Last huge trip in Chile! This is to go to Torres del Paine, but it's stinkin' far away from Santiago. I had to fly to the major airport in Punta Arenas first. Richard and I got there first and met up with Riley, Andrea, Christy, and Grace because they were traveling to Argentina first. Here is the welcome sign to Punta Arenas.
Here's Richard relaxing by the bay. A very boring, cold, windy, and steely kind of bay. I thought that having a body of water would be pretty, but no. It was still pretty cold and steely. Chilean-American author Isabel Allende called Punta Arenas wind-blown, harsh,and proud. Much more elegant than my own words.
It's a super windy city!
And I saw a tulip-shaped trash bin!
This is my face after seeing the ugliness of Punta Arenas. C'mon, a graffitti-tagged seal statue?? I do not like.
We went to the cemetry in Punta Arenas. This tomb was surprisingly empty and plain.
In comparison to the elaborate tombs. A lot of them of Croatian immigrants in the early 20th century. A lot of crazy Croatian last names.
And these are more modest tombs.
There was a tombstone that planted REAL peonies!! My favorite flower!
A tomb in honor of the Indians of Southern Chile. They all were killed by the Spanish conquistadores.
More cemetery.
Cool neatly trimmed hedges. So neatly trimmed I had to give it a big (but spiky) hug.
Richard and I found a Chinese buffet...all the way in Southern Chile. What the heezy?? So being the Sinophiles we are, of course we went in and had a fatty meal. I talked to the workers in there, and it turned out they worked in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. It was cool cuz the name "Tierra del Fuego" directly translates to "Fire Island" in Chinese!! I wanted to talk to that worker more, but he had to work. :( But I tried saying hello to all the Chinese-looking people in the restaurant. I dunno, they all seemed cold and didn't seem that happy to see my Chinesey face. Boooo.
Downtown Punta Arenas, where it's much richer with mansions from the 1800's. It's very prettily constructed, unlike the area where there was that graffiti-tagged seal. But in general, Punta Arenas was a pretty boring city. Richard and I went back to our hostel to sleep off the boredom. We woke up seeing the sun shining brightly outside. I guessed it was around 4:30 or 5, but being in Southern Chile, the sun sets super late...it was 8 p.m.!! We were so sad that we had nothing to do for the entire night.
Richard and I went to Puerto Natales, the city closest to the Torres del Paine National Park to met up with the rest of the group. We went to Erratic Rock hostel, a Oregon native-owned hostel for a lot of gringos. It was weird, cuz when Richard and I entered, we heard a slew of English all around us!! We were completely thrown off because we weren't used to that. Richard and I went to Abu Gosch, the hipermercado nearby and bought pernil and rice to cook in the hostel for dinner. I bought an Austral cerveza, but was a tad disappointed. Later that night, the rest of the other group met up with us there. That night, we took everything out and packed and organized everything that we will need for our survival for the "W" trail in Torres del Paine National Park. We had toiletries, food, sleeping bags, hiking poles, and everything backpacking related. The room was a mess!
Gracey Wang saw the collection of my cool clothes, and told me to toss it all together to take a foto of the amazing outfit. You like? ; )
That morning, after running around the town (literally) for last minute buying stuff, we hopped on the bus to go to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine!!! The road was scenic and rugged, and we stopped by a little tourist stand to stock up on water and to rest the bus. Then on the road we saw guanacos!! They are a llama/camel-like animal, brown, fuzzy, and oh-so-cute. (Side note: My mom always asked me when I was in Chile if the country was a backwards boony Third World kind of place. The word that encompasses this in Taiwanese is "hwa-na-coh," which is the exact same pronunciation for this animal! My mom thought it hilarious when I told her .)
Can you imagine how I felt when I saw the entrance of the park? The sparkling lake, the prancing guanacos, the tall Torres (Towers) peeking in the distance...I was quite excited for this 4-day backpacking excursion. Usually, the entrance fee to the park is 15000 Chilean pesos, around $28. But I had a Chilean ID card, which means I am a Chilean resident, I got in for only 4000 Chilean pesos...around SIX dollars. I FELT SO COOL! I WAS CONSIDERED A CHILEAN RESIDENT! There were gringos behind us who thought they only had to pay 4000 pesos, but too bad they had to get in for the gringo price.
This. Was. My. Pack. Everything hanging off of it. So. Heavy. I had my rest shoes, my sleeping bag, sleeping mat, and my life supply in the backpack. Incredible, huh? I usually have no endurance for this kind of strenuous work, but I think cuz survival was the motivation, so that's how I managed to endure the whole trek without dying and complaints. Thanks, God!
Our Patagonia 2008 team!! This is when we were still clean and bright-eyed about the whole trekking trip. The after pic is quite different. Our hair is matted, our clothes caked with sweat and dirt, and fatigued to the max!
