The word for blue in Spanish is azul, which seems like the perfect word for the blue of the small glacial lake we’ve just climbed up to. On a scale of 1-10, 8 for me being Ben Nevis, this is maybe a 6. It’s only an hours climb, and quite steep. Our lovely airbnb host told us there’d be a 30 km bus ride and I’d imagined a number 59 bus taking us along a tarmacked road to the start of the walk; silly me – we took a bone rattling minibus crammed in with 14 others, along a rough old track alongside a river with trout making their way upstream, and mountains on all sides. It snowed intermittently, but we were lucky, and as we climbed through the forest the sun came out, and we made it to the top and the glacier. It turned out to be a good training walk for the big one we do a couple of days later.
Laguna Torre
With steep climbs requiring chains to pull yourself up, passing through gnarly old woods, dried out river beds, and paths laced with tree roots, it was quite the hands down hobbitiest walk I’ve ever done. A 24km round trip, culminating in another Glacier above a glacial lake lined at the edges with a lot of exhausted people, mostly a good 30-40 years younger than us – yay for the oldsters!
Stamp inflation
We have an amusing interlude in the Correa (post office), as it seems impossible to buy stamps anywhere else. The lady behind the counter sends us all , one by one, into a queue for stamps, where no one sits behind a counter, and she busily avoids our eyes as we eventually bond with the rest of the queue as we wonder why she can’t sell us stamps for our postcards, and how late Ng we’ll be waiting. Eventually another lady appears, the stamp lady, clearly, and shows us how to put the 12 stamps required per postcard costing £2.25 red rate onto each card. I end up buying 18 quids worth, due to my useless Spanish. Inflation has hit the stamps as well as the money.
Torres del Paine.
We left El Chalten and 8 hours later arrived by 2 buses in Puerto Natales, a very smart little town in Chile we’re using as a jumping off point into Torres del Paine National Park. In Spanish and a native language called Teheulche this means Towers of Blue.
There were several different aboriginal groups living in the area for thousands of years, both around here and down in Tierre del Fuego where we are going soon. Ferdinand Magellan called it “The land of fire” in the 16th century, because of the many bonfires lit by the natives seen on shore by the first European explorers.
Unbelievably, considering how cold it can get here, these people were often naked, even the babies, seemingly undisturbed by snow, rain, wind, whatever the weather brought. They used the fires to keep warm.
In the 19th century they were almost completely wiped out by measles, brought by missionaries and settlers, to which they weren’t immune, but also by hunters, paid to find and kill them. Some were shipped off to zoos in Europe. The barbarity seems almost impossible to believe nowadays, done so that settlers could farm sheep on the land. The last laugh definitely goes to vegetarians, although it’s a somewhat hollow one.
This has a more in depth look at why they were painted in this way – https://commons.princeton.edu/patagonia/yaashree-h/
Packs of not very wild dogs roam the streets.
Puerto Natales has a lot of dogs, usually long haired ( because it is freezing here most of the time), and always friendly, that loll about everywhere in a state of stupor unless a motorbike or a car with a dog drives past when they suddenly all jump up and run at the car or bike, ibn a pack, barking like mad. The whole thing is hair raising to watch and no doubt leads to some horrible injuries to the dogs. These dogs look well fed and healthy, but aren’t owned by anyone, and have kennels on the side of the road and are clearly fed by someone, although who remains a mystery.
Mylodon Cave.
Another visit takes us to see a cave where they’ve found Mylodon bones, a long extinct giant sloth I’d heard of from Bruce Chatwin’s “In Patagonia”. It’s huge, very chilly, and not at all the safe, cosy hideaway I’d imagined.
Pisco Sours should have health warning.
Being back in Chile we are being very careful not to just pile into the nearest restaurant as prices are pretty much the same as in the UK, sometimes higher. However a Pisco Sour in the bar upstairs is only £4 and it is delicious. You should only have one though as they are very strong. So obviously I had two.
Travellinglight 