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Chile-Argentina 2006

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Thursday 10 August 2006

Torres del Paine : So beautiful !

1st day :
8h o'clock, the minibus goes by the hostal "chez Paulette". Since a canadian talked about this park 2 years ago, I had kept the name of this place somewhere in my memory ; and today, we're driving to get to this sanctuary. The clouds are thick and, worse than the rain, the wind or the clouds, it's misty and the haze hides the landscapes bordering the road. We rub the misty windows to peer into the sky looking for the slightest sunny interval. These clouds shows us the route. We'll start the "W" trek from the west. We hope the great wind will sweep away all these clouds to enjoy the Paine towers for the last day. The minivan drop us off not far from l'administración, main building of the Conaf (The Conaf is the organism which manages all the national parks and natural reserves in Chile). We put up our backpacks, the driver points the route out to us and our trio starts up.

Alongside a river, our first steps are difficult, we trudge on gigantic yellowish grass lands, the unflagging wind facing us.

The wind expresses itself and draws harmonious waves on the top of the lands. A little further, some mounds of earth are scattered over the ground, innumerable dead trees topping them. Trees that seem to be stripped by the gusts of wind ; only their carcasses hopeless wait a storm uproots them.

Beautiful Patagonia with harsh climate, 150000 inhabitants, 2 millions of sheep and half a million of penguins. We go on our progress northwards up to reach an area where horses are relaxing. They take advantage of the low season to rest.

More than 3 hours have passed since we left, the path forks on the left and disappears into a scenery of bushes and loose stones. It slightly goes up before offering us a high angle view of a metallic-blue lake. We can see the mountain range buttress on the background, the upper part of the mountain is hidden by the clouds. The tone is set, we got in one of the Mother Earth's kingdom. And she puts on her most beautiful clothes to welcome us. Our trek turns into a stroll in the angels' country.


2nd day :
After an invigorating night spent in the camping, laid out near the Pehoe refuge, we take advantage of the installations of the refuge to have breakfast before starting the stage of the day. We begin the most western side of the W route. It's a round trip along the Grey lake before ending with the Grey glacier. The path rushes into the valley, then goes up and opens out on a terrace overlooking the lake. Its waters are calm and some icebergs float along the banks.

The valley is marked by the wind scars. No blow today, but the trees are bent and all the branches headed for the same direction. The unceasing gusts given by the wind shaped the plants of this valley. Like obedient servants, faithful to their master, they reply in unison.

1h30 of walk later, we reach the point of view overhanging the glacier. The mountain takes it in before throwing up the excess of ice in a concert of smashing noises.

We stay contemplative for several minutes before heading back. Arrived at the refuge, tents dismantling, eating, and we leave again, westwards this time. 2 hours far from here the "Italian" camp is located at the entrance of the central so-called "French" valley. A pleasant walk through the forests, lake, rivers and mountains.

The icy sections are sometimes safer gliding on the bottom, let's go Ben !

We are alone in this camp. We unload our belongings and, lightened, we start to climb the valley slopes. The walk is hard and we begin to feel tired. The path is cut by a lot of icy sections which complicate and slow our pace. Following an ascent, our eyes stop on a new glacier, the "French" glacier. We witness several collapses of ice blocks that cause mini-avalanches at the point of impact. We enjoy a son et lumière show. We are only three spectators tonight.

With the sunset, we turn back up to the camp. All night long, we'll hear the destructive activity of the glacier.

3rd day :
A long walk in the middle of this beautiful nature. We end the day at the gate of the Paine towers, in the "Chilean" camp. Exhausted, we go to bed with the dusk.


4th day :
The sun hasn't risen yet and it's time to get out from the sleeping bag. To slip into cold clothes, and to get out the tent. Outside, température is about -10°C. The gaz hardly goes out of the cartridge and the stove flame is faint ; I warm the cartridge up in order to help the gaz vaporization and to heat water up. A bit of hot liquid and a few biscuits into the stomach, we leave the camp, leaving all our equipment on the spot. 7h45, Here we are on the way to reach the watchtower of the Torres del Paine. Our muscles get little by little warmer. We slowly move forward on the icy ground. We perform tightroper walker on the icy rivers and everyone fell down one time at least. The first part of the walk alternates ways through the forest with frozen rivers crossing. Further, we leave a camping zone on the right, it's the last opportunity to set up the tent before the towers. Afterwards, the path goes up and snakes through a partly snow-covered steep land of stones. Our steps see how the land lies. The snow hides the obstacles, now stones now holes. The difficulty of the indistinct path adds to the difference in height. Our efforts are rewarded at the top of the land of stones.... Our pace slows down and our eyes open up : las Torres del Paine ! The grazing sun gives a hint of ochre to the towers. At their fundations, a snow-covered lake : the spotless white and the golden rock unite in front of our eyes. 3 towers like our franco-spanish trio. An incredible moment we share together and we try to immortalize in our opto-electronical boxes.

