Trekking and traveling southern Patagonia: Los Glaciares and Torres Del Paine

 

The plane landed in Santiago in the early morning, although we could have arranged for a connection to Punta Arenas that day, we decided to visit Santiago and leave early the next. Santiago is a large and vibrant city with beautiful modern architecture. I particularly liked the merging of the old and the new cityscapes.

Punta Arenas, the "capital of Patagonia," located on the Magellan Straits, is a good size city and a gateway to Southern Patagonia. You can find all the provisions you may need for trekking in the city. You are best off buying food and so on in Punta Arenas, in the park, availability of stuff is limited and expensive. Since we were visiting at the season's end we did not make hotel reservations in Punta Arenas, and, in fact, by just showing up, ended up getting better room rate. Hotels are not cheap, but there are many reasonable hostels, not fancy, but clean and safe. We rented a small sedan, you really do not need a 4x4. Although some of the gravel roads are tough and you may wish you had an SUV, you really don't need one, remember that buses travel on most of the roads you will be taking, traveling to the parks.

Parque Nacional Los Glaciares

After a day and night in Punta Arenas, stocking up with food stuff for trekking, we headed to El Calafate in Argentina. From Punta Arenas, route 9, a modern two lane road with very few cars took us to Puerto Natales where we stopped for gas and lunch. Along the road we notice many interesting shrines, the meaning of which I have yet to learn. Puerto Natales is a port city in a beautiful setting, with few distinguishing characteristics but plenty of lodging places, from the lux to the utilitarian. From Puerto Natales we continued north on a gravel road toward Torres Del Paine. About 60 miles before the road reaches Torres Del Paine at the village of Cerro Castillo the road turns westerly toward Argentina and El Calafate. There are two boarder control stations, one in Chile and a mile up the road, one in Argentina. If you rented a car make sure you purchased the expensive international car insurance and permission to enter Argentina, otherwise, you maybe turned back. If there are a lot of people at the border control it may take a while. Fortunately we were the only ones there. As you continue on the gravel road from the Argentine boarder control station, the road eventually runs into the pave portion of route 40. (When you leave the gravel road unto the paved route 40, a little sign across the road points you to El Calafate. Note there is NO sign on the way back that identifies the grave road back to Chile. On our way back we drove right by the road and got lost, it's not particularly recognizable among all the other gravel roads. Pay attention and select land marks to guide you back to the road if you are returning to Chile the same way.) Route 40 to El Calafate from Cerro Castillo is about half paved with one gas station. It's not particularly scenic until you arrive at the outskirts of El Calafate. I found El Calafate a charming tourist town, a well developed "main street" with numerous quaint and elegant shops, restaurants and coffee shops serving great pastries and food. There are lodging facilities all over, from the very fancy to the very comfortable hostels. Off the main street area you can find photogenic ops all over the place. The Perito Morino and other glacier are the attractions in El Calafate. A well organized tourist industry can make all the arrangements for your visit to the glacier. If you have a car you can drive to the park to view the glacier, about 45 minute, easy to get to. You can arrange for "mini treks" on the glacier or boat trips to view the glaciers, which may include, if you wish, day hiking trips to parts of the park. Generally, however, there are no hiking trails in this area. We spent a day in El Calfate visiting the Morino glacier, and planned to come back for another day on the way back from El Chalten.

With a beautiful sunrise we headed out of El Calafate to El Chalten. The road was mostly gravel, although it looks like from the work on the road, that it will be fully paved in a couple of years. It's a scenic road with two places for some services: bathrooms and snacks, no gas. The first we came to, Luz Divina, did not look like it's a place with any services, but it is, good pastries and coffee with a pet Cuanaco in front. The next stop on the road is the Hotel La Leona, it's better to plan to arrive in El Chalten that day. When you enter the town, on your immediate left is the park's information station with a helpful staff that will provide you with maps and information about the Fitzroy area. A bit further on your left is the tourist information building that has lodging and activities information. On the right is the gas station. You proceed into town on what is for now, a gravel roads, and the frontier feel of the place is quickly replaced by the hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, brew pubs, climbing and guiding stores, the bustle of backpackers and hikers walking up and down the streets and busses unloading passenger at the large youth hostel. You look forward to staying in El Chalten and when you see Fitzroy towering over the town, you know for sure why you spent all these hours traveling to this place.

