South/Cental America #2 - Argentina/ Chile

1. Ushuaia
2. Punta Arenas
3. Puerto Natales
4. Torres del Pain NP

Photos: Argentina | Chile

We last spoke whilst we were down the bottom of the world, well after another couple of nights and some incidents that saw me almost employed by the hostel, arrested – literally in cuffs and in the back of the police car and also a crazy experience with some mountain bikes (broke down 10km out of town) we made our way back into Chile and caught up with a fine girl by the name of Alejandra, a friend of a friend from work. Well Ale showed us around Punta Arenas and we had a great time having a chat, seeing the sights and trying to understand each other. (Hola Ale)

Well it was sad to move on but we have now made our way up the coast a little to Puerto Natales, a funky little town that has boomed with all of the people going to Torres del Paine NP. In fact the tourism trade seems to be the only one. We sat around and had a great sunset, went to an eatery that served something other that hamburgers and hot chips and my stomach loved the change (thanks Rach). Oh also Rach everyone in all of the hostels have been copying down your notes, they are a lot better than LP or Footprint.

Torres del Paine....find $2000 get here, enough said, full stop.

Well someone out there is looking out for us and we managed to get 5 full days of sunshine and that makes a huge difference when walking, ask my two brothers sometime about the other side of the weather... The walk is 90km over 5 days, we did the track that is called the W’ as it is shaped like a W. The park is amazing and huge mountains rise out of nothing, some over 3km above where you are standing and are seriously vertically straight up. All covered in snow and a glacier or two.

Highlights have to be that amazing glaciers and mountain views with milky lakes in front of massive glacial fallouts. We went for a glacial trek one day with a tour guide and managed to walk through tunnels, climb the cracks and even do a bit of ice climbing. The blues in the glacier are amazing (photos one day soon) and we loved the experience though it hurt the budget it was one of those things that we can not do in Oz and the guides let us do a lot to technical things that other companies elsewhere would not. At the base of the glacier was a beautiful lake that had hundreds of icebergs floating throughout, a first for either Matt or I.

It is amazing to be walking along or asleep at night and here the crack of thunder, look above you and see massive amounts of snow coming tumbling down in a frozen waterfall. We then trekked off and found our way into a massive valley with huge peaks surrounding every view, we sat in awe of the place and could not believe the scope of these peaks, truly humbling experience.

This morning we hiked up to the base of the Torres (towers) and sat in the sun looking at some of the most amazing rock formations on the planet, you sit at the base of three towers that are over 1800m above you, straight cliffs tower above and you feel very small indeed. Well after 40mins of many photos, some of them a little more revealing that others we headed back down and now about to go out to dinner with a couple of people we met on the walk....steak and beer is calling, I can here them from the computer.

We are off tomorrow to see the Moreno glacier (the one that just exploded) and then onto Mt Fitzroy for more hiking, followed by a dash across the country to try and spot an Orca beaching itself to get a seal on the sand, only place in the world this happens, and only in March.

I hope all is safe,