After driving the 100 or so kilometres we arrived at the park’s administration centre and paid the $8,000 Chilean Pesos (around £10) entry fee. Three of our group who were camping in the park to hike some of the many trails then disembarked. The park measures in excess of 180,000 hectares and can take up to nine days to hike the main ‘W’ circuit (so called because of its shape) which gives you some idea of the its size.
Our guide then took the remainder of our group to our first stop of the day, the shore of Lago Grey where we looked out to the Glacier Grey ice field in the distance. However, there were fragments of ice floating close to the shore some even close enough to touch. We came across a group of Chileans drinking whiskey with ice they’d retrieved from the water! They were kind enough to offer me a taste.
Our guide told us that the colour of the ice is determined by the amount of oxygen present within it. The clearer the ice appears the more oxygen there is in it whereas the bluer the ice the lesser the oxygen within. We walked along the shoreline before hiking for a short distance to a higher vantage point which offered us a different view of the glacier before we returned to our transport for lunch.
After lunch we visited different parts of the park, most notably the Salto Grande waterfall and then on to what would have offered us the best viewpoint of the Torres del Paine. However, by the time we got there the weather had closed in and the summit of the towers was shrouded in cloud. Having looked at them on the horizon all day, to then be in a position to view them up close and be unable too was disappointing to say the least.
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| Salto Grande. |
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| A Guanaco. |
In spite of this disappointment the park is a remarkably beautiful place with so much to see, it certainly warrants much more than just one day.
3 comments:
Wow Lee, what fantastic photos - you truly are talented and what a wonderful blog you have. Your mum showed me photos yesterday ands I couldn't wait to show Craig. Enjoy and keep the great photos coming!
best wishes Nellie x
Hi Lee
We are still loving all of your photos, I agree with your mum and we will certainly want some to put on our walls at home.
Daisy had her birthday party today and we missed you, we had loads of kids running riot so it was hectic to say the least, maybe your in the right place
Glad you are feeling better, Keep well and we will speak again soon
Love you loads
Kelly, Ady and Daisy
Daisy sends a big kiss
Hey Kelly,
Good to hear from you and thank you for your kind words. It's pretty hard not to take beautiful pictures here. Patagonia is a truly breathtakingly beautiful place. I’m really disappointed to have missed Daisy’s birthday. I would have loved to have been there. I miss her lots. Give her a big kiss and cuddle from me. Maybe we can Skype this coming Friday? It would be good to see you all again. I’m heading up to Bariloche next; it’s in the Argentine Lake District. I’m catching a 3am bus from here in El Calafate tomorrow morning (Mon) and will get to Bariloche at 13:00hrs on Tuesday!
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