New Years in the Horns of Paine
I had been looking forward to trekking Parque Nacionale Torre del Paine since I first saw it last year on a National Geographic travel special (in the last year, the travel channels have held special fascination. That and episodes of "The Wild Thornberrys" on Nickelodeon. They both always seemed to be tuned to a place I was going, or in the case of Malaysia, have been.). If you read any travelogue, guidebook or website about Chile, you¨ll be pretty much guaranteed to see photos of Torre del Paine, at least part of it. Beautiful, UNESCO protected site, and lots of distinguishing features, from the actual Torres del Paine ("Towers of Paine", large needle pointy type mountains), the Cuernos del Paine ("Horns of Paine", more carved, wider mountains, and my personal fave raves as mountains go), and the Glacier Gray, which drops icebergs off into Lago Gray (Lake Gray). All this, and you can hike around it in four days, which as we all have discovered I love to do. Emma had said on the Falklands how keen she was to be going on the trek, and so geared up with food (still more peanut butter and jelly, which I am rapidly starting to associate with the holidays in an almost Pavolovian fashion), we set off on New Year´s Eve. I was pumped. More trekking! Emma was excited! Some trekking! And by the time we got to the campsite, I was still pumped and Emma was a bit relieved that we could set our bags down, set up the tent, leave 97% of our gear there and wander off up to Mirador Torre del Paine. Granted, I wouldn´t have wanted to be doing that particular trail with a full pack, but since we didn´t have to, never mind. After hiking through gorgeous, mystical forest filled with orchids and fields of daisys, and giant woodpeckers (the whole thing had a real feeling of Switzerland about it, which is odd as I have never been to Switzerland) for about two hours, we burst out onto a huge climb of scree and started making our way up it, and we could see the lightly covered in cloud Torres up above us. The view was going to be fantabulous, or at least it would be if the cloud cleared. But the cloud didn´t clear, and in fact it got worse, and in fact it started to rain. Not exceptionally hard, but hard enough when you have no cover and are either going straight up or straight down rather loose rocks. Since we wouldn´t be able to see anything anyway, we took the better part of valor and headed back. The rain stopped quickly after we got into the forest (Torre del Paine weather- wait five minutes and it will change), but the cloud cover just got heavier and heavier, so we gave up viewing Las Torres from that particular angle and headed back to the campsite, had a lovely jubbly PBJ and chocolate dinner and went to bed, crashing out around 8. I, overcompensating for the temperature in what I wore to bed, woke up just before midnight and clambered out of the tent to wish the new year in by cooling the heck down. Emma, on the other hand, woke up when I came back in and was freezing. Body heat compensated (oh, get your mind out of the gutter, please!). I felt truly bad for her, I really did, until the next day when I found out/realized that in her lack of knowledge (I felt I had tried to pass mine on, but obviously had failed in this cause) that a) the sleeping bag she brought, thinking hers would have been too heavy, was too short and too thin, and b) she was sleeping in nothing but a t-shirt ,knickers and a hat. I, on the other hand, in my comfy down extra long sleeping bag, was tucked up in two pairs of socks, warm racing tights, a tshirt, a fleece and the infamous wool CRI hat (thanks again Jane!) and was so hot I could have baked an apple pie on my nose. Still, live and learn, and this is how one learns. We packed everything up to head off on the second day of the trek, and Emma was just miserable. Poor thing. Her boots weren´t waterproof, and the wet was giving her blisters. Plus, the hiking just threw into relief for her the fact (unknown to me) that she had done no exercise for the year and as such was not fit enough for the task at hand, whereas between the Chapada Diamintina, the Inca Trail, and now, I was ready to just about run through the entire park, pack or no. Her entire body ached, the pack felt too heavy and the shoes were giving her pain. I caved. Partly because I am kind at heart, and partly for the pure selfishness of not wanting to spend the next three days in a small tent with someone so obviously miserably unhappy, particularly not one of my closest friends. I suggested we go home and return the next day. This was a delight to her. I knew that there were companies running day tours (long ones) out of Puerto Natales to the major sites of the park, and while it would not be anything like the same thing, I would still get to see what I wanted to see, and Emma would be happy. So that´s what we did. We saw more while hiking, even the only two days we did do, but it was so much easier on Emma who was so stiff it wasn´t that easy for her to get through the day tour in the van!

