Between my two semesters, I had a four week long winter vacation (or "summer," here, really). Instead of going home, I decided to stay in South America, where I traveled for almost the entire month. My first week was spent in Patagonia, the southernmost region of Chile that is also shared with Argentina. With my friend Tasha, who would soon become my partner in crime for the rest of the trip, we flew out of Santiago into Punta Arenas, then headed to Puerto Natales, the town closest to Parque Torres del Paine, the national park where we would be spending 3 days hiking. Tasha and I spent one day in Puerto Natales to just get ourselves prepared for the park, such as renting equipment for camping, grocery shopping for food, and pretty much just figuring out what the heck you do in the park. Torres del Paine is one of those places where you really don't know anything about it until you get down there. Those guidebooks did nothing for us! Two other friends that were already down there were in Argentina when we first got there, so we decided to meet them at a designated location in the park.
A sunset view of Puerto Natales
Hiking along the lake in Parque Torres del Paine on day 1
Hiking through Parque Torres del Paine was, in many ways, so similar to climbing Wayna Picchu in Peru. It was physically demanding and made me want to cry, but so worth it. Three days of nonstop hiking - I covered 65km! - while covered in dirt and sweat would usually not be my idea of fun. This trip was a lot of firsts for me: first time hiking like it was my job, first time backpacking, and first time camping. Yes, camping. I had a couple of close calls but other than that, I knew by the end of the trip that only a couple of days in and this was probably going to be the highlight of my entire winter break. And it was :)
Day 2 in the park was a little cloudier, but gorgeous nonetheless
After going through Torres del Paine, we said goodbye to the two friends we rendezvous'ed with - Andrea and Beth, who had flights to go back to the US - and Tasha and I continued on, crossing the border into El Calafate, Argentina and later to El Chaltén. The big draw to both of those towns is the Perito Moreno glaciar. In El Calafate, I took a boat tour to get up close and personal with the glaciar, even getting to see parts of it break off. El Chaltén is huge with hikers as well, as many travel there to climb the Fitz Roy. Unfortunately, since the two of us were so "hiked out," we did as much as we could but really didn't have it in us to go to the end of the trail.
In front of the glacier in El Calafate
Nature - all around as far as the eye can see in El Chaltén
Hiking along the lake in Parque Torres del Paine on day 1
Nature - all around as far as the eye can see in El Chaltén
No comments:
Post a Comment