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La Patagonia: Pero Cual? Las dos. Cual Dos? Los dos lados, che! Cuales. Chile y Argentina, po!
Mi primer parasda fue la de Chile.
Torres Del Paine. Famoso por su circuito ¨W¨. A five day trek to be made in the summer. But arriving in the ¨winter¨, I took my chances to have the park to myself, this meant less TOURISTS, less wind (cough, cough) and well, lots of mountains! KAt, my austrian friend, and I had just finished a three day kayak trip and we were ready for some more. A five or 6 day back country expedition was about to begin. But were we ready!? WE had all our gear, yes, i rented a -10 C´bag (mine is SHIT, good for tropical climates only!), our food and good spirits. Come on, we had just spent about 6 days together, 3 nights sharing a tent...we practically knew each other. hehehe. So we took the bus into the park...took the catamaran and started the ¨W¨ counterclockwise. WE knew we were in for a good time. The heavens above us were definately smiling upon us. Clear skies at the begining of our trip was a good omen.
Just a day ago, all who had tried the circuit were unlucky and had 5 days of rainy and cloudy and windy days. WE just hoped that we were to have better luck. Before we left Puerto NAtales. Un Magallane had told us something about the moon and because of its phase, it meant good weather conditions for our journey. I pressed my thumbs and hoped he was some fortune teller : )
The first day was a bit windy. But not much. Here the Austrian, her red beanie and I shorty trekked with our heavy packs into the mountains. We saw several people coming down the trail and they wished us a good journey. We reached our campamento, Grey, by night. Remember, im a SLOW hiker! Something Kat, had to get used to but I dont she ever did. She would just go at her pace and then waited for me every so often. In the dustance we could hear the crackling earie sounds of the glacier grey. A bit of glacier water was good for our coffee and rice dinner! Tired, we ate fast and headed off to sleep. It was just 8pm! At night I
heard an ¨owl¨ but later was told by a park ranger that it must have been a red fox. Hmmmf. I did not believe him : )
8am. we woke up. The sun did not rise early here, nor did we. I´m even slow at waking up, breaking down the tent, eating, ect. errr. So what. Im on vacation : ) The tent was finally set down, our packs were left behind so taht we could go up further in the trail to get even closer to glacier grey. We crossed streams, walked thru some forest, scrambled up some rocks and before us was a SEA OF GLACIER...It was vast and magical...blue ICE everywhere that stretched for miles back into some mountains. Crevaces everywhere. To bad we couldnt get that much closer to just taste the ice! After a few min of gawking we had to return to the camp to keep going with the circuit. This was just our second day.
On the way back, as per usual, it got dark fast and we were forced to spend the night at Pehoes´s refugios campamento. Where several of our friends were staying inside the refugio which
was nice and cozy, while our lonely tent filled the empty camp spaces. Tent was set up. We ate a quick meal and went inside the refugio where a nice camp fire awaited our cold feet : ) camp fire stoive had a sign, ¨Do not place any clothing ontop of stove¨. ¨Hmm, why not, my socks are wet. I can flip them like flouyr tortillas and they should be fine¨, stupid tourist thought. I smelled something burning. It was my sock that now had a hole in it! Ay, stupid tourist. They warned me and like an idiot i thought I new better, hmmmf. With holey sock in hand, I went in search of some good asado and libations of gods. The night went on until 4am. Good music, good company, lots of mountaineering storied were shared. Off to bed we went. That night the winds proved taht they were in charge of the night. With unsuccesful strikes at collapsing our tent, I let the wind roar as I roared in my dreams.