On the way back, we stop in the camp to dismantle the tents and to pack the backpacks up. We eat before clearing off et rush into the valley. The bus must come and picks us up close to the Amarga lagoon at 4h PM, we still have 3h of walking left. Like yesterday, we met no turists today. For 4 days, we saw about fifteen people while during the summer, the tourist buses drop off more than 300 people a day ! We arrive on time, we get on the minivan which sets us down at Puerto Natales 2 hours away. We enjoy our last evening together. We hope to meet again before flying back to France.

Sunday 6 August 2006

Puerto Natales : the gate of the Torres del Paine national park

This morning, leaving from Punta Arenas to go to Puerto Natales, a nearly compulsory crossroads to join the Torres del Paine park, jewel of the area and probably of the South of America. We'll know more about it within the next days. We get off at Puerto Natales in the beginning of the afternoon after a 4h bus trip. An hostal owner is waiting at the terminal exit and offers us a night for 6€ for each one including the breakfast. This will do, before talking about the rest of our program, Torres del Paine, planned for tomorrow. Inside the park, the main path is called W and lead up to different watchtowers.The upper path is closed because of the depth of snow. It's the low season and the cold doesn't attract many people and according to the information given by the hostal owner, just one refuge is open. As for the rest, we'll have to camp and eat our freeze-dried food. We hasten to buy extra food : soap powder, energetic bars - a 4 days/3 nights trek in the park is waiting for us. For this trek, we'll be 3, Jaume, A Spanish boy we met at the hostal will come with us.
Tomorrow morning, it's the great departure, accordind to the weather, we'll start either at the East if the weather is mild or at the West if the weather is dismal. The trek can be split as following (from East to West) : departure from the "Guarderia Laguna Amarga" to go to "la hosteria Las Torres" before heading for the first part of the W and "la valle Ascencio". From the top, we'll able to gaze at the Torres del Paine. Walking down, we'll carry on the central part of the W called "la valle del Frances" that offers points of view on los Cuernos del Paine. We'll end with the last part of the W which snakes along the lago Grey before coming back to the "refugio Pehoé". From this refuge, we'll reach "l'Administracion" walking alongside the Rio Grey before catching the afternoon bus which goes back to Puerto Natales. A great deal of informations, but everything is on the map, accessible clicking this link (follow the yellow arrows !). Waiting for the pictures I'll send as soons as we're back ! All the same, I have 2 pics here : views of the bordering Puerto Natales lake.

Saturday 5 August 2006

Punta Arenas : an air of end of the world...

Punta Arenas, an air of end of the world... The invigorating air and the specific house architecture of this bit of earth cheer us up with positive thoughts. However, when our brain reminds us that we put the foot down in Patagonia, the story changes. An area which made and still makes dream explorers' and travelers' generations, thirsting after huge spaces and pristine nature. In the past and for the first time, that's here an illustrious portuguese seafarer, Fernand de Magellan, sailed the strait which bears his name. New navigation ways were opened up. It was in 1520, five caravels left Europe on behalf of the Spanish crown, only one will come back, succeeding in the first round-the-world trip and opening up the destiny of number of seafarers' generations. Fascinating stories and incredible legends dealing with the New World. The illustrious seafarer won't come back from this trip, he will be murdered on the way back. However, his legacy was and is still great. The southernest Chilean province - XII - bears the name of Magallanes (Magellan in Spanish) and Punta Arenas is the capital. Its people display their own flag showing a strong attachment at their roots ; this flag represents the south cruce drifting over a mountain range. The Magellan strait or more precisely the canal is here, facing our eyes, just a bit of water filled with history. An arm of the sea which saw hundreds of thousands of ships since its discovery. For the last centuries, Punta Arenas enjoyed a quick development before the making out of the Panama canal ; it was a matter of class call before sailing up along the Pacifique coast of Spanish America. According to the people we met, nobody adviced us to come here because of the cold, the wind, the rain... Whatever the people say, we wouldn't exchange our place, even for several thousands of Pesos.

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