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Published: February 5th 2007
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Well, Dave is having to write this entry because Kevyn blew away in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine in Chile. As the hurricane force winds blew her off the trail, she was heard screaming¨"But I paid alot of money to suffer like this...". Okay, I´m kidding of course, but it isn´t that far from the truth, it was really windy!
We left Punta Arenas on the first bus we could on Monday. We headed to Puerto Natales, the gateway to Torres del Paine, and only a three hour bus ride this time. We found a nice little hostel (Casa de Teresa) with super friendly staff. We made our preparations for getting to the park and then for connecting to another bus after our hike, so that we wouldn´t have to backtrack 2.5 hours to Puerto Natales, like many people do. It was a bit more expensive this way, but it was worth it. We finally found something non-pizza or pasta to eat for dinner ( I know, I know...we need to try the meat...we´re working our way up to it!!!). We ate in a groovy little place with super tasty miso soup.
The next morning, we
got on yet another bus to the park...to Laguna Armaga where the park ranger station is and the start of the mini-trek we decided to do. We´re quite sure the hiking in this park is spectacular, but we´ve been kind of put off by the uber-touristy-ness of it all, so we decided to just do an overnight. If our trip was longer, we would have done the whole circuit around the Torres, but instead opted for the hike up to their base (Campento Las Torres).
So we started hiking and it was extremely windy. After about 30 minutes, we started to flash those " what are we thinking?" glances at one another. We had thoughts of just camping down at the bottom and doing the rest as a day hike, but kept hoping it would get better. We really did joke about how much we had paid to get there, and really we should get the most suffering for our dollar! So, we pressed on. The wind was howling, and more than one gust had me on my knees. Once, Dave actually had to grab me as I was being pushed down the trail. But we pressed on. Yes,
Our first look at the Torres
...from the park entrance at Laguna Armaga where we met our first Chilean Guarde Parque (Park Ranger) it seemed stupid at the time, too, but oh well! A few times we had to try to take cover near (or hold on to!) the few trees along the way. It was comical, really.
We chatted (yelled over the wind, actually) with a Kiwi couple on their way back down and asked whether or not the campground was in a more sheltered area. They had stayed in the refugio the night before but had hiked up to the campground we wanted to go to and said it was in the trees. So, we pressed on. We reached the Refugio Chileano and finally were able to take a break. We made some yummy cheese and avocado sandwiches and felt much better.
The remainder of the hike was much easier...steep, but mostly in the trees, so not so windy. We reached the Campamento Las Torres and set up camp. We continued on our wine taste-tasting program...this time hauling two small boxes of wine (120 Santa Maria and Magic 8 Ball(or something name like that)...the latter winning the evening´s taste test. Yeah, we drank èm both. The hike to the base of the Torres was another 45 minutes up from
Dirt road at the beginning of the hike
we cheated a bit and paid $2 for a minibus for the first 7 km. wimps? maybe. the camp. A lot of people camping there did the hike that evening since we had all heard that that morning had been zero visibility and snow flurries up there. We decided to risk it and go for the sunrise photo the next day. Okay, our feet kind of hurt too. But nonetheless, we went to bed pretty early.
We woke up in the dark and hiked the steep, rocky climb up to the lookout spot with headlamps. We were a little early, but it was nice and quiet, and it was fun to hike under the stars. The Torres were visible, but the clouds to the east didn´t allow for much of the famous pink sunrise light. We got a tiny bit, and still enjoyed the experience immensely. It was very cold up there, and I had on every piece of clothing I had and was still freezing.
Once the sun was up and we had our fill of snapping photos, we hiked back down to camp. We packed up and were gone. A quick stop at the refugio for a $2 cup of Nescafe also let us wait out a quick little rain storm. Fortunately there
was no wind at all and the hike down was quick.
We got back down to the bottom, cooked up a yummy lunch of kidney bean and onion burritos (we were pretty stoked to find Tortillas in the market in Punta Arenas...the only ones we´ve seen anywhere). Then we waited about 5 hours for our bus to El Calafate. We saw many, many guanacos, and some more flamingos on the ride out of the park. It was a good little taste of the park.
Now, off to El Calafate (back in Argentina for a bit) to sort ourselves out, do some laundry, and plan the next stop...Nacional Parque de Los Glaciares. Thanks for reading.
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Dad
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Pretty Cool
Freezing cold, wine in a box and rocks to stumble on in the dark....really does sound like fun ;-) At least compared to paying bills and taking the Blazer to be fixed. You can feel good about driving it next time, door fixed, oil not dripping, new windshield and looks and smells like a new car. Keep up the postings and photos...Love, Dad