After a great dinner and a good night's rest we walked to the nearby trail head for the four to five hours hike on well marked trails to the Fitzroy massif. Our weather luck stayed with us, little wind and blue skies. Almost the entire trail looks up at the dramatic Fitzroy peaks. It makes the hike magnificent. It is an easy trail with little elevation gain until you reach the massif. (The trail photo shows a light streak on the right side, below Fitzroy, it's a steep trail to the top). A campground at the foot of Fitzroy enables you to hike up to the mountain for sunrise. As the trail continues through the campground, a hard climb is ahead to the Fitzroy viewing area. (For sense of scale, in the viewing photo, note, if you can, the tiny human figure in a red jacket on top of the round mound, against the white glacier, on the left side of the photo, there is the spot for optimal viewing.) Ten hours after we left we returned to town. It is certainly possible to do this hike faster, we take out time. The next day we hike to Laguna Toro, a beautiful hike with a constant views of the awesome Cerro Torre and Cerro Solo. Although we could have spent another day visiting the Viedma glacier and hike in other areas, the morning was rainy and overcast and we decided to return to El Calafata, breaking up the long trip to Torres Del Paine into two days and see what else we can visit in El Calafate. We ended up taking a boat trip to the Upsala glacier and a hiking in the Estacia Cristina canyon.

Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine

From El Calafate a four hour ride took us to the Chilean boarder and another hour to the Park's entrance. There are interesting photo ops along the way. After paying the park's entrance fees and receiving a good enough map of the park we proceeded up the gravel road into the spectacular vistas of Torres Del Paine. We were first greeted by Guanacos grazing along side of the road. I read that wild life in Torres Del Paine is not fearful of humans and allow for close encounters, well it's true you can get pretty close to the wildlife. Even a fox hunting for food did not mind me squatting about ten yards away. That evening we decided to stay at the hosetria Pehoe. Although pricey, we could not pass up the opportunity to stay there because of it's magnificent setting and views from it's windows. (This hotel is well booked up through the end of February and beginning of March. In mid march, however, we were abe to walk in and get a room.)

Torres Del Paine is a place for hiking. Trails throughout the park allow you to hike from hut to hut or campground, or to stay in one place and do day hikes. We choose the latter. After an early rise to photograph the sunrise from a small rise behind the hotel, we drove to to our first destination hike, Las Torres. We had three destinations in the park: Las Torres, French Valley and Glacier Grey. Las Torres is in the eastern part of the park and the other two destinations are in the center, on the western shore of Lago Pehoe. The drive from Hosteria Pehoe to the refugio Las Torres is quit nice with many sightings of Gaunaco herds and beautiful views. The refugio and it's adjoining campground are located near the trail head to the Las Torres hike and right next to the beautiful Las Torres Hosteria. After checking into the cozy refugio we took off to explore the area and go for a short hike to the shores of Lago Nordenskjold. The next morning we began our hike to the Las Torres. The trail mostly follows the Rio Ascencio valley, there is some elevation gain and lose, but overall it is an easy trail until it's end where it turns into a steep rock scramble to the Torres view area. On the way back we stopped about half way at the Chileno refugio for some hot tea, the weather was turning colder and windy. The hosteria Las Torres' lounge was a great place to relax after returning from this eight hour hike.

The next it rained. It was a travel day so we did not mind. We were on our way to Paine Grande refugio on the western shore of Lago Pehoe. For backpackers there is an eight hour trail from where we were to the Grande Pehoe refugio with a campground half way on the trail. We drove to the eastern shore of Lago Pehoe to catch the noon catamaran ferry to the refugio, half hour across the lake. There were groups of hikers and backpackers waiting for the ferry departure, but there was plenty of room on the large ferry. Upon arrival at the Grande Pehoe refugio we were surprised by it's large size and fancy look, it was more of a lodge then a refugio. Three pairs of bunk beds per room, nice seating areas around the wood burning stove with fantastic sunset views, internet access, cafeteria with large dinning room, and a bar. The campground, with a cooking/eating building, was right next to the lodge. We were happy to have chosen this place as a base for our planned day hikes.

Glacier Grey was our destination the next morning. The day was rainy with low clouds, although we hoped the day would clear, it didn't, nevertheless, we had a nice hike to the glacier in the moody landscape. The trail follows Lago Pehoe shore and as we came closer to the glacier the lake's waters were dotted with blue icebergs that broke off the glacier. We turned back at camp Grey.

A sunny day greeted us the next morning, perfect for the French valley. The trail was very wet from the rain the previous day, water run offs and unavoidable ankle deep water made us thankful for waterproof boots. After half an hour on the trail the French valley is sighted and after a couple of hours the awesome peak of the 3050 meter Cumbre Principal is in view, We hiked as far as camp Italiano, and took a quick "run" up the trail for another hour or so to see what it was like. Above camp Italiano the trail becomes steep and a rock scramble in places with little reward. For the rewarding views you will have to climb for another couple of hours to camp Britanico and above.

We visited our destinations in the park. If there is a next time for me at Torres Del Paine I would plan not to stay in one place for day hikes, but rather, hike from hut to hut as weather permits and the spirit takes me. It was, however, a great trip and we were ready to leave the next noon on the ferry back to the eastern shore of Lago Pehoe and our parked car. Having a couple of hours before our departure, I hiked up a trail above the refugio for a last look, I was lucky to have spotted a candor circling the heights. On our drive out of the park we were gifted with sunny and warm weather and the gorgeous landscape of Torres Del Paine. We arrived in Punta Arenas that evening and prepared for the long trip back home.