My trip down was long but uneventful. I flew American (it was lousy!) to Miami, then Santiago, then Punta Arenas, where I caught a bus to Puerto Natales. Puerto Natales is a sleepy town on the coast, on the Seno de Ultima Esperanza (the Bay of Last Hope).
I spent a night there and then in the morning, boarded a small boat to Parque Bernard O´Higgins. Never did find out who Bernard O´Higgins was! We left at dawn, which due to our distance south was at 9AM!
We rode through some incredible scenery- mountains, sea and 2 big glaciars- the Balmaceda Glaciar and the Serrano Glaciar, where we got off for a hike right to the base.
It was my first taste of the Antarctic Beech forest. The undergrowth is much lusher than I had imagined, but thorny, and there was a veritable elfin forest of mosses, ferns and lichens covering every surface. Wild fuchsia was still in bloom too!
Being autumn here, there were a lot of berries, some of which were much bigger than the plants that produced them.
After lunch at a Posada overlooking the glaciar,
There were 6 other passengers on the Zodiac, which ascended the Rio Serrano up into Torres del Paine National Park.
The mountains there reminded me of the Tetons- very craggy and jagged. I had planned to do a hut-to-hut backpacking trip, but since I had a relapse of my North Korean bronchial infection, I abbreviated the plan and stayed at two refugios at either end of the park, and did day hikes instead. Much to my great surprise, the park was very crowded and the refugios, instead of being quiet mountain huts, turned out to be large youth hostels! Who could have guessed that Torres del Paine has become the destination of choice for the 18-25 year old backpacking set?! I ended up sharing rooms with numerous snoring Italians, British, Germans, Indians, Spanish etc etc.
The hiking was great, though the trails were crowded. I went up to the Mirador La Torres, a steep climb, for a view of the famous Torres:
Up the Valle Frances:
And my favorite hike, to the Glaciar Grey:
I hung out with Upland Geese:
Spotted the endemic Austral Parakeet; it was very strange to see parakeets amongst the glaciars!:
The Guanaco was the only common mammal; this one was just behind the refugio Paine Grande:
Lago Pehoe was a beautiful emerald green and had a great view of the mountains known as Los Cuernos (The Horns).
The Andean Condor was easy to spot, since it has a wingspan of more than 10 feet. There were a bunch at the bus stop at Laguna Amarga- waiting for hikers to die, no doubt!
Eager to leave the crowds behind, I said goodbye to this beautiful park, and headed back to Punta Arenas to board the Via Australis for the boat trip to Ushuaia, Argentina.
