Torres del Paine March 2009

Torres del Paine National Park -- I'll be pulling information about this location from Frommer's Argentina & Chile, our bible while here in S.A. This national park's granite peaks go from sea level to approximately 9,000 ft. and are next to the Andes but are a separate geologic formation created around "3 million years ago when magma began growing and pushing its way up, taking a thick sedimentary layer with it. Glaciation and severe climate weathered away the softer rock, leaving the spectacular Paine Massif whose prominent features are the Cuernos (which means horns" [in the middle-right of this picture) "and the Torres" (towers - not visible in this picture). The black sedimentary rock is visible on the upper regions of the Cuernos. Behind the Paine Massif are several glaciers that descend from the Southern Ice Field. In reference to the severe climate mentioned above, we just missed experiencing the famous hurricane force winds that rip through this region during the spring and summer in South America. Our trip started by flying from Calama to Santiago and then onto Punta Arenas arriving early evening. We ditched our stuff at our hotel and headed out to see the town. What a difference from Calama. Punta Arenas is the furthest south you can fly in Chile and that isolation in conjunction with a European population fleeing Yugoslavia, Russia, Spain and Italy during World War I make for a Chilean city with a small-town European feel regarding cleanliness and architecture. The following morning a van picked us up and we enjoyed a 5-hour drive to Torres del Paine passing by lakes filled with flamingos and fields filled with llama-like guanacos and ostrich-like rheas. We were able to participate in a half-day hike upon our arrival at which time we had the opportunity to experience those fierce winds we had heard about. It was approximately a 2 1/2 mile hike offering grand views of the park and a 800 foot climb -- great way to begin our stay. Upon our return, we explored the walkways around the lodge. Our room was on the other side of the lodge facing the Paine Massif. This picture was the view from our room.

Our second day in Torres del Paine began at 7 a.m. with a boat ride to the starting point of our hike with our ultimate destination of the Glacier Grey. This was approximately a 7 1/2 mile hike with views of icebergs in Grey Lake, the Southern Ice Field, and the Paine Massif from the back side. We had a picnic lunch and returned by boat offering us a closer look at the glacier wall. Below is our first view of Grey Glacier. The young lady in the middle was our guide -- Pepa.

Our guide snagged us a piece of melted glacier ice. After a hard day of hiking it was off to the jacuzzi with a view of Lago Pehoe and a sip of champagne with our new friends.

Our second full day of hiking took us on a hike to the base of the Paine Towers leaving at 7 a.m. and driving approximately an hour to the Cerro Paine Ranch where we began a approximately 1100 foot ascent through the Ascencio River Valley, a walk through forests of beech trees (just beginning to change into their to fall colors), past gorges and then climbing a glacial moraine (another approximatly 1100 foot ascent) until reaching the Towers vista point where we enjoyed a picnic lunch. As I was climbing the glacial moraine, I was actually wondering if it was worth it -- it was! Unfortunately there was not a boat or a helicopter available to return me to the lodge but the return trip was definately easier.

Our third day of hiking involved a half-day stroll to a waterfall and then a lake with the Paine Massif behind it and then a free afternoon to enjoy the view from the lodge. We left the following morning at which time we took our final pictures of the Massif. What a trip!

Calama Friends and Gatherings

The Calama friends and I traveled to San Pedro back in November. I bought a textile from this fellow who is selling textiles from Peru...in Chile.

(L-R) Norma, Kathy and Odessa.

Just before Christmas, all of the families that live in the El Abra Compound provided a dinner for all the folks that take care of us. There are 15 houses, and five of the houses, at that time, housed expats. Two of the families have since left.

There was plenty of wine -- Chilean of course!

L-R Odessa, Kathy, Jody and her sister Molly. We baked Christmas cookies, etc., for the fellows that take care of us here in the El Abra Compound. Odessa had been living here without any other expats for a few years and started this tradition on her own.

Valle de la Luna and National Flamingo Reserve

http://www.protourschile.com/index.php/the-atacama-desert/the-atacama-desert.html

We headed out early last Sunday morning to visit the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) -- a trip we have wanted to take since we arrived. We heard that a portion of the new James Bond movie was filmed here. The link included above provides a map showing Calama and the surrounding area where you'll find some of the places we've previously visited.

We left around 6:30 a.m. hoping to arrive before the sun came up but didn't make it so stopped for this photo of the volcano Licancabur with the sun just starting to peak over the range. The shrine in the foreground is a common site along the side of any of the roads we have traveled.

We arrived at the Valle de la Luna shortly after sunrise and discovered a sand dune that we couldn't resist exploring.

When we reached the top of the dune this was our view -- wish the photo did it justice. We left the Valley of the Moon and headed south to the National Flamingo Reserve located in the Solar de Atacama where Laguna Chaxa is located. The photo below shows the path that has been created in the salt flat leading us to the lake area where we saw a few flamingos.

Again, wish the camera could capture what we saw. The water and weather contributed to beautiful reflections of the mountains and clouds in the water.

We returned to San Pedro where we discovered a new restaurant where we enjoyed the best pizza we've had since our arrival here -- even better than what I make!! San Pedro is full of tourists now compared to when we've visited in the past. Many of the tourists are from Chile but you also see and "hear" many Europeans and visitors from England. Next trip: Torres del Paine in the Patagonia Region

http://www.protourschile.com/index.php/patagonia/patagonia.html

Visitors

We had visitors in January and February. Maria Gracia and Jeremy were in Antofagasta visiting family in January so we drove over for a quick visit. It was great to see them both and we look forward to a visit again next year.

Ed is a friend from our days in Bolivia and we haven't seen him since he left there -- 8 years we figured. Hopefully we'll see more of Ed as he is working on a property near Calama.

La Poruna Volcano Hiking Excursion

A weekend in late December, Larry was able to talk me into hiking a volcano not far from Calama.

I bet you're thinking that it was one of these two volcanoes that we were to hike. Nope. These are San Pedro (20,160 ft.) and San Pablo (19,986 ft.). San Pablo is considered to be extinct but I read that the last verifiable eruption of San Pedro (on the left) was in 1938. It was spewing some steam this day which had me a tad uncomfortable as we had experienced a "tremor" the night before which I though could only mean the possibility of...more activity!

La Poruna is that little cinder cone to the left of San Pedro in this picture. I read that La Poruna is only 590 ft. high. However, I now know why it kicked my bum to hike up La Poruna -- we were at 12,467 ft.

There appeared to be several "paths" when we started this hiking adventure. Evidently not everyone is in agreement as to the easiest way up. Larry decided on a way up and off he scampered. The sides of the volcano are very steep and consist of loose cinder so the "hike" turned out to be more like climbing requiring the use of my hands (Larry knew to bring gloves along--whew!).

I stopped a lot to appreciate the view all the while thinking that there was going to be another "tremor" resulting in the larger of the cinder rocks responding to the shaking and allowing gravity to take over and I also couldn't help noticing that San Pedro seemed to be spewing more steam than when we arrived.

I finally joined Larry at the top. He had been exploring and found cactus.

This photo was taken as we began our trip back down. You can see our truck parked at the base of La Poruna. It was a beautiful view and going down was significantly easier! I was worried we'd have to slide down on our bums but we did just fine. Had to show you that we did discover that there is some water and some green in the Atacama Desert!