Jäämeri - Arctic Ocean

After staying put in one place for a month we felt the need to get moving once more, this time heading for a 3000km road trip to the northest north of Scandinavia, the Arctic Ocean or Jäämeri as it's known in Finland. We set up on the road on a perfect Monday morning with the sun already high up in the sky. The first stop was in Kauhajoki at the idyllic country setting of my friend Aino's 'cabin', which in reality is an old country house that has belonged to her family for generations.

As we arrived to this Finnish country scene we were greeted with fields of oat and barley growing around the house, along with cows, horses and dogs pottering around. After a tour of the house and property, we accompanied Aino for the daily task of fetching fresh milk from the working farm next door. There we got to get a real peak into the country life, feeling like complete city slickers, watching the cows getting milked and seeing a new born calf. Back at Aino's there was a feast of traditional Finnish food waiting for us: Spinach Soup, Viili (a kind of fermented yoghurt), mushroom sauce from self picked wild mushrooms, blueberry pie from self picked berries etc. yumminess!! We stayed enjoying this country life for two nights before hitting the road again.

So back on the road we started what was to be the main activity of our next six days: drive. We hadn't quite planned the trip, rather just jumped in the car with the destination in mind, but we didn't actually realise quite how far we had to go. The driving wasn't so much what got to us, but the price of petrol which kept rising higher along with our nordic route the higher we got. Oh well, we were on the way already and didn't want to give up, so we kep on...driving.

The route we took followed the west coast of Finland up to Tornio, a city which neighbours Sweden so close, that the street signs point you either to Finland or Sweden depending on weather you're turning right or left, interesting. From there we kept following the eastern boarder of Finland all the way up to Kilpisjärvi, the most northern point of Finland in the east. All along the road from Tornio upwards, we had to keep our eyes out for spotting raindeer that roam on the roads and do not respect give way rules...they cause hundreds of accidents each year along with elks, so it was really a matter of driving slower and training your eye to see them as they blend in with th colour of the road, looking more like a shadow from far away than a real life santa's helper!

We had slept in the car each night, but in Kilpisjärvi we decided we were in desperate need of a shower so we decided to pitch the tent at a camp ground on the bottom of the Saana Fell (hill), one of the tallest in Finnish Lapland, which we conquered the next day before crossing the boarder to Norway. The night was everything but tranquil despite the amazing setting, with a not so lovely group of people right next door... Still, tired and cranky, the next morning we headed up Saana and the view from the top of the hill was a beautiful mix of bare hills and lakes dotted along between them.

So after a bit of hiking we crossed the boarder and drove to our real destination for this trip, the Arctic Ocean. The coast was surprisingly close after the boarder crossing, and it made me wonder why we couldn't have a piece of this amazing scenery of clear blue water from which fjords rise to their mighty snowy peaks on the Finnish side? The scenery was truly beautiful and was highlighted by a glipse of dolphins swimming by as we were rinsing our dishes after a lunch break!

The road which we followed on the Norweigan side took us along the coast the whole way to a city of Alta, from where we cut inland to cross back to Finland just above Enontekiö. The scenery along this road was absolutely amazing, so amazing in fact that it was hard at times to keep your eyes on the road... We found great spots to sleep along the way, right on the coast with nobody in sight, the incredible lighness of the nights keeping us awake (it was still dusk at 1am!!), and the early morning sun waking us not long after we'd fallen asleep. Before we did head inland though, we had to take a dip in the 'Jäämeri=Ice Sea' which is named so for a reason we can confirm!

Back on the Finnish side we camped in the car on the shores of peaceful lakes, our first stop which turned out to be a gold mine of Lakka (Cloudberry), the most tasty berry which grows only in Lapland and is usually hard to find. There we were in the middle of a field of them where you could've collected buckets full! We were happy, however, with just a few wee boxes that we happened to have on us and left the rest for the locals to collect.

After 3000km and hours and hours of driving, we found ourselves back in Helsinki a week after we set off, tired but happy to have had the chance to make yet another amazing journey. Though I do think we will be happy to stay put for a bit longer this time...

