After our icy experience in El Calafate, we made our way by private transport accross the border into Chile to Torres Del Paine National Park. This is as close as we have been to the end of South America, which is still a six hour drive away, but close enough. El Calafate is only 58 miles away from Las Torres as the crow flys, but it took 5 hours to get here because we had to drive a long way around to avoid large mountain peaks and lakes. We are staying at a hosteria called Las Torres that sits at the base of one of the major mountains in the park. The view is spectacular. There are snow capped mountains and lakes full of torquoise glacier water all around. As we rode on the bumpy road into the park, we could see all sorts of wildlife. There were grey foxes, rheas, which are large birds similar to ostriches, guanacos (see above, think of a cross between a deer and a llama) and even a few condors.
The park has no telephone lines and is 2 hours from the nearest town. Las Torres has access to the internet via sattelite, which is how we are able to continue writing this blog, and make updates on Facebook ;-)
On our first full day in the park one of the guides, Pedro, took us out on a horseback ride into the hills above the hosteria. The path was very rocky and steep in places, and we soon started seeing snow on the ground. Pedro told us some about the area. The hosteria we were staying at was owned by a family which has been on this land for several generations. They owned the land before the government designated Torres del Paine a national park in the 1970's. As a result, the family still owns the plot of land inside the park, and allows hikers to walk the trails.
Pedro also told us about the fauna in the area. Torres del Paine is puma territory (in the States we would call it a mountain lion) , and there were 2 to 3 cats in the area at the time. However, Pedro said that the cats here were not as aggressive as the pumas in the United States, and rarely approached people. I asked if the cats bothered the horses at all. He said the horses didn't really like the pumas, but didn't freak out and bolt when they were around. Pretty tough horses if you ask me.
We rode for a while until it got too cold and the snow was too deep. We were worried about the horses slipping, so we headed back to the stables for lunch. In the afternoon we took another ride in the valley where it was less snowy. We even galloped a few times, though with my limited horse riding skills, I nearly fell off several times. Anna did much better than I did. She and her horse got along right away.
The following day, Pedro took us on a hike up to try to see the towers that the park is named after. Paine is the local indigenous word for blue, and so Torres del Paine means the Blue Towers. Behind the mountain we were staying under, there are three peaks that have near vertical sides. Each looks like a giant tower with jagged tops. With all the limestone in the area, the peaks have a blue hue to them, giving them their name. In order to get to the spot to see them best, we walked up a narrow mountain pass which was covered in bolders and loose gravel. The walk was fairly rugged and several times we walked along the edge of a dropoff into the river below.
(Perdro, our guide)
About half way up we began walking through some pretty thick snow with ice underneath that made the footing slippery. We finally made it to the final check point after 5 hours of hiking. By then it was past 1 pm, and there was still 2 hours to go up the steepest slope yet to get to the viewing point. We decided that it wouldn't be practical to continue on and decided to make our way back down. Overall, it was about eight hours of hiking, and we were pretty tired, but the views and terrain we were able to see were worth it.
(Me and Pedro trying not to kill ourselves walking down the slippery path. Sorry, my eyes are closed.)
On our third full day in the park, Anna and I struck out on our own for a couple of days of hiking and camping on our own. The trail we took was lower in eleveation, but it was still pretty rugged going over hill after rocky hill. On top of that, we were both carrying fairly heavy loads in our packs, which made the going slower. We made our next camp site after about 6 hours of hiking.
One of the things about Patagonia is that the weather is extremely unpredictable. Snow storms and gale force winds can seem to come up out of nowhere. When we set up camp it was calm, and a little cold. With our thick sleeping bags we were warm enough. After midnight, the wind picked up and began blowing down the valley hard. We were fine inside out tent, but it was difficult to get good sleep with the walls of the tent slapping in the wind. The wind continued throught the next day, and most of our walk was in stong swirling winds.
(Glacier Frances)
We spent that day walking to the next valley and back. There was a small glacier to see on the way, and Anna saw a small avalanche happen. The wind blew the entire way, and at one point it was nearly strong enough to knock us over. We made it to the next camp, which was closed up for the winter. Its name was Camp Italiano. It had a small trail sign showing how far it was to Rome. After checking out the area for a bit, we headed back to our first camp, broke it down, and tried to get a head start back to Las Torres before we camped again.
That night we set up camp just off the trail up on a hill with a great view of Lake Nordenskjold. We were woken several times during the night by passing animals outside. At one point, we heard something startled by our flapping tent run away with heavy steps. The following morning we found large paw prints just outside our tent. We still can't decide if it was a large fox, or a puma running with its claws out. Either way, we were both glad we weren't outside when it came around. The next morning we lugged our heavy packs back to Las Torres. We made better time because we had eaten alot of the food and water we had brought with us, thus reducing the weight, but we were still tired by the time we got back.
I will say that this place near the bottom of the world is one of the most beautiful places we have visited. It has a wild ruggedness to it that is extremely appealing, and there is something almost spiritual in seeing condors in the distance circling around the jagged towers in the sky. - Scott
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