Advertisement
Published: February 25th 2007
Chile´s Best National Park - 9th to 14th February We spend a day running around Puerto Natales trying to sort out our Torres Del Paine trip. Its also an incredibly frustrating day as we have to find out whats happening with our tickets for the cruise to Antarctica and end up running to a fax machine to send all the details still needed, even though the trip is less than 2 weeks away! I´ve also managed to forget my PIN numbers for both my cards so we´re left with Kate´s card, which has a daily withdrawal restriction. We realise we can´t get enough money out that day to pay for our trip to the National Park so we have a stressful evening waiting until midnight to finally withdraw some more money!! Eventually it is all sorted and we can relax, after we´ve packed of course. So we then have the stress of realising that not everything will fit into our small day sacks so we need to carry one big back pack and one smaller one - jammed solid with clothes for all weathers, a tent, sleeping bags, roll mats, cooking stove and food etc! We pack them up and
I´m quite nervous about how heavy they are - we´re going to spend a couple of days trekking with these things. Needless to say, we get to bed late and have to get up early the next day. I don´t sleep well at all, after having nightmares about carrying such a heavy load!
We´re up early the next day for a day tour into the park. On the way to the park we stop at the Cuevo de Milodon. In 1896, a local resident found a scrap of hairy skin and a few bones in a large cave near his property that were later determined to be from a Milodon, a prehistoric ground sloth. Its pretty cheesy, of course the bones have now been removed, but the cave is still worth a visit. Its huge and you can easily imagine prehistoric animals and man living here.
We then drive to the park - Frommers describes the park as being "Chile's prized jewel, a national park so magnificent that few in the world can claim a rank in its class. Granite peaks and towers soar from sea level to upward of 2,800m (9,184 ft.). Golden pampas and the rolling
steppes are home to llama like guanacos and more than 100 species of colourful birds, such as parakeets, flamingos, and ostrich like rheas. During the spring, Chilean fire bush blooms a riotous red, and during the autumn, the park's beech trees change to crimson, sunflower, and orange. A fierce wind screams through this region during the spring and summer, and yet flora such as the delicate porcelain orchids and lady slippers somehow weather the inhospitable terrain. Electric-blue icebergs cleave from Glacier Grey. Resident gauchos ride atop sheepskin saddles. Condors float effortlessly even on the windiest day. This park is not something you just visit; it is something you experience". And they are not wrong with that description!
Actually it is exceptional and we´re incredibly lucky with the weather. The first stop on the tour is for a view of the Torres - 3 granite towers piercing the sky. Its a fantastic site and we´re privileged to see the towers in their full glory with no clouds around them - the first time in 35 days this has happened. We drive further into the park on this beautiful sunny day and stop many times to take photos of these magnificent
mountains, scattered with deep blue lakes. I can´t really do it justice with words, but the park is one of the most beautiful places we´ve ever visited.
The tour goes to Lago Grey where we decide to get off. We´re supposed to be rough camping tonight but there is a posh Hosteria here with views of the lake so on the off chance we ask if they have availability - such a shame that they do have space, so we book in for the night! We wander down to the beach and walk for about 3 hours across it and around a mirador. Lago Grey has a glacier at one end of it. There are great views across the lake to this glacier and there are also several icebergs in the lake. These have broken off from the glacier and floated down the lake.
In the evening we have dinner in the hotel and for once we feel like we deserve it as we´ve done some exercise during the day!
The next day we´re off kayaking around the icebergs that we saw in glacier grey. We´re kitted out in a wetsuit and a spray top. Its an
overcast day today, which is good for us as you can see the blue of the icebergs better. Also there isn´t any wind which is brilliant as this makes for a much smoother journey on the water and less chance of falling in. We certainly don´t want to fall in a glacial fed lake! We wander down to the beach and are shown how to use our bright yellow kayaks. Kate and I are in one together - I´m at the back so that I can steer and Kate is at the front so that she can take photos. Some things never change! We paddle across the lake and around a headland to the other side where the icebergs are waiting for us. Some of the formations we saw the previous day have melted but there are still 3 huge icebergs that we paddle to. They are an electric blue and we paddle right up to them and touch them. We can paddle under the areas where the waves have melted the base, and ice cold water drips on us! We give the camera to our guide so that he can take photos for us. We´re out on the water
for a couple of hours exploring these beautiful blue blocks of ice. We´re quite cold by the end but this has been one of our favourite activities in the whole 4 months of travelling so far.
