Pategonia

Well, Pategonia was super awesome. It didn't start out too hot (Tania has decided that I am the bad luck bringer), but it ended up being really cool. We first flew into Punta Arenas at about 2am. There wasn't any transportation from the airport at that time, so we found a comfy spot of tile floor and slept until about 8am when we got a taxi into the city. A few hours later we took a three hour bus up to Puerto Natales and got a hostel for the night as well as figured out all we needed to know about getting to Parque Torres del Paine where we would do our trekking and such. The bus would leave the next morning at 7:30. However, when I woke up the next morning, I was feeling rather sick and Tania wouldn't let us go. We slept in until noon and I felt a lot better, so we took the 2:30 bus to Torres. We arrived in Parque Torres del Paine around 4:30 or 5 that evening and hiked for two hours to our first campsite which was full, so we had to set up our tent near a few other tents down by the river, giving some anxiety to Tania.

We wanted to see the actual Torres del Paine (the mountain that looks like a wall of three enormous spikes and another wall), but when we got up early in the morning, it was extremely windy and rainy like it had been all night and we couldn't see Torres so we decided that we should wait for a few hours for it to clear up and if it didn't, we would just start our trek around the other side of the park to get to Glacier Grey (a four day hike). It didn't clear up until about noon and if we went up to Torres, we wouldn't have had time to start our planned trek, so we just proceeded on to our planned route. We hiked the two hours back down to the main camp and got about 40 minutes up the other way when we passed some other travelers. A German couple and then a Chilean couple told us that the rest of the trail was closed due to snow. We could make it to the first campsite, but because the second and third were now closed, most people weren't being accepted at the first campsite. The only thing we could do was to turn back. It would be a six hour hike to the first campsite on the other route. 

(refer to the picture of the map. We started on the east side, hiked up to Camp Chileno for the first night, and then wanted to go up on the Northern path - called the backside trail - going toward Glacier Grey, being able to see it from the North East side. Since that was closed, we needed to go on the "W" trail which is the south half of the trail to the glacier).

It was already into the evening a ways and we were no longer sure we wanted to continue hiking all that way. We stopped at the main camp again and decided to just camp there and decide what to do for the rest of the time we had. It was a good thing we did because half of the campsites of the "W" were closed as well and we wouldn't have been able to make it to Glacier Grey by foot for at least the next three days. We only had four days left in the South, so, out of frustration, we decided to leave the park the next day and go see other attractions in Pategonia. (By the way, Pategonia is the entire southern area of Chile and Argentina, full of glaciers, lakes, straights, parks, and wildlife). 

We left the park the next day and got to Puerto Natales where we asked around to see which places we could go for how much money. We decided on an all day boat-tour for the next day up a lake/straight to see a couple smaller glaciers. That turned out to be adventurous and a lot of fun. The boat ride was exciting and beautiful. One glacier was next to the straight, so we rode by it and the other was inland a ways so we got out and hiked a short ways to see the grandeur. On the way back, we stopped at a place along the way where at a restaurant that seemed to be specifically for this tour since there was nothing else on the shore but horse stables. Just before lunch and after it, a storm hit us which made the ride more fun and adventurous. Most people stayed inside the boat but Tania and I decided that it was boring to do that. So we got wet with the rain and waves slashing over the side but it was a ton of fun! We started talking to the captain of the boat and a few others in the cabin and before we docked, they let each of us govern the boat for a while which was a ton of fun :) .

It was fortunate that we spoke to the guys in the cabin because they asked us about our plans for the trip and we told them we wanted to see Perito Moreno in Argentina, another glacier that is much bigger and more famous than the two we saw that day. We were planning on booking another all day tour for this, but one of guys gave us the idea of renting a car. He said it would probably be cheaper and give us a lot more freedom. When we docked, we looked into this and found a place to rent a car. It turned out to cost us about $10 more overall (a difference from $180 for the tour for both of us to $190 for the car with insurance and documentation for crossing the border and all that jazz). This turned out to be a really great idea. We stayed at a hostel in Puerto Natales that night and then picked up the car in the morning and started off toward Argentina and Perito Moreno.

A side note about Argentina:

Up until January 7, Argentina required a reciprocity fee of $160 from US citizens wanting to fly into Argentina, but not those driving or busing in. As of the 7th, US citizens using all means of transportation are required to pay the fee online, in advance, and bring a receipt to the border. Without this receipt, a US citizen cannot enter Argentina. ... I had no idea about this, so when I found out about it (luckily while we were in Puerto Natales looking into the tours and such) I was not very happy about the sudden change. I decided to just pay it because I really wanted to see Perito Moreno and I figure that I will be going to Argentina a couple more times this semester anyway... at least I hope I will.

The drive to the glacier was about 5 or 6 hours. The border was only about 30 minutes from Puerto Natales and this became the second reason we were glad we rented a car. (The first was that we didn't have to be packed on a bus with a bunch of other people). At the border, we were in and out very quickly and didn't have long lines or a bus full of people to wait for. Over the next few hours, we were able to enjoy beautiful scenery and even a far off view of Torres del Paine. Before we reached the glacier, we had to stop in a small town before the glacier called El Calafate to exchange our money to Argentine pesos and grab something to eat. This was a bit of an adventure because finding an ATM that was open in the early afternoon seemed to be impossible for some reason. We finally made it to the glacier and had an amazing time. Yet another reason we were glad for having the car was that we stayed at the glacier for as long as we wanted to. This glacier is particularly famous for the breaking and falling ice on the front edge of it right next to the land that we were standing on. The whole time that you are there, you hear cracking and breaking ice and occasionally get to see blocks of ice break off and fall into the water. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything in my life so breathtaking as Glacier Perito Moreno. After we had our fill (actually, they were closing the park so we had to leave), we got in the car and drove back to Puerto Natales. 

We were told that the border closed at 8 and we decided that we couldn't make it, so we drove a couple hours from the glacier and stopped to sleep for a few hours and then we would continue on to the border and get there when it opened in the morning. This worked out fine, but when we got to the border early in the morning, we found out that it was open 24-7 during the summer... oh well. The car wasn't that uncomfortable to sleep in with out reclined seats... :p

This would be our last day in Pategonia and we hoped we could go on another tour near Punta Arenas to see penguins and other wildlife. However, when we go to Puerto Natales we found that first bus we could get on to go to Punta Arenas was in the afternoon which made it so that most tours (at least cheap ones) were out of the question. So, when we got to Punta Arenas, we decided to walk around its beautiful cemetary, hang out in a cafe and then go to the airport.

Our flight took off at 2:30 in the morning which gave us time to watch the soccer game on TV of Chile vs Bolivia (the under 20 league, so it doesn't really mean anything, but it was still fun). We got back in Santiago at 6am and thus ended our adventures in Pategonia.