Buenos Aires

Our journey through the wonders of South America has reached its end, the last of it which we have spent in the city that never sleeps...(although we´ve caught it having a nap every now and again). We arrived back to Buenos Aires last thursday night on a boat across the Rio de la Plata from Uruguay. The night had already settled upon the city and it was beautiful floating across the water with the lights of Buenos Aires guiding our way. It had been a long day of travelling though, as we made our way from Punta del Diablo all the way in one day and when we reached a hostel and a bed we were out just like that.

The next morning we woke up to the not so tranquil sound of the busy road outisde our window - a complete opposite of where we´d just spent the last week and a bit, but it was great. We were ready for some city life, and were lucky enough to get a room with a wee balcony where we could spy on the life of the city.

There is so much to do and see in Buenos Aires that even now it feels like we´ve only seen a fraction of it. We have spent our days wondering the busy streets of the center, the not so busy streets of the historical San Telmo where our hostel is, marvelling at the amazing art in various museums and art galleries, shopping to our hearts content in the fashion central of Palermo, spending hours on the many markets of the city admiring crafts and antiques, splashing out and hitting some nice restaraunts and bars, relaxing in the parks and gardens, eating, sipping wine, and to some it up: walking.

The time has flown past and it feels weird to pack our bags for the last time for a bit...at the same time we are happy to settle somewhere for a while. Our journey through all these amazing countries has been truly a great one and I feel lucky that we have had the chance to do this. We have met some of the nicests people, and some not so nice, witnessed true happiness and complete misery, visited some of the most amazing and beautiful places, and most importantly been able to take glimpse at the culture and life of the people.

Now it is time to say goodbye, but we know we will be back one day...

Adios

Uruguay

After about a month of freezing Patagonian winter we decided to make a move up north in hopes fo encountering some warmer weather. We had a quick stop in both Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires before leaping across the river to Uruguay, where we have now spent just over a week.

From Buenos Aires we took a ferry to Colonia del Sacramiento, a beautiful old city of narrow cobblestone streets, low houses with worn paint that shows the passing of time, and plazas surrounded by citrus trees - a picture perfect wee town in other words. Since we arrived on Sunday when the towns in these parts are almost completely shut down as the day is reserved for religion and family, we spent our day just walking around and enjoying the sun.

The next morning we hopped into a rackedy old bus towards the capital, Montevideo. There we found ourselves a nice wee hostel just out of the center, which had the most amazing supermarket around the corner. Sounds lame, I know, but after months of travelling and eating the same old pasta and rice with white bread and not being able to find a lot of things it was like heaven walking to this supermarket that had just about everything you could imagine! After an amazing luch we went to explore the ciudad vieja, which was nice but didn´t quite compare to the perfection of Colonia. Back by the hostel we stumbled upon a market where we spent a few hours admiring the local crafts.

The next day we were on the go yet again, this time on our way to Punta del Diablo, a very small town on the coast of Uruguay near the Brasilian border. When we arrived the darkness of the night had already settled over the town, and with no street lights it was just about pitch black. Not so smartly, we hadn´t really found out where the hostel was, but we did know there was only one here open during winter. With no people around it was impossible to ask direction, so we decided to head towards the beach hoping that we would stumble upon the hostel, which luckily we did only after about 10minutes of wondering in the dark.

Stepping into the hostel was like stepping into another world, here we were thinking we´d be just about the only people staying here in tranquility, but instead stepped into what seemed like a raging party in a packed hostel! Turned out though that the hostel is also the only pub open here over winter, so it was packed with locals having a few beers and getting roudy. Luckily that turned out to be the biggest night of the week and we have been able to enjoy a bit of tranquility as well.

We have spent almost a week here now, and don´t seem to feel like moving. For once we actually feel like we are on holiday, waking up late to a perfect sunny day each day, and doing not much at all but reading a book in a hammock, strolling on the beach or fishing (unsuccessfully unfortunately...). Brett has been enjoying the surf which has been good just about every day as well, though the water is freeeeezing as I discovered after one day of practising my rusty skills and loosing my breath in the icy water - will wait to be in warmer waters for more practise, I don´t know how the boys do it!

I think we will find ourselves wondering around the dirt streets of this town for a few more days before we head back to the complete opposite of Buenos Aires with its busy streets and millions of people where we will spend our last week in South America.