We had to ride the catamaran to the main campsite, so that we would skip the boring part of the hike. The water was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was called glacial milk. It was a pastel turquoise and looked cool and refreshing. The color comes from the minerals in the glaciers that come down into the lake. I don't know what else to say about it but amazing. Pictures are not enough to describe the beauty because it has to be seen with your own eyes.
Glacial milky water with craggy snow-sprinkled mountain peaks in the background. Seeing only this was almost worth the entire trip. Almost.
Me and Andrea (emo ninja, we joked) on the catamaran.
After the catamaran landed, we set up camp at a paid campsite. Paid means bathroom services and a building with a kitchen--later which we discovered was a luxury. We envied this French tour group who drank wine, ate cheese, had lanterns, and a high-class tent in comparison to us poor college students with our 6-person tent, squeezed like sardines in a can.
We got a late start on the day, so we had only a few hours to do the first part of the trail. We were fortunate that the sun set at 10:45 ish, but we couldn't go far enough to see Glaciar Grey up close and personal. But this was a little of what I saw during the trail. Trees, sun, and body of water! I realized on the first day though that I am one slowwwwww hiker. I was trailing way behind, trying to catch up to the front fast people and I lost a lot of motivation to go on further after seeing 5 people way head of me. We switched roles and I led the team so that no one would fall behind and that I could keep up my endurance.
This was the last part of day 1 trail. We couldn't go any further or else the return trail we would be hiking in the dark. That would be no good. Here is me and my cool hiking pole. It's like a third leg, seriously. Without it I probably would've fallen multiple times (maybe to my demise?)
Mmm. A little peek of Glaciar Grey.
Our way back to our campsite. The sun is setting.
The next morning, we had some problems because we didn't wake up early enough (we left at 11am instead of 9am). Good thing I am a not-too-anal person person and really go with the flow rather than freak out over changes in plans. We hiked, took a too long break, only to discover this idyllic lake a few minutes after our too-long break. So, we took another too-long break, but it was totally worth it.
TOTALLY WORTH ITTTTTT! The water was so cold. Christy, Richard, and I had a contest to see who could keep our feet in the crisp cold water the longest. I won, although 'twas painful.
This day was a pretty difficult one, as we had to pack up all our stuff and carry it with us, as opposed to a day hike with only water and snacks. This was also the day I dressed the worst--parachute pants, Chilean soccer jersey (although I got a few compliments!), and a long-sleeve t-shirt as my hat. So ugly. Compared to Gracey Wang who looked all pro and athletic, I was quite tacky.
Heading to the next campsite.
This crazy bridge led to the campsite. It was like what you see in adventure movies--wobbly, shaky, and looked like you were gonna fall in and be washed away by the rushing river.
Here's our new home in our new campsite! It was a free campsite, so the amenities such as bathroom, showers, and kitchen were not there. In fact, the toilet was gross and backed up so I didn't even bother going. We went on a day hike to Valle Frances. Christy thought she got stung by a bee, so she took a Benadryl and knocked out. We went on the day hike without her.
Gracey Wang likes my outfit.
Super excited me about the hike!
The view from the valley. Andrea couldn't stop saying it reminded her of Land Before Time.
Yay group (minus sleeping beauty Christy).
Us at top of the mirador (lookout point).
The many glaciers and the melting waters flowing down into waterfalls were breathtaking. That huge river we crossed on that bridge--all that water came from these glaciers. Water from God, I thought.
Grace doesn't love me! :( Is it the pants? I can change!
The next day, we woke up late...again. But this is the trail. This might have been the hardest day, as it took us 10 hours to get to our next campsite.
And the world is too small. We ran into fellow EAP-ers coming in the opposite direction. They were the 3rd EAP group we ran into in the past 2 days.
Our stopping place for a late (4pm) lunch. Beautiful viewpoint, and Gracey Wang snapped a cool photo of me having a little alone time looking out at the vast glacial lake.
And a terrible river crossing. I had heard about it, thinking it would be a piece of cake since I had $100 Asolo hiking boots. The water was rushing and so cold it felt sharp. I fell in on my first step and I was so scared I would damage my camera, fall in and be swept away by the river, or die. I sat down on a rock with the river rushing next to me, trying to catch my breath and be calmer, but my jacket was getting wet so I had to muster up my courage to continue crossing. I prayed the entire way that God would protect me. He did, which is why I am here, alive to tell my harrowing story!
Our 2nd-to last leg of the trip. We found our campsite off in the distance in this Sound of Music-esque green hilly land. We had to cross yet another river, and Andrea had the bright idea of instead of crossing by carrying her shoes, to toss it over to the other side. We all were questioning her brilliant ideas, but she proceeded anyway, only to result in the shoes flying up then straight down into the river rapids. She had to chase them downstream, resulting in even wetter shoes than originally planned.
Me and Grace, with our matching jackets and backpacks. We are so stylish even when in the wilderness :)
We set up camp at 11 p.m. Hooray for 10-hour hiking days!
