In the southern part of South America, bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the western part and by the Atlantic Ocean at the eastern part, Patagonia is a region shared between Chile and Argentina. I've visited a part of the Chilean side and a small part of the Argentinian side.
In the Chilean part, I've proudly finished the Patagonia's famous hiking route called "W Circuit" after the shape of the route. I say "proudly" because it was my first real hike in my life (except the short hikes my grandfather took me on when I was a child in Ceahlau Mountains, Romania and a couple of other failed tentatives when I was a teenager).
We hiked 70 kilometers in 4 days to see beautiful views of the mountains, valleys, steppe with red blossom vegetation, giant granite towers, azure lakes, lagoons, glaciers, waterfalls and forests. But at the end of this trekking, what I have gained beyond all of this, was the feeling of a personal growth, in so many ways...
To do this trek you don't necessary need a guide and you can enjoy this experience by yourself, at your own pace. You just have to book the lodges (refugios) in advance since there are only a few in the whole park, operated by two companies - Fantastico Sur and Vertice Patagonia - or, there is another option to accommodate yourself at one of the campsites along the W Circuit (they offer tents, sleeping bags and mats to rent, but you must reserve them in advance or, you can carry your own if you are an experienced trekker). There is only one hotel in the national park, on the east side of the circuit, Hotel Las Torres. You can also alternate if you want to mix and match your stay at the hotel, refugios, and campsites as well.
We did the bookings through Fantastico Sur. We met them a day before our trip at their office in Puerto Natales to give us all the reservations, maps and info we needed to know for the trek.
Here we had the feeling that the time stopped for a while in this forgotten city. And for us, it really stopped for almost two hours :). We were supposed to meet the agent of Fantastico Sur in front of their travel agency. We arrived on time at our appointment but nobody was there. We tried to call the agent, but somehow our cell phones didn't work even if we tried to dial with or without the country code, they simply refused to dial. And we waited. Another disoriented tourist arrived 15 minutes later and he couldn't dial the number either. We tried to find a shop or a restaurant nearby from where we could have called the agent, but everything was closed. They only open the stores around noon. We finally saw a lady passing by in the distance and we all ran after her as she was our only hope. We reached the agent who was actually sleeping and she tried unsuccessfully to convince us that she still has 15 minutes till our appointment. Apart from this "time hole" experience, all went great with the travel agency.
The next day we were in a bus to Torres del Paine National Park. Puerto Natales is 112 km away from one of the entrances to the national park. You can do the W Circuit from west to east, or as we did it, starting from the east side.
Day 1, Torres del Paine
After a moderately difficult trek of 9,5 km through forests, along the rivers and lakes or on the meandering paths, we climbed a huge moraine and then, a beautiful, real, life size postcard was showing in front of us: the base of Torres del Paine: a beautiful turquoise glacial lake and the three marvelous granite towers pointing to the sky. We were very lucky to see the towers since we met on the way a couple of tourists who said it was too cloudy to notice the towers.
Day 2 and 3, French Valley
The middle part of the W Circuit is called French Valley. The first part of the trail was a beautiful painting that laid in front of us as we were walking: wonderful shades of emerald from the Nordenskjöld lake, clear crystal blue and the vivid red of the blossoming flowers. The second day of trek and the first part of the third day were like the calmness before the storm and we enjoyed every single minute of it. As in a lot of "paintings" of nature, the pictures below do not do justice to the surreal beauty that we saw around us, but can give you a preview of this national park.
The third day of the trek (the second part) was the most difficult part of the W because we had to climb big rocks and, even worse, to descend on them. The trails were very steep on some sections and at some point I felt like I was punishing myself doing that trek. My right knee started to hurt badly and at any break we took I kept telling myself that I could do it, it is just a game of endurance... as much as I wanted to quit the trail, my will was becoming stronger and stronger.
At the end of the day, with my trembling feet and without breath, I still could say that it was totally worth it. French Valley was the place where I heard for the first time in my life the sound of a glacier calving. French Valley was the place where I proved to myself that the will is much stronger then any physical weakness.
Day 4, The Gray Glacier
The last day was the longest trek. 11 km to the glacier and 11 km back to get in time for the last boat at 5PM. From the viewpoint you can spot in the distance the great Gray Glacier that flows into the lake that has the same name, the Grey Lake . The glacier is 14km long and I still don't know why they call it The Gray Glacier since I could only see a stunning intense blue color of the huge icebergs floating on the lake. Here you can do ice hiking trips on the glacier (I've heard they serve whiskey on the rocks and guess where they get the ice from ;) or you can do boat trips on the lake.
After finishing the W Circuit I can only recommend two things: travel light, with a small backpack, and pack smartly your clothes and accessories. You will need a pair of hiking boots, waterproof pants, rain jacket, sunglasses (especially for the wind!), gloves and trekking poles (we didn't have them, but they would have helped).
Torres del Paine is the place where you can have four seasons all in a day. It could be sunny in the morning and then it could rain, could be extremely windy and could even snow. I experienced this on my own skin. Sometimes it was very cold, I was very tired and my right knee bothered me from so many ups and downs on the rocks, but every single time I somehow get back my strength to go on.
I don't know if it was the sound of nature, the beautiful colors that mesmerized me or just an extraordinary power to push my physical limits forward and forward. It was like I was part of nature and I had to deal with all the bad weather and, in addition, with the tiredness and sometimes physical pain. But none of these matters now, because after this hike I gained something more important: the courage to challenge myself.
And the Oscar goes to....
We would like to thank our families for finally understanding why we wanted to go "at the end of the world", our friends for encouraging us and many thanks to our gym instructor, Bogdan Geangos, who trained us for this trip one month in advance, four to five days a week. Without them, we wouldn't have made it! :)
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