Bariloche

After all the whale spotting on the coast we headed towards the mountains in hopes for snow, but arriving to Bariloche and seeing the mountain tops with merely a few patches of the white stuff quickly wiped away our dreams of champagne powder. The weather was cold, but nowhere cold enough for snow, so instead of snowboarding we decided to go for a hike to a refugio, ironically so near the skifield that the trek started from the base of the same mountain.

The hike was pretty easy, and probably not the most exciting, untill we got closer to the refugio which lies by a frozen lagoon hugged by mountains all around. But that´s not all - you could rent ice skates at the refugio and go skating on the lagoon!! We were out there like two children for hours untill the darkness started to set upon us and we had to give our toes a rest. The ice was perfectly smooth and with nobody else on this amazing ice skating rink surrounded by mountains we felt pretty spoilt, once again.

The following day we returned to Bariloche where we ended up spending a week just relaxing and visiting a few sites.

Photos

We have uploaded more photos to flickr. You can click on the links on the side bar to view these...

Puerto Madryn

Whales was what we went to see. Whales is what we saw. It was ridiculous.

If some one said theres a place in the world where ther is literally hundreds of whales splashing around in a harbour like seagulls amongst the yaughts and boats, we wouldnt have beleived them.

BUt this is what puerto madryn is for the months of june to september, we were treated to this amazing display of southern right whales and orcas along with sea lions and the freakist looking sea elephants.

On the first night there we decided to stroll down and get an ice cream in 12 degrees as you do in Argentina (where ice cream is the best in the world), the lady at our hostel said are you going whale spotting, in a joking way, and we thought she WAS joking.. until i spotted some whales immediately, and petra thought i was being stupid, until i made us woalk down to the city wharf, and oooh look 2 metres away where like 3 whales having a bit of adult time right there in the water..

the next day we rented a car with an aussie couple that we met along the way, and it was a great couple of days. we rented a cabin in Puerto Piramides, a tiny town on the Valdes Peninsula, days were spent doing burn outs in the rental VW gol, cooking blues cheese pasta sauce, minus mushrooms, which are impossible to find somtimes, drinking the finest cask wine in the world (NZ$1.50 per litre .75 euro cents) spotting marine life, and me getting all scientific reading what it said in the brochures, and signs.

High light of the trip was forget the whales, magestic sea giants, when we spotted/ almost ran over in the rental an armadillo, which i have been searching for since the far north of argentina!!!! I must say it didnt vanish into the sand in 5 seconds like the signs said. Similar to a seal diving into water?!

Patagonia

Patagonia truly is a world of its own. We have seen some of the most amazing things in our travel in just a few weeks here.

As we arrived to Puerto Natales the sky was grey, a drizzle of icy rain was falling on us and there was literally nobody around. We wondered the deserted streets in search for accomodation, which didn´t seem so hard as pretty much every second house was a hostel, hospedaje, hotel etc. - but at this time of the year we found most of them closed. After a while we did manage to find a warm place to put our bags down and settle for the next few days.

The plan was to hike around Paque National Torres del Paine, but after counting upthe cost of staying in the refugios along the trail (a total rip of!!!) and considering the weather which was meant to clear, then get worse for the rest of the week we decided to - crindgingly - to take a tour for one day instead...But, it turned out to be possibly one of the best decions of our trip with quarter of the price we got to see all the sights and more importantly sit inside a warm van... Sounds lame, but as we got to the park the cold we thought we had already got a bit used to intensified by god knows how many degrees - and more importantly the wind, oh the wind...it was howling frozen air at us at around the speed of 90km per hour, just unbeleivable. As we stopped to do a 30min ´hike´, two local ladies in the bus told us to watch out for the ´dangerous wind´ - we had wee giggle and headed up the track, yes it was a bit windy but we felt pretty confident.

Well, around the corner we experienced what they were talking about...the wind was something we could´ve never imagined, we had to literally hold on to each other to be able to keep walking forward, which we did pretty much horizontally. The wind blew right through us and stuck to our bones with a coldness impossible to get rid of for the rest of the day. Gosh were we glad we did not decide to hike for four days in that!!

Torres del Paine ( or ´Pain as we were refering to it after a while...) was definately a place worth seeing, although the wind was something I would not be hoping to experience again.. Unfortunately the day we were there the mountains were hidden most of the day behind dark, moody clouds, but their gloomy presence was still truly something worth witnessing. Arriving back to Puerto Natales, frozen to the bone, we decided to head to El Calafate the next morning ready to wave goodbye to Chile for now.

