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Trekking In Torres Del Paine National Park, Patagonia, ChileBY: Cathal | Category: Travel | Post Date: 2010-01-29
I went travelling for just over a year and started off in South America. South America is an amazing part of the world and everyone should get there at some stage and if possible you should take a few months out there. Among the many things I did and places I visited, trekking in Torres Del Paine National Park would have to be up there with the best. We made our way to Punta Arenas, a small little port town down on the South West coast of Patagonia, A nice little town with a few nice bars and restaurants. So from there you can get a bus, or taxi if there are a number of you to the entrance to the park which takes about 2 hours. Before I get into it, we did the 4 day trek across the park with a couple we had met earlier. They had some trekking experience and had done this level of trekking before. I would advise people to do this with someone who has some experience especially if you are doing this in the colder months ( our summer months, June, July, August, September ). Arriving at the park you get a map with the trek marked out on it. Now the track to take is not marked out to well, as in it is hard to find the markers to follow so be vigilant. There are a number of lodges dotted around the park and a hotel at the entrance on the Punta Arenas side. So on the first day we stayed in the hotel as we wanted to hike up to see the famous granite towers of Torres Del Paine which are closest to that side of the park. We just took a small rucksack with us as we would be doing the hike up and back in the same day. We didn't quite make it to the towers as the path gets kind of dodgy with huge drops on one side and a wall of rock on the other, so we headed back down to the hotel and rested up for the night as we would have a long day the next day. To make the lodges each day we had to be up and out on the trek for 7 sharp as we would have to cover 20 kms a day to reach each lodge. The lodges are basic but nice and have all you need to warm yourself up after a tough day of trekking. I won't go into what we did every day but for the rest I will just tell you about the place and what to bring with you if going in the winter months. The scenery in this place is truly unforgettable. Probably some of the most amazing scenery I have ever seen. Snow capped mountains as far as the eye can see. Deep blue and green Glacial lakes and mountain glaciers creeping down the mountain cracking and creaking as you walk past, believe me it is awe inspiring. There are Pumas in the park but they are notoriously hard to find as they stay well away form any humans which they can hear from very far away. You cross over glacial rivers rushing down form the melting glaciers far above on wooden cable bridges. You pass through little valleys with colossal boulders left there by advancing glaciers many years ago. The deep blue ice of the glaciers looks almost fake in the sunlight. Trekking up and down mountains and through little wooded areas on a crisp sunny day with glaciers cracking and melting high above while you look out over the vastness of this terrain is something I wish everyone could experience. On the last day we walked for 8 hours to reach the other side of the park and our lift out of there, which we had arranged for that time on that day. I am not very fit and after 4 days of it I literally collapsed a couple of times on the last day. The scenery on the last day was amazing, wild horses were galloping around vast wide open plains with snow capped mountains all around. I cannot stress enough the beauty of this place. So we made our rendezvous and went back to Punta Arenas to recover. What to bring: Make sure you have good hiking boots and plenty of socks. The temperature dropped to -15c a couple of nights and -5 during the day so make sure to bring plenty of warm waterproof cloths. Bring energy rich food to eat during the day as you will get a warm meal in the lodges at night. Bring hats neck ware and gloves and a good sleeping bag that is made for cold temp. Just a heads up, make sure you leave as soon as the sun is up so you make the lodges because you don't want to be stuck out in that all night, to be safer bring a tent. One day we were caught in a heavy snowfall and it was getting dark. We actually had to start running to make the lodge before dark as the trek can get very icy and you would have no chance in the dark so be careful. I hope you found this interesting and it will spur you on to visit this amazing place. Please post any comments and questions you may have at www.blog.travel247.ie www.travel247.ie Cathal Article Source: http://www.writearticles.org About Author / Additional Info: Travel Consultant Additional Articles: * Shopping For My Christmas Tree * Quotable Quotes from My Favorite Movies * Foods Like Kefir Keep You Healthy * How to think when it comes to the design of house interiors? * Shopping For My Christmas Tree Does this article violate or infringe on your copyright ? It is a violation of our terms for authors to submit content which they did not write and claim it as their own. If this article infringes on your copyrights, then use our Contact us form with the detailed proof of infringement along with the offending article's title, URL and writer name. If you do not hear back from us then contact us again in another 10 days. Thank you. Comments on this article: (0 comments so far) * Additional comments are now closed for this article *
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