From the Lagos de los Andes and the Atlantic coast of Argentina to.. Chile!!

Hola Todos !

Vous commenciez a perdre espoir, mais nous revoila! On est toujours vivant, et on a desormais change de pays... Un petit coucou a tous donc de Santiago au Chili! Beaucoup s´est passe depuis notre dernier petit commentaire.

I have to switch in english... for those who don´t fully understand, you can use google translation to get a brief overview of what we say! But don´t worry, we may be able to write soon in spanish :)). It will be much more understandable!

After the wonderful landscapes of the region of los lagos, we crossed Argentina all the way to the east side to go to Trelew (famous for its welsh population), from where we rented a car to go to Punta Tombo. There was the biggest colony of Magellanic Pinguins. It was like a big lake of black and white heads, hidden in the steppe or walking slowly to the sea to get some fresh food. This small animals are so cute, the way there are standing there, like they didn´t even hear you... It walks so slowly by moving its entire body and seems to make so much effort to put a foot in front of the other that you woud like to help it by taking it and throwing it at the sea :). When you get closer to them, they let you know that they don't like it by rotating their head by almost 180 degres. Well, I won't start to describe you the lifestyle of the pinguins. I'm not on a naturalist discovering trip afterall.

We went then to the Peninsula Valdes with 2 very nice israelis we met at the hostel. The wildlife in and around this peninsula is impressive. We saw there animals that I never remember the names, but the pics will speak. After sea lions, sea elephants and pinguins again, we saw, for the first time orcas, like small points away close to the shore. We missed the great show of the Orcas coming on the beach to feed with babies sea elephant.

But of course, all this was so intense and so exhausting that we needed some rest :). So we headed to Mendoza to take some holidays of holidays. We have been there wonderfully welcomed by Amance´s friend (special thanks to Rocio & her so sweet family and group of friends). We really loved the people and the atmosphere of this so-called Hostel by its hosts.

We felt so well there that it was hard to leave. Mendoza being the capital of Argentinian wine, we visited also a famous vinery (Rutini), with, I must say a fantastic guide (Rocio, if you read this...). And before I leave the Mendoza section, I need to thank Rocio again! After she blamed Amance several times for being nasty when he wakes up, I saw a huge improvement !! And we say that we can´t change people!! I don´t believe it anymore, or at least that Amance is not influenced by girls I guess!! :).

But every vacation has an end (woops, I already imagine people getting angry by reading that :)) and so we left for Santiago. After a wonderfull trip by bus through the Andes, we joined our favorite british trek mate (Kat, thank you for the delicious chocolate cake, which was uncomparable with the other one which stayed for maybe a week on the table;)) we met at Torres del Paine (see post of march 22). And here we go, we find ourselves in an appartment that looks like an hostel as well, everybody being so nice and friendly with us (special thanks to Kat and the real inhabitants of the apartment ;)). A day after we arrived, we were joined by my friend Julien from London who´s going to stay for 2 weeks with us.

Oh, I almost forgot! You thought that I was done with Skydiving?? You don´t know me... As Santiago is maybe the last city where we can skydive before Brazil, I had to to go... So, I started to call the few places aroung Santiago, and surprisingly, discovered that most people were telling me (yes, in espanol!!) that they had no plane available for the week end. All this until I got the Chilean federation of Paracaidismo to find out that... (No, why I am saying that!!!!!??) there was an accident last week (from what I was told, 2 skydivers opened their parachute a bit too close...), so the dropzones are closed until they find out what happened...). Well... no comment... :((

And I know that everybody´s worrying for my knee, so I´m glad to say that after thinking of being urgently rapatriated to France (and by taking with me lots of Patagonian Chocolates to increase my chances of surviving), all is back to normal now :).

Next step, the wonderful city of Valparaiso on the Pacific ocean before reaching el Norte Chico de Chile, one of the best place of the world for observatories as the sky is pure and almost without clouds all the year round. We´ll then head to the famous deserts and volcanos of El Norte Grande de Chile and Argentina.

Enorme Abrazo,
Amancio y Matthiaso

Les petits princes...

(Don´t worry, English is below)

Ayant et allant croiser les itineraires de St Exupery, et non par sursaut identitaire, je me permets de debuter cet article avec quelques mots de francais। On ne discute pas c'est comme ca. Pouf pouf.

Pour commencer, s'il vous plait, une photo du mont Fitz Roy flanque des monts Mermoz et Saint Exupery, entre autres... Les Argentins nous faisantl'honneur de conserver les noms de nos illustres pionniers de l'Aeropostale, nous ne pouvions nous empecher de fanfarronner un tantinet au premier plan...

Apres ce dense passage en Patagonie, nous remontons donc dans la region argentine des lacs ou nous nous trouvons actuellement (plus exactement a SanCarlos de Bariloche et San Martin de Los Andes) region aux splendides paysages, reconnue pour ses chalets, ses etendues de lacs et de monts verdoyants...
Notre prochain point de chute se situera sur la cote Atlantique de l'Argentine : La peninsule Valdes. Peninsule dont la cavite Nord a, pour la petite histoire, inspire St Exupery pour le dessin de son serpent mangeur d'elephant, aux airs de chapeau. A vous de le constater sur une carte. Je dis c'est fou, n'est-il pas ??
Nous rejoindrons ensuite Mendoza et ses vignobles, en bons fils d'ivrognes. Petit clin d'oeil a nos peres autant qu'a nos pairs...
Voila pour les nouvelles francaises et avant que ca tourne en ode a la francophonie...

let's go on in English!!! Where were we??
Yes!! Chile, Torres Del Paine, and then El calafate (at least a crack every 30 minutes).
Next we headed to El Chalten (" mountain which smokes"), kind of far west village still under construction, with warmy places and genuine atmosphere. Between two "smoking sessions", we had a chance to approach the Cerro Fitz Roy and enjoy the wonderful autumn colour range, a couple of condors and of course vagaries of climate!
After three days we decided to leave to the North, following the "Ruta 40", to Bariloche. Lakes, mountains, pine trees, chocolates, cycling, "SaintBernard" dogs, are we back in the Alps ??? We are currently still enjoying these amazing sceneries from San Martin De Los Andes, more pictures to come...

