chose an ultimate challenge to see the Viedma glacier from the Pass of the Winds, which involved not only ridiculously big distances and elevation changes, but also a crossing of extremely cold knee-deep glacier river (Rio Fitz Roy) without any shoes.

It got cloudy during the last couple of days of our trip, so we decided to go back to El Calafate for rest. Given good luck and good weather we will visit Glaciar Moreno soon. “Impossible is nothing” reads Dan’s worn-out T-shirt, so at least we will try.

After a 4-hour ride I reached El Calafate. Got to the camping place with my new amigos and fell asleep.

Usually it takes 13 hours to reach Rio Gallegos from Ushuaia by bus (if it does not break down). For a hitch-hiker like me, it took 27 hours, including a night in a tent near Rio Grande (in between the Atlantic ocean and highway #3). I came to Rio Gallegos bus terminal just in time to catch a (delayed) bus to El Calafate, my next point of destination.