Santiago - El Calafate (7)

Pepa, Fernando a Gonzales ar ol Pisco Sour! After Pisco Sour!
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ENGLISH VERSION BELOW WELSH VERSION

Hola Amigos

"we couldn´t understand everything that was said, but we all seemed to understand what we meant!" "...yn edrych fel yr oeddwn i´n dychmygu Chile i edrych, lliwgar ac ychydig yn ´hen´"

Roedd y tymheredd yn y 30au erbyn ein bod ni´n glanio yn Santiago, Chile, a roedden ni´n falch iawn o fod allan o law Auckland!

Mariana a Alvaro yn ydfed deaergryn. Our Spanish teacher drinking an earthquake
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Gwarion ni 10 niwyrnod yn Santiago i gyd, yn cael sawl ´crash coure´! Y cyntaf mewn Sbaeneg gyda´n athrawes ifanc Mariana (a oedd yn amyneddgar iawn gyda´n ynganu Sbaeneg sal) Yr ail mewn dawnsio salsa a ´pisco sour`(diod debyg i taquila gyda leim a gwynwy) gyda´n ffrind lleol Pepa. Un arall mewn ´serviche´(pysgodyn heb ei goginio mewn sudd lemwn) ag un arall mewn diod rhyfedd iawn sy´n o´r cyfiaethu mewn i ´daeargryn´(peint o win gyda llwyaid o hufen ia pinafal ar ei ben!).

Santiago ar Andes yn y cefndir. Santiago and the Andes in the background (almost!)
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Doedd y ddinas ei hun ddim mor ddiddorol a hyny, gyda smog trwchus yn grochuddio´r cwm anferth fel ein bod ni braidd yn gallu gweld yr Andes yn y cefndir, a reodd yr afon yn drewi´n ofnadwy, ond gethon ni lawer fawr o hwyl yno a chael cyfle i brofi Chile go iawn drwy Pepa a Mariana a oedd yn mynu mynd a ni allan o hyd! Fuon ni i Valpariso ar yr arfordir am ddiwrnod lle roedd y tai i gyd wedi eu paentio yn lliwgar a ymweld a ty yr awdur enwog Pablo Naruba .Hefyd fuon ni i Llollao am benwythnos gyda Pepa aí ffrindiau - er mwynd ymarfer ein Sbaeneg wrth gwrs!

Volcano Vilarica yn smygu! Smoking!
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Teithio dros nos ar fws am 12 awr i lawr i´r de ac aros yn Pucon, tref hyfryd ei naws wrth droed Volcano Vilarica.  Roedd y bws yn anhygoel o foethus, gyda seddi cyfforddus a byn bach yn dod a bwyd o amgylch yn y bore - gwell na mynd ar awyren! Roedden ni wedi gobeithio cerdded i ben y volcano, ond roedd yr tywydd yn wael, ar unig ddiwrnod welon i´r mwg yn dod allan o´r brig oedd pan oedden ni´n rhedeg am y bws i adael 5 niwyrnod yn hwyrach.  Gethon ni amser eitha hamddenol ym Mucon, mynd ar gefn beic i weld llynoedd yr ardal ac i´r Parc Cenedlaethol yno, ardal pert iawn.

Tyrrau Torres del Paine Towers
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I lawr i Punto Montt wedyn, a dal awyren i Puerto Arenas a bws arall i Puerto Natales (dau ddiwrnod o deithio i gyd) ac aros yma am ddau noson er mwyn trefnu mynd i gerdded yn Torres del Paine, Parc Cenedlaethol enwog dros ben.  Roedd y dref yn hyfyd, yn yn edrych fel yr oeddwn i´n dychmygu Chile i edrych, lliwgar ac ychydig yn ´hen´ ond reodd y bobl lleol yno yn glen dros ben, ac yn ein cyfarch ni´n y stryd a methu gwneud digon idrosto ni.

Fuon ni´n cerdded yn Torres del Paine am 3 niwyrnod, yn aros mewn ´refugios´ ar y ffordd.  Roedd y diwrnod cyntaf yn galed dros ben, gyda taith 4 awr i ben y mynydd mewn glaw a gwynt dychrynllyd, ond yn ein haros ar ben y daith roedd golygfa godidog o dyrrau del Paine a heulwen braf!  Yr unig brobem oedd ei bod hi´n 4 o´r gloch yn cyrraedd yno, a roedd 4 awr nol lawr gennym ni i fynd!  Cyrraedd nol wedi blino´n lan a gwely erbyn naw yn stiff dros ben.

