Baguales and Condors - updated

LATE BREAKING NEWS -- Just returned from the notario, an office that serves as the local recorder for real estate transactions. It looks as though my purchase of the house called at Lote 9 in Villa Frigorifico Bories in the province of Última Esperanza has been approved and signed. There will be celebration tonight, which has nothing to do with halloween. ¡Exito! Patience and determination are rewarded!

PREVIOUS -A bagual is a normally domestic animal gone feral. There is a region north of here, near the frontier with Argentina, called Baguales for the number of wild horses once found there. I found that it really is quite rich in wild animals, though I did not find any baguales. There are a lot of condor nests in the area and I was able to get rather close to a group of about 10 condors, both on the ground and flying. The other bird with the beret is a caracara.

It was also a good day to be away from Natales since a 3-hour car race was going on there today. See if clicking on images (that might get loaded) give a better view.

29th in Pto Bories

Local photos. The fox was at the other properties in the Huertas area. Went for a trip in the launch up Last Hope but the tide was so low that we could not return via the selected channel. We were using my GPS to measure the distance and calculate fuel consumption for another project involving taking other passengers a greater distance. Every day an adventure. We could see the Torres del Paine massif from up the channel. No opportunity yet to work those photos.

Photo Backlog

A few recent fotos I had not loaded earlier for want of bandwidth and patience, which is inversely proportional to bandwidth. The deer-looking critter is a rare huemul, rare since only a few thousand are believed to remain. It is an animal unique to the region and appears on the national shield of Chile. The trotting horse is in the Pto Bories neighborhood. The boat is Claudio´s harbour cruiser and the glacier in the background is the Balmaceda.

En la Patagonia

A fine day in Pto Natales.... no wind, about 68 degrees, no wind, clear skies, no wind, bright sunlight, did I say no wind? Did some publicity photos for Claudio today, concerning the harbour tour boat.

Punta Arenas

On Monday went to Punta Arenas on a bit of business. Some images of places studied along the way, for possible style elements in next house to be built, with Magellanic features.

Icebergs and Detonating Cord

Spent the morning moving stakes around the property to show possible outlines of where the new house might be placed. Claudio contributed by describing sun angles throughout the year, and wind direction. Also collected information on the probable depth of the dark topsoil, which may be a meter or so deep, down to the clay. Also had a quick lesson in the local practice of using sawdust
as insulation around water pipes. Used to be common enough in the US as well. So much of being here is like stepping into a time machine. Except for the price of fuel, which is about the equivalent of US$5 a gallon here in Chile.

I borrowed Claudio´s little 4x4 that he had used as a rental vehicle, to take what was originally planned to be a short drive out to the Puente Negro, which I remembered as an old and ruined bridge at the end of a very interesting old one-lane road. Well, things change. Several hundred pounds of explosives have been involved in blasting a lot of rock and that splendid old road is on its way to becoming another major road from Natales to Torres del Paine national park. Good thing I had a 4x4 tough because I would certainly have gotten the 2WD pickup stuck along the way. On one section the Chilean military construction team was in the process of placing charges in the recently drilled holes in the rock. The told me to go ahead and drive through that section, which meant driving over detonating cord and charges in the holes which apparently had blasting caps on them -- it was unclear whether the detonating cord was being used to fire each hole or whether there were caps in each hole. Anyway, we don´t usually let people drive over our detonating cord and emplaced charges, so this was a rather novel experience.

I also learned that the old bridge had been replaced by a nice new wide and very modern bridge which allowed me to get into Torres del Paine without benefit of the usual entry fee. I headed over to the Lago Gray overlook and the bay full of icebergs. Quite a site. Most of the clouds had clear off the Cuernos so that view was also splendid. The only major cloud cover was over the Gray glacier and up into the upper icefields. Good views of ñandus and guanacos in the late afternoon sunlight, so maybe some of the photos will turn out. Will have to rework some of those photos and upload later.

21 Oct - Around Última Esperanza

Gone a week now, and time to do some laundry. The tap water at the Bories house is less than clear, though it has not killed me yet. Note to self: work on the water purification concept.

Went out to nearby Pto Consuelo this morning. Should investigate some other property out that way.

