Part 2: Chile

PARQUE NACIONAL TORRES DEL PAINE

Mon 22: to Chile and Torres del Paine

It is a long and boring drive, the first 2,5 hrs so we simply sleep. We do a coffee stop at Estancia La Leona, the coffee is not too bad, and Jürg treats himself to a gigantic piece of lemon meringue pie, it is about 20cm high, no kidding ! Best of all, it really is good !

From there 1,5 hours to Esperanza for more coffee and super good empanadas, freshly made and still warm. This sounds like a gourmet trip right ?

Another 2,5 hours gets us into Chile and to our hotel, the Hosteria Pehoe, probably the most scenic lodgings  in the whole park. It is located on a little island 100m off the shore of Lake Pehoe, and you can only reach it by a foot bridge. Drag along your own bags please, and do pray the bridge holds.

The view from the lounge is breathtaking, the turquoise blue lake at our doorstep and the whole 3000m high mountain range behind that. The rooms are very basic , with no view at all, but alright. We are there to sleep only, so who cares. After a beer, the local brand is Austral, we head for dinner, which is okay but not as good as before.

Tue 23: Steak Island

This is easy, meet at 07:00, a quick breakfast and leave at 07:15. We only go to the next island which has a campsite and a restaurant with Parilla (grill), we will have all our lunches here, but for now we head to the lakeshore for sunrise, which is at around 08:30. The group splits up, Jürg goes down to the rocks and I stay on top. It is so beautiful here ! 

After the sunrise we head for the next place called Explora. There is a wooden boardwalk to the top of a small hill, the view from here is , if possible, even better. You see two islands in the lake to the left, our island and the mountain range in the back, the water is by now a beautiful blue and in the first little pond the snowy peaks are reflected.

Lunch at the Camping Pehoe, I have salmon from the grill and it is really good ! After that siesta till 17:00 when we once again head to island Nr.2 for sunset, we now call it „Steak Island“ because they serve such enormous steaks here, that also goes for the chicken and salmon by the way…

Wed 24: Explora or Steak ?

This morning we had a choice, either „Steak Island“ or Explora Boardwalk. The others all went to Steak, Jürg and me to Explora. This was one brilliant sunrise with beautiful clouds and pink-red light, so cool ! 

After lunch, guess where…Steak Island, we have time off again till 17:00. We download, sit in the lounge, walk across the island, which is a 5 min job, then lie in the sun on the rocks. It is a very a-typical Patagonia day, no wind at all, it is like springtime back home.

At 17:00 again we split up, some hike up the hill, the others go to the waterfall, the Salto Grande. It is nice but not very photogenic, so we move on till we find a small lake without wind, it reflects the mountains behind it like a mirror. We set up for a truly brilliant composition, but unfortunately the clouds all disappear, so by sunset time there is nothing more to shoot. Better have early drinks in that case. When we get back the hikers also arrive, good timing.

Thu 25: Super sunrise

No way, no easy day, we hike. This was the shortest but toughest hike. Up in 40min, but steep, steep, steep. Boy, I was breathing heavily when I got to the top. Sunrise was super, beautiful light, good clouds, just the composition is a little empty on the left and a big ugly slope on the right, we’ll just have to crop. Down in 25min, just Leo and me, the others stay a bit longer, but not much longer so as not to miss breakfast.

After that time off. The weather is so good, beautiful clouds reflecting in the lake like in a gigantic mirror. Unbelievable we’ve had about 6 days with no or very little wind, that is definitely not normal for Patagonia, and our luck stays.

At 15:00 we head for the waterfall again, today we do the dead trees. There are so many, it is hard to get a good composition, it is just too messy. I am not too happy with the result. Good thing Sergio shows me this little pond with super reflections !

Lovely sunset from the footbridge at the Hosteria, not quite as colorful as the other day, but still good, nice clouds. After the shoot drinks, then dinner and a few bottles of wine. It was another very cool day.

Fr 26: Puma tracking, ha ha….

Easy morning shoot on the island. Just that I am a little late, since I don’t like the ones in the half dark where you can barely focus. You delete them afterwords anyway… By now all the good spots are taken,  (that is usually why you go early) so in the end I am at the footbridge again, very lovely…. till this other  photo tour shows up and they keep standing in my frame. If you can’t beat them join them, so I move closer to where they are. It is a cloudy morning for a change, so at least we will get some nice moody pictures.

We leave at 10:00 for the next place, Las Torres, just outside the park, it is a private ranch with lots of horses, so I finally get my gaucho shoot, yippi-yah-hey, can’t wait to get there ! 

On the way we stop to photograph the guanacos against the mountain background, we slowly approach them and can get really close, this is cool, something else for a change. 

