January 26-27, 2024
“These vast piles of snow, which never melt, and seem destined to last as long as the world holds together, present a noble and even sublime spectacle. They may be likened great frozen Niagara's; and perhaps these cataracts of blue ice are to the full as beautiful as the moving ones of water.”
-Charles Darwin
“There is no greater guide to creative thinking then hiking alone for 4 days. It’s too bad I can never remember my great thoughts at the end of it.”
-Brandan Van Son
My mother was born in Abilene, Texas. Almost all of her extended family hailed from that bleak town in the heart of the huge state. As a result, no matter where we were in the world, we were a military family, she felt an overriding compulsion, like the swallows to San Juan Capistrano, to return to the town every vacation and school holiday. As a teenager, we were settled for a time in Albuquerque, New Mexico and when the siren song of Texas would call, we would pack up and make the 8 hour car drive to the town.
There are few places in the world more devoid of pleasurable landscapes than West Texas. Endless miles of brown scrappy bushes populated by ancient oil derricks would drag by in the peculiar slow motion of time characteristic of bored adolescence.
I had not thought about that experience for many years until yesterday. We traveled to southern Chile by bus for a 5-6 hour trip through the Argentina side of Patagonia. Out the window offered endless miles of brown, treeless, wind swept desert. The occasional Darwin’s Rhea or Guanaco would pop up, but that was it. I was having flashbacks to those awful road trips from my teenage years cramped in the back seat with my brother and sister.
At least West Texas had Dairy Queens.
We finally reached the Chilean border. As mentioned previously, Chile enjoys more rainfall within its region of Patagonia. In fact, as I write this it is raining quite heavily outside. The result, even at the border, you begin to notice green on the low hills rising around the road and fields of chamomile and purple lupine line the road.
This is Puerto Natalis, a working class town in southern Chile, next to a fjord. Our bus stop was here. We would travel to the park by car from here.
Chile is an unusual country. Even the most passing knowledge of geography would remind you that it is the longest and thinnest country in the world. It runs along the west side of lower South America abutting up against the formidable Andes mountain range. This mountain range is no slouch. It is surpassed only by the Himalayas in height and grandeur.
Despite it’s thin appearance Chile has multiple different climates including the driest region on earth with the Atacama desert to the largest ice fields outside of Antartica. Chile also sits on the most active earthquake region on earth. On May 22, 1960 in Valdivia, just North of where we are now, the largest earthquake ever recorded in the 20th century took place. it measured 9.5 on the Richter Scale and lasted 10 minutes.
If you travel to the Southern end of the country you are stopped about 3/4 the way down. The country breaks up into over 4,000 islands with numerous fjords to navigate. It is as if you took an enormous hammer and smashed a porcelain plate into jagged pieces. You can only travel here by ferry of plane. In fact, the legendary Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of the continent is on an island, not the mainland. (Unlike Africa).
As we researched this episode we knew we would only be in Chile for only a few days. Instead of going to the capital, Santiago, which has its charms, we wanted to look at more of the spectacular beauty of the country. So we headed south to Puerto Natalis. This itown is on the edge of on of the many fjords here. Our destination was the national park Torres Del Paine.
Torres Del Paine is an immense labyrinth of towering granite massifs, blue glaciers, turquoise fjords, and primeval forests. The great stone peaks were thrust upward millions of years ago by volcanic activity. Then they were carved and whipped into their current shape by eons of glaciers and incessant wind. They are a curious range to look at. the walls and peaks have a smooth, curved whipped frosting appearance that is the result of eons of exposure to the elements here.
We thought this National Park, due to its reputation, would be similar to Yellowstone in the USA with areas to drive to and hike or look at sites. While it does have that to some degree, it is far more primitive and caters to hikers almost exclusively. So the infrastructure with things like gas stations and grocery stores is non existent and guests are dependent on the hotels alone for food and shelter.
And, like the rest of Patagonia, it is windy with gusts at times exceeding 50mph which makes wandering around for two old people like us a bit of a challenge. The lakes have waves , some of considerable height, due to wind action giving an impression more of an ocean than calm water. The wind does abate at times, and you have the opportunity to sit and take in vistas of staggering beauty.
There is not a lot of animal life here, but we found some.
This is the ubiquitous Guanaco, related to the Llama and Camel family.
The striking bird is a Caracara. A very large member of the Falcon family. Curiously, unlike other Falcons it does not dive down from the sky on its prey but stalks around on the ground looking for lizards and mice. It showed absolutely no fear of us.
This is a family of Patagonia Geese that lived outside our cabin room.
However, the star attraction here is the spectacular landscape. Every time the light changes you get a new scene. It is hard not to sit and wonder at the creation before you. I have never seen anything like it.
In the coming days we will make our way back to the Argentina side of the Andes and start making our way North again. There is a lot left to see.
Comments