Smuggling of fuel from Argentina seems to be a practice here. Gas is about $5 a gallon here in Chile, and about $1.40 a gallon in Argentina. You do the math.

Claudio had a Zodiac for giving commercial tours of the harbor area but now has a slightly more comfortable boat for that purpose (white boat in the first photo on this day´s report). Some months ago I had sent replacement parts for the ignition for the 100 HP outboard motor used in this boat. I went out on a short tour with some paying clients. Little wind and no rain - a comfortable day.

Puerto Natales, Thursday

It was a cold and soggy morning out in Pto Bories. We spent part of the morning walking the lot, which was smaller than I had remembered. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that the living room has a nice view of the Sound from two windows. I learned that the bay in front of the house is more formally called Canal Señoret rather than Last Hope Sound (Seno Última Esperanza) and officially the Sound starts a little further to the northwest, up the channel, though the distinction is rather subtle. Geographic and hydrographic niceties.

Claudio and I studied a bit of the house and how we might do additions to accommodate my living there. He showed me where the water, gas, and sewer connections were. The water supply, which is an unpurified source at a lake near the Argentine frontier near here, is a little murky but most of the neighbours have no problem with it. Duncan and Gladys, who live across the street, prefer better water, as I do. So my plans include a purification system, though bottled water in the meantime is also an option.

This morning´s work included visits to the local government authorities concerning issues surrounding transfer of the title to the property. Apparently my having previously had Chilean residence has actually complicated matters somewhat.

We took a harbour tour in Claudio´s new launch, which has a commercial license for tours. In subsequent postings I will try to include photos.

Oh, yes, the fresh local salmon is quite good. Speaking of which.... it is nearly dinner time.

Puerto Natales, Chile

Made it to Puerto Natales, through rain and snow and mud.

The map apparently loaded. It shows where I was on the morning of 19 Oct. Blue dots are where I stayed. Have not had tools to update the map since yesterday morning (now updating on 20th) when I was in San Julían, Argentina. It has been snowing in southern Argentina and Chile, and the dirt-gravel roads are soaked. When you step out of the truck the mud accumulates in clods the size of footballs in just a couple of steps. Snow is down to 1000 feet elevation but melts quickly. In places the the mud is a real bog and only good luck and extraordinary skill (yeah, sure...) kept me from sliding off a mud road and down a near-cliff along the Santa Cruz river in Argentina. That would be southwest of the last mark on the map. Note to self.... get a 4x4 instead of the 2x I rented. Ruta 40 was closed due to mud and I had to arrive here in Natales via an alternate route.







Let´s see if the rest of the photos loaded. The muddy road doesn´t look very exciting in the photo. I guess you had to be there.

San Julián

It is the 18th and I decided to stay comfortably in San Julián. Let´s see if I can put up some more photos. First shot is the $10 room in Sarmiento. Not bad.. Then an old 2CV in Caleta Olivia.

























Then a shot in the rear view mirror of the police check going into Santa Cruz province.















Replica of one of Magellan´s ships, in San Julián






















Vandals´ work at the frigorifico at San Julián.

18 de octubre -rumbo sur

Some photos from recent days. I think these are from yesterday.... getting to be a blur. Today is the 18th and I am in San Julián, Santa Cruz province, Argentina. Should be in Puerto Natales tomorrow night. Well, maybe. I hung around San Julián to visit the old frigorifico and by the time I was done it was 630pm and raining, so I opted for a very comfortable room (in contrast to the $10 room last night). That puts me well behind schedule.

People really do call each other ¨Che¨ around here.

First shot is across the lake (Nahuel Huapi ) looking at Bariloche












The place behind the trees is the casco of estancia Leleque. Formerly an English sheep station. And since the managers spoke English, Butch Cassidy and Sundance, from their nearby Cholila cattle ranch, would buy their supplies here.









Then sheep and Chilean flamingos near Tecka in Chubut province. And black-necked swans.























Near Gobernador Costas, skins of sheep hanging on the wire.

