January 2004

January 04, 2004 - 12:30 p.m.

Hello and Happy New Year to all back in the land of chilly weather and snowflakes.....Michelle and I have ventured far south driving our van relentlessly to the tip of South America....our next stop is Torres del Paine and the spectacular scenery and hiking it has to offer......

Meanwhile back in Bariloche I became an accredited Hard CORE (idioso) kayaker as I just brought the new year in with a hellonearth 15 hour portage through super dense bamboo and a night shivering to death in my paddling gear as myself and two other paddle geezers highly underestimated the Middle Manso flows paddling it at unHEARD of 5.5 on the gauge! The canyon boxed up on us and we decided that it was better to portage the WHOLE thing than risk blind class V rapids....a good decision now that it is over, but man was I begging for good ol’ fur trees and grizzly bears after a jungle setting like that..... But we are ALIVE and Michelle waited her stressed out self patiently for us at the Lake and now I am taking a break form that crazy backcountry paddling misery for awhile......next kayak stop hopefully is the 50,000 + cfs Rio Baker with a good crew on Jan 18.......

We will be in down in the deep south for the next few weeks enjoying the long days and super friendly people as well....and I forgot to mention the fuel prices are a lot cheaper thanks to tax cuts to the people who live this far south.......wish that was the same in Canada.

Punto Tombo

January 10, 2004 - 10:50 a.m.

So Mark and I are back in Argentina after spending a few days at Torres del Paine (a National Park in Chile). What an amazing park!!! Towers of rock in crazy geological formations line the skyline with glaciers hanging off every mountain. The icefield there is one of the largest in the world. Mark and I even managed to go kayaking...this time on a river that is normally done in sea kayaks. 38 km of floating down a glacier fed river in total wilderness. Paddling by hanging glaciers that drop right into the sea. Plus the wildlife was incredible; seals, geese, condors, guanacos, armadillos, ñandus, skunks, parakeets, foxes and lots of other birds. Mark even got to pet a relatively tame skunk! and on the sea kayaking trip he chased a goose until he could pick it up and put it on the cockpit of his boat. If you ever get a chance definitely go visit this place...very beautiful and magical.

Torres del Paine

Torres del Paine

Now we are in Rio Gallegos waiting for a visa to come in the mail (ours was lost with our wallet) before we head on to the Carreterra Austral (Rio Baker and Futaleufu).

January 16, 2004 - 11:54 a.m.

So Mark and I have been exploring the southern part of the Carretera Austral. It's super beautiful and very remote. We spent a couple days hanging out by the Rio Baker. Mark surfed a wave and I ran a short section of just out of the lake. I have never paddled a river it's size (around 50 000 cfs), and it sure moves. The past two day we have spent driving on a crazy dirt road and now Norman, Mark and myself are totally covered in dust (Norman is definitely NOT a dust proof vehicle). Yesterday we checked out some rock paintings that are about 10 000 years old and drove through some amazing valleys and over some incredible passes. We made it to Coyhaique this morning... the only sizable town on the Carretera.

Michelle on Rio Baker

January 23, 2004 - 12:53 p.m.

So Mark and I are now at the Futaleufu and it has lived up to all it’s expectations and more... huge waves and some sweet play too. We plan to stay here for another week or so before making our way north again... we'll update again when we get out (the email here is expensive and slow).

Rio Futaleufu