We woke up to rain the morning we were supposed to head to the Torres del Paine. Our hostel was more like a bed and breakfast and had really poofy blankets so it was about impossible to get out of bed. The rain was not much motivation either, but we only had one day and drove all the way to Chile just to see this national park so we slowly made our way out the door. I am so glad we did. The clouds sat at a height just skimming the tops of the mountains we were there to see and we never once got rained on except for on the way home.
The park is actually around 1.5 hours from Puerto Natales. We took a shortcut through some gravel roads because we were mad at the stupid car rental car company that nobody should ever rent from called On rentacar in El Calafate. The car was a piece of crap VW Gol (like a Golf) and was loud and rattled like crazy, lights flickered, and the driver’s side door would barely unlock and open. It also had a problem keeping dust from inside the car so plumes would always come puffing through the doors and trunk at every bump. To add to that we were limited to 1000km and each additional km was $AR0.80; oh and the wiper fluid didn’t work so it was almost impossible to see by the end of the day. I literally beat the crap out of this car. I gained some satisfaction in knowing that the wheels were likely to fall off in another 1000 miles after we returned it. Unfortunately, in the process I broke the rear bumper and had to pay 100 bucks. Haha oops. See video links…
Back to the good part; Torres del Paine national park is completely awesome. We spent the first part of the day driving the roads past glacial lakes and waterfalls with amazing mountain backdrops.
We then started making our way toward the trailhead to the Torres del Paine mirador (lookout). We were informed that it was a 4 hour hike in and another 4 hours back out. We started at 2pm… The trail was only 9km long, but gained 2500 feet in elevation about 2000 feet of which was in the last 1km. It was so steep at the end that we both felt like we were going to die. We were hiking lightly, though, so we didn’t take as long as the signs indicated.
It took us around 3 hours to reach the mirador. On the way we walked through meadows, crossed rivers on rickety bridges, went through strange forests, and climbed rock slides. It was an amazing sight at the top.
The mirador was basically the top of a rock slide and looked across a weird green-colored high mountain lake at the base of the towers. They are literally towers too, granite, and nearly straight vertical on the sides. We stayed up there for about half an hour before we were half frozen and began the trek back down. Don’t worry I wasn’t too cold to take plenty of retarded pictures. Coraleigh’s were at least normal. P.S. Thanks mom for the sweaters! It couldn’t have been more than 35 degrees up there.
Torres del Paine translates Towers of Paine; aptly named except for that extra “e”, because we were definitely in pain.
Our trek back down was shorter as you would expect. Overall the entire hike took 7 hours including stopping at the top. It was a relief to reach the bottom and get back into the car. We made the drive across a few super narrow wood plank bridges and through more gravel roads until finally connecting with the main highway back to Puerto Natales. We got there around 11:30pm and went straight to this restaurant called Afrigonia which was a mix of African and Patagonian food. I had mint flavored lamb and Coraleigh had curry chicken with yogurt. We both were falling asleep at the table. I don’t even remember falling asleep that night.
The next day we headed back for Argentina and up to Estancia El Condor (The Condor Ranch). Again, supposed to be a 10 hour drive, we did it in 6.5 hours. Poor car. Hahaha. The last 125km was the worst; it was all gravel, if you can call fist-sized rocks gravel, and was so rough. No wonder I broke the bumper. We had to cross a total of 11 streams and rivers, literally rivers, in this tiny rental car. The water was deep enough to come in the doors if we stopped, but I just got a big run at it. Check out the video. They told us later it was because of the warm weather melting the glaciers that the rivers were high. Ok thanks, good to know now!
