Wednesday 11 December 2013

Patagonia

I arrived in El Chalten November 19. The next day I crossed the border into Chile to go tramping in Torres del Paine National Park.

Two months ago my thighs felt like steel after nine weeks on a bicycle. Well it does not take long to lose all that fitness. So I was a bit worried about how the body would hold up tramping in Patagonia. One would of course assume I would be sensible and break myself in gently. And for the first day I did only walk for about 5-6 hours! However to complete the circuit in the time I had available required 10 to 11 hour days. So you could almost call my first day a "rest day"? In fact I ended up taking an extra day and extending the trip to 6 days as my legs and feet were complaining so bitterly by the end. Normally people take 7-9 days to complete this tramp. But I have to say it was worth the effort.

Torres del Paine is a tourist trail which means there are lots of trampers here. Most people only do half the circuit around the mountain which they call the "W" because that is the shape of the track which consists of two side trips up the valleys. One of the side trips is to the lake at the base of Las Torres (The Towers) which have become the iconic symbol of the park. On the first day I met Lauri from the United States. She had just finished working in Jujuy (Northern Argentina) for eight months teaching English. She also speaks Spanish and let me practise my bad Spanish with her. As she was keen to get up early the next morning to see the sunrise over Las Torres I agreed to wake her up at 4am so we could walk up to the lake together. The next morning we arrived at the base of Las Torres at 5.30am along with many other keen trampers in time for the sunrise. But despite all our effort there was none to be seen as the clouds remained steadfast and blocked out all signs of the sun.


Me with the Las Torres in the background



Initially I planned to only do the W circuit as I did not think I had enough time or was fit enough to do the whole circuit around the mountain. As a result I did not take enough food for the full circuit. But when I got to the campground before the highest pass and saw there was a shop beside the Refugio (lodge) there I stocked up with more provisions at grossly inflated prices. As I realised I would not be content to only see part of the national park.

The next day I headed off to John Garner Pass and had  fantastic views of Lago Grey and Glacier Gray. As I got nearer the glacier the temperature plummeted and it was even snowing at times. The lake had ice bergs floating in it. Glacier Grey is massive. In fact it is not possible to see all of the glacier because it is so large. The trip over the pass was cold and windy. It was not a place to admire the view for too long. There was some snow on the pass but otherwise it was a very straightforward slog.

I was surprised at the amount of infrastructure on the tramp. A good chunk of the walk is actually through private land and the Refugios are privately owned. The supplies for the Refugios are brought in by horse or boat. You can even do the entire tramp without carrying a tent, sleeping bag or even food, except for your lunch, as the Refugios provide all this. But it does not come cheap. Some of the campsites are free if you have your own tent and others you have to pay for. You have to get a special permit to go off route climbing in the park. 

The scenery and forest reminded me a little of New Zealand although the mountains are more dramatic with the granite towers dominating the landscape. The forest is mostly Beach trees but they are not the same as the Beach trees back home. There are even shrubs that have flowers that look like Rata but they are different too.


Beech forest in Torres del Paine

View of Glacier Grey from John Garner Pass


I camped here at Dickson campground after going over the pass

I was extremely lucky with the weather. The area is famous for its strong winds. I even managed to avoid the rain which came the night I left the park when I was safely sleeping in a hostel in Puerto Natales. This is the town in Chile where you catch the bus to and from Torres del Paine National Park.

The next day I went to catch my bus back to Argentina only to find that it was delayed due to strike action. Public Service Workers across the country had been on strike for several days to demand higher wages. As a result, the airports and border crossing in Chile were all closed. These actions were not reported in the media and it was only the next day when I met a Chilean guide with a large group of German tourists that I was able to find out what was really happening. She explained that the workers were taking advantage of the fact that there are  upcoming elections here to put pressure on the government to accede to their demands.

After waiting several hours wait at the bus terminal we were told the border was opening so we all jumped on the bus only to be stopped at the border and turned back. As a result I spent another night in Puerto Natales. The next day the bus did pass through the border which was opened for only an hour during the day due to the ongoing strike action.

My next stop was El Chaltén to go tramping for two days in Los Glacaires National Park, Argentina. This is home  to Cerro (Mt) Fitz Roy which is the highest mountain in the area at 3359m. This place is a mecca for climbers as Fitz Roy is considered to be very technically challenging. Plus the wind and changeable weather add to its difficulties. As for me, I just went to admire the mountain from a distance. While I was here I saw a condor and some eagles.

Again I had fantastic weather with rain forecast for the day I left to take the bus to Bariloche to visit my friends Mark and Carina and go back to school to learn Spanish. The bus trip, which took 26 hours, takes you through the Pampas of southern Argentina and then back into the mountains that border Chile and Argentina as you get closer to Bariloche. There was virtually no traffic on the route as a lot of the trip is on gravel roads (Ruta 40). The route is in the process of being tarsealed but it looks like this project is going to take many years to complete. For most of the journey I had a travelling companion, Facundo. Despite the fact that Facundo does not speak English and I have limited Spanish we managed to converse for many hours in Spanish with the help of a dictionary. It was comical but good practise for me. Due to the state of the road the bus travelled so slowly that I was over two hours late, arriving at 8am in Bariloche. As I was due to start my Spanish classes at 9am that morning I had to go straight to school feeling a bit tired and very smelly!




(Mount) CerroFitz Roy - the highest mountain in Patagonia





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