Today is a travel day for us. 13 hours from departure to arrival in El Chalten. We left the Hotel Las Torres in Torres del Paine (Blue Towers) Park this morning and were driven for 2.5 hours, until we'd been through both the Chilean and Argentinian immigration depots. Then we switched vans and were driven to El Calafate. The driver of the Argentinian van picked up a friend at the same time that he picked us up and he drove us all quite far out of the way to drop the other guy off. Then, to make up lost time, he drove at lightning speed while winding down through the mountain passes. I have no idea how fast he was going but that's a good thing because I may have had a stroke if I could have seen the speedometer. It's a long enough day of travel without adding in the fearing for your life bits.
Somehow, and thank God, we made it to El Calafate on time at 2PM. We had 4 hours to kill before our bus to El Chalten departed so I decided to find a laundromat and get our laundry done. It costs a fortune to get laundry done in San Pedro de Atacama ($5USD for a pair of pyjamas - I kid you not!) and at Los Torres (even more costly than in San Pedro) so I've only been getting socks washed and have been washing underwear in the sink. (That Tilley, quick dry underwear is worth owning). I just couldn't bring myself to pay those ridiculous laundry fees so I figured that I'd do our laundry while we waited for our bus. You know, make use of the time that would otherwise be wasted hanging around until the bus arrived. The best laid plans..... Siesta is from 1-4PM so most of the businesses, including the town's 3 laundry operations were closed. AARRRGGGGG! But somehow, things eventually work out. We arrived at our hostel in El Chalten, where they offered to do all of our laundry for the equivalent of $5 USD. YAY!
So, about Torres del Paine....The park is beautiful and the hotel was fantastic. Our hotel is at the base of a magnificent mountain and there are quite a number of trails right outside. It looks rustic and unimpressive from the outside but it really was very nice. We took a guided tour to see the towers (the iconic peaks that are the centre-piece and namesake of the park) one day, starting on horseback. Yes, not only did Gord agree to get on a horse again but he actually seemed to enjoy it this time. We rode up the trail for 2 hours, which is about 1/2 way to the towers, and then we walked the rest of the way. The trail is steep and difficult and it was made worse by rain. So when we got close to the towers, all of the people that were coming down told us that they couldn't see anything up there and it was really slippery so we decided to turn around before hiking up the final gruelling section of he trail. Riding the horses down the steep and now slippery trail was quite an experience, too. Enough so that a couple of people in our group were on a horse for both the 1st and the last times on the same day. In the end, we didn't get up to the base of Los Torres but we had some great views of it from other, more distant vantage points.
Luckily, the weather improved after that one day of rain so we did some other interesting hikes and day trips. I can't say enough about how beautiful the area is and how fresh and clean the air is.
The only real surprise was our total inability to communicate with the outside world. Claims that there is WI FI at the hotel, or anywhere else in the park, were overstated. As far as I know, WI FI was completely unavailable except for about 10 minutes on our 3rd day. When we found out that the WI FI was up, we ran back to our room to get the ipad and tablet and, by the time we got back to the lobby, where "the service is always much better", it was down again.
Oy ve! I give them credit for finally having it back on our 4th day. The truth of the matter is that it wasn't a huge inconvenience for us; it seemed to be big deal for some other people, though.....
On the shuttle between Punta Arenas and Los Torres, we were with 5 other people from the U.S., Australia and England. We all hit it off and spent lots of time together while we were there. I think that our time together will make some of our Torres del Paine memories really special.
So, here we are in Argentina now. It's much warmer here than it was on the east side of the mountains - and a lot less windy. I think that's just because of a brief, unseasonable warm spell but I'll take it even for just a few days. It was windy everywhere we went in Chile. Funny story: 2 days ago, I was walking along a trail at a high point and in a gale force wind. A gust came from behind me and blew me forward about 20 feet before I was deposited face 1st on the ground. No damage to me and no photo evidence of my graceful landing.
Gord has come down with a cold so he's feeling under the weather. It sucks to fell poorly when you are away from home. Hopefully, he feels better soon and, in the meantime, I hope that he keeps his germs to himself! More on that next time.
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