Chile – the Patagonia files

The journey

And with hearts beating fast, broad smiles on our faces, we started our journey at JFK airport .. 11 of us, to be joined by 9 more later at the destination, we set out to Santiago Chile.

Missed our connection from Santiago to Punta Arenas, and had to battle with LATAM officials for close to 5 hours at Santiago airport for connecting flight and hotel accommodation – when finally we got the boarding passes for the flight next day to Punta Arenas, collective cheer, laughter and mandatory selfies ensued! 

With hearts in our throats and prayers, we set out on the flight to Punta Arenas, landed just in time to catch the bus to Puerto Natales. And just like that with some hiccups but a lot of fun, our Chilean Patagonia adventure had begun! 

We arrived at the beautiful, colorful town of Puerto Natales which is the gateway to Patagonia, at the fjord of Last hope in the Magellans region of Chile. 40 /50 mph winds greeted us in town, providing a taste of the Patagonia weather! 

Pretty soon, rest of the team arrived – 3 from their travels through Brazil, 2 from Argentina and rest taking different itinerary to get to Puerto Natales in time for the group adventure that awaited us.

A meeting with the guides ensued in town, who would be with us for the next 5 days on our adventure. 

And next morning we set out to the Torres Del Paine National Park in Patagonia, with much fun, breathtaking views and good company the entire way. 

Day 1 Chilean Patagonia

The glorious waters of Lago Sarmiento and majestic views of the Paine Massiff (range) greeted us as the van hurtled closer to the Torres Del Paine National park. Torres – Spanish word for Towers, Paine – Teheulche Indian word for “blue”, Towers of Blue referring to the vast Patagonian landscapes of sub polar forests, glacial lakes, the steppes and tall granite mountains. We spotted Guanacos, a little armadillo scuttling by the roadside, Southern American Carey Carey with wingspans of a few feet, setting the stage for the perfect sojourn with the flora and fauna of Patagonia. 

We started our first hike from the outskirts of the park on the southern side(putting on layers for wind and rain was a struggle as we got off the van and were immediately being whipped by 40 mph winds – Patagonia was certainly going to live up to its reputation), crossing over beautiful sub-polar forests coming to life (it’s late spring, early summer here), walking by beautiful pristine lagoons and lakes with breathtaking views of the Paine range – Paine Grande towering over the rest of the mountains, with its snow capped peak and hanging glaciers. We certainly got the taste of the infamous Patagonia weather in the first few hours as it changed from sun to clouds to punishing freezing rain that hurt our faces, in the span of a few minutes!  The forests provided some respite from the harsh weather, and after negotiating a slightly hairy and slippery bend in the trail, we arrived at a beautiful spot in the forests for a much needed rest and delicious lunch provided by the good folks of Chile Nativo base camp.

Post lunch, we started our steep climb down accompanied by gale force winds. With hearts in our throats, continued down the steep slope to spectacular views of even more beautiful lakes and rivers – this time Lago Toro and Rio Paine, the namesake of the park.

Further down we spotted a condor high up on the cliff watching over its nest, beautiful mountain berries and fire bush with fiery red flowers on the cliff side, orchids blooming all around us, bringing to life the magic of Patagonia 

The eventful day continued with the drive to our campsite, set on the banks of the beautiful Rio Serrano. Some of the tents faced the Andean views, some faced the pristine fast moving river. Needless to say, it was a picture perfect setting! 

A sumptuous dinner provided by the good folks of the company we had hired in the dining hall at the camp Serrano, followed by a musical session of antakshari ended quite an eventful day..

A note: 

In 2012 a large wildfire caused by an irresponsible tourist destroyed about 25% of the forests around Lake Pehoé and the western areas around Lake Sarmiento, and all around we saw evidence of the destruction, although the burnt out trees made for an intense and dramatic landscape

Day 2 Glacier gray 

The day started early with a relaxing time sitting by the river at camp in a slight drizzle, followed by a sumptuous breakfast and getting ready for the day with layers of clothing, for rain, wind or sun.

A drive from Camp Serrano to a spot near Lake Toro, and we headed out on a short hike through the beautiful mountains lush with gorgeous wildflowers, up and down steep slopes awash in pristine fauna, with some rickety wooden steps built on the trail, beautiful lichen that grow only in the most pure air, expansive views of Lake Toro and Rio Serrano greeting us at every turn, all the while eating some mountain berries and calaphate berries plucked from the mountainside. The guides pointed out this flower and that, explaining the conservation efforts that have gone into making the Chilean Patagonia region one of the most well protected areas of the world. 

Yellow orchids

Porcelana orchid

All around the hillside, the fiery Fire bush painting the scape in red!

The dainty Lady’s slippers 

 We then drove to the west side of the Torres Del Paine park to Hotel Gray, where a boat would take us to the views of Grey Glacier, which is one of the glaciers that makes up the Southern Patagonian ice field. 