That last 125km took over 2 hours. The first part was through boring scrub brush, but later we came to Lago San Martin. It is a huge turquoise-colored glacial lake that our estancia was on the edge of much further down the road. Actually, it was at the very end of the road and only 30km from Chile. It was founded in 1912 by a Chilean fleeing the law; it’s very remote location was a perfect hiding spot. It originally was a cattle and sheep ranch, but when it was purchased by a company they did an environmental study and found that the cattle and sheep were too damaging to the fragile high mountain environment. Also the pumas ate too many sheep! In an attempt to restore the native flora and fauna they spent the next six years rounding up all the (now wild) cattle and putting them on a small peninsula. Once a month the gauchos (cowboys) go to the peninsula, 2 days ride, and butcher a cow for food at the estancia.
The guesthouse looked really simple from outside, but was really nice on the inside. It had a mix of old wood and tile floors, wood ceilings, old stone fireplaces, etc. The lane leading to the guesthouse was lined with poplars and surrounded with faded wood fences and corrals. When we arrived we found two warm fires burning, warm brownies and cups of tea, and that we were given the suite with a giant bed and bathroom. Later we also found out that the cook was actually a chef and every lunch and dinner was amazing with at least 3 courses. Breakfast was more typical Argentinean, but still included homemade bread and choices of jams and honey, cereal, tea, juice, and all that good stuff.
The first full day there we went on a horse ride to the Condoreras or Condor Rocks. It was just Coraleigh, the gaucho guide Marcos, and I. This was like no horse riding I have ever done. We crossed deep and swift rivers, climbed steep narrow and rocky paths, and crossed near cliff faces. The horses were not like horses we’re used to either. They were huge, with strong legs and big ankles; built for the mountains. We started out at 10am and headed straight up the first steep hill away from the estancia. It was a perfect day with no wind which apparently is extremely rare for the area. Unfortunately that meant a million mosquitoes, but once we smeared our faces with OFF it was ok. It was mostly sunny and about 55 degrees. The Condoreras are a set of rock cliffs that are home to many condors. We saw several soaring on the updrafts. Our first stop was at the first set of rocks and we just took a break here and took some pictures. It took around 2 hours to reach that point.
We continued on to the second set of rocks and stopped there for a lunch of… not ham and cheese! Amazing right? It was still salami and cheese, but way better than ham. We also had these vegetable cakes and brownies, wine, and we shared a mate(pronounced like “mah tay”) with Marcos. Mate is the traditional tea here in Argentina. It’s drunk out of a gourd through a filtered straw called a bombilla. Its super popular and even more so with gauchos. Marcos said he drinks 4 liters per day. Their diet literally consists of wine, meat, and mate. That’s all they eat, period. No vegetables at all. We were told that mate has a bunch of vitamins in it and that’s how they survive.
It was a pretty cool experience sitting up there drinking mate with a gaucho and watching condors soar over the mountains and turquoise lake. After our picnic lunch we were asked if we wanted to return the same way we came or to take the “exciting” route back to the estancia. We of course chose the latter. The route traversed down steep hills thick with brush and trees. You had to really lean back on the horse and just kinda wait for them to make their way down the slippery trail. Then we came to the rivers. My horse already didn’t like water so it acted a bit spooked at the sight of this really fast flowing river with a small waterfall just to the left of where we were crossing. I was in third position because Coraleigh’s horse was lazy and slow so she went second. The two horses in front made it across fine, but as I was crossing my horse started to hop to the left in the current toward the waterfall. It then slipped with its left leg over the waterfall and I went underwater to my waist. I held on like a super champ stud horseman and the horse finally recovered without falling down completely. When we got back we saw the horse had some cuts on its legs from falling down, but it was nothing major. Pretty crazy, though; I thought I was going for a swim.
Overall the ride was about 7 hours long so we were pretty sore when we got back. I rented a fishing pole and tried to fish in the lake, but it was already in shadow so all I caught was a cold. We had a huge dinner that night prepared by the chef and then passed out. The next day I planned to spend fishing in a nearby river. We woke up and the wind was howling, but the river was supposedly protected so we went out anyway. The walk to the river took 45 minutes because we had to climb up a big steep hill to a place where a bridge crossed a narrow canyon. When we got there we mostly found fast flowing areas (this was the river my horse fell in), but a few pools. It was so crazy because you could see the trout just swimming there. There were tons of them and all you had to do was toss the lure in front of them and watch them chase after it. These were some of the brightest rainbow trout I’ve ever seen. Perfect brilliant shiny silver, blue, and green metallics. It was heaven for about 10 minutes until I snagged my lure in a bush across the river. In my attempts to break it loose all I did was break the lure off and snap the rod in half. It was a real piece of crap; I’ve never broken a rod before, but I broke this one somehow. Ten minutes was all I got in this fishing heaven. Dumb.