Sarmiento, Argentina

A long driving day, punctuated by a couple of short visits along the way, but I have covered a lot of territory, from the humid forest around Villa La Angostura to the dusty patagonian backwater of Sarmiento, where I am now. Got in about 930 pm and too tired to write much. Too late to even find a decent place to eat, but the provisions, including jamón serrano I got in El Bolsón, was enough to get me through a day of no lunch and no dinner. I have been using a 12 volt hot water maker in the truck to brew up café con leche to go with the cheese and bread. Saw the first guanacos of the trip, and got some good photos of Chilean flamingos and black-necked swans. Preparing those photos for the blog will have to wait. I need a shower and a good sleep. Out.

Butch Cassidy Territory, Argentina

Monday. In El Bolsón, Argentina right now. Gas is cheaper here than in the US. Coffee is better, too. A double filet mignon for dinner last night, that I cut with a butter knife, came to about US$7 or so.

Here in El Bolsón I am stopping for another good cup of coffee and a little hot ham and cheese sandwich, enroute south toward Esquel in case you are looking, thence Gobernador Gregores and Sarmiento and then south along the Atlantic coast route. Pleasantly cool, snow on local mountains, ghosts of Butch and Sundance in the vicinity. Gas here about $2.25 or so a gallon, half as much as in Chile. Maybe I should reconsider.... and stay in Argentina.

Can´t load fotos -- no USB functioning on the computer. A common condition in many ciber-cafés. Must away no. Many km to drive before the coffee wears off. Next stop may be Leleque, perhaps Esquel.

Osorno and into Argentina

Osorno, Sunday about 130 pm. Photos of the view of the Andes from Claudio´s apartment in Santiago. Getting out ot Santiago on Saturday morning. View of a typical toll booth (it will cost about US$40 in tolls to get from Santiago to Pto Montt). I am keeping these small for our diallup friends but you can get a little larger view by clicking on the thumbnail.




The house is an old German building in Osorno, which is full of such great old houses. I should have wandered around for more of these but I needed to get going. When I get to some decent image fixing resources I´ll do more with these photos.


Later...I am now in Argentina, at Villa la Angostura. The frontier crossing was rather quick and straightforward. There was quite a bit of snow near the pass, which I think is only about 4400 feet above sea level. Let´s try some more photos, though these are not done as well as I would prefer, due to lack of resources at the ciber café here in Villa la Angostura.

Looks like the first one loaded -- a view of what I think is the Osorno volcano. As usual, it is clouded in. So take my word for it.


The foto with the pickup is at the pass, on the international frontier between Chile and Argentina.

Enough for now. I am going to get something to eat. I found a decent room here for about US$20, expensive for Argentina these days, but this is very much a tourist town.

La Panamericana, Rumbo Sur

This is just a brief message to distribution that I survived the flight to Chile and even had a decent sleep last night at Claudio´s place in Ñuñoa. The rented S10 pickup is not all I might want in a truck, not as economical as the other trucks I have had down here, but it is reasonably comfortable. I still maintain that the S10 is only a little better than a POS. The last one I used down here in 2000 or so started to disintegrate in less than 50 miles on a gravel-washboard section of Ruta 40. I have seen some doble-cabina Toyota diesel pickups here that are back on my short list. BTW the Panamerican highway if good and fast now that the speed limit has been raised to 120 km-hora in most places. Of course the tolls are pretty steep and the toll booths are far too frequent.

Carlos from LYS picked me up at the airport, a last-minute solution offered by Andres, the manager at LYS. That greatly simplified matters, and was much appreciated.

Stopped for lunch and internet now in Talca. Will plan to stop for next report in Temuco or Osorno. Currently not planning on the ship passage after all. No photos to post quite yet but will see what happens when sun breaks through clouds. Gotta get back on the road and make up for the time lost getting a good night´s sleep....

Stay tuned.

---
It is later on the 15th now. I am in Temuco, at the place I usually stay here, though it is more expensive than in the past. No surprise. The dollar is losing value quickly against the Chilean peso. So I splurged tonight.... fire me. Can´t load photos here... the internet system at the hotel uses Win98 and it does not recognize my USB devices.

The Panamericana is faster than ever. At the present rate I should be in Osorno area tomorrow around noon, then over the Andes that afternoon or early evening, perhaps to stay around Villa la Angostura on the Argentine side.

