(Putting One Foot in Front of) Another Torres del Paine

Torres del Paine, Patagonia Chile - January 22-24

I´ve been fortunate enough to visit a number of exquisitely beautiful places in the world, but whenever asked in the past to come up with my "Short List", Torres del Paine was always up there at/near the top of my list. So when I was informed of the devastating fire that took place there during the New Year, it felt as if my heart had leapt out of my chest and landed with a hard kerplunk on the pavement only to then have a pack of feral dogs come along and defecate on my heart and finally stomp all over it. Yeah. I felt...r..e...a...l...l...y BAD. And a part of me seriously questioned whether I should pay a return visit to the park once it had been reopened to tourists. To see a cherished place where I had left a piece of my heart in such a state of natural distress and devastation? Should I? Could I?

In the end...yes. I decided that it was actually morally imperative for me to go and go NOW so that I could see with my own eyes (before the grass had had a chance to grow even a millimeter and the ground was still smoldering) what MAN had brought asunder and to subsequently document the disaster with my photos and my words. I´m actually trying not to shed a tear as I type this blog entry in an Internet Cafe in El Calafate, Argentina. You see even though it´s already been practically two weeks since I finished my trek there, it will take me eons to erase the sight of all that scorched earth from my minds' eye.

So....okay.

I chose to book a 3-day hiking tour with the somewhat pricey but respectable ChileNativo agency. The cost for the trip included all transport, park entry, 2-nights'accommodation at the refugios, all meals as well as a bilingual guide named Carlos. The group was also quite small -it being just me and a married couple from Santiago (Carlos II and Daniela). Due to the fire, the hugely popular "W" Trek could not be done in its entirety but ChileNativo had come up with a modified itinerary which I thought was fairly comparable to what I´d done when
hiking there back in 2003. The fire started in the camping area alongside Lago Grey (reputably by an Israeli backpacker who was attempting to burn some toilet paper of all things!!) and then went on to destroy some 16,000 hectares of the park primarily around Lago Grey and Lago Pehoé. So the portion of the "W" Circuit which runs alongside this area was closed at the time of my vist. I am not sure if it has reopened or not but I highly doubt it is open seeing that they were still attempting to extinguish small fires which had reignited in the area as of January 24.

DAY 1: 18 kilometer round trip hike to the base of Las Torres

We arrived at the park around 11 AM and joined the revolving stampede of trekking tourists on the park´s most popular hike to the base of the towers. I was a woman on a mission in relation to this particular hike as when I´d first attempted it 9 years ago, I had only lamely managed to make it to Campamento Torres due to the horrendous ill-fitting boots I was sporting. You see I was an inexperienced hiker then and had purchased my boots for $10 at a friggin´garage sale!!! Yikes! Naturally, my feet had suffered the slings and arrows of blisters beyond compare! So upon my triumphant return to the park, I was determined to redeeem myself. And I did. I managed to complete the hike in 5 hours-roughly 2 hours shorter than the average hiker. How´s that for a fine level of fitness at the ripe old age of 44?!

The weather throughout the first day was fine if a bit cloudy. For the majority of the day though, the 3 towers were 100% visible, and the sun even came out to play footsie during the last portion of the hike. Dinner afterwards at the refugio was average, but the picnic lunch that our guide Carlos prepared for us when we reached the base of the towers was quite tasty! There was olive bread from a French bakery in Puerto Natales as well as cream cheese, hot peppers, fresh juicy tomatoes and salmon (for the non-vegetarians).

The only drawback to my first day at the park was being the lone female accommodated in a 6-bed dorm at the refugio. And who, pray tell, were my sleeping companions? 5 middle-aged Japanese men-two of whom loudly snored in syncopation! Sigh...

Day 2: 11 kilometer hike to the Refugio Los Cuernos + 5 kilometer hike to the lookout point of Bader Valley

Didn't think it was possible for the weather to improve, but indeed it did! We experienced predominantly blue skies with decent temperatures and Patagonian winds NOT so typically fierce that they threatened to lift us off our feet.

We hiked from the Los Torres Refugio to the Los Cuernos Refugio which is 11 kilometers one-way. The trail was incredibly crowded and so there were a few places where we encountered bottlenecks, but the panoramic views over the Lago Nordenskjol were breathtaking! Our guide, Carlos and I opted to leave the hiking hordes behind and hiked an additional 5 kilometers up Bader Valley to a fantabulous lookout point. While making our way back down to the main trail, I was thrilled when Carlos pointed out a pile of PUMA POO!! You know folks, I seriously have to question whether or not I'm regressing for I find myself seriously loving
any/all attempts at potty humor. Am I wrong or are "fart" jokes not hilarious?!?

In the evening at the refugio, once our dinners had been consumed, I purchased a box of red vino for consumption. I knew there was no way I could finish it by myself, so I shared it with Carlos (the guide), hoping to see him lower his professional veneer but I am sad to say that it takes more than a few glasses of vino to thoroughly loosen his guidelike persona. Pity. We stayed up chatting, drinking and laughing until after 11 PM, which was just past sunset actually.

DAY 3: 11 km hike to Los Torres Refugio, 3 km hike around Lago Grey island

On our final freakishly hot and sunny day exploring Torres del Paine, we had to hike from whence we came along Lago Nordenskjol back to the car park at Los Torres. The highlight of this hike was, without a doubt, encountering 4 pgymy owls perched on the branches of a bush overlooking the trail. The owls did not fly off as birds normally do when we steadily & stealthily approached them though, so I even managed to get a close-up shot of the mother owl! Even Carlos the guide was astounded by our stroke of luck in seeing these birds up close.

Once back at the car, Carlos drove us to the Lago Grey Hotel where boats embark to the Grey Glacier. The drive there took us past Lagos Pehoé and Grey and this was when I had the unfortunate opportunity to see up close the wake of the recent fire. The dramatic devastation went on and on and on and I could not help but get teary-eyed as Carlos explained that it would take perhaps 100 years for the trees to grow back to what they'd once been in the areas affected. Plus, the fire had not been completely extinguished for we spotted puffs of smoke arising in the area where the fire had originally broken out.

My final afternoon in the park was spent off by my lonesome (as Carlos II and his wife Daniela had opted to take the 3-hour boat cruise up to the glacier and Carlos the guide took a nap) on a short hike around an island in Lago Grey which can be reached by hiking across a manmade spit. Once on the island, I took a walk all the way around and was delighted to encounter some floating ice which I duly photographed. I also chose to plunk my ass right down at the water's edge in order to do some reading, seeing that the weather was so divine. A short, solitary moment of bliss...

I loathed leaving this incredibly breathtaking place, and hope with every fiber of my being that measures will be taken (punitive in regards to the tourist responsible for starting the fire and preventive when it comes to the Chilean organization responsible for the upkeep of the park) to prevent further fires from ravaging this paradise on Earth.

Can I get an AMEN?!?