Tuesday 15 March 2011

Torres del Paine


11 March 2011

Now it feels like the holiday has started. We've flown down to Punta Arenas and rented a pickup truck which we have driven north to Torres del Paine.

It is absolutely amazing here. Very pretty scenery and fantastic mountains. Today we hiked up for a closer look of Las Torres (the towers).

We set off at 9 o'clock and came back at 17:15 with rather tired legs. We had by then managed to cover about 20 km. Doesn't sound like much, but most of it was uphill/downhill. All in all we climbed about 750 m. That is a lot for little me. But I survived! And it was well worth it. The view of the three towers Torre Norte, Torre Central and Torre Sur was fantastic! And we were so lucky, the sun was shining and hardly no clouds covered the towers. All in all a very good day!



Our hike up to the Valle del France wasn't so lucky. We got the catamaran across Lago Pehoe to Guardieria Avanzada. As we got off the boat, the wind picked up and the rain started to pour down. Nothing to do but to get the waterproofs out and start the hike. For the first hour all you could see was the path below your feet and the feet of the fellow infront of you. Not terribly exciting, but a true Pantagonian experience according to the experts (i.e. hubby).

Once we rounded the corner and arrived at Lago Skottsberg the rain stopped and the hike started to become enjoyable. As we walked along the lagoon we spotted a wind. I'm not kidding you, I can now say that I have seen a wind!

As we were happily walking along the lake, enjoying the lack of wind and rain we all of a sudden heard a gust of wind approaching us. And it was approaching us fast. We looked up and believe it or not but we could actually see the wind as it approached us. It was like a lowish and fast-moving dust cloud swishing over the tree tops. It was incredible, the speed it moved with (windspeed here can get up to over 100 km/h), the sound it made and that it was visible to see as it moved across the valley. It was gone as quickly as it appeared. I was very glad I was firmly down on the ground.

Later on we saw some winds blowing across the lagoon. Again pretty awesome. The wind moved like a frontier, picking up water as it moved across the lagoon. At the end there was a wall of water probably 20 meter up in the air. Incredible!

As you might guess, the weather here is pretty varied and extreme. And what more, it can change within 15 min.

Coming back from our walk up the French valley, we had managed to get dry and started to look forward to a rest after having walked about 22 km. Guess what happened when we had only 2 km left. Yep, the rain started to pelt down. And it really hurts when the raindrops hit your face. So the only way forward was with the head down. I can't say I've seen much of Guardieria Avanzada.



So in between our two walking days we had a rest day. This meant that we piled onto two minibuses that slowly toured the national park. Stopping to watch 20 odd condors as they fed on a dead guanaco. I never thought I'd be lucky to see a condor up close and here I got to see a whole gang of them. They had several young ones with them. You can spot them as they are brown and not black and white as the adults. They also don't fly so well meaning that they have to stay with their mothers for up to two years.



Well, so far we have fully enjoyed Pantagonia. We have three more days to spend here. Right now I'm in a freezing cold dome, laying in a bed with fleece sheets, two blankets and a seriously thick duvet admiring the stars whilst listening to Bob Marley playing in the central dome. Time to sleep, tomorrow is another day.

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