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Published: January 24th 2009
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Puerto Natales streets
Exploring the streets of Puerto Natales...lots of friendly street dogs to be found. Just got back to Puerto Natales after seven days in Torres del Paine Parque Nacional. Both of us really enjoyed this part of the trip, we had beautiful scenery, got to hike an average of 20 km a day, and met lots of fun people.
We started from Lago Amargo, hiked into Camp Las Torres and completed El Circuito going counter-clockwise. We planned for ten days (mostly just in case we had bad weather at John Gardner Pass), but only needed six. The scenery was incredibly varied, although I wish we had seen more wildlife (we did see guanacos and condors on the bus drive into the park). The trails were mostly easy and well-marked. We only really had bad weather going up to the pass (I think it was a 3000 foot elevation gain) and on the way down. Pelting, cold rain made it difficult to navigate, let alone open your eyes. I can't imagine what the wind in the pass actually was, but tt was predicted to be 90km/hr at the base of the mountain the day we crossed over.
One thing we did notice and hadn´t heard about before, others may be interested. The refugio owners
Fields of Daisies!
Awh! Couldn´t you just kick your heels up with joy? Mark and I both could, as we walked through this field on the way to Refugio Seròn, our first day hiking. seem to really want your patronage, especially the more poorly placed ones that don´t receive a steady income of hikers. They don´t appreciate you hanging around (even if only to cook lunch) if you aren´t going to pay to camp. Or, for instance, we actually had one refugio owner tell us we couldn´t continue on the trail because the rivers were flooded, up to shoulder height. He got on his radio with other refugio owners, talking back and forth about trail passing possibilities. They all agreed, it was not safe to continue and no one was on the trail in either direction. We couldn´t believe this was the case (what about all of the campers who wouldn´t have stopped by the refugio like we did but kept on hiking? there were no signs declaring danger along the trails), and we continued on and found all rivers in passable conditions. A bold move to get gullable hikers to pay to camp for the night.
Hiking the 'W' at the end of the Circuit was entertaining at times, to see the fashionable people avoiding mud puddles and trying not to sweat too much, but the scenery in these parts was definitely
Hiking towards Los Perros
Day 2, we hiked a total of 30 km, skipping over a Refugio at Lago Dickson (where the owner seemed pretty unfriendly because we weren´t camping there). This is somewhere...midday. Maybe just after Mark decided to pass some hikers on an uphill climb... the best. The Cuernos and the Torres were great to see at the end of the hike, a grande finale. Now, a few days in Puerto Natales to decide what is next. What is next? We´ll see...
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Ale
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Qué hermoso lugar!!!!
Nos alegramos mucho de que estén realizando un viaje tan lindo. Siempre los recordamos y los niños preguntan por ustedes. Cariños de todos!!!!!