| Puerto Natales |
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| Puerto Natales, 25 February 2005 Hey everyone, Yes, it is a long time ago we updated our diary but we are alive and kicking and have been enjoying 'la naturaleza' which means no or very slow Internet access. In the meantime we are in Chile and have been trekking in the Torres del Paine National park but first things first so we will start where we finished on the 11 th of February. We rented a car for 2 days to explore Tierra Del Fuego (TDF). For Joris this meant; driving to Rio Grande and catching the biggest trout he had ever seen. Rio Grande is known to be the heaven for trout fishing. Even former presidents go there to try to catch one of the trouts of up to 13 kg. The roads of TDF are very dusty; only some are paved and the rest is dirt road consisting of sand and a lot of rocks. The car we rented was a brand new Suzuki- Fun with only 40 km when we left. It was really fun; the car was not made to drive on such roads. Even though we were not driving faster than 60 kph the rocks still hit the bottom of the car. You could see the cars and trucks coming from the opposite direction a long time in advance. They made an incredible dust gallery and when you crossed them it was like driving in a smoke curtain for a few minutes. It was quite late when we arrived in Rio Grande but still Joris wanted to try out his fishing gear. After a while we decided to call it a day and bought some food to survive the weekend! We had to drive a long way before finding an appropriate camping-spot! The next day we decided to drive to Lago Escondido and relax a bit over there but first we stopped in Tollhuin. It's a small town where you don't see a lot of movement but once you arrive at the local panaderia (bakery), the whole town is gathering together and you even have to pick a number to order. The medialunas (croissants) were delicious! After a little nap in a sunny and wind free spot, Joris is ready to do the catch of his life. An hour later or so I spotted him returning .... with a big smile on his face. As proud as a peacock he showed me his catch.; a beautiful purple spotted trout from about 40 cm, or was it more? Well it wasn't a small one that's for sure! Check it out for yourself on the pictures! That night we camped in a beautiful spot near Ushuaia and had a great fish-parilla (grill) while listening to the sound of the river and enjoying the mountains around us with our jacket, gloves and wool hats because it was quite cold! As we only leave to Antarctica the first of March and we've seen quite a bit of la Isla Grande de TDF we decided to go to Puerto Natales (Chile) to visit, the famous National Park 'Torres del Paine' . This 181 000 hectare park is considered to be one of the best parks of the Americas with a well-developed trail network. The spectacular peaks include the world famous granite pillars of Torres del Paine (towers of paine) which soar almost vertically about 2800m above the Patagonian steppe. In 1978 it was declared a Unesco Biosphere Reserve. After staying one night in Punta Arenas (Chile as well) we took another bus to Puerto Natales; the place to be to start a hike in the National Park. We arranged a bus to Torres del Paine and bought some food to take with us (pasta, pasta, pasta... anything else?) as we were planning to stay for 5 days in the National Park. We left some of our stuff in the hostel in Ushuaia but still had to bring a lot of things with us as the weather is very unpredictable and there can be some strong winds that typify Patagonia. As we prepared our backpacks to go hiking, we realized that it was going to be quite an adventure! Walking for 5 days with a heavy backpack stuffed with food, sleeping bags, mattresses, a tent, cooking gear, jackets, some spare clothes,... And it was! First the bus did not pick us up at our hostel at 7.30h so we had to take the one from 10.30h instead. Second, in one way or another I lost my jacket and had to do the trek without a wind- and waterproofed jacket. Luckily we had some thin plastic emergency-poncho's with us I could put on when it rained to hard. I felt like a walking garbage-bin with it but at least I did not got completely soaked and that was the most important thing! No, we don't have a picture of it! Finally we were not able to admire 'Los Torres' from the viewpoint because a 31-year old Czech tourist started a fire in the National Park a few days before we started our trek; his camping stove fell over while he was making some tea. We hoped the fire would be under control by the time we reached that part of the park but it wasn't. We couldn't find anything back about it in the Belgian newspaper 'De Standaard' on the Internet but about 15 000 hectares of the National Park have been destroyed by the fire and due to the strong winds they had great difficulties to stop it. Finally we read in the local newspaper that the guy got the maximum fine of 200 US $ and was allowed to leave the country again. It was a pity we could not hike up to the famous granite towers but there were still plenty of other trails to do. The first day we took it easy. We walked for about 2 hours (it was all flat) and camped near a lake together with some Germans and Israelis we met on the bus. The next day we walked to a campsite near a fabulous glacier called Glaciar Grey. It took us 8 hours to get there and we walked 22 kilometers. I never walked that far with a big backpack from about 9 kilograms. The first half hour my shoulders hurt a bit but they got used to it and I was surprised I could do this! For Joris it was even harder; he carried almost twice as much weight as me but the views were amazing! The closer we got to the glacier the more icebergs you could see in the lake! It was fantastic! The weather was nice; the sun was shining and there was hardly any wind. It was great! After setting up our tent for the night, we cooked... pasta and enjoyed the sunset while having dinner. The following morning we hiked up to have a closer look at the glacier. We had spectacular views! Glaciar Grey is the beginning of 'Campo de Hielo Patagonica Sur' and in the distance you only see snow and ice. Together with the 'Campo de Hielo Patagonica Norte' it forms the greatest mass of snow and ice besides Antarctica and Greenland. After lunch we started walking again up to the next campground, passing lakes and having more beautiful scenery to enjoy. The wind is blowing really hard now and from time to time it rains a bit! It doesn't matter because the walk is quite exhausting and the raindrops are refreshing. The last part of the day is very hard because it starts to go uphill again. After 7.5 hours of walking (20 kilometers) and feet that are hurting, it really feels like hell to climb up! And just when I thought we were almost there, there was a sign indicating just another 30 minutes before reaching the campground. I thought I would die! My feet were killing me and I didn't have much energy left but we made it and the pasta even tasted better than the night before!!! The next day, the weather had completely changed. It was raining and you could hardly see the surrounding mountains from 'Vallee del frances'. That day we wanted to hike all the way up to the viewpoint without backpacks and sleep on the same spot again in the evening but because of the weather we had to change our plans. As we hiked up it started to rain harder and the view became worse. The wind blew really hard and people hiking down told us that it wasn't worth to go up because you couldn't see anything. So we walked to the next campground where they told us the eastern part of the Park was still closed because of the fire. As they could not tell us when it was going to open again we hiked back and decided to go back to Puerto Natales the next day. Before we caught the bus back we had a last glimpse of 'Los Torres' and 'Los Cuernos' with some snow! The part we saw from the National Park was amazing and we enjoyed every bit of it (even the hard parts)! That same evening we went for a good Argentinian steak and had 2 bottles of wine. It's nice to enjoy the nature but it also feels wonderful to enjoy the other good things of life!!! Hasta pronto, Domi & Joris |