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Published: January 25th 2008
Us with Moreno and Nichole
We were greatful to meet Moreno and Nicole when arriving in El Calafate. This picture is us as we were leaving for our hike...each our own direction. We ran into them on the trail again on our 3rd night which was a lot of fun.(note - we are having trouble getting our pictures on to this site...I think it might be easier tomorrow in Portugal...check back in a few days and hopefully the pictures will be here)
It is so amazing to explore God's spectacular creation again. Being in the mountains again feels like home to us, as the park very much reminded us of a combination of our 3 favorite places: Alaska, Yellowstone, and the Tetons. Don't worry Mom, "home" in WI will always be home to me!
The pictures most see of Patagonia are of Torres del Paine NP, where we spent 6 nights and 7 days in the "backcountry" camping and hiking. Because of our wonderful little adventure of getting to the park, not totally unexpected either, we were unable to hike our planned route of the Paine Circuit (a 10-day hike). Instead, we hiked the most popular route in the park called the "W". Now I say "backcountry" because this was luxury in according to AK standards. We still slept in our tent, but it was like camping in a campground in the US, only there were no cars! There usually was a refugio (hut) where you could rent
Heather & Ben
Here we are...back in the mountains! a bed for the night, get a hot meal, drinks, grocery items, and get a hot shower!!! Unbelievable. Things were relatively expensive in comparison to the rest of Argentina, but it wasn't really that bad in comparison to the US.
Thankfully we had no rain and some clear, warm days to enjoy and explore the park. The reason the route is called the "W" is because you basically hike in that direction. There are 3 valleys that you hike up and that are connected to one another, thus forming a "W" on a map. One valley took us up to a beautiful glacier with bright blue icebergs floating in the lake, another took us up to a 360° view of mountains surrounding us where a glacier was calving off the mountainside causing large thunder sounds echoing through the valley, and finally the last took us up to the viewpoint of the Torres. It was spectacular and so much fun. We felt back in our element and excited to think it was only January! Let's just say I'll be excited that it will be summer and hiking weather when we return to AK!
After our hike, we caught a
Valley de Frances
Heather enjoying the view! bus back to El Calafate (pre-arranged so that we didn't have to go back through Puerto Natales for another night) and stayed at a hostel there. The next morning we got up early, took showers, and got breakfast prior to our departure to the airport and back to Buenos Aires. By the way, the typical breakfast includes coffee or tea, juice, various breads (croissants/toast) and marmalades of fruit and dulce de leche (our favorite). Dulce de leche is a sweet milky-caramel spread----very yummy. So of course we've enjoyed starting our days off with coffee and sweetness!
Finally, we were extremely blessed with our taxi driver who brought us to the airport in El Calafate. As we were driving, Ben and I looked at each other and thought the music playing sounded like one of our favorite Christian songs, only in Spanish. I couldn't quite grasp the spanish words, so I asked him if it was Christian music. Indeed it was and come to find out that our taxi driver was a local pastor in El Calafate. We enjoyed fellowshipping with him on the way to the airport. Another awesome provision.
Well, hopefully this hasn't been too much to
Lago Pehoe
Camping at Lago Pehoe....very nice! read, but we really want to keep everyone posted on our journey and all the things we are experiencing. Thanks so much for all your comments and support. We really enjoy hearing from everyone.
Here is our short video of the park Torres
Hello from Heather Love and joy to all,
Heather
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John Patten
non-member comment
Drooling (slurp)
Well, we may live in the most beautiful state in the U.S., but you have us drooling over your adventures, both in the mountains and in the culture. The food sounds wonderful as well. We were looking for a comment or two on the "S. America's magnificent waterfall", but perhaps we'll hear that on the next update. Keep taking those showers, get some rest, and try something new every day. Your Alaskan Parents