Again, rolled out of my sleeping bag and the skies were still clear after several days of good weather. Today, our mission was to
arrive in Campamento Italiano before dark. Ahem : ) With good trekking speed. Two haunched over figures sat on the bridge ahead of us. Kat in her normal salutation asked the couple ¨Todo bien¨? ¨No, estamos muy mal¨, the drak haired white lipped man answred. A quick glance at his girlfriend KAt and I automatically knew the situation was no bueno. The girl looked pale and had glazed eyes. Kat, a nurse, me a nosey person...poked and proded to see how we could help. The story went: Irish girl and Peruvian bf set out to do the circuit in NORMAL people street clothes, apparently had somehow lost food rations along the way...couple had ate only once in the last 24 hrs, had hiked for 3 days with no food, water bottle empty, apparently did NOT KNOW one could drink STream water....Plastic bags kept their feet inside shoes waterproof.........Dumb, dumb TOURISTS! But before i thought that. I looked for some electrolytes I had in case of an EMERGENCY, mixed it in some Stream water...and there went the irish woman, drinking it all. Her story was that she had thrown up the last few days. If a sick woman had thrown up
so much, how could she gulp down my mixture and not throw up. She didn´t throw it up. Was she lying? At that moment we did not care, they looked like they really needed our help. Kat, even offered to act as porter..the nearest refugio was 2 hrs away. But they refused. With nothing else we could do for them (kat gave them one bag of crackers and half her cheese rations), our trekking continued. Finally we arrived in good daylight hour. So we left our bags in the campamento and set foot up el Valle frances. UP some boulders we went. The path was not clearly marked. Streams ran down the boulders and in the distance were snowey mountains and what seemed like small glaciers. It looked intimidating. Scrambling the side of a mounatin full of scree and boulders with unclear trail marking left me wondereing if I should continue up. We readched aridge, continued along the ridge and my nerves were out of this world. Something kept telling me to go back. This ol lady cant handle crazy adventures...i thought. Coming down the ridge were some friendly faces....Sabine, the german lady and Peter the australian. BYe, kat, im
going back down with sabine and peter. WE waved goodbye and KAt braved to go up higher. Back down the boulders. Back at camp, I set up KAt´s VAUDE tent and made friends with our neraby camp friends. Two hours later, Kat arrived. She cooked. We ate. WE slept.
Next day, same ritual all over again. This time our camp was at Campamento Las Torres. Another set up in the dark : ) This night it was FREEZING cold. There was frost on the grass and our water bottles had frozen. BRRRRRR. cold!
But this morning was our grande Finale! Our hike was through a beautiful forest then up some more STEEP STEEP STEEP BOULDERS...hmm, how fun! Huffing and puffing. The magical Torres Del Paine sat before us. STill and silent! Majestic and jaw dropping. I almost peed my pants when I swa them! I had to do a happy dance in rejoice of such beauty. Several fotos later, Kat and I celebrated by eating some yucky patee and some crackers ontop of a boulder as we sat in silence and admired the landscape : )
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VIAJEROBUENOSAIRES
VIAJEROBUENOSAIRES
Lindo diario, lindas fotos!
Hace rato comenzé a soñar con un viaje por las zonas de El Calafate, El Chalten, Ushuaia (Argentina) y Torres del Paine (Chile) y llegó la hora de cumplir ese sueño en un tiempo cercano. Estaré visitando Puerto Natales, para ir a Torres del Paine, entre el 5 y 12 de Septiembre. Deacá vienen varias preguntas para los que conozcan el Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. * ¿Que recorridos recomiendan para hacer en 4 o 5 dias dentro del parque? * ¿ Que campings consideran que son los mejores para acampar, que tengan linda vista hacia algún lago/ río o paisaje imponente? * ¿ Alguien fué durante esa fecha y acampó en el parque? ¿ Es muy crudo el frío o se puede aguantar? Cualquier consejo que me quieran dar, será bienvenido. Tambien escucho consejos sobre los lugares que nombro de Argentina ya que por proximidades quizas tambien lo conocen. Por supuesto tambien la idea es poder conocer Csurfers de Puerto Natales que se sumen a este plan o de algún otro punto de Chile, para compartir momentos buenos. Por mi parte no faltará la buena onda, el Mate acompañado de tan lindos paisajes. No duden en escribirme y espero tener noticias de ustedes! Un gran abrazo a todos desde Buenos Aires, Guille!