Arriving to El Calafate was like stepping into yet another world. The sun was shining, it was warm, we got a hostel for half the price of Chile and walked around the supermarket in awe of all the good food that was now affordable to us - we were so happy to back in Argentina! On the down side we had forgotten how hard anything to do with banks, post, information etc. was here. Despite the fact that we were only a few hours from the Chilean border it was almost impossible to exchange Chilean pesos - which we couldn´t do untill the third day there when we got to the only exchange place that accepted them at the right time (ie. not too early - pre 10am, not during siesta 12-4pm, or not too late after 5pm)and changed our chilenos at a shocking rate, but what do you do...

From El Calafate we visited the famous Perito Moreno glacier - which I wasn´t really that excited about to be honest, but which turned out to be one of my favourite places. The glacier was like a living, moving piece of art. It was bitterly cold (well we were right infront of a glacier in the winter) with a wall of icy air hovering around the huge mass of ice infront of us, but that didn´t keep us from marvelling at it for a few hours on end. The face of the glacier rises to the height of 50feet, and it is constantly braking away from pieces the size of a snowball to its huge towers - and speaking of which...we were standing infront of the glacier with the camera set perfectly, ready snap a postcard shot of the breaking ice in mid air for about an hour untill the cold finally got the better of us and reluctantly we put the camera away and turned to walk away when - you guessed it - two of the huge towers right in the middle of the face of the glacier went crashing down creating a thunderous noise and a few foot high waves in the lake infront of it...a few swearwords might have escaped from our frozen lips...

The next step of discovering Patagonia for us was the small settlement of El Chalten, tucked into a valley with the Fitzroy or Chalten mountain watching over it. This was a cute mountain village with log cabins, St. Berhards, a mouth watering bakery and most importantly of course - amazing scenery and walks.

From here we were able to do some amazing day hikes, which we got to enjoy in perfect sunny - though very very cold - weather. The first day we did only a short 2h walk to a waterfall near the town, but the next two days were really the ones to remeber - the first of which was to the Fitzroy itself, a tough climb but oh so rewarding when you got to the top and had the whole mountain range open up infront of your eyes. We were also lucky enough to spot condors and woodpeckers on our way up before we got to a lake which was completely frozen with the mountain standing at the other end of it. There was nobody else around and we got to enjoy it in complete serenity, well untill Brett couldn´t resist the temptation and had to start chucking rocks on the ice to try and break it...what do they say about boys again? Well, it was truly beautiful.

The next morning we set out for yet another trek, this time to the other side of the Fizroy range and to a frozen lagoon which had a glacier faling into it and one of teh Torres of Fizroy at the other end of. So yes, a somewhat similar scenery to theprevious days one, but this was just not something you could get sick of. We had a very welcome cup a soup and sandwiches by the lagoon, although it was almost too cold to sit still and eat, but not a bad view for lunch. On the way back the sun had finally made its way over the mountains and it was much more pleasant with its warming rays guiding our way.




Torres del Paine and Guanacos



Patagonian isolation






Perito Moreno








Mt. Fitzroy/Chalten






Laguna Torre

Pucón

After all the rain in Talca we hopped in an 8h bus ride the first sunny day we had...bugga. As we got to Pucon the sky turned grey again and in the morning we woke up to the sound of raindrops hitting the window. Oh well. We enjoyed the warmth of the hostel with two fires on all day long and ventured out for a hot chocolate and to buy me a better rain coat. Exciting.

The next day, despite howling winds and pounding rain we decided to take our chances with going to the Parque Nacional Huerquehue, as it turned out good the previous time... well, there was meant to be a nice refugio waiting for us here too, and the kind bus driver promised to drop us right outside to spare us from getting drenched yet again. Unfortunately we had imagined to be somewhat of a repeat of Altos Lircay turned out to be a hunters lodging where the remnants of the drinking and eating the night before were still lingering on the tables along with the intoxicating smell of old meat... Hence we decided to take our chances once again, and try to find this refugio.

An hour later we were still waiting for the rain to ease under the cover of the park rangers house which was deserted - he probably did not think that anyone would be daft enough to actually go visit the park on this day, and had no idea where the refugio was meant to be. After some more prograstination about what to do, we decided to walk back towards the hunters lodge and see if we could come across anything else, and so we did.

