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Published: August 10th 2007
Santiago
Rob tried in vain to knock on the door to get in! We are now safely arrived in South America (Chile to be exact) and things are going well! We bid a sad farewell to everyone in Melbourne in mid-April as we set off on the next leg of our journey. The flight to Santiago wasn’t the best, but luckily the air smoothed out and we arrived safely in Santiago!! Hurrah!! We found Santiago to be a very chilled out city and a great place to start our South American travels.
So far everyone has been very friendly and patient as we’ve struggled to get across what we need in Spanish. We're hindered mainly by the fact that we speak almost no Spanish. Our Spanish lessons have been a little delayed but we're on the case! Because not many people speak English we’re going to be submerged in the language while we’re here. Fingers crossed for some fluency and understanding of what people are saying to us! Si!
We spent our time in Santiago wandering around, seeing the sights, and preparing for our journey south to Patagonia. The plan was to get to Puerto Natales and then head in to the Torres del Paine National Park for as much trekking as
Santiago to Puerto Natales
No, this isn't a plane, but the bus! Taking the bus Chilean style is pure luxury. As we had a 38 hour journey ahead, you can see how stressed Cath is at the thought. we could manage before all the refugio's shut down at the end of April.
The bus journey from Santiago to Punto Arenas was very funny for two people who had just been travelling in South East Asia. Having been used to 30 year old buses with seats that didn't recline, livestock being just as important as people, and food that you purchased through your open window whenever you stopped at a village, we nearly passed out with surprise when we got on the first bus of our journey south.
We had opted for the 'promotion' trip, and we discovered this meant a delux seat on a bus (only 3 seats wide including the aisle), inclusive of pillow and blanket. The seats reclined into beds! All well and good, but when the conductor (yes, he was with us the whole way) brought us the drinks of our choice and a food platter each we started to feel as if we were in some parallel universe of good fortune. After speaking to other travellers this is apparently normal bus travel in Chile if you take the option we did!
After a brief stop in Orsono at a very cute
Day 1 - The start
Only 17km to go (plus the 2km getting lost at the start), the weather would soon wipe the smile of our fresh faces! shabby hostel (just because the bus stopped there and we fancied a night in a bed, not on a bus) we continued south to Punta Arenas. This bus wasn't quite as fancy, but we still got fed and watered, and they played non stop English films. Thankfully they had Spanish sub titles, otherwise our Spanish training would have been completely wasted...
We had planned to stay in Punta Arenas, but on discovering that a bus left for Puerto Natales 50 minutes later our final destination suddenly seemed a lot more appealing, despite having already been on a bus for 30 hours. Puerto Natales is a very lovely compact town of 18,000 people in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by water and mountains; all the buildings are painted bright colours, and despite the wind it's very welcoming and picturesque.
We spent our first night here quite drunk - as a celebration of not being on a bus and of course in the interest of tasting new world wines - and the next day trying to sort out what we needed to do to be in any way prepared for 10 days of trekking. Lots of pasta and rice dishes
Day 2 - Sunshine at last
We were so excited by the sun on day 2 we couldn't stop taking photo's. purchased. Carbs baby, gotta love those carbs...
Day 1 - Torrential rain and gale force winds Things got off to a shaky start when we reached the park and were told that the grand circuit was closed, and that we'd only be able to trek the 'W' (half the distance).
We felt positive about the weather (notorious for changeability) as we arrived on the tail end of 5 days of non-stop rain - 'unheard of in these parts' we were told with straight faces. Most people opted for the catamaran to get in to the park as it cut out a days walking. Not wanting to detract from the experience, we put on our 15kg+ backpacks and opted to walk the 17.5 km into the park. Great choice!! To welcome us to the park, the weather decided to test us by inundating us with rain and gale force winds. We had to battle our way for 6 hours into a 40mph head wind, with 50mph gusts buffeting us sideways. To increase the sheer pleasure it didn't stop raining the entire time. We weren't walking with our legs, but bent over bench pressing for each step we won
Day 2 - Cartman
Even Cartman took off his waterproofs (an air tight zip-lock bag) to enjoy the sun. against the wind. We got soaked. Not just a bit damp, but saturated and chilled to the bone.
By the time we reached camp, Cath was close to the first stages of hypothermia, shivering uncontrollably, even after warm clothes were put on. Taking one look at the state of the pair of us a kind man at the refugio (campsite / hostel) bent the rules and lit a fire for us in their staff room, so Cath could re-heat and we could dry out all our clothing before climbing into our tent for the night.
Not a hugely optimistic day, we were doubly upset because the weather had meant we couldn't appreciate the great scenery on the way into the park. We did however meet two fun Canadian travellers - Natalie and Jean who made us feel better about everything by sharing some of their wine with us (love the Canuks!).
Day 2 - Glorious sunshine, glaciers and freshwater icebergs What a glorious day to wake up to (thankfully!!). Sunshine beaming through the tent and white peaks visible all around us, offset perfectly by the amazing green glacial melt of Lake Pehoe. We sprung out of
Day 2 - Icebergs ahoy!
Bottom left of the lake. [double click on the picture to see larger version] bed very relieved at the change after the test of day 1.
We had a late start to the day as we waited for an American called CP to get to the park as he was joining us for the rest of the trek. We set off on the 11km walk to Glacier Grey campsite, walking up the valley and alongside Lake Grey. It was just beautiful the whole way and we took a silly amount of photos. We were also accompanied part of the way by two condors soaring above the lake.