Since that was over with we headed back to the estancia. We decided this time to follow the lake shore instead of making our way through the brush on horse trails. It turned out to be a mistake. We had to battle literal gale force winds. I’ve never felt wind this powerful. It was blowing the heavy sand so hard that when gusts came up we had to crouch down and cover any exposed skin because it hurt so bad. It felt like we were going to be pushed over or picked up by the wind. Then when we came to the river we had crossed earlier via a bridge over a narrow canyon we found no way across. We searched every point possible and the estancia was right across the river, but nothing was possible. It was way too deep and swift everywhere, even near the lake. We had to hike all the way back up the hill, across the bridge, and then back down. It took an hour and a half to get back, all in the howling wind. I think even our faces were chapped after that. I tried to get another pole and lure later, but I lost the last lure they had. No more fish for me :O( I lost my $25 deposit for the pole too and the cold and wind finally pushed me over the edge of a cold I’d been fighting. Not a successful day for me. Coraleigh was content with just reading her book by the cozy fire so she was ok. Haha.
We left early the next morning in order to return the car in El Calafate by 11:30 so the $%&#heads at On Rentacar didn’t charge us any more money. For the gravel road portion we were asked to give an employee from the estancia, Guillermo, a ride to the gas station 2.5 hours away. The nearest sign of civilization was that far. During the ride in my morning hazy stupor I ran over a big rock that bounced under the car. It apparently cracked the rear bumper so I ended up having to pay $125 extra to replace the bumper. AGHH!! I know they aren’t going to replace the bumper they just want my money. They are such scammers. As I was leaving the office I saw another couple arguing over their secretive policy of tacking on 10% for using a credit card instead of cash. Who uses cash to pay for a rental car?!
At any rate, they at least took the car back. I guess it was lucky that we just had a cracked bumper after:
1. Testing the car’s max speed and then holding it there for an hour just so we could be sure and make dinner time at the estancia.
2. Flying down gravel roads at 85mph.
3. Barreling across 22 streams and rivers.
4. Taking roads where the guy wrote a huge “NO” on the map.
5. E-brake sliding around corners.
6. Running over a wascally wabbit.
7. Filling the entire car with dirt.
8. Driving over fist-sized rocks that were constantly being kicked up sounding like hammers under the car.
9. And finally, running over a huge rock that broke the bumper.
Funny thing is that I didn’t even mean to do the last one. Stupid On rentacar. Screw you guys.
Yes that's a parrot. There are some weird animals in Patagonia. There are parrots, rheas (almost like an ostrich), guanacos (basically wild llamas), pumas which are like cougars, and tons of rabbits. We saw all of them except the puma. The rheas looked really goofy running through the sagebrush in the desert.
Today was just a travel day. As you already read we drove from the estancia back to El Calafate. Now we’re on a flight to Bariloche – the chocolate capital of Argentina. Our flight was delayed over an hour, but luckily it was our first experience with the notorious delays of Aerolineas Argentinas. As I write this I’m staring down at another dry ham and cheese sandwich supplied to by the same airline. Coraleigh took one bite and made the “it tastes like chalk” face. I didn’t even take mine out of the plastic. I guess you really wouldn’t need to, though. It would probably taste the same. Haha
We plan to spend the next few days relaxing in this mountain town and eating lots of chocolate. We don’t really have much else on the agenda, but that’s good since we’ve been going constantly for weeks now. We’ll let you know how the chocolate tastes…
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