Puerto Natales
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Cheto ychydig ar yr ail ddiwrnod a dal cwch draw i ben arall y parc yn hytrach na cherdded y 15km a wedyn cerdded am ddwy awr ar hyd lwybr eitha gwastad i gymharu a´r diwrnod gynt er mwyn gweld Glaceier Gray, oedd i weld yn ganwaith yn fwy na Fox Glacier weldon ni´n Seland Newydd a gweld yr ´íceburgs´ ar y llyn!

Codi er mwyn gadael erbyn 8 i gerdded taith 5 awr i brig Vale de Frances, ond yn penderfynnu ar ol 3 awr a haner bod rhaid troi yn ol er mwyn dal y llong nol i Puerto Natales. Roedd hyn yn siom mawr gan mai dyma´r diwrod cyntaf o heulwen ers i ni fod yn y parc, ond fe welon ni olwgfeydd hyfryd ar y ffordd yna er bod rhai o´r pontydd dros yr afon ddim i weld yn ddiogel iawn!

Glacier Gray, Torres del Paine
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Dal y bws bore i El Calafate a chroesi o Chile i´r Arianyn ar hyd rhewl (er mae´r gair ´rhewl´ ychydig o gorddweud) a chyrraedd ar ol 6 awr a ond wedi gweld ychydig o lamas a esgyrn yr holl ffordd!

Ddoe, parch cenedlaethol arall, Los Glaceiers a weld glacier Moreno - bydd y llyniau yn esbonio beth oedd maint y peth!  Gwarion ni oriau jyst yn edrych ar darnau o´r ia yn torri i ffwrdd ac yn glanio yn y llyn!

Ymlaen i Drelew brynhawn yma i weld os fedrwn ni ffeindio unrhyw Gymru yno, dwi´n credu y gwnewn ni gan ein bod ni´n aros menw lle o´r enw Gwesty Tywi! Digon o pice man yno dwi´n siwr!

Pont yn Torres del Paine. Safety in mind!
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ENGLISH VERSION

We arrived in Santiago, Chile, to hot weather which was a little overbearing to start off with..but needless to say it was also very welcome!.  The hostel that we booked turned out to be right in the Bellavista area of Santiago, this area is like a small town within the city and we were surrounded by small resturants and bars which suited us down to the ground.  We had bought a phrase book but quickly realised that it would be very difficult to make our way around without speaking at least basic Spanish so we therefore enrolled on a week long Spanish crash course.  We were the only ones on the course and our teacher, Mariana, was young so we got on really well.

Torres del Paine
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During our first week we had contacted a friend of a friend, Pepa, who promptly took us out and introduced us to the delights of serviche, a raw fish and lemon dish, and pisco sours, a strong drink some of which will hopefully be coming back to Cardiff, and Reggaton music!  Pepa invited us for a weekend down at her parents beach house which was in a really picturesque seaside town, we went down and met all her friends and although we couldn´t understand everything that was said we all seemed to understand what we meant!!, the universal language of beer and football helped out alot and we made some new friends, especially Fernando and Gonzalos who seemed to speak better english the more they drank!.  We went out together again before we left Santiago, this time for Salsa lessons.

Iceberg dead ahead!
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Once we had finished off our Spanish course we reluctantly made our way from Santiago to Pucon, we had really enjoyed Santiago, it gets some bad press amongst the travellers but we found it to be a great place.  At Pucon we had planned to climb the active volcano but a combination of weather and time prevented us from achieving this and we went on a 40km bike ride and travelled to some of the nearby lakes instead.  Pucon was also very nice, very alpine looking, lots of wooden huts and snow on the mountains.

Moreno Glacier
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We flew down to Punto Arenas in the far south of Patagonia to get a bus to the Torres del paine national park.  Its supposed to be a hikers mecca, what we were doing there i don´t know, we were still saddle sore from the bike ride in Pucon.  Undetterred by this we decided to do a 3 day hike.  Before the hike started we stayed in a small town called Puerto Natales in a hostel opposite the prison! It was very nice though and the town itself was the first real South American place we had seen.

The hike was hard, we averaged 7hours hiking a day and got to see some really great views, including a massive glacier.

We have now crossed the border into Argentina and are in a town called el calafete where there is another massive glacier that we are visiting tomorrow.  We are then travelling onto Trelew and Gaiman which is where the Welsh settlers settled in the mid 19th century.  Some people still speak welsh and we have booked into a place called Gwesty Tywi, welsh cakes and hotdogs for tea there!!  Hopefully they will be showing the 6nations games aswell!.

Congrats to those of you with New babies, 7 born now since we have been away,  Must have been a lot of celebrating when we left!

Hwyl

John and Ffionx