Mon, 24 Oct 2022
As we were significantly further south, and despite being so early in Spring, the hours of daylight were already quite long. The sun did not set until after 9:00pm and was up around 4:30am. While we toyed with leaving our curtains open during the night, so as to enjoy the view as soon as we woke up, we both realized the early sunrise would wake us much earlier than desired. Nonetheless, I woke up around 2:00am and snuck a peak out of the window. The night sky was beyond description. With next to no lights outside, the brightness and vastness of the stars was breathtaking. I fumbled around in the dark for my shoes, trying to convince myself that I would go outside to take some pictures. I soon waffled, however, thinking of how cold it would be outside and how tired I was. Plus, I didn't want to wake Katherine, so I gave up and crawled back under the sheets. I am still regretting this decision.
When I woke up again, I triumphantly pulled back the curtains and was so happy to see that the skies were fairly clear and the mountains were still in view. Similar to conditions in Denali, we had already heard that clouds hide the mountains more than half of the time. Knowing that conditions could change on a dime, we kept looking outside while we dressed and later ate breakfast, half-way expecting a storm to roll in before we ever set foot in the park. Thank goodness, though, as our fears were not realized.
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| Morning View From Our Room |
We made the short drive over to the park, where our bus went through an inspection and our identities were all validated. A notable portion of our tour cost comprised the hefty visitor fee assessed by Torres del Paine. The numbers of visitors is strictly controlled, and the considerable permit fees pay directly for conservation efforts in the park.
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| Driving Short Distance to Park Entrance -- Our Hotel is Brown with Green Roof in Center |
This was the "hike day" of the tour, and by day's end, we'd walked more than 10 miles. We had a long hike in the morning, and two in the afternoon, and all were memorable, if for different reasons. The stunning beauty is neither describable nor accurately reflected in words. Suffice it to say, I know neither of us will ever forget some of the sights we took in this day, particularly on our morning hike. We saw many condors on the hike, to the point that spotting them was no longer a big deal. We also caught sight of our first herd of wild guanacos, which are a non-domesticated member of the llama family. We would continue to see large numbers of guanacos over the next few days, to include on our plates during a couple of meals. They are the principal prey for pumas, which sit atop the terrestrial food chain in Patagonia. Sadly but not surprisingly, we never saw a puma during our trip; not even in a zoo or stuffed on a counter.
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| Crested Caracaras |
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| Our Tour Manager, Veni, and Katherine |
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| Jeff, Katherine, Barbara and Allen |
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| Our First Guanaco Sightings |
We had a very good and large lunch at a lodge not too far from our own hotel, after which we reentered the park and began a hike to Lake Grey. Before we left our lunch restaurant, Javy told us that we should be prepared for heavy winds, and the length and distance of our hike would be dictated by the strengths of those winds. The sun was out when we reached the parking lot, and the walk through the woods, across a foot bridge, was quite pleasant. We soon emerged from the woods, however, and we were met with fierce winds. We were at the terminal moraine of the glacier, which was essentially a HUGE area of small stones deposited by the glacier as it retreated. It had to be a least a square mile in size. We had to walk quite a way just to reach the edge of the lake, from which we could see the actual glacier itself. We could also see several icebergs floating in the lake. The wind, however, is what I will remember. It had to be a sustained 40-mile per hour rate (my guess), with lots of even stronger gusts. At times it was hard to stand. There was a trail around the lake, which would have brought us around to at least one iceberg, that had been pushed shoreside, but Javy and Veni both said it would not be safe, given the winds. That said, both of them said the winds are often much stronger, particularly in winter, which I could not imagine. Seeing the size of the moraine, though, we could really appreciate both the power of the glacier, as well as the speed at which it is receding.
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| Beginning the Hike to Gray Lake |
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| The Massive Terminal Moraine for Grey Glacier |
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| The Fierce Winds Coming Off Lake Grey |
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| Grey Glacier |
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| Trying To Stay Upright |
As soon as we left the beach area and reentered the woods, the winds were a memory, which made it all a very surreal experience. Once back at the hotel, it was a perfect late afternoon to sit around the fire and enjoy some pre-dinner cocktails. Our resort also had a full-service spa, and the night before, Barbara and Katherine had gone down to book massages. All they had available at the time were "extended leg massages," which struck them as odd, but they both booked them for 9:00pm this evening. After our very long day of extensive hiking, however, both of the ladies completely understood why the spa offered such a massage, and they were very much looking forward to having the knots and leg pain massaged away. Dinner was an extended affair, and both had to leave before we were done with dessert to make their appointments. I was already asleep, too, by the time Katherine returned in a state of semi-bliss, saying her legs felt completely rejuvenated.
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| Verda (Gershon's Wife), Katherine, Jeff, and Javy (our Local Guide) |
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| Can't Get Enough of This View |
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