My southward journey part 2

As I could not go to Puerto Williams or Ushuaia, my third option was Puerto Natales where I would do the touristy thing and try to visit Torres Del Paine national park. I bought my bus ticket, which was cheaper than normal because everything had just closed for the season and headed out to Puerto Natales on Friday afternoon. It was an awesome bus ride, and I truly got to appreciate how remote and empty Patagonia is. More remote than Montana, even more so than much of Wyoming—it really felt like northern Alaska. I imagine the Brooks Range looks like Patagonia. On one of the highway distance signs, one town it was noted was like 2250 kilometers away. It was a 3 hour bus ride between Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales and we passed one town of MAYBE 100 people, and 2 or three villages with I’d say no more than 15 people each. This is the main highway between two of the biggest population centers of the region, and the road was largely empty. The empty space between is mostly private land. Every now and then we would pass an “Estancia” which is more or less a ranch. I guess the population density of this region is about .5 people/sq. km. The landscape as I said before is pretty much treeless. It looks a lot like southern Idaho—it’s flat and deserty but with large mountains in the distance. Upon arriving in Puerto Natales, I found a hostel for half the price of the one I had actually reserved. So I cancelled and stayed at this nice woman’s house. The atmosphere was great and I again met some pretty cool people. I really wanted to get up in the park and go hiking, but most things were closed and I was alone, so my only reasonable option was to take a tour. I did so, and I was a bit worried when a woman with a little kid got in the van—this was going to be a photo safari. However, it was not a bunch of old people going to snap pictures, the crowd was young and in the same situation I was. They wanted to do some hiking, but this time of year, it’s just hard to arrange. Again, I met some cool people including a South African banker, a German married to a Chilean, an English couple who has been traveling the world for over a year, and a group of 4 young Basques. I could not for the life of me figure out what language they were speaking—because I could recognize some of the words that sounded pretty Spanish, but I could in no way understand what they were saying. After some time, someone asked them and they said they were Basque. I didn’t know Basque was still spoken on a day to day basis among young people, but there was the proof. They said it’s their mother tongue and they think in Basque, not Spanish. I also ran into a French/Moroccan couple I met at the hostel back in Punta Arenas. They were super nice and were in Brest at the same time I was studying in Rennes. We exchanged e-mails, and since it’s such a small world, I ran into them at just about every next stop in my trip, including the airport.

Our first stop on the tour was the Milodon cave—which is just a cave, but also the ancient home of this weird bear like creature called a Milodon that existed during the last ice age. Looks like a bear with a camel head. Then we headed into the park. You know when you see a picture of Patagonia, and you see these rock spires and glaciers—well that is Torres del Paine. It’s where everyone goes, and where everyone backpacks, and they think they are badass because of it. I originally did not want to come here just because of its popularity—the same reason I don’t have a huge desire to go to Yosemite. But it was off season, so there was really no one in the park except us, and of course the scenery was spectacular. We saw glaciers and lakes and huge spiring peaks—it really is an amazing place. I can see why backpacking there would be really incredible, but in the high season it is crowded. In addition to the scenery, the animals were out and about. Much like the elk in Yellowstone, this park seems to be overrun with guanacos—which are in the dromedary family—so they are like a llama camel thing, but more the size of a deer or large antelope. Like the Yellowstone elk everyone was amazed at them as we entered the park, but then there were so many of them, that by the end I was sick of looking at the guanaco. We also saw this type of deer that apparently is extremely rare and only about 400 of them exist. They looked a little fatter and shorter than most North American deer. Hmmm, what else did we see? A fox that was disgustingly tame—it pretty much came up to us begging for food. And we also saw lots of eagles. So it was more or less a photo safari, but we did get to walk out to a viewpoint that was maybe a 30 minute walk. Oh and the wind—at one point the wind was so strong it nearly knocked me down. So, I would not have enjoyed backpacking in that. Wind I think is even worse than rain.

After we got back, and the next day, I had the chance to explore Puerto Natales. It is a quaint quaint town. I’d call it the Moab of Patagonia—pretty much the same vibe. In fact, I decided that I could live in Patagonia. As I am very attached to the Northwest US, there are few places that I think I really could enjoy living for a long time. Patagonia is one of them. It just felt so familiar. The atmosphere, the people, the weather all reminded me of the kind of place where I truly am happy. For instance, I felt not the least bit nervous walking around alone at night, whereas in Santiago or Melipilla that is something that is simply not done. It’s a rough and tumble kind of place where the dirty pickup truck is the standard vehicle. Ok, so Melpilla is great for a few months, but being in Patagonia kind of made me shudder when I thought of Melipilla. It is soo different. I loved the cold drizzly weather in Patagonia, but whenever it’s cloudy and cool in Melipilla, for some reason it’s kind of depressing.

I headed back to Punta Arenas for one day to conclude my trip. I walked to a viewpoint just above downtown and met two overly friendly Mormons. I knew they were there on their mission, I could spot them a mile away. I wished them well and headed to the airport. It was a great trip overall. If I had organized it better and earlier, I could have fit in a couple more solid days of doing stuff. This was a chill trip and when it comes down to it, I really only had two productive days the whole time. But it was worth it just being there and soaking up the culture at this far desolate corner of the world.