Tao 17: Torres del Paine

Our next stop in South America is Chile’s Torres Del Paine National Park.  Torres Del Paine is well known for its hiking tracks around the iconic rock towers, which are not unlike the ones we saw in El Chalten.  Paine means blue in the native language.  So the name of the park literally translates to “towers of blue”.

The bus from El Calafate to Puerto Natales on the Chilean side took more than 5 hours. We had to pass through customs twice – one for exiting Argentina and another for entering Chile.

There was a full bus ahead of us so there's a long line at the Argentina border

Puerto Natales is a sleepy little town not far from the Chile-Argentina border.  Granted, Chile is such a narrow country, no town is far away from national borders.  Like El Calafate, the town’s main purpose is to act as a hub for tourists.  In this case, tourists heading to Torres Del Paine.

Early morning scene in Puerto Natales

We are staying in a B&B not far from the town square.  It was a pretty run down place.  The bed was soft and room was warm, but the makeshift shower stall is terrible.  There were minimal waterproofing in the bathroom. When we were showering, the water went into cracks on wall-papered walls and rotten floor boards. There were apparently water damage already because the way the floor moves when you walk around in the bathroom.  I half expected the floor under the tub to give when taking a shower and me falling down to the basement or whatever there was down below.

We have not booked lodging in the park.  First thing after we drop our bags was heading for the Fantastico Sur office.  This is the company that owns much of the lodging in the park.  Luckily we were able to secure beds for our first two days in the park.  We’ll worry about the remaining days when we get there.  It’s time for our favorite activity – dining.

Our host recommended a place named Ultima Esperanza. Chile is known for fresh seafood thanks to its long coast line.  We were eager to give it a try.

The Ultima Esperanza, it may not look much from the outside, but the food is definitely first rate

Light beer made from Calafate berries. This is a Patagonia specialty.

The place did not disappoint. I ordered king crab plate and it’s outstanding. Tracy loved her food as well.  She had something like a casserole with king crab meat.  It’s so good that we are going to come back two more times.  The place is not cheap though – the damage is $32,000.  It’s Chilean Pesos, thank God (about 500:1).

In Patagonia, we often see locals holding one of these things in hand and drink from it.  This is Yerba mate, kind of a social drink in the region.  The local people collect leaves from a type of Holly tree, then dry and crush the leaves and use it to make tea.  This is often shared amongst family and friends.  We tried it once in El Calafate. To me, it tasted like strong herbal tea.

The shelters in Torres Del Paine are called Refugios.  We arrived at Refugio Las Torres Norte on the next day just before noon, and immediately saw Maarten sitting on the front steps massaging his feet.

We knew they were coming here, but they were supposed to be two days ahead of us.  Turned out that they couldn’t go from east to west (the direction we will be going) like they intended to because the beds were sold out here.  They had to start from Refugio Paine Grande on the west side.  It took them two days to walk here. So here they are. We ended up sharing a 6-bed room with them as well.  Talk about coincidence.

Maarten, Tracy and Joke in front of Refugio Las Torres Norte

The four of us together

The weather was not good.  There was a light drizzle.  The cloud was low.  The mountain peaks were not visible at all.  Since there’s no guarantee tomorrow would be better, we each took a day pack and started climbing toward the towers anyway.

By this time both of us were reasonably fit from the daily exercises.  The climbing did not take much of an effort.  When we got to the Torres Camp site the rain started to pick up.  We went into the camp site resting area to get some shelter from the rain.

We met an older Japanese guy here.  He did not have a booking, so he had to sleep on the ground here in his sleeping bag.  We learned that he recently retired from work, and had been traveling in South America for six months now, mostly sleeping in camp sites.  Now that’s some adventuring spirit.

After saying goodbye to him, we resumed the last stretch of the climb.  When we get to the top it’s as we expected – we can’t see much.

The far side of the lake is completely obscured by cloud and fog

There’s not even a hint of the towers on the far side of the lake.  It should have looked like this picture from wikitravel.  No matter, we came just for the exercises:)

Another shot of the barren mountain top

Back to Refugio Las Torres Norte

The next day we bode farewell to Maarten and Joke, then started west toward Refugio Cuernos. They will head back to El Calafate today, then fly back to the Netherlands from there.

Sign pointing everywhere at the trail start

Sprawling expanse of a hotel at the trail start. We cannot afford a room here.

Just after trail start, the day is a lot more promising than yesterday.

This section of the trail is mostly flat terrain.  On the other hand, we were both carrying our full backpack.  It could still be a bit of a struggle going up hill.

Beautiful pink flowers, and next to them are ... let's just say there are lots of wild life around, watch where you step.

Tracy climbing a small hill. She huffs and puffs, but managed to appear effortless just for the photo

A group on a horse back riding tour

A guy with a seriously misaligned backpack.

Some of the lakes we pass by had very different colors.  In the photo below, the water of the closer lake was very dark, while the far lake was a much brighter turquoise, not unlike the lakes we saw in the Mount Cook region of New Zealand.

Fire bush and snow covered mountain

We saw an abandoned backpack and heard some noises in the bushes

Most of today’s trekking was along Lago Nordenskjold.  The weather turned overcast later on.  Occasionally patches of blue sky could be seen through the thick clouds.

