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Published: November 21st 2011
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Day 12 - Torres del Paine
We went down for breakfast, which was a little disappointing, during which our chocolate biscuit offering was repaid in the form of the chocolate buscuit box from the LAN flight and a thank you message from Roger and Lynn that read "To services to the community with grateful thanks, repayment with intrest" which we found very amusing.
We went downstairs and there were three mini buses waiting to take us out for the day. Our guide was called Carlos, and he explained that our first stop was to be at a bridge to see some of the flora and fauna. On our way out of the hotel, towards the entrance to the National Park, we saw a condor, which everyone tried to get a good shot of. At the park entrance, our guides went inside the administration building with the tickets to complete the paperwork. About 10 minutes later we were on our way.
At the bridge stop, looking out over the Rio Paine, they are actually constructing a new bridge, as the current one is wooden and has several of the slats missing. We saw wild sweet peas, orchids and a
few other native flowers.
We stopped to take a photo out over Lake Pehoe, which has one of the only hotels in the park on an island in the middle of it reached by a footbridge. It is also the oldest hotel, having been built on a couple of years after the park opened. The next stop was a Salto Grande waterfall, which was a short walk from where the buses dropped us, and through some brushland. We passed a lot of the native firebushes which look really spectacular when there are a lot of them. We also saw some native species which did not translate into english, but looked a bit like people! We were given some free time to take pictures of the waterfall, where we were able to get quite close to the edge, before making our way back to the bus.
In order to see the next think, we actually drove out of the park and back in again at the top. We were looking for a large group of guanacos (related to camels, looking like llamas). Unlike llamas they are not bred for their wool as it is too coarse, and they are
left to go wild, and make good lunches for the pumas that live in the hills around. They are currently experimenting in cross breeding them to make use of the wool for commercial purposes. We saw a group by the side of the road, and stopped and got out to try and get a bit closer to them. Although quite nervous animals, they allowed the group to approach and get quite close.
We next stopped for some lunch at a dandelion spot in front of a view of the Torres del Paine. Lunch was very nice, chicken breast, rice, sweetcorn, bread and peaches, washed down with red wine. As we sat admiring the view, the clouds began to clear a little to give us the three peaks all in view at once. This is the iconic view of the Torres del Paine that is on all the postcards. No sooner had they appeared, than they were covered again by cloud.
We then went to another waterfall Cascada Paine, where again we were able to get quite close. There was a lot of spray coming off the waterfall at this one.
We then went to see our second
glacier of the trip - Grey Glacier. We got out of the buses, and walked for about 10 minutes through some woodland, and over a suspension bridge that had a limit of six people on it at any one time. There was supposed to be a disables access route, but goodness knows how, as the terrain was quite steep in places. The next part of the walk i think surprised us all - along a beach! From the edge of the shore, we could see icebergs floating in the lake, and as we walked along the beach, more came into view. They take about 2 weeks to come from the glacier face to the shore and can take 6 months to melt. The beach is underwater some of the year, as the glacier melts, and then as the seasons change, the water receeds. As we approached the shore line, our guides got some of the ice from the water and used it to put into our Pisco Sours. Russ captured his own iceberg, which was perfectly clear, which we all tried a chunk of. Rumour has it that the clearer the ice, the older it is.
After our drinks,
we walked back to the buses, along the same route, which definately seemed longer on the way back. From here it was back to the hotel. On the way back, our guide stopped the bus, and collected a pumice stone for everyone, asking the question, if the nearest volcano is in the Southern Patagonian ice field, how did this get here? Answers please on a postcard!
When we returned the hotel, there had been a lot of discussion amongst the group as to the venue for dinner that night. It seemed that those that had eaten at the hotel had not been particularly impressed, and it was quite expensive. We were slightly concerned that there might be a stampede at the green roofed restaurant, and we got a call from Roger and Lynn next door asking if we would like to join them for dinner straight away, without changing for dinner. We accepted and made our way across the field before anyone else could muscle in.
Russ and i ordered, and they said my lamb would be 30 minutes (we could see it stretched out over the fire), which given the wait the previous night didn't seem bad!
This did however mean that everyone's meal was delayed, but they brought us cheese, olives and bread for free to keep us going. The food was really nice, and as the evening progressed, a few of our party did come across to eat. Actually it wasn't as busy as we thought it might be, as there wasn't any other people in that night only our group from our trip.
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