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Published: April 10th 2010
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Las Velas
The S. American Tall Ships in Punta Arenas Chile´s Patagonia: 1. Punta Arenas: Old Wool Boom and My Recovery Town
2. Puerto Natales & Torres Del Paine National Park: 5 Day Hike in Patagonia
3. The Navimag: Cargo Ship or Backpackers Cruise?
Since last time ive wrote (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) ive crossed into Chile´s patagonia (same but different beautiful scenary, only now on the chilean side of the southern andes).
1. Punta Arenas: Old Wool Boom and My Recovery Town I caught a bit of a cold in the chaotic weather of Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego. So i decided to spend a night nursing myself back to health in Punta Arenas. Punta Arenas is usually passed by travellers because theres not much to do here. And as such it was a perfect stop and a beautiful place. Its the most southern city of Chile, made a lot of money in the early 1900´s exporting wool, and is now a post-wool boom industrial town that is losing its wealth. The most exciting bit was that the Velas (Sails) were in town. Las Velas are a group of tall ships from each navy of south america that are sailing around the continent in honor of the
Wool
a homage to Punta Arena´s earlier wool boom days 200th anniversy of independance for most S. American nations. They´re massive, wooden, with huge sails (i.e. the tall ships we sometimes see in the US). We had just missed them in Ushuaia, so it was a pleasure to catch them here. And in honor of their port of call, there was a parade with each crew. So i played my hand at naming S. American flags. i did poorly and decided to brush up. but there was a lot of pride and excitment, and i learned ill be in Argentina or Chile for their 200th anniversiry of independance which takes place in May.
While there i also checked out a unique graveyard where the town´s wealthy families had constructed huge tombs to showcaser there wealth, visited an old wool-boomers mansion built in early 1900´s, and enjoyed some sun and warmer weather.
2. Puerto Natales & Torres Del Paine National Park: 5 Day Hike in Patagonia From Punta Arenas i bussed north to Puerto Natales, the jumping off point for Torres Del Paine National Park, the most popular and spectacular hiking in all of patagonia (so the say). I spent one day getting ready, and then set off
for a 5 day hike. I didnt know anyone else starting the same day, so i set out alone. but as always, i met a few people along the way, and before i knew it had a nice little group. However, my planning and food buying was a little off, so i ended up feasting every night. (i bought on the too much rather than too little side). so as opposed to small meals and really roughing it, i was quite content food wise.
The views were incredible, and weather interesting. It was the coldest hiking ive ever done. with the high of 5 days being 50'F and the lows below Freezing. we had rain every day (but luckily not all day), and 60 km/hr (35 mi/h) winds at times. In fact, we didnt even see the tops of the mountains (or the sheer magnificence of the park) until day 4 when the sun finally showed for a bit. But it was beautiful none-the-less. We saw granite towers, glaciers and glacier lakes, snow capped mountains, forested valleys, and endless fields.
Probably the most unique thing about the park, however, were the vicious mice. A lot of the campsites
Peaks
on day 4, once the sun came out and showed us what we had been missing had a mouse problem. More like a mouse on ´roids problems, cause these dudes were fierce. At night they would come out and tear through anything looking for food: tents, sleeping bags, back packs, plastic water-proof liners, you name it. So i spent each night huddled in the trenches (my tent) armed and ready (with my flashlight and arm), to scare off the enemy (tiny mice). Unfortunately, on night 3 my exhaustion got the better of me, and at 6 am one savage sneaked in and ran amock for a few minutes before i awoke and sent him running. The irony is that all my food was locked away in a cabin so i dont even know what he was after...possibly toothpaste or deoderant. or just more plastic.
It was the longest hike ive done yet, and definitely wet my apetitie for both more long backwoods hiking and warmth.
3. The Navimag: Cargo Ship or Backpackers Cruise? after my hike, i hopped on the Navimag: a cargo freighter that runs between Puerto Natales and Puerto Montt bringing goods. (Puerto Natales, Chile and everything south is cut off by land from the rest of Chile, so all
Navimag Night
Boarding the boat the night before we left. goods come by either boat or through argentina, which brings lots of taxes). So some odd years ago a cargo ship was modified to take on passengers for the journey. Being the off-season (the cold season), prices dropped considerably, and because we bought the tickets day of, we received huge discounts on the ticket.
So i spent 3 days on a cargo ship with about 120 other travellers. The route brought us through the southern fjords of Chile with mountains, volcanos, and glaciers in the distance, and sea lines, humpback whales, and shipwrecks in the foreground. Beautiful scenery all around. But, despite the cruise like feel of that description, we had constant reminders that we were on nothing more than a cargo ship. The most pungent of which was the occasional smells from 6-7 trailers packed full of cows (with nowhere to go for 3 days). But it was a neat feeling. There was a cafeteria, a bar, and an outside deck area, where we spent all our waking time. As for sleeping, i was in a 22 berth cabin divided up into small inlets with 4 beds each. a little tight, but part of the fun.
And,
with 120 travellers on a boat and nothing to do, we had a long continous party and met unusual, interesting people. On Day 2, the sun came out, and the entire day was spent on the small deck soaking up rays. It was hard to imagine that 3 days prior i was freezing my tail off in the middle of a 5 day hike. And during the rest of the trip, I read, played cards, organized a live person chess game (we gathered 16 people, so we played the big pieces and had giant size pawns on the board. I was the Black Knight.), made travel plans, and drank chilean wine.
All in all, a gread indulgence after 4 weeks of camping, hiking, and being cold.
4. The rest of chile. And now I´ve got about 1-2 more weeks in chile before getting back to Argentina. They say santiago is hot (not warm, but hot), so that is definitely on my list as well as some smaller lake towns and hiking activities a long the way. but ill be in touch.
lots of love to whoever is still reading this (my guess by now the
In The Tent
Torres Del Paine National Park numbers are dwindling)
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Trae
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:)
Everything looks amazing. I'm loving the updates, keep em coming. I'm sure you thought I'd be the last one to still be reading consistently! Miss you!