Torres del Paine to Puerto Natales, 125 miles (100 dirt)
The box of wine wasn’t very good so we left it behind. It was cold in the tent last night, but nothing like Ushuaia. It was cold as in uncomfortable, not cold as in life-threatening. As Amie said yesterday, the park is amazing. It is the most beautiful natural place I’ve ever seen. I wish I had a fishing pole as you can see salmon jumping, and the rivers are beautifully clear and probably full of trout. It is lucky we got great photos yesterday as this morning was completely foggy and we had no view of the mountains whatsoever.
As beautiful as TDP was, we had to get out. We had planned on spending two nights, and when we got there I wished we could stay longer, but it was way too expensive to be there without cooking gear and a stocked cooler. It was $30/each to enter (how much is Yosemite? This seems really high!), $16 to camp (very reasonable for what you get), but unless you come prepared, and we didn’t, TDP will break you. Water was $4 a bottle, our mediocre meal last night ran us $45, gasoline $8/gallon, coffee and toast in the morning, which we passed on, would run you $7.50ea. OUCH!
I had a blast zipping through the park on the winding roads past emerald green lagoons, and murky pastel blue lakes. We stopped at a mirador (look out point) in front of “Glacier Grey” to split a sandwich and coffee. It was the first time I’ve ever seen a lake with chunks of ice floating in it. There definitely is more of that in store for us in the coming days….
The 100 miles of dirt out of the park were uneventful, we were riding away from the view which was cloaked in fog anyway. We did have to pull over and get into emergency roadside dump formation. I tried to fart, I tried to tuck it in. I had no options. It was chunky enough someone might confuse it for a guanaco’s pile. And our TP is biodegradable so I was at least environmentally conscious.
It was a toss up on whether or not we stop at the Cave of the Milodon. The milodon was a prehistoric beast, and there is a huge cave near Puerto Natales where many of them had once lived. We decided against it as we wanted to get back to town so we could secure our lodging from the previous night. Afterall, it was fairly priced, had kitchen access, and we could glean free wireless from our second story window. Even still, our room was reserved by someone else and I immediately regretted not going to the cave.
I would bet dollars to doughnuts that George Lucas has been to South America. I would wager that most of the landscapes from the second and third starwars were inspired by locations we have visited in south America. For example, in Empire strikes back, the creature han solo is riding looks a lot like a guanaco. When Skywalker comes to save him, he finds himself in an icecave inhabited by a creature that looks like a vicious Milodon. Chan Chan looked just like Mos Isley (spelling) the land of sand people. Also, wasn’t the intro from Indian Jones (also George Lucas) filmed in South America?? Just an observation…
Everything is good with us. We are still having fun. We now have exactly 1 month left in South America, and though its been difficult at times, I will miss this portion of the trip. It has been very exciting, challenging, and unique. I also feel like completing this part of the trip is an accomplishment, the rest just vacation. I have a hard time justifying 4 months of vacation at this point in our life… but we will get to see the places we’ve always wanted to see and have two great family trips we might not otherwise have.
As far as money goes, we are hemorrhaging. Our daily budget for South America was $50 initially, but after entering Peru we had to up it to $60 to be realistic. Now, in Chile, we are running about $120 a day. Things here cost about the same as they do at home (yet the folks here don’t earn nearly as much). Today went something like this:
Gasoline: $20
Lodging: $20
Lunch: $20
Coffee and cake: $15
Dinner: $30
Incidentals: $10
Crystal clear streams...
As beautiful as TDP was, we had to get out. We had planned on spending two nights, and when we got there I wished we could stay longer, but it was way too expensive to be there without cooking gear and a stocked cooler. It was $30/each to enter (how much is Yosemite? This seems really high!), $16 to camp (very reasonable for what you get), but unless you come prepared, and we didn’t, TDP will break you. Water was $4 a bottle, our mediocre meal last night ran us $45, gasoline $8/gallon, coffee and toast in the morning, which we passed on, would run you $7.50ea. OUCH!
I had a blast zipping through the park on the winding roads past emerald green lagoons, and murky pastel blue lakes. We stopped at a mirador (look out point) in front of “Glacier Grey” to split a sandwich and coffee. It was the first time I’ve ever seen a lake with chunks of ice floating in it. There definitely is more of that in store for us in the coming days….
The 100 miles of dirt out of the park were uneventful, we were riding away from the view which was cloaked in fog anyway. We did have to pull over and get into emergency roadside dump formation. I tried to fart, I tried to tuck it in. I had no options. It was chunky enough someone might confuse it for a guanaco’s pile. And our TP is biodegradable so I was at least environmentally conscious.
It was a toss up on whether or not we stop at the Cave of the Milodon. The milodon was a prehistoric beast, and there is a huge cave near Puerto Natales where many of them had once lived. We decided against it as we wanted to get back to town so we could secure our lodging from the previous night. Afterall, it was fairly priced, had kitchen access, and we could glean free wireless from our second story window. Even still, our room was reserved by someone else and I immediately regretted not going to the cave.
I would bet dollars to doughnuts that George Lucas has been to South America. I would wager that most of the landscapes from the second and third starwars were inspired by locations we have visited in south America. For example, in Empire strikes back, the creature han solo is riding looks a lot like a guanaco. When Skywalker comes to save him, he finds himself in an icecave inhabited by a creature that looks like a vicious Milodon. Chan Chan looked just like Mos Isley (spelling) the land of sand people. Also, wasn’t the intro from Indian Jones (also George Lucas) filmed in South America?? Just an observation…
Everything is good with us. We are still having fun. We now have exactly 1 month left in South America, and though its been difficult at times, I will miss this portion of the trip. It has been very exciting, challenging, and unique. I also feel like completing this part of the trip is an accomplishment, the rest just vacation. I have a hard time justifying 4 months of vacation at this point in our life… but we will get to see the places we’ve always wanted to see and have two great family trips we might not otherwise have.
As far as money goes, we are hemorrhaging. Our daily budget for South America was $50 initially, but after entering Peru we had to up it to $60 to be realistic. Now, in Chile, we are running about $120 a day. Things here cost about the same as they do at home (yet the folks here don’t earn nearly as much). Today went something like this:
Gasoline: $20
Lodging: $20
Lunch: $20
Coffee and cake: $15
Dinner: $30
Incidentals: $10
Drinking box-wine from a glass like this you'd think we were hobos, not 100% over budget!
Crystal clear streams...
posted by Pedro and Maria at 1:33 PM
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