Chile - Punta Arenas, Torres Del Paine NP

Punta Arenas

March 11 - 12

From Ushuaia we took a bus to Punta Arenas (about a 12 hour trip, including a ferry and border control).

The main attractions in Punta Arenas are going to see a colony of Penguins, and shopping (there is a good duty free zone). After buying some necessary equipment for camping that we did not have (such as a tent) we tried to see some Penguins.

We went 0n a boat cruise to a penguin colony. The boat ride was horrible. Strong winds made the boat rock. It was not a pretty sight on the boat..

Arriving to the penguin colony we were told we cannot embark since the waves are too high so we had to return.

So the overall result: feeling bad for a couple of hours and seeing nothing.

We were offered to go in 2 days (the next day was supposed to be even worse weather), but decided to continue up north..

We were told that this does not happen a lot - usually they know there is going to be a strong wind and do not do the tour, but the forecast was OK for that day..

Well sometimes luck is not on your side..

The next day we took a bus to Puerto Natales (about 4 hours away)..

Puerto Natales and Torres Del Paine National Park

March 13-20

Picture links:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lotanc/TorresDelPaineNationalPark

The main (and I think only) attraction in this city is the Torres del Paine National Park.

This seems to be the most leveraged trek in the world. There is one trek there (that has several variations, and shorter paths) and some climbing areas, and it seems like there is a whole city built around that trek (the city of Puerto Natales). But it is one of the famous treks in Patagonia.. It is also very convenient to hike due to the many refugios in which you can sleep in, and the well marked trails.

We went for the park for a 6 day trek. Trying to see the main attractions: John Garner Pass, French Valley, the Torres, and of course the rest of the views in the pass.

Eventually we finished after five days - March 15-19 (deciding to walk more than originally planned in a certain day). The main motivation behind this was to arrive to Argentina and have a good steak 1 day earlier.

The trek itself was great.

We had rain on some of the days, but overall the weather was nice to us (sometimes luck is on your side).

The trek included seeing nice glaciers :

crossing rivers:

The beautiful french valley (in which we saw a nice avalanche)

and some other great views..

One of the highlights is the Torres (basically large tall rocks). It is said that in sunrise they are amazing since they turn red. After hearing this we (Oren and I) decided we will hike up for sunrise to see it. In our last night in the park (after 4 days of hiking) we woke up around 4 am. I have to say that waking up at 4am in the tent was a lot of fun, hearing the rain and wind outside made it even better. After a short debate wether it is worth going, we decided that there is nothing to lose and we should give it a try. I have to admit that hiking 45 minutes uphill (mostly on boulders, but some in the trees) in total darkness while it is raining, cold and windy is not great, but we were determined. I will point out is that the main advantage of climbing in the dark, is that you have no idea how far you have to still to go, since you see nothing, and you are miserable enough that all you think about is your next step, and nothing else.

Arriving at the Torres in time, made us very happy. We were so happy we were shivering (the cold temperature and wind helped as well). Waiting for the sunrise, we were wet and cold. Making some soup (we brought gas etc.) helped a bit. As it cleared it was pretty obvious: we were not going to see much. There were a lot of clouds and some fog. For a minute, when it was still almost dark, we could see the Torres since the fog mostly cleared. It was too dark to take a decent photo (unless you go for long exposure etc.), and they were definitely not red (the sun was also behind clouds at the time). Waiting some more did not help. This is what we saw most of the time we were waiting:

After about an hour we decided it was enough, and headed back down.

This was the last day in the National Park. From here we went back to Puerto Natales, and our next stop was El Calafate and El Chalten..