La agonía del verano

Summer is dead. Long live summer. Where I live at 7600 feet elevation, the first snow of the season started at about 10 last night. By this morning I had about 6-8 inches. The summer had lasted so long this year, and it was hard to let it go. Now it is back to boots and Gore-tex.
__ The woodburner, a New Zealand stove, is keeping the house acceptably warm. Inside, there are continuing packing decisions. Is the one-person, 3-season tent the right choice for the northwestern Argentina segment? Which tent stakes to bring? Seems a little late to be doing these selections. Bug repellant? Do I have a spoke wrench in the tool bag? A 7mm open-end for the GPS mount? And where is my thin balaklava to wear under the helmet? Just two more days of staring time, for last-minute lists and purchases, and then stuff it all in the three bags.
__ This snow and pre-trip madness reminds me of some other Patagonia trips and nearly getting trapped by snowy weather there. Should be a photo of that.


__Yes, a photo. This was on the Chilean side, using a 2-wheel drive pickup borrowed from Lelo. Lelo died in March, while I was in Korea, on an Army assignment. Heart attack. He was younger than I am. I got the news while sitting in an MWR tent next to a popcorn machine, checking my email. Phase two of the coming trip is to deal with some of the property that Lelo had put in my name. It's a long and twisted tale, one that started back in 1977, when Lelo's BMW R100 RS motorcycle had a flat tire on a southern California interstate. But that is another story.

__ It kept snowing here, and on Monday there were cars in ditches and in places where you would not expect cars to be found. Slippery roads and the near-bald tires of the hypoxic flatlanders are some of the effects that help keep down the riffraff. Still, in recent years they have been coming in such numbers that not even the weather is making much of a dent. What is worse, the bastards have found their way into public office hereabouts. One can only plan to flee before the hordes, and light out for the territories ahead of the rest.

__ Speaking of fleeing: Butch Cassidy and the little gang that fled the US settled for a time in the Argentine province of Chubut, just north of the town of Cholila. The story goes that as the authorities were closing in on them in 1905, they were tipped off and fled to Chile. (Fled to Chile... I rather like the sound of that. ) The cabins they left behind were soon enough occupied by others, but hardly improved. In one of the cabins, which appeared to have been used as some sort of storage, it looked to me as though there had been a fire, though only the interior looked scorched. In recent years the cabins have been decaying at an alarming rate, and the damaged roof on the main cabin did not augur well. Within the past few weeks, the Argentine provincial government has undertaken a preservation effort, to arrest the decay. An article in the provincial paper indicated that in Cholila there were some craftsmen familiar with the unusual style of construction -- which is to say, most houses of the era in that province were not built in the Circleville style. Here is a photo of the main cabin as it was in 2001.

The Patagonia House - The Background

_ You may have happened upon this site uninvited, or by mistake, or through some serendipitous chance. It is probably a good idea to relate that the principal purpose of this trip surrounds a small house in Patagonia that I bought earlier this year. A small house in a small village called Puerto Bories, which you probably won't find on maps. Bories is about 3 km northwest of Puerto Natales, which can be readily googled. Both of these places are located on an arm of the Pacific Ocean called Last Hope Sound in English, or Fiordo Última Esperanza, as it is called locally.
_ Anyway, I bumped into Pto Bories back in 1993, and again in 1994. After a number of further visits, which were mostly incidental to other purposes, the idea that Bories might make a good early-retirement location finally wormed into my head. A couple of confederates kept me apprised of developments in the village. In March of 2005 one of the houses in the village became available and the offer provided through my Chilean friend, acting as a "palo blanco" (strawman) was accepted. So now, in October, I am headed down there to do the formalities of title transfer and whatnot. There are a lot of whatnots. One does not take moving to southern Patagonia lightly, without due concern for the whatnots.
(That is the house in the photo here, with the blue roof. And the bike is my Chilean-registered 1997 KLR650).


_ Another view of the Bories village, this one at the confluence of the two dirt streets that comprise the "residential" zone. That is Last Hope Sound in the distance. The trees in the left of this photo are part of a sort of town plaza, though it is so windy during much of the year that it is hardly the place to think about spending much time. Occasionally the Chilean army regiment stationed at nearby Puerto Natales comes down to Bories to use the little parade ground and flagpole which are located at the end of the trees you see in this photo.