At the hotel we were astounded by the view of an iceberg that had floated down the lake close to the hotel. As we awaited the boat’s arrival and the captain’s decision of whether the boat would sail based on weather, we treated ourselves to hot coffee to psyche-up for the 1.5 mile walk on the exposed beach area to the boat. 

As we stepped on to the beach, we were greeted by 40/50 mph winds whipping us that would occasionally knock one off course! With heads down against the wind we trudged to the boarding area. The wind of course was no match for our valiant photographic spirits – no deterrence to selfies and photos! 

As the boat closed in on the glacier, the captain gave us the green light to go to the exposed upper deck. We needed no second bidding – off we were to the deck in spite of the punishing wind.

It was one marvel after another as we passed by small and big icebergs of different shapes and colors – light blue to deep blue to electric blue to almost black! And the lake framed on the East side by the massive snow capped Paine grande peak made for an utterly surreal and ethereal experience. 

Despite the cold and the winds we stayed out for over an hour on the deck taking in the glacier views from 3 vantage points the boat took us to. 

Once the boat turned around everyone treated themselves to Pisco sour and Calaphate sour (Those were definitely the most popular drinks of trip – Calaphate being a berry that is abundant in Patagonia and also the name of a beautiful town in Argentinian Patagonia, El Calaphate). 

Back on the beach … trudge trudge trudge and we made it to the hotel. 

And the most delightful sight greeted us – a gorgeous Magellanic Woodpecker was trying to “peck” at the glass and wood structure with nary a care for all the cameras pointed at it!

A quick note on the Torres Del Paine park 

The park is one of the 11 protected areas of the Magallanes Region and Chilean Antarctica and was featured on the Netflix docuseries “Our Great National Parks”. Wherever you look, the landscape is dominated by the Paine massif, which is an eastern spur of the Andes mountains located on the east side of the Grey Glacier. 

Day 3 Hike to French valley

Did I mention that every evening we would have a briefing with the guides for the next day’s agenda, as we were served the most delicious appetizers, along with the mandatory Pisco sours/wine etc (the guides called it the welcome drink)? A large map of the park adorning one wall was quite effective in grounding us geographically on what we had seen that day, and what we were embarking on the next day. After the excision to Grey glacier, we were about to venture on one of the most iconic hikes of the W circuit, the hike to the French valley. It would be a long hike of 11 miles, at a pretty good pace – if we were to make it all the way to the entrance of the French valley. Because you see, we were bound by the schedule of the boat that would take us to the starting point of the hike, and then bring us back to where the van would be parked. The boat would leave at 9am and be back at 5pm, so we only had those 8 hours to go to the French valley and come back. 

Off we set on our drive, through the now familiar landscape of gorgeous snow capped peaks, granite formations of the Horns, the Towers looming and peeking out through the clouds, and azure lakes and lagoons, with hillsides full of beautiful flowers. We got to the area where the boat was docked, again being whipped by the infamous Patagonian wind. 

It was about a 30 min boat ride across Lago Pehoe, to the Paine Grande Refugio, not as comfortable a boat as the previous day (this was a government run service, and the fumes of the gas powered boat were slightly overpowering).

This was a long and fast paced hike as we kept pace to be able to catch the 5 pm boat back, but the views at every turn of the head were as stunning, as breathtaking. We passed Lake Pehoe, Lake Skottsberg and the two lakes with distinctly different blue color attributable to the algae/minerals in the water. We passed by many springs with pristine water flowing, and some in the group took advantage of the pure spring water to fill in their water bottles – one in particular was touted as the “fountain of youth” by one of the guides – we would have believed anything he said, we were so giddy with the sights 😀

Los Cuernos – the Horns of Torres Del Paine 

The trail had quite a few sections laid with wooden “boardwalks” that were not always stable – as we learnt the park rangers do an incredible job of maintaining the trails with the very limited funding they receive from Santiago . On this one section, as we were walking on a wooden section,  one plank gave away with a loud crack and a lone hiker walking the opposite direction fell through and hurt her knee.  A quick check by our guides Patrick and Tim indicated no major injury and she was on her way after a few minutes. It was a reminder for each one of us on the trail to be always very mindful of the next step and not to hike alone! 

After a quick break at Italiano Refugio which serves as one of the campsites that complete the entire W circuit carrying their own camping gear, we moved further towards French valley. As was the case the previous day, we were lucky to be blessed with mostly clear weather, although the winds were rough. We stopped for lunch at the most gorgeous lookout point and had our sandwiches and fruits, packed by the camp staff. 

Post lunch, we took the same trail back at a brisk pace, enjoying the grandiose views again until we reached Grey Refugio to catch the boat back again.