As we battled the howling winds getting soaked to the bones we saw a sign of a Hospedaje ie. family lodging. The house looked deserted but we decided to knock on the door in hopes of getting out of the rain. As we stood there looking miserable the timid face of a wee old lady appeared on the window, and on seeing us she rushed to the door telling us to hurry in from the rain. Inside a fire was roaring and señora made us feel right at home, well at your nana´s home that is. We ended up staying with her for the day and the night, and as the wind and rain turned to a storm she kept thanking the lord for sending us to accompany her while she was alone and scared of the ´satanic weather´in her words...hmm...we spent the day inside listening to the rain, reading and playing cards with old Ines, drinking wine. She treated us like a real nana, feeding us home baked bread and jam, roasted chestnuts and coffee - what a treat it was to stay with her and so amazing to meat somebody like her, enabling us to have a real peak at the inside of the culture.

The next day the sky had cleared and we had a perfect day to do a hike. The forest was still soaking from the rain, and as we came across a waterfall it was running at a speed I have never seen before. The sound of the roaring water was so loud that we could not hear each other talk and just to poke your head around to have a peak of it got you wet in a second. It was truly an amazing site, and we later heard that the very same waterfall is usually a tranquil trickle down the mountain.

As we kept on climbing, yes again this was a hike to higher altitude, which we did not realise as we started off, the wetness of the ground turned to snow and ice. Soon we were surrounded by snowy Araucaria trees and mirror clear lagoons, it was like a fairy land, a place out of this world. The path had practically disappeared under the snow, only wee paw prints of a small animal guided us along the way, along with the birds that kept following us as we entered deeper into this magical forest. I was waiting for the trees to start talking or a hobbit to appear from somewhere, and I´m sure I caught a glimpse of pairs of eyes following us from behind the bushes...

However, as all fairy tales this one had to come to an end before the sunset and it was time to descend back to real life. As we got back to old Ines´ house an hour before we had a bus to catch back to Pucon, she was giving us the proper guilt trip of not staying another night - just like your nana would! I even felt a bit guilty as she walked away hurt but pretending not to care, like a child before a tantrum. Poor old Ines, I promised to send her a few photos we took - must keep that one!

Oh, but it was good to be back in Pucon and in our warm hostel, since although it was nice and toasty at Ines´ in the living area, the bedrooms were freezing cold with no heating or insulation - kind of like being in NZ in the winter...;) Even more amazing was to see the smoke puffing volcano which towers over the town, and which we had not yet seen because of the weather. It was incredible imagining the people living their everyday lives so close to something so powerful but so beautiful at the same time.

From Pucon we headed more south to Puerto Varas to be greeted yet again with more rain. This time it never ended and after two days we decided to splurge and take a flight down to Patagonia, to Punta Arenas were we flew to last Friday. As we took off from Puerto Montt, the rain was still falling as heavy as ever, but about half way through our flight the clouds disappeared and we were able to view the beauty of the snowy Andes along with uncountable glaciers, Mount Fiztroy and the famous Perito Moreno glacier - truly amazing views which made the flight definately worth every penny!

As we arrived to Punta Arenas and stepped outside of the terminal we had our first experience of the coldness of Patagonian winter. And after two nights in yet another hostel with unheated bedrooms we decided to start moving again and hopped in a bus to Puerto Natales, the gateway town to Torres del Paine national park. But more update about the town of wind later on...

Parque Nacional Altos Lircay

We have entered southern Chile and stepped right in the middle of autumn. As we arrived to the city of Talca it was raining so heavy that after a 15 minute walk we were completely soaked - to the extent that none of our clothes had dried by the next morning. The reason to enter this murky city was to access the beautiful national park of Altos Lircay, which we almost didn´t go to beacause of the rain. But luckily we took our chances and made the interesting journey into the park.

It was still raining, though not as hard, when we got to the small village of Altos Lircay, just at the edge of the park, but we found the refugio in no time and were greeted with a fire and the refugio, which in reality was a huge amazing log cabin, all to oursleves. We waited a few hours for the rain to ease - spending that time making a puzzle...and really enjoyed it by the way (Maiju , nyt ei voi sit tostakaan sanoo enaa mitaan...;) -haha - then headed for the walk to the look out. It was a beautiful, though hard walk, pretty much climbing all the time, but we got to a look out to the waterfalls - not quite as far as we wanted to get which was a lookout of a volcano (but in this weather we wouldn´t have probably seen it anyway) - as we didn´t have enough day light left.

