A Walk in the Park
Advertisement
Published: January 21st 2023
The Main Attraction
The view at Mirador Torres del Paine is incredible. Worth hiking 21 km with 1000 m of vertical to see it!I just spent AUD$30 to do a load of washing. It was money well spent. I will explain later.
This story begins at the very pointy southern tip of South America, in Ushuaia. When we got off the cruise ship we were so glad to just walk away and forget about all of the instructions that had been given to disembarking passengers the day before. When you have to get off ... which bus number you will have to get on ... What plane you will need to catch (and no doubt wait an unreasonable amount of time for at the boarding gate). We didn't enjoy feeling like sheep being herded around on the first day of the tour and much prefer independent travel whenever it is possible. We took the opportunity to see the southernmost city in the world and were lucky enough to enjoy a 25-degree day, probably the hottest of summer. So we took a taxi and then climbed the rest of the way to see the nearest glacier, Glaciar Martial. It is quite small, but the hike up a steep hill passed through a variety of landscapes and there was still some snow left over from
Glaciar Martial
Having fun in the snow. It was a beautiful day in Ushuaia and Nathan didn't mind getting a wet bum when he slid down. the winter for us to play in. The next day we took a 4*4 tour to see parts of Tierra del Fuego that are hard to get to. It was fun and we liked our driver, Lionel. Be careful not to confuse him with Lionel Messi. Apparently Messi not only stole his first name but also his footballing ability! There wasn't very much 4*4, but what we did was really good fun for Nathan. Lionel also told us a lot about Tierra del Fuego, including a berry bush called Calafate, that exists in Southern Patagonia too. We hadn't heard about this berry before, even though we'd been to a town called El Calafate on another trip. However, for the next ten days, this berry kept coming back to us again and again.
Ushuaia is the only Argentinian town on one side of the Andes. The rest of the country is on the other side. Look at the map and this will make more sense. We left by bus and crossed the Andes (they aren't very tall here). It took eleven hours to reach the next town, Punta Arenas in Chile, and included two stops for border control and a
4WD tour
Pretty lunch stop ferry crossing of the straights of Magellan. So, with all of these distractions, it was one of the more pleasant eleven-hour bus rides we have taken. Having crossed the Andes once, I expected to cross them again, as I always think that the mountain range is the border between Chile and Argentina. However, the rest of our bus ride was through flat grassy land with herds of cows, sheep and guanacos (long-necked animals like llamas). There was just the occasional cluster of buildings that must have been a hub for particular estancias (farm/ranch). When we arrived in Punta Arenas, I still couldn't see any mountains. It wasn't until I looked at a map that I saw the fjords and islands of Chilean Patagonia to the west of the town, which are the Andean connection between Tierra del Fuego and the continental mountain range. Punta Arenas wasn't a place that I had been looking forward to seeing. From all reports, it was just a stopover on the way to the Torres del Paine National Park. However, I liked PA for its wide open streets and a nice running track beside the water that I took advantage of. We ate a beautiful
lamb dinner like the ones in Argentinian Patagonia. Here we tried the Patagonian counterpart to Pisco Sour, Calafate Sour. This is a berry-flavoured drink, and not sour at all. Having had one, we noticed them on more menus and drank quite a few. But, the thing I remember most about PA is the courteous drivers who wait whenever possible for pedestrians. I've never experienced such thoughtfulness from motorists and it is a contrast to the danger we have felt when crossing the road in so many other parts of the world. This courtesy continued to our next one-night stopover, Puerto Natales. Puerto Natales exists mainly for Parque Nacional Torres del Paine tourism.
On the cruise ship, Nathan played a lot of 'Monopoly Deal' (a card version of the board game). In PN Torres del Paine he learned exactly what a monopoly is! There is one company that has a complete stranglehold over the west end of the park and another that has a complete stranglehold over the east end. In Pto. Natales we needed to have a briefing with each company before we started our journey. The first one gave us instructions, tickets and some useful extras like water
Punta Arenas Dinner
Slow roasted lamb (again) with all the trimmings including nice Chilean wine bottles for our hike. They were really friendly and gave good service, which they should, considering what they charge! The second company didn't. But they still charged a lot. Every time we asked a question the nasty lady gave us the answer we didn't want to hear and smiled at us. Apparently, the tickets we had paid for would appear somehow when we needed them!
The National Park itself lived up to my expectations. We started at the west end and hiked beside Lago Grey towards Glaciar Grey and stayed in Refugio Grey. Whilst we did this the skies overhead were grey too! It was cold enough that we were glad to have wind protection thanks to the red jackets provided by Hurtigruten for Antarctica. It was windy enough that we needed to push Nathan, carrying a heavy load for 10 km, head first in the hurricane towards the Southern Ice Field. That's good parenting, isn't it? At times it was raining too. In other words, we experienced typical Southern Patagonian summer weather. It didn't detract from the experience and when we reached our nightly stopovers in the refugios we were pleasantly surprised with the facilities and service. The
Day one at Torres del Paine
All smiles as we made it to Lago Grey in the blustery wind food was hit-and-miss. Leanne decided she liked a beer called Calafate Ale and it was also made using some calafate berries giving it a slightly sweeter taste. Having experienced hostels in big cities all over the world, this was a step up.
