Since we were short on time, the following day we spent our day taking an organized tour around the park. The Patagonia region is beautiful, and Torres del Paine has more than it’s fair share of amazing views, teal and turquoise lakes, glaciers and icebergs, the towers of Paine and the horns of Paine. The sights are dramatic and ever-changing. One minute it’s sunny and brilliant, and the next it’s overcast and ominous.
Because we sometimes wait until the last minute to figure out where to go next, we sometimes have scheduling problems…wait a minute…that happens almost every other day…only this time it worked in our favor, giving us the opportunity to head to Torres del Paine. We couldn´t find a flight out of El Calafate, so instead we decided to head south into Chile. A few hours later we were in Puerto Natales, a not-so-pretty touristy town that gives you access to Torres del Paine. Our plan was to spend two days in the park, before taking a flight north to Santiago from neighboring city Punto Arenas.
The following morning after arriving into Puerto Natales, we took an early morning shuttle bus that dropped us off at the Laguna Amarga entrance of Torres del Paine. Two days before our arrival marked the “off season” for the park. For us meant that the shuttle buses within the park were no longer running–ie. instead of a shuttle bus, we had to walk 7km to our accomodation. I guess the park rangers figure, you´re there to hike, so what does it matter where you are hiking. And it´s true, walking along the dirt road, we were able to appreciate the beauty of the three ¨towers¨of Paine, all the same.
Our next stop in Patagonia was El Chalten, home of the famous Fitzroy mountain range, which seemed perpetually covered with clouds while we were there. It also looks a lot colder in the pictures than it really was, but considering we haven’t been in cold weather in well over a year, it still felt pretty cold to us. Of course that didn’t stop Christine from attempting to climb to the summit
We found our new house, our new ice cave at the base of the Perito Moreno glacier. It’s a little cold…
The next morning we set off early for our “Big Ice” trek on the Perito Moreno glacier. The Perito Moreno glacier is only one of three glaciers in Patagonia that is not retreating. Depending on the time of year, the glacier is continually advancing and/or retreating. Occasionally we would hear a loud cracking sound, similar to that of thunder, followed a chunk of ice falling off the glacier, splashing into the water. Quite an amazing experience.
For our trek, we started hiking along the mountainside for an hour alongside the glacier. Before stepping onto the glacier, we had crampons securely fastened to our hiking boots. The trek on the glacier was about 4 hours, and it was one of the highlights of my trip. The crampons ensure a strong grip in the ice even when going uphill or downhill. They made crossing on the glacier surprisingly easy, with the satisfying crunch of ice under-foot.
I thought the boat ride was amazing, but even there you can’t see the details of the glacier…there are streams and pools of water running throughout the glacier, along with cracks and crevasses filled with water. Different objects on the glacier (such as rocks, leaves, branches), absorb the sun at a faster rate, creating a depression (called cryocones), which then creates small natural pools and streams that continue to melt at a faster rate than the glacier. A small pebble might be responsible for 30 foot deep pool.
After a week of taking Spanish classes and eating bife de chorizo in Buenos Aires, we flew south to El Calafate to see the mountains and glaciers of Patagonia. Early the next day, even before sunrise we departed by boat from Bandera Port to explore the nearby glaciers–Upsala (the largest in the region), Spegazzini (with the highest front wall @ 400ft) and Agassiz.
The glaciers in Patagonia are centennial glaciers, existing in the last hundred years, rather than the millennial glaciers of Antarctica (thousands of years old). The glaciers are formed in the Andes mountains–as snow accumulates in the valleys between the mountains, over time the snow becomes compact, forming into ice. The icefields of Patagonia are the source of the world´s third largest freshwater source.
By boat, we were pretty close to the glaciers and icebergs, able to see clearly the beautiful shades of blue reflecting off the sun along with the different textures of each glacier. It was spectacular. At one point the crew, pulled out a chunk of ice floating in the water so we could drink our Nacional whiskey with fresh glacier ice.