Antartcia to Zimbabwe – Day 5 – Torres del Paine can be found here.
Up bright and early at 7:20 am this morning – EcoCamp staggers breakfast times to match with the tours, so we’ll be eating at 8 am for a 9 am departure. But we only have the one bathroom so it takes time (so much time) for everyone to get up and get changed. I expect we’ll get faster eventually, but we scarcely made our breakfast this morning.
Buffet breakfast, but it manages to fit a lot of variety into a limited amount of space – including fruits, breads, savories, eggs, sausages, bacon, toast, etc., etc.
Most guests will be packing boxed lunches to enjoy during their excursions today, but we’re one of the rare exceptions – we’re headed to an estancia for a horseback tour, and they’ll be providing a barbeque lunch as part of the tour.
We’re some of the last to eat so some items were running a bit low, but staff immediately asked if there was anything we needed.
Back to our dome suite to get ready for the day. Again, somewhat slowed by the single bathroom but we’ll get better with practice.
Off to the van, where we were soon joined by the other members of the estancia tour. We left shortly after 9 am, stopping along the way to watch some grey foxes get the zoomies:
It was a really special moment, and we’re so glad to have seen it.
We carried down along the road, where we ran into some puma trackers – apparently we’d missed a mother and her two cubs cross the road just a few minutes earlier. Ah, well – you can’t win them all. We kept an eye on the landscapes while the guides kept an ear on the radios to see if anyone reported seeing anything further, but no such luck.
But we did spot other animals, including more guanacos:
And some stunning scenery:
Including the animal stops, we were on the road for roughly two hours before we reached the estancia. (Perhaps 45 – 60 minutes of actual driving, plus animal spotting stops – which were totally worth doing.)
We dropped the bags in the smokehouse and took a brief rest stop, then it was time to put on gaiters and helmets provided by the ranch.
Then we mounted up our horses, and waited for the rest of the group before we set off.
It was a stunning ride, and the experienced riders even got the chance to canter – video coming soon!
We also forded one of the rivers:
And reached a beautiful, out-of-the-way waterfall:
We then went back to the estancia…
… for a fantastic traditional barbeque lunch:
Meats included chicken, beef, lamb, and chorizo – vegetarian options beyond the usual salads and potatoes were also available.
The food was just amazing, and the kids cleared their plates. The sopapillas (Patagonian fried bread) were particularly tasty.
We soon headed back to the van to return to EcoCamp Patagonia, stopping briefly at Lake Azul:
And the nearby Cascada Rio Paine:
Still no pumas, but we live in hope! Return trip took perhaps 90 minutes, with about 45 minutes of that spent driving. We would’ve perhaps shortened the photo stops a bit, but everyone else seemed happy with the time allotted.
Our guide Gonzalo moved up our briefing so that we could hear about tomorrow’s options just as soon as we got back, thereby giving us more time to make our decisions – and get in those vital pre-dinner showers.
EcoCamp generally offers easy, medium, and demanding tours on any given day.
Tomorrow’s demanding trip will be the towers base trek – 21 km over steep, rocky ground, departing directly from the EcoCamp site at 7 am.
The medium option is a combination boat trip and hike through the French Valley (part of the W circuit) – it runs 19 km, but over easier terrain. It’s a very long day though as you’re dependent on the boat schedule and it’s routinely oversold (even for pre-booked tickets!)
The easy option is a trip out to Sarmiento and Sarmiento Chico lakes, where we hope to see some wildlife and some turbidite rock formations. Apparently there’s only four of these sites in the world – here, Southern Peru, Western Australia and the Argentinian portion of Patagonia. It’s a short (45 minute) drive, plus only about 5 to 6 km of hiking.
We haven’t done much hiking here yet – plus the medium and demanding hike will take considerable time – so we’ve put our names down for the easy option.
But – the weather forecast is looking rough, so we’ve also allowed for the possibility of a ‘rain day’ (or more aptly, a ‘wind day’ with gusts over 80 kph – rain very rarely is sufficient to ruin trekking on this side of the mountain, while wind can cause real safety risks.
So, we’ll just have to see – we are back again in Expedition Country, and last minute changes come with the territory.
Off to the room to shower and change, then we returned to the Community Domes for a little Dungeons & Dragons before dinner. The bar staff kindly noticed that we had not yet received our welcome drinks, and made sure to rectify that error.
We then went to dinner. Tonight’s menu:
We had a delicious sweet potato and ginger cream soup:
Followed by seared southern hake for myself:
And cauliflower mousse cannelloni for my wife:
While the kids enjoyed buttered noodles (no picture needed) generously prepared by the staff.
Dessert was a cocoa brownie mousse-type dessert, served with a macaron:
The only matter left to resolve was how and when to make use of the private guide we’d pre-booked, as the tours on Tuesday had seemed a bit ambitious for us. (While children aged 6 and older are more than welcome at EcoCamp, it’s actually unusual apart from the Christmas holidays.)
However, we didn’t have all the details prior to our arrival – plus it’s all situation and weather dependant – so it made sense to take some time now to sit down with our guide and figure out exactly how we wanted this to work.
Gonzalo again very kindly took some time to sit with us and work through a few different options, and we eventually settled on a modified Cuernos (‘horns’) hike – another option that leaves directly from EcoCamp but without the extensive elevation changes, and with better panoramic views, and the ability to turn back when we feel like it.
We’d initially hoped to do a partial version of the towers hike, but that has very limited views until you reach the end – and we’re not prepared to commit to an 8 hour, 21 km long hike. It’s also the busiest trek at the park, and so has a very early start so as to (partially) avoid the crowds – complications that none of us are keen on.
Huge thanks to EcoCamp and Gonzalo in particular from taking a seemingly endless array of options and making it manageable (and fun, even) – it’s what a high-end tour company is supposed to do, but it’s still wonderful when it all comes together.
With that, there was nothing left to do but retire for the evening and enjoy the patter of rain against our dome windows.
Continue reading Antarctica to Zimbabwe – Day 7 – Torres del Paine.