">
After the first few days, we were lucky enough to have a change in the weather. The winds died down. The sun came out. It was warm enough for t-shirts and shorts and we needed suncream instead of raincoats. This was in time for us to see some dramatic mountain landscapes in a valley with lookouts names Frances and Britanico. At the bottom of the valley was a campsite called Italiano. Not sure why they are all named after different countries, but if I was Italian, I'd be disappointed with the grotty campsite they named after my country of origin. In comparison, the French and the Poms can be proud of their lookouts. Halfway up the valley is the beautiful Glaciar Frances. It sits opposite the lookout with a large vertical drop to a pile of snow below, that is slowly melting to feed the river. I heard a calving and looked up in time
to see a white puff of ice from where it had landed. It was Leanne's plan to get this far with Nathan in a day and return to Refugio Paine Grande by 5 o'clock. I set off early to get this far and continue up to Britanico at the top of the valley and meet her for pizzas at the end of our day. Britanico is very different from Frances. The lookout is at the center of a variety of mountain backdrops that encircle you in a giddying swarm of towering landscapes. The colours of the mountains change suddenly from light to dark at certain heights, owing to various types of rocks that have been exposed and morphed by glaciation over many different ice ages. Just before 5 o'clock we met and placed our pizza order just before orders closed having reached our respective goals for the day.
That was part one of our PN Torres del Paine experience with the nice company, Vertice. Then we had a rest day back in Pto. Natales after the long and steep hike to Frances and Britanico. Leanne sent some emails to the nasty lady, back in her office and she ignored
them except for saying that we already had everything we need. Well, one of the things you need is bus tickets and we didn't have them. Fortunately, the bus driver was content to laugh at us stupid gringos and let us on his bus anyway. We hoped for as much luck again at the other end.
The east end of the park includes the Torres del Paine themselves. You can see them from Refugio Torres and at times as you climb through the valley. The one that looks shortest is actually the tallest and I was pleasantly surprised to find the green lake in front of the Torres from the lookout, which adds to the view. Again, Leanne and I separated for the last day of hiking. By this stage, we were all suffering from colds and Nathan wasn't very interested in walking any further than he needed to. I raced to the top and met Leanne partway down to bring Nathan back to the refugio. She then continued to the top. Once more we met up for an early dinner. We interpreted the rules to be the same as at the other refugio, where we needed to order
by 5 o'clock. With 20 mins to spare I asked for a burger and a pizza.
"No", was the reply from another nasty lady whose job was to sit at the till and asked for tips, "Come back in an hour".
After 5 I tried again.
The answer was still, "No." Apparently, she had made a mistake before and I was right. The kitchen closes at 5, it doesn't open again until 6.30. 'Oh well, bad luck', I inferred from her disinterested shrug.
Not all of the staff at Refugio Torres have this attitude to customer service. A barman with a cool floral baseball cap had given good beer recommendations (Mylodon Hoppy Larger for those who are interested) and came to my rescue when I explained to him that we had to catch a bus at the same time as the kitchen would be open again. He sweet-talked another nasty lady in the kitchen. She looked nasty too, with evil makeup that scared us. I would have taken a photo to show you, but I was afraid that the lens might crack. Anyhow, she agreed to make us a pizza but not a burger! At least
Lago Gray and the Glacier
Look carefully and you can see a rainbow too we didn't starve.
Back to the bus. Still with no ticket! We meet the same bus driver! He laughed again and didn't ask us for a ticket. We got back to Pto. Natales late and tired, crashed into bed and in the morning dared to open our bags and smell the product of 6 days hiking in various weather and terrain. That is why I am more than happy to spend $30 on washing. Won't it be nice to put clean clothes on for the rest of this trip! And when I returned from the laundromat Leanne showed me an envelope that the first nasty lady gave us at our so-called briefing. Guess what! It contained bus tickets. Ooops!!! I guess we can be stupid gringos sometimes.
Today has been restful and we had some tasty treats from a pastelleria. Alfajores, but not with dulce de leche. These were filled with calafate berry jam. Yum!
Now, Leanne says that I have had my turn. Torres del Paine was something I wanted to do. I'm grateful that Leanne and Nathan trooped through the mountains to indulge me in my passion. But she tells me that she will be
making the decisions from here on. So I guess I'll have to put up with five stars and cocktails by the pool in Santiago next week.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.078s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0426s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