Day 4 Puma tracking

The whole team was super excited – we were going to track that most elusive of big cats, the Puma. Today was going to be a leisurely day, with a couple miles of hiking and then mostly moving around in the van in the hopes of coming across a puma. A puma tracker had been at it since early morning keeping the guides posted on any possible sightings.. with much excitement we headed out.

As we were cruising along with eyes peeled  on Patagonian steppes in search of the elusive big cat, Nicholas suddenly asked the driver to stop the van and then sprinted 50 feet down the slope by the road as we looked about puzzled. Pretty soon we realized he had spotted a small piece of plastic way down by the side of the road, and went to pick that up. It happened one other time on the trip, and we marveled at the love and respect Chileans have for nature.

Guanacos, ancient cousins of theLlamas, they were everywhere! In big herds, mostly female and babies, with one male. Or a lone male sitting on a ridge – every ridge we looked at, there were lone guanacos sitting, contemplating life .. I mean, it may be Patagonia, but life is still complicated! 

We saw fights erupt between males for supremacy, the mating chase of a male and female, guanaco babies running after their moms. Guanacos were delightful! 

We spied many bird species – Blue beaked duck, Cinereous Harrier, a Flying owl, Magellan geese pairs, an eagle..

Andean Condors – those majestic birds with wing spans of up to 9 feet, second only to the albatross, Patagonia is home to a substantial population of condors, and we spied them every day flying high up gracefully. But here we were looking at a couple of condors from relatively close distance by the side of the road – magnificent and graceful, they were in no hurry as they alternately took flight and landed gracefully, with all our cameras trained at them

With no Puma sightings, we headed to Laguna Azura, and had lunch in a little cantina. The lake lived up to its name, and the weather cleared up to provide beautiful views of the iconic towers of the park. A group of horses delighted us by galloping out showing off their gorgeous manes. We came across many horses throughout our stay, mostly owned and used by the park rangers. There are very few wild horses in Patagonia, and none that we came across. 

We came back with no sightings of puma, but our hearts filled with Patagonia again

The majestic Torres del Paine

Day 5 Final day in Patagonia

Day started really early for some of us. Hiking to see the Torres of the Torres Del Paine national park up close was going to be no joke, and touted to be a rough 14 mile hike, possibly taking up to 10 hours. The guides had given us a briefing on what to expect, and only 7 of the team decided they were up for the challenge. The rest opted for a day of relaxation taking in more sights around the park, along with some easy trails, perhaps intimidated by the winds the previous day that were brutal.

The day dawned bright and sunny, and virtually no winds. We were ready by 7 am after a quick breakfast and on our way to the trailhead which was about 1.5 hours away. When we got to the trail head, it was already bustling with a few other groups.

Only about a mile or so into the hike, Tim and I heard a distinct rumbling in the distance and we looked up to the left to see what seemed like white dust rising, almost like a cloud, high atop the snow capped peak. Tim explained that was an avalanche happening as we stopped to look at it (thankfully we were at ground level, and were not going to be anywhere remotely close to the action!)

The trail was divided into 3 main sections – the first section of ascends and descends took us to the Chileno Refugio, climbing up 1000 feet and then down to the valley. (As I was enjoying the welcome respite of the steep descend, the thought occurred and was hastily pushed to the back of the mind, that on the return, the ascend back would be no fun!). The campsite was by a beautiful river and offered beautiful vistas all around.

Past Chileno, we went into a forest section, where the climb was gentler we crossed a few springs, and took the opportunity to fill up our water bottles.

Further down, we came across a section where destruction from a landslide was evident – apparently a few months earlier, a landslide after major rain had taken down trees and debris down the slope while sparing human life as it happened in the dead of night. Some repairs had been completed to allow safe passage of hikers again.

As we emerged from the forest to the final section of rocks and boulders, we loaded up on sunscreen as we would have no protection from the beating sun. This last section of the hike was the hardest but the excitement grew as we got nearer and nearer until we got the first glimpse of the destination – the pristine blue green waters of Lake Torres framed by the 3 towers! The sight left us speechless…

Throughout the hike we marveled at the benevolence of the gods that bestowed us with the perfect weather for hiking – sunny, blue skies, comfortable temperatures and a cool breeze, we were hiking in just one layer.

For rest of the team, it was a day of fun, relaxation and beautiful sights

It was with heavy hearts that we bid goodbye to Chilean Patagonia the next morning, as we headed out from the hotel in different directions – two (Milind and Rakesh) headed to the Argentinian side of Patagonia to continue their romance with nature; some of us took to the airport to fly to Santiago while still others headed to the bus stop to ride to Punta Arenas, and from there on fly to Santiago.

The one consolation for most of us was that we still had a few more days to explore Santiago, the wine valleys around Santiago (Casablanca or Maipo ) and the coastal town of Valpairso, that we had heard so much about. But that is for another day…..One thing was certain, we all headed out with our hearts filled with the people and landscapes of Patagonia.

Photo credits: Milind Puranik and rest of the team

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