Today we went to Torres Del Paine, located in Southern Chile or otherwise known as Patagonia. Torres Del Paine is in a local language and translates to Towers of Blue. On the way to the Parque national we saw many guanacos, they are related to llamas, but the difference is all llamas are domesticated and guanacos are wild. Many of the guanacos would stop eating, raise their long necks and look at us which made me feel a bit sad and hungry. They are interesting animals with their long necks, soft fur and the ability to use spit as a defense, but they are so delicious. We were told inside the Parque National the population of pumas, called mountain lions and cougars in the United States, has boomed and that we had a good chance of seeing them and a couple weeks before we arrived, one was seen around our hotel.
When we arrived at our hotel, Ecocamp, we were led to our dome. It had a loft with two beds and two beds pushed together on the lower floor. We were told not to open all our stuff because we would leave tomorrow morning to go to the Refugio Paine Grande. To get to the Refugio we had to take a van to the dock, ride a short boat ride, pequino when compared to the Navimag ferry. When we arrived at the Refugio we dropped our bags and headed off to hike the French valley. Before we could reach the French valley, we had to hike 10 kilometers to get to the Italian camp then start the trek up the French Valley. On the way to the Italian camp, we passed through a forest, of burnt trees. Our guide, Mariana, told us the fire was started in December of 2011 when a guy, camping in an area he wasn’t supposed to camp in, decided to burn toilet paper. The small fire he made was blow out of control when the 90 kilometers per hour gust spread the fire to the Lenge trees and burned 18,000 hectares. When we made it to the Italian camp, we started the medium difficulty hike up to the French glacier. To get to the lookout we had to hike up the moraine of the glacier, the area where rocks were discarded as the glacier retreated. It was a little difficult to climb but the view was worth it. From the lookout, we could look down the valley and see the greyish blue lakes, gray from the sediments as the glaciers melted. Then, when we were standing and admiring the hanging glacier we hear a crack and watched as a chunk of ice fell off the numerous cliffs. As it rumbled down the cliffs it gathered snow and speed. When it reached the final cliff, it fell about 70 meters and lasted a few minutes. On the way back to the Refugio, we had a constant wind of 50 kilometers per hour and gusts of 90 kilometers per hour which scarred Maile enough to not go outside at the Refugio except when needed. At dinner, Maile begged my Dad not to do the next day’s hike because she was afraid she would blow away.
View of the French Valley Glacier
The next day my Dad and I hiked the trail to Glacier Grey. Maile, because she was terrified by the concept of wind as strong as yesterday, wimped out of the hike. The hike to the lookout was uneventful. There were gray clouds that followed us all day. When we made it to the lookout we saw Glacier Grey and some icebergs in Lago Grey. At the lookout we were given a choice, hike eight more kilometers to the shore and hope that the boat is not canceled; if the ferry was canceled we would have to run 16 kilometers to get the 6:30 ferry at the Refugio or turn back now and get the 1:30 ferry. We decided to catch the 1:30 ferry and not test our luck because yesterdays ferry was canceled due to wind and today was supposed to have the same weather. We got to the Refugio an hour earlier than the boat left and relaxed. We boarded the ferry, rode to the other side, saw some waterfalls and learned that the boat did run on time.
Grey Glacier
The final day we were going to do the base of the towers hike. We started early, just like every other morning, and started the trail. Before we could get to the actual trail we had to walk two kilometers on the dirt road then cross a bridge to the other side. We waited in line and watched ten people cross at a time, and as we got closer to the bridge we noticed a sign. The sign read, “Two people at a time please.” After that, we started the ascent of the trail. When we made it to a big tree growing in the middle of the path my Mom decided to turn around. She hurt her leg going down the French valley and didn’t want to hurt herself again. Maile didn’t want Mom to leave, and so she had a meltdown. It took about thirty minutes for her to calm down; the only thing that motivated her to continue was the prospect of getting a life-sized emperor penguin plush. The trail only got steeper and more hazardous from there. We decided to take the horse trail because it was cleared of debris and the dirt was packed down. After we rounded the windy pass we descended into the valley and into the Chileno camp. From there we continued to hike up the valley and across bridges until we reached the moraine of the glacier. This moraine was the hardest thing I have climbed in my life! There were huge rocks in the trail you had to go over. On the way up, we saw a team of people pulling and pushing this form of a wheelchair so that a disabled woman could see the towers. When we finally made it to the top the first thing that caught my eye was not the towers, but the numerous waterfalls that fell hundreds of meters from the hanging glaciers to a lake below. Our feet hurt so much when we reached the lookout we called the hike “Towers of Pain”. We ate lunch at the base of the Towers and took some pictures of the glacier-fed waterfalls with the towers in the background. Then we saw a crazy person take off his shirt, grab a bottle of wine, walk into the water and swim in the freezing cold water. Just for a picture. Then we saw another person do the same thing. After that, we walked down and made it back to the domes at Ecocamp to relax.
