South
Patagonia - Chile
20.01.2014
Left Pucan
for a 5 hour bus drive to Puerto Montt, an overnight stop and then a flight to Punta Arenas
Another bus
tomorrow for a 3 hour drive to Puerto Natales, the gateway to the Torres del
Paine National Park. We are praying for
good weather for our 4 day visit – but good weather is only a possibility this
close to Antarctica .
22.01.2014
Arrived at
our hostel in Puerto Natales, quaint little town where tourism has taken over
from their mining past. Have 2 nights
here before the 3 hour bus to Torres del Paine.
Our hostel in Puerto Natales
24.01.2014
Torres del Paine
We were
half way through our bus trip from Puerto Natales, sitting directly behind the
driver’s cab when we spotted streams of smoke coming out of the dashboard. The cab was becoming immersed in smoke as the
driver pulled up and then fearing for his own safety - he abandoned ship –
leaving the 20 or so passengers onboard – reminiscent of the Costa Concordia
!!
After a
minute or so he did return to the bus to let us out, the smoke subsided once he
turned the ignition off, we were luckily able to transfer to a passing bus and
resume our journey – we are pleased the Chilean aircraft are more reliable than
the Chilean buses !
We have
finally arrived at the Torres del Paine National Park – WOW.
We had
totally miscalculated the size of the park, believing the distance between our
two locations was around 10 mile – in fact it was 75 kilometres. A couple of the treks we had planned were
impossible, as somebody had put a river between it and us! However all turned out OK, Hotel Lago Grey,
overlooking the Grey Glacier, was a lovely location for walks, and the
panoramic view from our room was to die for.
Trips to
the Grey Glacier via boat were cancelled due to the high winds, and boy were
they high, we had to abandon a hilltop walk at the halfway stage as it became
too dangerous, but the views were still worth the climb.
One trek
took took us across a small suspension bridge and around an island in Lago
Grey, you could just see the Grey Glacier from here, with icebergs from the
glacier aplenty.
Now to the Hotel
Les Torres – in the shadow of the Torres (towers). We had planned to attempt the full walk to
the Mirador directly from our hotel (only feet and horses are allowed ) but
were prepared cut it short as we knew it was pretty long and pretty tough. Stiff gradients up and down greeted us every
few kilometres, and just as you thought you were close to the summit, down and
then up again.
At one
point we thought we had finally conquered it, but realised we had another hour
of climbing over boulders before the towers came into view.
Unfortunately,
cloud and snow prevented us from having a clear view of these granite wonders,
but it was still a sight for sore limbs.
We were jubilantly satisfied with our achievement, but apprehensive, as we knew the return trip would be equally challenging.
We finally arrived
back at our hotel, totally shattered, 10 hours and 22 kilometeres after we set out, and did that
gin and tonic taste good!
Our final
view of The Torres del Paine
After 4
super nights in the national park it was time to leave and make our way back to
Puerto Nateles for a night before leaving Chile and crossing to Argentina
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