We have a packed lunch back at the hosteria and then we catch a boat across Lago Grey to the other side. The boat travels close to the huge glacier at the other end. We get off the boat and this is our true test as we´re now carrying the back packs. The trail leads up hill, some parts quite challenging. It passes through forests and by a lake, but gives great views of the lake and the glacier. It takes about 5 hours but finally we reach our destination at Pehoe refugio. We camp for the night by the edge of the lake. Its a small site nestled into the hill side with views of "The Horns" in the distance - mountains with large strips of granite running through the. We´re both really tired and unsurprisingly sleep really well through the night!
We wake up the next day are still undecided about our route. We look at the weather forecast in
the refugio and it puts us off the walk up to the base of the towers as snow is forecast! Its another beautiful day so we decide to hike to a free campsite about 3 hours away. We take all our stuff and hike up hill following the contours of the mountain. We´re rewarded with good views across the lakes, which are a deep blue. En-route, we bump into a few friends we met on the Navimag cruise. They look a bit tired as they are on their final day but its good to catch up with them! We have to cross a very scary suspension bridge to get to our campsite - only 2 people are allowed on at a time and it swings wildly in the strong wind. We don´t have much balance with our heavy back packs! We reach the campsite safely and bump into a couple more friends from the Navimag (Jon and Claire). We pitch the tent and decide to have a little rest before we hike some more, but whoops our little nap turns into 2 hours! We´re about to set off for another walk, when lo and behold, Jon and Claire turn up
so we sit around and chat for awhile - such a shame to miss the walk :-)
The next day we get up and walk up the side of the French Valley. We following a rushing river and climb over boulders to get a good view back down the valley and of the snow capped mountains further up the valley. There are glaciers hanging of the mountain so we sit and admire the view for awhile. Eventually we go back and collect our stuff and hike the route back to the Pehoe refugio. Its easier going this way as it is mostly downhill. We arrive at the campground in good time and sit and bask in the afternoon sun. I don´t know what happened to the snow that was forecast as its another beautiful day!
There´s a free kitchen & shelter at the campsite so in the evening we sit in the shelter and cook and play cards. We also reward ourselves with some wine (well 2 litres actually) as we´ve had a few dry days so far! We chat to two Australian girls next to us and have a laugh. And then out of nowhere French William
(from the Navimag) appears! Its weird hiking around this park and keep bumping into people we´ve met on the Navimag but its also nice to see some friendly faces.
We get up early the next day to catch the 10am catamaran across Lake Pehoe. At the other side we leave our stuff at one the huts - I like Chile as everything feels very safe. We then hike with French William for a couple of hours to visit a waterfall and for more great panoramic views of the park. The next catamaran links up with the buses out of the park so we make sure we´re back in good time to get a seat on the bus. Some people have to stand as it so busy. We make the journey back to Puerto Natales feeling pleased with ourselves for having achieved so much in the park. We saw everything we wanted to see and managed to hike with the heavy back packs. I feel quite proud of us although I´m tired! We also feel very lucky as we´ve seen the park in such good weather. Some people we´d bumped into had rain and cloud so you don´t get the
fantastic views we had. All the way back to town we kept talking about how lucky we were to have had the chance to experience such an unspoilt place & beautiful place & how easy it had been to organize our trip to the park..
In the evening back in Puerto Natales, we go out for a pizza and meet up with Claire and John. We have a fun evening but then its relatively early to bed as we have to catch an early bus the next day and say a sad farewell to Chile but a fond hello to Argentina.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.247s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 22; qc: 114; dbt: 0.1363s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
william
non-member comment
The french william
Hola girls, I hope everything is going well in the south. I am in Buenos Aires. Last stop before going back home the next week. Big kiss my valentines grils Guillaume