After a
great three day backpacking trip at Mount Fitz Roy, we made our way to the next
set of mountains on our schedule—the incredible Torres del Paine of
Chile.
We arrived at midnight to the border crossing at Paso Rio
don Guillermo, after driving 400km through incredible wind. The border closes
at 8pm and opens again at 8am, so we just slept by the side of the road within
sight of the guard station.
In the morning we crossed easily through the Argentinean
border, but had some trouble re-entering Chile because we had used our
passports to exit Chile a week earlier. We were supposed to use our Cedula de
Identificacion from Chile since we are currently Chilean residents. The trouble
was that the prior Chilean border guard told us that he had to have some
paperwork from the police that states we weren’t wanted criminals in Chile, and
since we didn’t have that paperwork, he suggested that we just use our US
passports. Okaaay. No one else ever asked for this paperwork, but hey, he was
the one wearing the gun and holding the stamp. Now crossing back into Chile,
the border guard got his morning cranky-ness out on us and let us pass with a
warning that our Chilean visas could be revoked if we did that again. Lesson
learned. Time to go do something fun.
There are definite perks to being a Chilean. Today the perk
was that we were able to enter the Torres del Paine national park for 3000
pesos each instead of 15,000—basically saving $24 each. Not bad.
We also have these cool ID cards—even the kids!
Ben really wanted to take a long hike to this glacial lake
viewpoint to see the Torres del Paine up close. The kids and I kinda groaned at
the idea of a 6-hour, one-way, uphill hike to see these mountains that we could
see perfectly well from the road. We decided to let Ben go on alone and get his
groove on, and the kids and I would do a less ambitious hike to a lesser
viewpoint up the canyon.
Ben took off and we, eventually, made our way up the trail
too.
The Torres del Paine national park has a bunch of private
land that you have to cross to get to the actual park in places. These generous
people allow hikers to cross for free and they also have refugios, supplied by
pack-horses, where you stop and camp or just have a hot chocolate. The Refugio
Chileno is one such place and lies about a 2-hour hike in from the road. This,
and a little farther, was to be our destination.
Once we got to the refugio, I realized that I forgot to
bring any money and therefore couldn’t get the kids the treat I’d hoped to get
them. Oops. Luckily I didn’t mention the treat to the kids so they were none
the wiser—but I really was craving a little cafecito about then. We pressed on
and finally entered the park!
I had promised the kids, who were still a little worn out
from our recent backpacking trip, that we would turn back once we got ourselves
a good viewpoint. It was cool to see trees, usually at a steep turn in the
trail, whose bark had been rubbed shiny by hordes of tourists from all over the
world. We had no idea who they were or where they were from, but we had all
grabbed that exact spot for support. It reminded me of the staircases at
Harvard where they are all bowed from a variety of students going from class to
class. Some became world leaders, and some, like me, now live in their car.
Haha.
After taking our destination selfie, we turned back.
Suddenly we heard someone cat-calling us and there was Ben, all out of breath.
Homeboy had freaking RUN up the hill. Let’s do the math. We were standing at
the 2-hours in point of the trail. He had run to the 6-hours in point and then
back to us, meeting us at the aforementioned 2-hours in point. So that’s a
10-hour hike in 2 hours. And it was steeeeeep. He’s crazy, and in better shape
than he claims.
He said as he ran past groups who were laboring up the hill,
they exclaimed, “Chucha!” Which I shouldn’t translate.
Here's the view from Lago Torres del Paine:
As we got close to the Refugio Chileno I asked him if he had his wallet—he did! Yay! We stopped and got hot chocolates and café. Of course, the refugio was filled with tourists speaking loudly in English, telling braggy stories and hoping to hook-up later. We sat quietly and enjoyed the treat, nursing our feelings of superiority. That’s the awful thing about us: I’m judgmental and Ben is idealistic. Our poor kids. Hahahaha!
We made our way back down the valley to Jules and found an
incredible, and probably illegal, place to camp overlooking the spectacular
Valle del Frances and watched the sunset. What a great way to end the day.