The last but not the least, I've heard of some George Lucas related comments in last Matthias' article. Let's keep up with the good metaphors through what is becoming your weekly "web serial":"Matthias and Chewbacca across South America".

Indeed, I omissed to mention Matthias had (hopefully) found some other occupations, which roughly consisted in bothering me with pointless suggestions (such as skydiving or going to the haidresser's in South America...). He is now totally focused on his knee which used to ache 10 days ago. Did not know he was that hypocondriachal. Thus it involves a brand new time schedule for him: half of the timewrapping with annoyance a fabric around his knee, the other half complaining and limping around. I had a flash then: "Il Cattivo" Wallash following "Il buono" Eastwood and "Il Brutto" Van Cleef in the desert, begging for water and support. THE nickname was found: that'll be TUCO, especially when Matt remains unshaved a few days long!!!

That's all folks!! I've nothing else to declare so far (except Matthias´eagerness to add comments on the next update)... As you asked us to, we'll try to upload more pictures on the website. Moreover if you want to come even closer you can join us a few weeks without any problem.You are welcome on board, we will have some support from London next week and it will be a pleasure to share our adventures!! Looking forward to reading you on the blog.

Hasta pronto chicos!!

Amancio "Chew" De Los Lagos y Matthiasso "Tuco" De La Pampa

On Darwin's footsteps...

Hi everyone, we'll leave tomorrow to Puerto Natales which is the main access to "el Parque Nacional des Torres Del Paine". ¡Ole!

We enjoyed three exciting days here in Ushuaia, the "fin del mundo" as they say: first real trek to a glacier, discovering "el Parque Nacional de La Tierra Del Fuego" (¡Ole! Otra vez), one day trip sailing on the Beagle Channel, swimming in a six celsius degrees water with a diving suit defying any astronaut's equipments...The fauna and the wildlife is quite impressive: wild and CLEAN islands, beaches and water, many species of small (and bigger) furry animals (such as sea lions, which actually sleep and snore as Matthias does at night, so that you can have a significant benchmark...). We understand how Darwin developped his theory of evolution after spending 4 years in South America, starting by Tierra Del Fuego.

Then let's consider serious stuff and what interests you at most: how is getting our friendship living together 24/h ?? Well, we figured we could still be friends after the trip, if no murder occurs by then;)). Matthias speaks about skydiving about half of the time, and the over half is dedicated to his overbreathing my own oxygen. Moreover, regarding your repeated attacks about my reluctance as far as skydiving is concerned, I'd quote Redmood who used to say "Courage is not absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something is more important than fear" and we've got much to do here... Anyway I'm eager to share that feeling of free diving with any other novice when back in Europe (Let's go OB1??)

Hasta luego everyone, we have to get ready for tomorrow!!!

Pour ceux qui nous demandent du francais: on se la tchave du bout du monde, les pingouins ca va cinq minutes mais on prefere les sequoia de Torres Del Paine. Trop dure la vie. A part, on s entends toujours bien, meme si l idee de passer Matthias par dessus bord ne m as pas ete etrangere aujourd hui (idee a priori partagee par Matthias, qui voulait de toute facon sauter a la mer). A plus pour de prochaines aventures et pleins de bises pour les intimes ;)

Amancio y Matthiaso

Leaving Buenos Aires... to the South of the World

Hola hola!

That´s it. After 5 days in Buenos Aires, we are leaving tonight to the south. When I say south, it´s the very south!! We are heading to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire for those who don´t speak spanish, like us :((). Of course, there´s many things to visit there, so we´ll tell you later. We don´t even know where we´ll sleep once arrived!

Our plan is then to head north slowly, mostly on the west side, crossing back and forth the border Argentina-Chile. There are so many amazing things to do there (on foot, bike, car, parachute??). Btw I still need to convince Amance to do his first jump. Any suggestion on how to convince him?? (he wants me to mention that it´s in South America. Don´t see the point!!)

And I forgot, on our way back to the north, we´ll have stop in Santiago, from where we can fly to Easter Island! All these are just projections. The way we´are going to do it and when remains a mystery ;)

Oh, and about Buenos Aires. This city is very very nice. Some people made us discover the nightlife (thank you German y Caroline y Benoit), from the delicous meat (My favorite is a combinaçion of Bife de Chorizo y Bife de Lomo) to the Tango parties... First thing when I come back. Tango lessons! Yesterday, we went to Tigre, a delta in the north of Buenos Aires. People live on islands, and need to take a local ferry boat to access their casa. We talked to children who are taking the boat everyday to come back to their island from the school. This city is just amazing (might consider buying a house there one day :)).


Some pics will come soon!

First step: Buenos Aires!!

Though I am said to be a convinced blog opponent, I could not have refused Matthias' invitation to write the first words from Argentina !!!

Thus, a few words from Buenos Aires where we landed on last Monday. Sun, heat, "chicas bombas" at each street corner: we enjoy every single minute our staying in this definetely latine city. However it must be borne in mind this is just the beginning...

We will share our first (art) pictures in a few days and we will commumicate our next step then. Do not hesitate to post any comments by then, we strongly expect them.

¡Hasta luego!
Matthiaso y Amancio.