Date of Entry: February 5th 2016

Date of Writing:  March 12th 2016, Hostal 53 Sur, Punta Arenas, Chile

After an amazing day hiking in Tierra Del Fuego National Park with Henrike and David i spend the next morning frantically getting ready for Antarctica, a place to which I’m leaving on the next morning.  Buying Seasickness pills, a buff to protect from the harsh winds of the world’s southernmost continent, sunglasses, and several other extra last minute things.  Before heading back to Cruz Del Sur hostel, which has excellent facilities but a startling amount of rules, to do some last minute internet business before organizing a shuttle to Laguna Esmerealda at 2:45 pm for myself, Henrike and David who are busy doing the half day hike up to Glaciar Martial.  The shuttle costs 170 ARS roundtrip and gives you 5 hours to walk and explore the area around Laguna Esmeralda.  Hitchhiking is also a very easy option to get here as there is lots of traffic on the road.

Henrike and David make it back just in time and we hurry into the shuttle which is driven by a fascinating older man who moved to Patagonia from Buenos Aires and spent several years living in the wild before finally coming back to Ushuaia and starting up this business.  We chat away the ride and I get the impression that Glaciar Martial is very much worth the half day it takes, though I won’t have the chance to do it.

We’re dropped off at Laguna Esmeralda at about 3:15 and head out of the parking lot and down into a wonderfully beautiful forest full of twisted thin tree trunks topped by rich green canopies, the trail winding through this forest for the first 15 or 20 minutes before emerging to a stunning pen grass land with beaver damned rivers and stunning mountain views all around us.  Once again Henrike helps me with the photos.

We continue onwards through this open grassland approaching the sections of beaver damns creating miniature lakes from the glacial streams flowing down out of the looming mountains above.  One silly Argentinean man is damaging them trying to walk across and gets more than a little soaked more than a few times as we watch him.

We continue along the path and head back up into another section of un-destroyed forest.  For those who don’t know beavers were first imported to Patagonia from north america with a plan to breed them for their fur. It turned out though that the weather here was not cold enough and the beavers fur adapted and became less thick, making it worthless.When this happened they released the beavers who bred like crazy and are now something of a plague in Patagonia, evident everywhere from the countless felled trees.

The forest is a rich green landscape the trees a little bigger in this section and the ground a muddy mess of dirt and gnarled routes.  The walk itself is pretty easy with only a few significant sections of harsh uphill.  Together we ascend towards this mountain emerald and joke and talk as we go, making the uphills seem more difficult than they should be.  Im going to miss this two when I head to Antarctica.

We eventually come out of the forest again higher up and closer to the lake, following a now rushing brook up higher into the mountains and towards the small glacier which looms over the lake. Everywhere you look you find impressive mountain peaks looming over verdant green landscapes and I’m again reminded of just how beautiful Patagonia is.  People who’ve hiked extensively here tend to dismiss this little day walk but I think they’re utter fools.  We discuss the bit and I do find it startling how many people seem to carry with them an attitude of I’ve seen something vaguely similar that’s more beautiful so I can’t appreciate the incredible beauty of this place.  In the end I guess I’m just infinitely glad that my mind doesn’t seem to work that way.

We feel like we must be almost there over and over again but there is a collection of false fronts and it takes a while before we climb high enough up to finally get our first glimpse of the emerald green glacial waters of Laguna Esmeralda.  We meet a couple of other german guys and I quickly find myself wishing I spoke more than a few strange words of German, though they do all speak english to a ridiculous level.  Coming from an english speaking country I think we don’t have the same number of people who are fluent in a second language, and it’s too bad.  Still once we climb up over the hill and see the lake all regrets are forgotten and the incredible colours of this little lagoon nestled into multi coloured mountain peaks and glaciers takes all my attention.

We immediately head down to the lake, by passing a few fantastic raised viewpoints and David and I get ready to try to swim while Henrike sits down and again has more sense than the two of us, instead eating some snacks and enjoying the beautiful serenity of this place without feeling the ned to subject herself to the cold.  Intelligent?  Perhaps.  But I can’t make myself regret my stupid swims. They’re too much fun.

David and I wade into the icy cold waters together and find out that at least on this side of the lake, it’s not ideal for swimming. the bottom is soft and slippery mud dotted with rocks roughly the size of my head, and you can walk a good 50 meters without it ever getting deeper than your thigh, then at some point out in the lake there is a sudden drop off which can cause problems.  So if you are swimming here, proceed with caution, and I do recommend walking around to the other side of the lake to do it if you have the time.  Still, we don’t and we have lots of fun posing for pictures, some stranger than others.

We stay in quite a while and both make two trips for photos, though when we discover just how tough it can be to get out with any speed in the slippery uneven terrain I sort of wish I’d just stayed in longer the first time.  Oh well lesson learned, and Henrike displays impressive patience taking lots and lots of photos of us in this beautiful lake.

My attempt at a baywatch walk. Pretty poor.

As we’re getting redressed David remember’s  to do his handstand pose at the edge of the lake and I takeover the camera duties from Henrike.

As the Germans talk in german I fade back and climb up to some of the viewpoints and also take a walk along the beach wishing we had time left to walk around the lake or even up to the glacier which adds about two hours to the walk there and back, sadly it’s not to be.  Still the views of this place are amazing and I watch a few brave souls try to follow our example and go swimming with varying rates of success.

Eventually I rejoin my friends with an eye on the time to hustle them along the way, but we’re not so pressed for time that we don’t get some photos with the three of us.  This is the last day for the three of us to do much together and that’s very sad for me, and perhaps a grand celebration for them.  Or maybe they’e not sick of me yet ;).

We then hurry along on the path back towards the car park aware that we’ve spent a little too much time up at the lake and moving at a good clip, luckily most of the hike bike is a gentle downhill making speed easier to come by.

Getting back we find the van waiting for us and climb back in riding back to Ushuaia as quickly as we can snapping some pictures of the town from above and then spending a long night at the hostel watching tv, talking, looking at all our photos and saying goodbye. The next morning I meet my new friends and see them off on their early morning bus bound for Punta Arenas before continuing along to the sailboat port in Ushuaia and climbing aboard the Spirit of Sydney for what is going to be a truly incredible month to come.  Get ready the next blog entry begins with my journey to Antarctica.