The wildlife on offer is wonderful, and abundant. Plenty of condors (I had hoped to see some in Peru, but to no avail. But there are loads and loads of condors down here, gliding about on thermals. I was recalling everything Mauro had told me about them and their place in Inca theology on the Inca Trail.) Guanacos (like llamas, but looking fawn colored and not so shaggy) are plentiful, and we also saw quite a few nandu, which are rheas/ostriches, including one flock of a mama nandu and lots of nandu chicks. The chicks were about 5 feet tall. That is one big chick! Or seven of them, to be exact. Flamingos in the lakes (not many, but I did see two lots.), loads of hawks, giant scarlet headed woodpeckers, skunks (from a distance, absolutely. They´re big.), black necked swans, the whole lot. And of course Las Torres and Los Cuernos. I was initially a bit grim as Los Cuernos kept being covered in cloud at the peak, but when we got to Lago Gray to view the icebergs, which are blown right down to the edge of the lake, so that if you see the bergs, you really don´t get a chance to see the glacier, so you have to take your pick, it suddenly in the space of about five minutes all blew clear and I have what should be completely fabby dabby photos of the icebergs, Las Torres and Los Cuernos all together. Bliss, sheer bliss. I wanted to pitch my tent right there and camp out for a night or seven, but no go. I shall return, and I shall trek more. I don´t blame Emma. She did what she could and we still had a fabulous time.

But having a little extra time, what with not doing all those days of silly trekking, we booked in (as I mentioned) for a day trip to Argentina to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. My worries (which I researched the heck out of to make sure all was safe) about civil unrest were completely unfounded in this part of the world. The trip out to the Parque Nacionale de Los Glacieres goies through such remote wilderness that you can travel about 40 miles without seeing a house. And at the end of those 40 miles, that is what you will see. One house. They couldn´t put enough people together for a good civil unrest riot in this part of the country if they tried. So no worries on that front. (Not like what is coming up. I am still supposed to cross Argentina in about two weeks as I make my way back to Rio. It has been announced that as of tomorrow the peso will be devalued about 30% and instead of being pegged to the US dollar will instead be allowed to float on the free market. I am gravely concerned, and prepared to completely revise my travel plans on a moments notice, but I sitll have about 10 days in Chile before having to decide. But I digress.) We were, as it turned out, in more danger from the Glacier. This may sound odd, as in how can someone be in danger of something that only moves a meter a day? I will tell you. The glacier, which happens to be 300km long, (I forget how wide. Its very wide as well.) is about 80m high (this is significantly higher than the Gray Glacier, although they both stem off from the Helios Campos Sur - the Southern Ice Field) where it reaches Largo Argentino. If you stand and watch it for longer than five minutes, you will witness easily icebergs calving off the main glacier and into the lake. Now, you´re at enough of a distance that the bergs seem quite small, but that is from 100m away. You used to be able to get closer, but between 1968 and 1988 32 people died from being whacked with large chunks of ice that fell several meters away from the glacier, or alternately were splashed out of the lake when other chunks of ice calved off. So in the interests of good press, the nacional park now keeps people at a safer distance.

The glacier is incredibly beautiful, massive walls of ice, the field of the glacier, the icebergs launching themselves off. Sadly for you though, words really can´t describe it. Luckily for you though, pictures can start. I will show them when I get home, I promise.

Off now to the Straits of Magellan for the last time, and then to start, amazingly, the slow trip northwards to home. Amazing to think, innit?

Happy new year, all.

Love,

Anne