On our way back the sky cleared and the sun intesified the beautiful autumn colours infront of our eyes. We got back to the refugio just as the sun was setting, knackered after 18km of walking and treated oursleves to the most expensive bottle of wine we have bought so far - this at the hard price of 3,000pesos (about $9/4e)...tough life ay ;)

Valparaiso

Walk, walk and walk - it´s what you need to do to discover the secrets of this inspiring city, and walked we have. The city lies around a harbour on various hills where the narrow streets and hidden stairways are covered in street art, each house is also painted with a different bright colour contributing to the joyous feel of the city. Behind every corner is a new painting, stencil, writing - it´s almost overwhelming as there is just so much awesomness around! We were lucky enough to find a really nice hostel right in the heart of the arty barrio Cerro Concepción, all we need to do is step out the door and we find ourselves amongst it all - cute wee cafés, restaurants, design shops and more art on the streets... I think we might have found our favourite city in South America, Valparaiso is like a mix of Wellington and Barcelona - a perfect city one might almost be able to say... Well, we are in love with for sure.

Before Valparaiso we enjoyed the hospitality of my friend Henna and her partner Daniel´s whole family. It was a true wind down for us, not having to plan anything for a few days and still visit some beautiful places. It was a great break, although I suffered from quite bad stomach pain for which I finally had to go to the doctor - poor Daniel who had to translate the movements of my bowl for the past month, I think he knows me better now than he would´ve ever wanted to...sorry, and thanks Daniel ;)- I did manage to get some hard core antibiotics to kill whatever I have carried with me possibly from Bolivia or Peru... Feeling tons better now though, but a shame that my condition put brakes on our weekend in La Serena. Was still a very enjoyable time and nice to catch up with friends.

We arrived here early tuesday morning, the city was still asleep when we made our way through it´s dark, silent streets before the sunrise. As we had been advised not to walk around too much in the dark with our packs on, we decided to have a coffee and wait for the sun to come up before trying to find our hostel. And up the sun came in no time, with colours of red and yellow, finally revieling itself and lighting the clear blue sky. We headed up the hill, a steep climb and a decent work out for first thing in the morning. On our arrival, although waking the hostel owner up as it was still only about 7am, we were greeted with a smile and offered the best breakfast we have had so far in a hostel. Every morning now we stuff ourselves with fresh bread, fruit and scrambled eggs...ah, heaven...

The first day we did what we have been doing ever since - walked. As we walked down the hill into the heart of the city we encountered the ugliest dog in the world, who of course, decided to follow us for the day. We named him ´Mala Cara´ - ugly face - and magically he has searched us out every day, he just appears from nowhere, being all of a sudden behind our heels. So, we walked along the bustling harbour front where the fishermen are busy bringing in the days catch, took a cable car up a hill (thus thinking that old Mala Cara will have gone by the time we come down, but no no, he stayed loyal...at least he provided us and every other person who sees him with a good laugh) to enjoy the views of the harbour along with the whole city of Valpo, as it´s called by the locals. In the afternoon we took the long windy walk to La Sebastiana, Pablo Neruda´s Valparaiso home. The house was like a representation of the city - each wall in the house was painted a different colour, and each room was filled with paintings and extraordinary knick knacks which the poet had collected from around the world. A truly bohemian house filled with treasures.

On wednesday we set out to explore the neigbouring city of Viña del Mar - but the weather was not on our side and the spitting rain soon drove us back to Valpo and inside one of its cosy cafés. We did walk around the sea front of Viña, which was beautiful and no doubt filled with people in good weather, visited a park and walked along it´s busy shopping streets - but we found that something was missing...the rustic feel of Valpo just has its own special charm, and we were happy to return. We still have one more day to immerse oursleves into this amazing city, and tomorrow we head towards the surf paradise of Pichilemu where we will spend the weekend watching some monstrous waves and a competition which should hopefully still be running...

Here are a few photos of our bbq with Henna and Daniel and the labyrinth of art that is Valparaiso: