Experiencing the Patagonia

We haven't had a chance to use our tent yet in South America, and heading to the southern Patagonia gave us the perfect excuse. As Sam said when we first arrived in El Calafate, Argentina, this was quite a rugged place. We fit right in with our backpacks and hiking shoes here. El Calafate was only a stopover, though, as we took a bus to Puerto Natales, Chile the next day. This quaint little town serves as the launch point for trekking in the renowned Torres del Paine National Park.

We planned to spend 5 days hiking what's called the "W-route" in the park (named so because it's shaped like a W on the map). Although it's summer in southern Chile right now, we still knew we might have freezing temperatures at night and unpredictable weather with rain and strong winds. On top of that, this was the first time we we trekking while carrying our own packs and all our food with a stove and gas. We felt like the well-known Erratic Rock Hostel in Puerto Natales prepared us well, though, and we were ready to hit the trails.

Our first views from the catamaran.

We arrived into the park and took a catamaran to the west end of the route. Although the first day was only a 3 1/2 hour hike, we were hiking into the wind and weren't used to carrying our packs far yet, so we were exhausted when we arrived.  We woke up the next morning to winds that seemed like they would make our tent collapse (which ended up being a common theme), but we managed to see the nearby glacier, Glacier Grey, up close before hiking on again.

At the farther lookout to see Glacier Grey.

Only one of the scary bridges we crossed on the route.

Hiking back to our camp for our second night.

The campsites were completely packed.

Our third day ended up being the longest, but was definitely rewarding. We hiked 2 1/2 hours with our packs to the start of the French Valley, which is the very middle of the W. We dropped of our bags at the campsite there, and went on with just our day packs up into the valley. This 2 1/2 hour hike one way was arduous, but when we finally reached the top, we had a 360 degree view of peaks all around. We didn't stay but a few minutes due to the freezing winds at the lookout and the ominous sky. We made it back to our packs before the misty rain hit, but we still had a 2 hour hike to reach our camp that night. In the end, we didn't escape getting wet.

We saw an avalanche when hiking in the French Valley.

360 degree views at the French Valley lookout. This was the sunny side...

...but the clouds were definitely coming in from the other direction.

That night, the rain held off, but what we call "Hurricane Cuernos" (the name of that campsite) hit. All of the nights had been windy, but this was the worst of all. We woke up to the howling around 2 am and the stakes had come out of the vestibule doors of our tent and were flapping all around. Sam went to fix them and ended up placing rocks on top of the stakes to help hold the tent in place. He said he saw more than one other person out fixing their own tents. We took in the damage the next morning, with some of our tent poles bent and a broken stake. We weren't the worst off though as at least two different people had their tents ripped or just broken. Someone else said theirs moved at least 2 meters in the middle of the night.

We were up early and off the next day, wanting to escape that campsite. We were met with beautiful sunny weather and a hike through green fields. What we thought was going to be an 8 hour hike turned into only 6 hours because there was a secret short cut that was not on the park's map.

We had some funky clouds this day, but the weather was beautiful.

The horses blocked our way for a few minutes, but we managed to squeeze past.

On the 4th day of hiking, we were rewarded this view of the valley.

The final morning, we woke up and left when it was still dark for the shortest, but steeper hike up to see the main towers of Torres del Paine, saving the best for last. The weather was clear, and although the hike upwards warmed us up, it was quite cold at the top. The peaks rose steeply above us with a small sky blue lake below the rock formations. We were only there to take in the sight, but many climbers take on the peaks as one of the world's best climbing sites. Once our hands were numb and we had taken many pictures, we started the descent to head out of the park. When we had arrived in the park, there was an ere of excitement for the trek. Boarding the bus back to town, we saw tired and sore people limping and hobbling about. For us though, it was all worth it.

The main attraction on our last morning in the park.

Over the next few days, we made our way back into Argentina as we were flying out of El calafate to Bolivia. Before leaving, we took a day to admire the famous Perito Moreno Glacier nearby. The glacier is quite large, at 253 square kilometers, it's larger than the city of Buenos Aires. It stands up to 220 feet above the water and extends up to 330 feet below the water. Perito Moreno is still by no means the largest glacier nearby. Its popularity comes from the fact that it is so accessible and that the glacier is one of few that is growing in size.

We hopped on a few hour bus ride that took us there and stopped to observe the sheep on one of many farms. The Glaciers National Park has walkways that extend over the front face of the glacier, allowing you to get up close and see the brilliant blue colors in the ice formations. Many stand posed with their camera just waiting for ice chunks to fall into the water on a sunny day. We caught a few of these ourselves, as the thunder of the ice cracking and hitting the water is hard to miss.

Catching the falling ice from up close. This happened almost as soon as we entered the park.

Another piece falling. You can´t tell just how big the glacier is unless you´re right in front of it though.

We picnicked in front of the glacier, then opted to take a boat ride to get a different view.  The ride was quite cold, so we stayed inside until we came up to the glacier and could see just how tall it looked from below. When we were on the walkways, we had seen the boats looking so tiny that were headed toward the glacier, and now that was us. In the afternoon warmth, we saw more ice chunks fall and then rode the length of the glacier to see all the formations. Just toward the end, we saw a group of ice trekkers that looked positively tiny. Then we were back to the bus and back to the town of El Calafate for the last time before our flight left in the morning.

 Patagonia gave us a chance to see what the edge of the world has to offer, including some of the most extreme landscape out there. We hope the people who chose to live there don't take it for granted, being that most other places don't have such natural beauty right outside the door. That being said, the weather is absolutely insane! When we heard winds like we did at Cuernos, being from Indiana where tornadoes hit, it was hard for our brain not to continuously tell us there is something wrong.

(Written February 23rd)