Day 180: February 11, 2008 To Torres del Paine NP
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2007
1
183
202
Trip End
Mar 01, 2008
Puerto Natales,
Chile
Monday, February 11, 2008
We were awakened by the sound of many feet exiting the hospedaje to catch the daily 7:30 tour bus to Torres del Paine that the owners run. Then all was quiet. We got up at 8:30 and prepared to go that way ourselves. Since breakfast appears to be a concept that has yet to be invented in Puerto Natales, we drove north on Ruta 9, after gassing up. Along the way, from Puerto Natales to about 30 km to the north, an intense rainbow hovered over the sound and the mountains to the west. Stopping in Cerro Castillo, at a place I'd stopped at before for coffee, we asked about breakfast. The waitress said she had churasco beef sandwiches so we ordered one of those and split it for breakfast. At least they had coffee!
We continued northward to Torres del Paine National Park under clear skies and had magnificent views of the vertical granite towers intruding the black slates/hornfels from the east. Hundreds of guanacos grazed close to the road, oblivious to our presence. At the park entrance, I inquired about the road on the map that is shown going across the mountains to El Calafate. The ranger said it is closed because the border stations aren't staffed-smart move for tourism! Why make it easy for people to move between the two most visited parks in South America?
The wind was powerful as we drove along the main road through the park. At the Lago Nordenskjöld overlook, we were blown off balance several times. The ranger had told us to expect 80 kph gusts. The view from the overlook is one of the best in the park. Tall, nearly vertical, granite towers rise well over 1000 m from the north side of the lake. They are capped with a Jurassic black slate that was deposited in a marine basin. These rocks were intensely folded and faulted during mountain building. They were originally deposited between an offshore volcanic arc and the continent. Anoxic conditions in the basin prevented the oxidation of organic carbon and turned the shales black. Metamorphism, during Tertiary tectonism, and intrusion of the granite changed the shales to slates and hornfels. Subsequent erosion, dominated by glacial action, left the more resistant granites standing tall while removing much of the surrounding metasedimentary rock. The water of Lago Nordenskjöld is greenish because of the high concentration of minute mineral particles called rock flour produced by the glaciers on the towers above and carried into the lake by meltwater. Smaller, surrounding ponds are blue because their water comes from rain and groundwater.
We walked through the wind to view the Salto Grande waterfall and then continued to the top of a low ridge to get a view of the towers. Then, we drove down the eastern shore of Lago Pehoe and took the turnoff toward Lago Grey. The clear sky to the west revealed ice-covered mountains that I don't think I had ever seen before. We stopped in a yellow, grassy plain and ate the lunch we brought with us. We approached Lago Grey after lunch and could see a large iceberg on the lake. In spite of the powerful wind, we decided to hike the 1 km to the lake through the beech forest. When we arrived, we saw numerous people walking across the tombolo causeway out to the island half a kilometer away. We started to go out but the powerful wind and spray from the lake made us think that maybe it wouldn't be that much fun after all so we turned around and went back to the truck.
We headed south, exiting the park at the Río Serrano entrance and followed the new gravel road past Lago del Toro, getting many incredible views of the beautiful Torres del Paine. Once the towers receded behind us, we got good views of Seno Última Esperanza and Cerro Balmaceda.
We returned to our hotel where we rested and I wrote before dinner. Walter, the guy at the desk, recommended a place called Las Burbujas for dinner. We walked several blocks to it on Bulnes. As soon as we entered, I recognized it as the place we had eaten lunch on the 2004-05 GSA student trip. We ordered a single portion of lamb. When it came, it was six lamb chops! With some effort, we managed to eat it all before returning to the hotel and calling it a day.
