Blogs from Torres del Paine, Magallanes, Chile, South America - page 17

After expecting another boring day of driving to get to the Torres del Paine National Park (via Puerto Natales to stock up on provisions) we were very excited to come across a lake full of flamingos. A few people watched from the truck as the rest of us clambered over a barbed wire fence to stalk the flamingos, all for that perfect photo, which wasn’t really captured on our 3 x zoom cameras! We arrived at our campsite in the national park, located in beautiful surroundings by Lake Pehoe, in good time to empty out our big rucksacks and re-pack with the essentials for the next few days. Chris, myself, Mahnee and Duncan (who had joined us in Puerto Madryn to train up as the new truck driver) were the only 4 who had opted to ... read more

When I first decided to travel round the world for a year or so, one of my greatest concerns was how I would manage to get around South America when I didn't really speak the language. The idea of doing it all on my own, and the risk of ending up in the wrong location, or even the wrong country, was a little concerning. So, I booked a three week trip though Patagonia with a tour company known as Tucan, thinking that easing into the solo trips might be a good idea. Of course, after I arrived in Argentina I went off and explored Iguazu and Mendoza by myself, so I was feeling a lot more confident in my abilities to find my way around South America by the time I flew south to Ushuaia to ... read more

The trip is beginning to come to an end so it was time to really organise what we have to do in our last 12 or so days. One of things I did not want to miss out on was The Torres del Paine in Patagonian Chile near the city of Puerta Natales. So after we had seen the biggest continental glaciar in the world we headed for Puerto Natales for one night to get ourselves ready for a two day trek to Torres. Our one night in Natales was nice, we camped near the main centre and met a nice French couple. That evening we went to the Banff Film Festival and enjoyed some short movies on mountaineering etc. We headed to bed after as we were up at 6am to head to the National ... read more

After a few days settled in Argentina and Parque Nacional los Glaciares, it was time to hit the road again and head back to Chile and Chile’s first national park - Torres del Paine. It was about 4 or 5 hours drive and a border crossing from El Calafate. It was another late evening arrival and we found somewhere to camp at Campamento Torres. If we’d thought we were on the gringo trail in PN Los Glaciares, we were well and truly on the trail now. The park is full of hotels and campsites and the campsite at Torres was a sea of tents. Unfortunately, we had arrived at the park with hardly any food, due to the border restrictions when crossing over into Chile, which do not allow fresh produce (fruit, vegetables, meat etc) to ... read more

Beste allemaal, Eindelijk weer een computer kunnen vinden voor een korte samenvatting van onze avonturen hier. :) En avonturen hebben we zeker beleefd!! Puerto Natales Het verhaal begint met de voorbereidingen voor (eindelijk) onze eerste meerdaagse trektocht die we gemaakt hebben. Dit hebben we gedaan in het park Torres del Paine in Chili. Voordat het zover was hebben we onszelf een aantdal dagen rust gegeven in het dichtsbijzijnde plaatsje Puerto Natales. Een gezellig, maar toeristisch plaatsje met veel zwerfhonden. De zwerfhonden zijn erg bijzonder hier want ze zien er allemaal eigenlijk wel redelijk goed uit. En ze zijn vooral op zoek naar gezelschap en lopen dus constant achter elke voorbijganger aan en dat straten lang, ook vaak tot aan de camping waar wij op zaten. Het is echt een komen en gaan van honden door heel ... read more