Stop 3: Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine
CHILE | Friday, 4 April 2008 | Views [297]
After Calafate, we headed into Chile for the first time on our trip to visit the unmissable Torres del Paine (pronounced PIE-nay for all you gringos out there) National Park. The bus ride was fairly unpleasant and bumpy for six hours (Note: Trish did not like the bumpy bus rides), but we arrived in one piece. Puerto Natales is a small intimate town set among the fjords and channels of southern Chile and is the base for the park. Unfortunately for us though, we completely missed the fact that it's a three hour drive from Natales to the park and timing day hikes with the park buses is difficult.
Our wonderful host Marcella at Erratic Rock 2 Bed & Breakfast called a few car rental places and ended up connecting us with her friend who rents out her vehicle to visitors for a great price. The vehicle must have been the first Suzuki ever made and was, to put it plainly, a piece of crap. The trunk door was loose and rickety and we doubted that the car would even make it to the park and back over the unpaved roads. Not to be deterred though, we set out for Torres del Paine early in the morning on the newly created second road to the park. "Newly created second road" still meant potholes and our brains rattled around for three hours. The drive to the park at sunrise was so beautiful and with the entire range in front of us, we were lucky in the end of have our own car. (Note from Ben: This was my favorite part of the entire trip. Combine 4-wheeling with once of the most pectacular backdrops on earth and it's a winning combination. It was rough though, bumpy is an understatement. Trish was a trooper though, it's always harder in the passenger seat.)
We drove through the majority of the enormous park to the trail head for the Torres hike, which is one of the more popular day hikes and the trail leads right up to the base of the famous Torres (Towers) of Paine. There was a swanky hotel at the trail head and then a fairly tiring uphill climb for 1.5 hours to the halfway point of the hike. It was at this halfway point that I, because of my bum knees, turned back for a slow wobbly decent and Ben went onto to finish the hike and get pics at the base of the Towers. Such a shame. I did spend the rest of the beautiful sunny day at the swanky hotel and waited for Ben to return from his hike. He made it back at the end of the day as the sun was starting to decend behind the clouds. According to Ben, the second half of the hike was challenging ascent up huge open-faced boulders, but with all hikes, the view at the top is worth it. We finished up the day with a drive back to Natales on the more established paved road that the shuttles use.
Puerto Natales was great stop; one day we biked for few hours on a road that seemingly when on forever in sunshine and open plains. The ride kicked our asses as we were biking into 50 mph wind gusts, but that's Patagonia. We then treated ourselves to great chocolate and coffee at the local sweethouse and followed up that treat with what may be one of the BEST restaurants we've encountered thus far on the trip and if I dare say, in life??!! Chile is NOT known for its cuisine, but if you ever make it to Puerto Natales, you must stop into Afrigonia. Owned by a Chilean and African couple, the menu (as you can guess) is a mix of Chilean and African food. You wouldn't think that the combination works, but the food was creative, fresh and inspiring. We finally tried a few pieces of the regional king crab too. Ben and I literally spent the whole dinner talking about how much we loved what we were eating.
If ever we make it back to this part of the world, we'll definitely see Torres del Paine the proper way and camp in the park. To appreciate it fully, you'd probably need to spend at least 5-7 days on the trails and hikes. And not have bum knees. Next time.
Tags: the great outdoors
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