It became apparent that CP seemed to be struggling under the weight of his pack. On further questioning it became clear that he had brought food enough to complete the 10 day grand circuit, plus an additional 2 days 'spare' food. We both tried to lift his pack and Cath nearly fell over (CP subsequently spent a large part of each evening on the trek trying to either eat or give away his food to other unsuspecting trekkers).
The first sighting of Glacier Grey caused a lot of excitement. Cath had never seen a glacier before, and none of us had ever seen freshwater
Day 2 - View down to Glacier Gray
With Cath and CP on the right, you can see the mass of clouds above Glacier Gray, which is just visible down the valley. icebergs, formed from the fallen ice from the glacier and slowly floating away from the huge mass of ice.
We settled down for the night at the campsite with icebergs floating by. Surreal!
Day 3 - Rainbows and rats We backtracked on day 3, returning the way we'd come before setting off to our next campsite called Italiano. The weather wasn't as good, but as the scenery wasn't new for the first half of the day this didn't matter, we still remained mostly rain free for the 18km walked!
We passed more beautiful vistas of mountains and lakes, and were treated to several rainbows during the afternoon. Round the camp cooking area we met other people, including Jo (Aussie) and Frank (German) and exchanged stories from the day.
We had been warned that the Italiano campsite had rats, so we hung our food by a piece of string from a tree and prayed for our food to still be there in the morning. The night was punctuated by gale force winds threatening to uproot the tent (and us) and Rob banging on the tent to scare the rats away. Cath's earplugs ensured she was oblivious
to the nights events.
Day 4 - Glaciers and snow After spending the night fighting paranoia about rats eating our stuff we awoke to find that we escaped largely unscathed. Others weren't as lucky, but the silly creatures seemed to have only eaten everyone's non food items such as books, plastic bags, our plastic water bladder, our washing up liquid bottle (a nasty surprise I hope once they chewed through and took a sip!) and part of Jo's backpack.
It was with some amazement that we got out of our tent to find that it was lightly snowing with almost no wind. The walk up Valley del Frances was amazing, almost constant snow punctuated by breaks of blue sky, allowing us to get some great photo's, and properly admire the views. We had the added bonus of walking without our packs (the joy); an extra 15 kilo's pressing on your feet for 5-6 hours of walking leaves your feet with little reason to love you at the end of each day! The packs rejoined our backs for the final few hours of the day to Refugio Cuernos - location of a fairly unpleasant shower experience involving far
Day 4 - Snow
A light snow shower added a sprinkle of magic to the morning walk up Valley del Frances too much cold air & water.
Day 5 - Panoramas and clouds Leaving refugio Cuernos, we followed Lake Nordenskjold (say that 5 times very fast...) over undulating hills. It was a tough start to the day (our feet... our shoulders...) and felt like we ascended more than we descended. However, we were rewarded with amazing panoramas and the most spectacular cloud formations.
After 4 hours we headed in to a new valley which would give us access to the Torres the next day. We were headed for Campamento Torres, the campsite located just 45 minutes from the lookout over 'the Torres' and the weather was good to us on the way up. The steepness of ascent however was HARD work. We moved at a snails pace, cursing our feet and the hills for the final hour, but were reunited with our fellow trekkers at the top and were able to compare war stories.
Day 6 - The Torres (and more sunshine) Up before dawn we donned head torches and stumbled around to find the route to the mirador overlooking the Torres. It was 45 minutes of sheer 'up', somehow Cath ended up leading 6 people
Day 4 - Rainbows
We could see the end of the rainbow, but no-one was willing to swim in the freezing lake to get the pot of gold. over a chaotic jumble of rocks and streams that became increasingly more icy the higher we went. Looking for the red trail markers was a tricky business in the dark, especially as we were almost sprinting in a panic that we'd miss the sunrise.
We made it safely though, and following a tip off, Rob had carried up his pack (to sit on) and a sleeping bag (to sit under) so that we didn't get too cold waiting for the sun to rise. Watched the sun come up over the Torres and took even more photo's. An hour was all we could manage before numbness set in, so the perilous descent began to camp. Cath overcame all ice issues by simply sitting on the ground in her waterproof trousers and pushing. Brilliant sliding fun! An easy descent to the bottom of the mountains (plus some snoozing in the sun) made up the rest of our day.
Day 7 - A sad farewell We had a very lazy day when we woke up at campsite las Torres, it made a nice change from the 7.00am starts most other days. We took a few more photos then sadly caught
Day 5 - Does my bag look big in this?
Cath's backpack looked more like a turtle shell. We think she secretly wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. the bus back to Puerto Natales with CP, Jo and Frank. Although our feet and every other part of us ached ridiculously, we still had a longing to walk the rest of the circuit, snow regardless. Or perhaps head off on one of the other paths in the park - Argentina was just over some of those mountains! But, alas, smelly clothing and an inability to walk normally anymore meant that we had to bid farewell to the beautiful views. By some miracle we'd also almost finished CP's food, even the salami, so supplies were non existent.
A little battered but feeling like we'd achieved something (90 km walked!) we returned to the hostel to compare injuries (Cath's fire burn on her arm and heel blisters competed for first place with the weird rash Rob developed from his 'Ron Hill' trousers). If anyone ever finds themselves in Patagonia we would definitely recommend a visit to this beautiful part of the world.
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Rita
non-member comment
love it
Brings back memories I almost forgot about the boulder climb to Torres, you brought a huge smile to my face. Glad you didn't get as ill as I did whilst there, though it sounded like you weren't far off. Take care & enjoy. x