Torres Del Pines - Blogabond

After Jamie´s arrival on Saturday night, we left BA on Monday morning to do some trekking and outdoor activities in Patagonia. A good way of keeping him off the booze and taking some pretty pictures if nothing else I reasoned. Monday morning arrives and Jamie has somewhat overlooked his responsibilities to the alarm-setting team, and has made us late for our plane. We frantically check out and rush to the airport, only to discover everyone else about is showing very little concern at the fact that our plane is due to leave in 25 minutes. An hour and a bit later, still very much on terra firma in BA, we discovered why. Aeroleneas Argentineas, now Spanish owned, much to the annoyance of some locals, doesnt seem to operate punctual flights. Ever. They also lost Jamies luggage more amusingly.

Anyway, we arrived at El Calafate at 6pm Monday evening to our hire car, where the lady informed us in no uncertain terms would we make it to Chile before the border closed at 10. This obviously riled the macho elements of Jamie and I (unlike muggers or wasps which rile the much larger wimpish elements in the pair of us) and we made it our goal to hoon it to the border and prove the car lady wrong. So we did, in our little car, which had 85,000 miles on the clock, a non functioning driver side door, and so many cuts and bruises that the man gave up writing them down on our pre-hire scan of the car. We made it to Chile, via some beautiful scenery and sunsets in an area which is closer to the South Pole than Buenos Aires (maybe).

On arrival in Puerto Natales, which is the gateway to the famous Torres del Pins national park, we had a day to acclimatise (buy some stupid hats and drink wine), and then set of for the Torres. One of the most difficult one day treks I have ever done. One of (the 3).

Had a lucky day with the weather, and saw the Torres in all their glory. We even ran down large portions at pace, eventually breaking the 6 hour mark for the 8 hour trek. Strong apes. Exceptional day, almost ruined by the friendly petrol station attendant who had decided to go on holiday and not tell anyone, in the only petrol station for about 100k. Luckily we nursed our little car 100k´s in the worng direction at optimal consumption speed and she just made it. Although, having got up at 6.30am and arrived home at 2am the following morning, when one of my contacts fell out on the approach back to El Calafate after 7 hours at the wheel, I thought it best not to alert the other passengers of the fact. Especially the ones in the back with no seatbelts.

written by

tevans1 on April 10, 2007 from Puerto Natales, Chile

from the travel blog: Tom's Travels 2007

Send a Compliment

comment on this...