Our day to hike up towards the crowning jewel of Torres del Paine--The Torres! They are 3 granite towers that sit atop a peak that requires about a 60% uphill 3 hour hike (one way) to see the beauty and majesty of these grand looming towers. Here, I didn't bother leading because it was such a difficult hike. I let my other teammates go ahead of me (some were ahead by 20 minutes, probably a mile ahead of me. I'm so slow). I was so glad for Christy though we likes to take her time as well so she stayed by my side the entire time as I took my time. In this photo, it was pretty much scrambling on whatever rock we could find. It was stressful too because by this part I couldn't take my time anymore; there were a bunch of tour groups trailing me, so if I stopped or slowed down I'd slow about 15 other people down. It was good in that it would keep me moving without taking too many breaks. An Argentine old man saw me wearing my Boca jersey on the way up and made fun of me saying I can't wear that. Turns out he was a River fan.
This was what I saw when I arrived. That woman in the blue started crying when she arrived because she was so proud of herself for her feat. I didn't know there was a lake there but behold!!!! Lake!!! Towers!! Clouds!! Ice!!
Grace and I were very very happy to have arrived.
Photo by Gracey Wang. It makes me look more athletic than I really am. Must be the baseball cap.
I went down to the lake to touch it and the water was thick! Almost like jello, I claimed but no one really thought so. Oh well, I thought it was the strangest water texture I had ever touched. A narcissistic but very friendly Frenchman took my picture for me.
I tried to take as many Torres pics as possible because Sara said she regretted not taking more Torres pictures.
It started drizzling and being all windy and cold at the top, so after a picnic lunch of pita bread, tuna, and pasta sauce, we hiked back down. I had no rain jacket, but I did have a trash bag Andrea saved for me! It worked great and was free. But since then, I have invested in a rain jacket. I bought it last week actually, Timberland brand for only $10! And it's red,perfectly matching with my backpack. : )
Copihue, a bellflower, national flower of Chile.
Waterfall. A small one though, but precious nonetheless. My camera didn't capture the beautiful color, so this photo is a bit disappointing for me.
Beautiful landscapes on the hike back. Easy hike, since it was all downhill.
The downhill. I couldn't believe I hiked all the way up this stinking hill. Or rather, mountain. On the way up, I kept my endurance by not looking up at how much more mountain there was to hike. I just looked at my feet and every step I took. It also helped to think about Jesus and him taking up his cross on Calvary. Though an incomparable comparison, it helped me understand how excruciating it must have been for Jesus. But downhill was sweet and slopy. And I got to talk with Andrea about her family and past travel experiences. I like Andrea : )
The looming mountain view I got from my tent back at our campsite. What a sight to wake up to, huh?
Our humble trusty 6-person tent. Every night, either one of us was too cramped, too cold, or too hot. Sucks. I slept like a log most of the time. We spent our last day in the park relaxing as we had finished the "W" hike. We showered (I took all of Gracey's hot water. Sorry), rested our feet, and pooped. Yes. Y que?!
Our bus leaving Torres del Paine National Park. My last view of the proud granite Torres. Such nature, such beauty that I never would have imagined to see with my own eyes and be all intimate with.
Sky meets land on the Chilean pampas.
Gracey and I enjoyed the view outside the bus on my iPod, playing Hijos del Sol, a musical group that I supported by buying one of their CDs on the Santiago bus. We enjoyed their renditions of traditional Chilean music. Oh, and the bus smelled disgusting on the way back because of all the unshowered dirty hikers. It was revolting.
Richard got a golden farmer's tan from our 4day excursion. Lookin' good.
To congratulate ourselves for our survival of the "W" hike, we went back to town 3 hours way in Puerto Natales to return our rented gear and to have a real meal other than trail mix, dried fruit, oatmeal, pasta, and other camping food that will forever scar me. I can't look at spaghetti and tomato sauce the same way again. But anyway, we got these fatty sandwiches at Milogodon (I think that's the name), a family-owned sandwich shop where they have their children working and really good service. I got a leche platano, a mix of milk and bananas. Yum!
We stayed at Backpacker's Paradise in Punta Arenas, where we experienced very interesting memories of a certain ginger chinese boy (not capitalized for a reason), the Special Room, and a left-behind thermos. Shudder. It's an interesting story, if you ever want to hear it you can ask me.
It was the nicest to meet fellow trekkers, such as Brandon, a grad student bird watcher from Minnesota. Richard and I also went to the zona franca, a duty-free shopping zone to pass the time until we had to leave back to Santiago. It was quite boring, but I remember being in a store where there was this Chilean older man with piercing blue eyes and dark hair and a weathered face, whispering loudly and sharply at his family "Look at the Chinese girl!" every time we passed by each other in the market. I was a little dumbfounded at the blatant lack of discreetness in pointing me out. Couldn't you at least do it AFTER we passed by each other, sir? I guess not. I got so annoyed because we ran into him multiple times so finally I stared him straight in his sharp blue eyes and said "Hola." I don't think he was expecting that.So that ends my journey to the southern tip of Chile. It's really awoken desires to rough it out in nature even more in the future.