_ Yes, this is one of the neighbours. These critters are not commonly seen around Pto Bories. The photo is from 2001 and I think the beast was lost. Some of the ice you see in the distance is the Serrano glacier. The large brick buildings are part of the old sheep freezer and processing complex at Bories (locally called a frigorifico). The residential part of Bories would be behind and to the right of those buildings. The freezer complex was opened about 1913 and by the 1970s it was pretty much moribund. Today it is a Chilean national monument and a sort of museum opened there recently.

_ A neighbour in Puerto Bories (who is not a penguin, incidentally) has prepared a splendid history of Patagonia on his website. One section of that site covers the frigorifico and surrounding aspects at Bories, which belonged to the Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego. Here is the site http://patlibros.org/VFPB/toc.htm

Destination 1: Última Esperanza

_ OK, we're on the steep side of the learning curve here. Just figured out how to post photos. Or at least I think I did. And this one isn't even mine. Just received it from a neighbour in our village, Puerto Bories. It shows a nearby settlement, Puerto Consuelo. This is latitude 52 degrees South, gentle reader. There are no Wal-Marts in Pto Consuelo.

_ Looks like you can click on that little image and get the somewhat larger original. Shades of images to come, over the next two months.



_ Just for fun, let's load a photo of a restaurant's sidewalk sign I took in Puerto Natales in 2001.

No, I did not take the sign. Just the photo.

Maybe I should try this place when I get there this year. My co-workers have long insisted that I am out to get a pound of flesh.


Have patience. This blogging may get better.

Patagoniax 2005

_ 2005: A week to go. The weather in this part of Colorado dropped about 20 degrees F in one hour yesterday. A reminder to pack the appropriate range of clothes for this year's Patagonia trip. As if I needed to be reminded. There are piles of trip materials all over the house. But then, there are often piles of things about the house, which is beginning to look like something like an expedition staging area. Here, a set of tools for the KLR. There, a zip-lok bag with selected cassettes for the drive down to Pto Montt to catch the ship. The old Matterhorn military boots. Knee pad armor. Slime and patches for the tires. The new Panasonic-Leica digital camera with spare batteries and memory cards. Pieces for the construction of the GPS power feed. A new LED headlamp. In another pile, the Shoei Synchrotec helmet and other motorcycle riding gear. And on and on.
_ Speaking of which: it looks like I will be riding at both ends, because Mattassi evidently got another motorcycle to rent out, and wants me to go riding with him in southern Patagonia. The last time I went riding one of his rental ratbikes, one of my splashy stream crossings near Torres del Paine ended up immortalized as a brochure photo. My original riding plans this year had only included northwestern Argentina and a return along the desert coast of Chile. Now the riding looks like it will include latitudes from icebergs to somewhere near the Tropic of Capricorn. You don't see me complaining. No, sir.

_ Let's see if I can load another photo from that earlier ratbike ride. It's splendid country, yes. It will be a great place to be guiding rides in the not terribly distant future.


_ It is reasonable to wonder about the origin of "Patagoniax." It is similarly reasonable to imagine that the final syllables are somehow related in both sound and meaning to "maniacs." You would not be far off, but in truth the original use was an email address that read "patagoniaX6" which stood for the six co-conspirators who went with me that year. This year there is just one Patagoniac, but I have come to like the original term. Perhaps it will be the name for a website someday.









_ Another photo from one of the 2001 rides. This is Puerto Prat, just up the Sound from Pto Bories. The rider dressed for the frequent cold wind and rain is neighbour Claudio, who is currently living in the Bories house. The next photo is later this day as we rode closer to the southern edge of Torres del Paine national park. The ice at the extreme left edge is part of the Grey glacier in the park. I'll keep the images small here for those with slow connections.







_ Remember that I haven't the foggiest idea what I am doing with this internal monologue blog business. Let's hope that it gets more interesting for the listening audience.

Of course, things might not work out as planned.


EMAIL/COMMENTS: -- Oh, yes. I turned off comments to this blog, since I was attacked with rubbish almost as soon as the first day went up. But if you might like to send a little note, such as "what is the penguin's name?" or "is it true about toilet-bowl vortices in the southern hemisphere" or something similar, you could try the address that goes something like this: patagonia [at] ekit [dot com ].