The wind was blowing hard alone the lake shore.  The white line on the lake surface were water droplets lifted from the lake by wind gusts.

About 3 and half hours later we saw our next shelter.  Woohoo!!

Refugio Cuernos from afar

A bed with 3 levels, cool huh? Last time I've seen this was on a sleeper train.

Because cars cannot get up here, locals use horses to get supplies up

View from Refugio Cuernos

The sun was setting, the wind was blowing

We met a group of four Singaporeans at dinner time and strike up a fast friendship.  They also hail from the New York area.  Two of them are moving back to Singapore.  So they organized this trip before the move.  We are heading in the same direction.  Most likely we are going to see them again tomorrow in the French Valley.

We were lucky to be able to secure another night at this refugio.  Tomorrow’s hike is supposed to be challenging, and we want to be able to leave our heavy packs here in the room.

The next day started cloudy with strong wind.  Although it was not raining, it sure felt like it hiking along the lake.  Wind-blown water droplets hit us like heavy horizontal rain.

Rainbow from tiny water droplets in the air

A section of the trail was right on the lake shore at water level.  This part was the worst with “horizontal rain” pouring from the lake.  We had to watch for the “white line” and dash for the next tree to hide behind when it passes. By the time we got through, both of us were completely wet on the left side (lake side).  Luckily, hiking generates lots of heat.  Our clothes were dry after an hour or so of walking.  The sun peeking out from time to time also helped.

Watch out for the "white line"

After the Italian Camp, the trail veered away from the lake and headed into the valley.  Along the trail we could still see large section of a glacier.  Many of the landmarks in the park are named after the nationality of the early explorers to this region, hence names like Italian Camp, French Valley, etc.

When we started the final ascent, it was still quite foggy

These curious fungi are like little yellow golf balls. We learned later that they were actually edible. I wish we knew earlier ...

The weather was heading in the right direction as we climb.  Sky was turning blue and the fog was dispersing. Our spirit also lifted.

This green lump is an indigenous plant that grows very slowly. Locals used to use it for fire.

At the top of the trail was a huge rock formation.  We climbed up and took all kinds of trophy pictures.

After concluding our self-gratifying photo session, we started down the hill.  When we stopped at the Britain Camp for lunch we met up with the group from Singapore again. We chatted over cold sandwich and icy water about all the heavenly food in Singapore.  It’s then, when we were cold and hungry, when we made up our mind to visit Singapore, sooner than later. They were heading to the next refugio while we stay one more night. With the promise to look them up when we visit Singapore, we said goodbye and headed back.

From the left, Tao, Tracy, Choon, Angela, Liang Tek and Sam

By now it's sunny and bright.

The next day was to be our last day in Torres Del Paine.  We skipped Glacier Grey because we were told it did not have much over the Moreno Glacier, which we have seen in Argentina.

There’s no wind at all along the lake. It’s hard to imagine how much we had to struggle around the lake yesterday.

The sign for the Italian Camp

Tracy crossing a suspension bridge right after the Italian Camp

Ranger station at Refugio Paine Grande

We have some of the easiest terrain today.  We got to our destination just after 10:30AM.  The ferry leaves at 12:30.  We still have plenty of time to have a cup of coffee and walk around the camp grounds.

Tracy charging into the coffee shop

Not many guests at this hour

The tent site at Refugio Paine Grande

Our backpacks taking a break

Ferry docks

The catamaran was right on time.  We crossed the lake and was on the bus back to Puerto Natales in no time.  There were herds of Guenacos running free in the park.  They are a local camelid specie like the llamas.

Rather blurry picture of a Guanaco I shot from the bus

We have one more day in Puerto Natales.  I arranged for a half-day horseback ride in a local estancia (horse ranch).  The owner, Paula, came to pick us up in the morning.  Paula went to high school for one year in Washington, and speaks good English. Her family came to Chile from east Europe in the 19th century and settled down as cattle farmers.  She grew up with horses.  It’s easy to tell as she was completely at ease on horseback, unlike us   It’s good these saddles have a handle to hold on to in front.

A shot from my horse. That's Paula in front.

Looking professional in the right attire

We’ve both ridden horses a few times before in the States. On all of those riding tours our horses just walked slowly.  On this trip we trotted and even cantered toward the end of the 2-hour trip.  I never thought riding a horse could be this much fun.  Especially when the horse canters, the motion is so smooth it felt like you were floating on the saddle – it’s exhilarating.

On the next day we took the 5-hour bus back to El Calafate in Argentina.  We stayed one more night at Rukahue.  Adrianna made sure we had everything we needed.  When we left for the airport it almost felt like leaving family.  Adrianna hugged and kissed us and kept waving as our bus drove away.  Other tourists on the bus looked at us curiously, probably wondering if we were family – yes, I have been mistaken as a local a few times by European tourists who came up to me and asked questions in broken Spanish. Heh, go figure 

With Adrianna and Santiago in Hotel Rukahue

Whew!  This is a long post.  We left El Calafate on November 19th.  We will be flying into Ushuaia, the world’s southernmost city.  Then it’s off to Antarctica.