PUNTA ARENAS,  NOVEMBER 2005 –

Punta Arenas

Punta Arenas is a small city, overlooking the Straits of Magellan.  The Straits of Magellan were for a long time the favored way for ships to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific, for traders and explorers alike.  When Magellan first traveled this part of the world, and discovered this passage, he saw a lot of fires to the west – he called this part of the world “tierra del fuego” (land of fires).  The fires were made by the indigenious people.
On the plaza in Punta Arenas, a statue remembers the explorers and the ‘wild’ people they conquered.

A popular excursion out of town is a two hour ride to the Otway sound, where the penguins live.

Otway Sound Penguin colony

It was rainy, very windy and cold, the sea was wild.  This is the usual weather over here, this is Patagonia, this is penguin area!

The national park is not that big but offers good opportunities to enjoy the way of life of the penguins.  There are great photo opportunities everywhere.

The penguins come to this part of land to breed – everywhere are signs “not to disturb the breeding process”…

As soon as they come out of the ice cold water, they clean their feathers with their beaks. It is amazing how smooth they can make the transition from swimming to sliding on the water and eventually walking.

And then they begin their funny walk to their nest – they always use the same nest and the same pathways to go there.When you study them closely – and there are many opportunities to do so here – you begin to realise how interesting they are, how sofisticated their social behaviour is, and how tough they are – as you get colder and colder standing there, they just go on, wait to look back, and eventually will find their nest and mate.

Way to go, the penguin way !

We will meet again.

PUERTA NATALES,  NOVEMBER 2005 –

Sounds a little ‘unreal’ ? Well this place has often a surreal aspect, I will try to explain…

We arrived with the catamaran, after a fantastic boat trip with views of ‘Los Cuernos’ and ‘Paine Grande’ and many more beautiful mountain scenery.  The weather was great – sun and blue sky – not the Patagonia we expected, and we quite couldn’t believe it was going to stay like this.  The campsite next to the lake and with great views all around, this was the start of the dreams and surreal experiences.

The Grey Glacier

Day 1 – After a 2 hours walk along the Grey river, a glacier river with many floating icebergs and which really looks grey (but all glacier rivers do), we reached the lookout point for the Grey glacier.  The last part was quite rocky and windy, the experience of sitting on top of a rock and admiring the great glacier, was truly surreal experience number 1.
Along the way while we walked, we could drink from the stream of mountain water, pure and ice cold and tasty.  The firebush were blooming, the green was fresh – spring at its best.
We enjoyed camplife and a good sleep in our tent – it felt just all great to be there..

The French Valley

Day 2 – some 20 kilometers or more of walking along the French valley today.  After a couple of hours, and many pictures later, we reached the first lookout point – great views of the cuernos and Paine Grande, the highest mountain of the park and always covered with snow and glaciers.  I sat for a couple of hours there and saw maybe 10 snow avalanches – even filmed one that lasted maybe 5 minutes on my mpeg photo camera – surreal experience number 2 !
The way back was long and tiring, after every bend I hoped to see our tents, but this idea just made it longer… Finally when we arrived, we took the catamaran to our next camping site.

This camping site was on private ground, more remote, and our driver even spotted a puma at night – I only heard the horses galloping next to the tents in the morning.

The Torres !

Day 3 – Another full day of hiking, this time to the refugeo Chileno and to the base of the Torres !  The highlight of the trip for many, and the first view of the torres, it is surreal experience number 3.  We hiked the first hour all the way up, then on a plateau which leads to the mountain hut ‘refugeo Chileno’, a place next to a river and with great view on the ‘condors nest’, the south and the central torre.  To see the north tower too, one has to hike some more hours, the last part climbing over big rocks.  I was out of energy that day and relaxed at refugeo Chileno for about 2 hours, enjoying the views, the sounds, the smells, the good life in the mountains.On the way down we stopped a lot to study the mountain flowers and birds – such a harsh environment and yet such a diverse nature !

The weather stayed great for 3 full days – our guide had never experienced this over here, but we were lucky to be able to enjoy it – another dream that came true.