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Parque Nacional Torres del Paine (17-22 Dec. 1999)

On average Patagonia is surprisingly flat, considering that some of the most spectacular peaks in the world show off here. The road to Torres del Paine national park is just as flat as Patagonia in general, but on the horizon the steep mountains pop up like mushrooms. The park is so much more than just mushrooms and towers (spanish for 'Torres') though. The wild life is exceptional. Just at the arrival to the park entrance four condors and one fox passed by to really assure us that the entrace fee wasn't a waste. There are two main trekking options in the park, the long circuit, and the 'W'. We chose to do the 'W' from east to west. The rightmost path of the 'W' reaches the 'title attraction' of the park, the 'Torres del Paine'. We approached the great mountains (see Cerro Paine Chico right) on a car road. Then we entered a steep foot path taking us into a deep valley with beautiful green forests. The Torres were mostly covered by clouds that occasionally dispersed just to show what we were out for. When finally reaching the base camp to the 'Torres' the late hour forced us to cook some food and pitch the tent in the forest. It was bedtime and we just hoped for better weather the next day. The weather in Patagonia is quite unreliable. Heavy storms would keep us in the valley for yet another 24 hours. Considering that Anna suffered from a stomach disease and needed to rest anyway, this wasn't to bad after all. We spent most of the day in the tent, playing games like our latest invention 'associate actors to each other through films tht they have both appeared in'.

The next morning we cheered up when realizing that the perfect weather had eventually arrived. Urgent to see the great towers we skipped breakfast and rushed up the boulder covered valley with some dry fruits. It didn't take long before Anna had to stop and fill herself with fuel (see left) . The valley towards the north was quite similar to the Swedish mountains. What would come next was clearly a bit more impressive than anything  Scandinavia could offer. We hadn't travelled the whole world without a reason.

At last we reached the small lake at the bottom of the great towers. I climbed up a ridge on the left side of the lake. The ridge was beautifully covered with newly-fallen snow. A bit late for snow (December 19) we  thought, but the appreciation of the place was definitely magnified. The clear veiws of the 'Torres del Paine' were magnificent a day like this (see next page). As always when there was good weather for a change we wanted to see as much as possible before the next storm arriveed. Therefore, it was time to rush on to the next attraction of the park, the middle path of the 'W'. On our way down to the tent we once again met our Australian 'co-travellers', Rob and Cristy. For the last time, as it would turn out.

The snow-covered ridge sparkling in the sun. The views towards the Torres del Paine were, just as the arrow indicates, towards the right in the picture.

Torres

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