The Estancia Las Torres is absolutely divine (to quote Michael), we have lunch in the very cool bar until the rooms are ready, then time off till 17:00. I walk around the grounds and  our Chilean guide Erik tells me I can photograph the gauchos working, just don’t get in the way. They are getting ready to take some people on a horse riding tour, saddling the horses and all. Lovely… so I try to blend in and take shots of them, just casually, no posing at all, I love it.

 Then we head out for our „Puma Tracking on foot“. This was doomed to go wrong, not a puma in sight, no wonder with 10 people on foot and talking all the way, walking down the path. A lovely walk anyway, sorry no photos to show. Dinner was absolutely delicious, as was lunch, and the cappuccino here are so far the best on the tour. We have a night cap after dinner and you know what, the beds are good too.

Sat 27: My gauchos

Breakfast at 07:00, we leave at 07.30 for the Cascades Paine, a small waterfall in the Paine River with the three towers of Torres del Paine in the background. No background today though, it is very overcast. We soon leave, the waterfall is a bugger anyway, a big rock in the middle, an empty wall behind it and the peaks in the clouds, I don’t like it. 

Next stop at Lago Amarga for some more reflection photos, still no wind, so it is like a mirror.  Then to chase the guanacos…we find one after a short time, and even manage to get some pics of it on the ridge, but I believe I like the ones from yesterday better. Then three guanacos, but they run off in the wrong direction, so we give up. Back to the estancia and  the stables, and more gaucho pics for me.

We leave for the waterfall at 17:30, it is very overcast but we do lovely close up shots of the Torres Der Paine with mist in front and fresh snow on top of them, very gloomy, doomes-day pictures. Back to the bar after that. Dinner at 20:15, and some more of the super Malbec wine, which we pick by the label since they are all very good. Tomorrow we head back to El Calafate. Sad to leave this place, there is not so much to photograph, but otherwise it just divine here. 

Sun 28: Back to El Calafate

Ready to leave at 08:00, so we get to sleep late, ha, ha. We head for the crappy waterfall again, you can just see the bank behind it through the thick fog that lies on the ground, not a mountain in sight. We are optimistic instead of realistic and hope for the sky to clear by sunrise, which by now is at 08:55. Of course it doesn’t, so we get on the bus and head for El Calafate. Tomorrow we leave Patagonia for Buenos Aires.

Mon 29: Back to Buenos Aires

We set the alarm at 08:00, once again it is such luxury ! A nice and leisure breakfast, pack and then we all sit in the lounge. We only leave here at 16:30 so a lot of time to spend waiting. We land in BA at 22:00 where a taxi takes us to the hotel and then quickly off to bed.

Tue 30: Buenos Aires city tour

The day of the strike. Thank God we are here, where we are supposed to be. We are in the Retiro part of town, one street behind the main road, the very busy 14-lane Avenida 9. de Julio, luckily here it is much quieter. Meet at 10:00 so everybody gets to sleep late, and have an easy breakfast. We walk along Av. Santa Fé until we reach the El Ateneo library. It is located in an old theatre, balconies and all, not only a heaven for book lovers but also very cool to photograph ! We spend at least an hour there, and the coffees there are simply the best we’ve had on this tour, even beating the ones we had at Las Torres. The coffeeshop is actually on the stage of the theatre, we sit right in front  and between the curtains, in front of us rows and rows of books, very nice indeed. 

From there we hike some more, but after our Patagonia hikes this is easy. We go to Recoleta and the famous cementary. We were there 5 years ago but once again we are impressed by all the opulent mausoleums, tombs, graves, towers, crosses, angels and Madonnas. Boy, they spend a lot of money on the dead here ! We spend another hour here, after which it is time for a cold beer. 

We now take 2 taxis to San Telmo, the artistic part of town. In my best, very influent Spanish I actually communicate with the driver. We meet up at the Plaza Dorrego and walk through the cobblestone streets, lots of thrash lying around now that everybody is on strike, it seems to include the garbagemen. In this part of town, besides lots of restaurants, pubs and bars there are many 2nd hand shops, it’s good fun to check out the old junk in the shop windows. 

We head for the Av. Florida, the main pedestrian zone which leads to our Retiro, but now have to cross the demonstration which is in the centre of town, near all the government buildings. OMG it really is a mess here, lots of paper pamphlets on the floor, stands selling sausages and the food, fires, we heard later they even burnt down some banks ! Policemen are lined up with shields, we better move on fast !

Once we reach Florida all is back to normal again and you don’t notice a thing.

Wed 1: Workers day

Workers Day, except nobody works anyway, plus they strike for one more day. As we wake up it is dead quiet, no cars driving by, no people on the streets, so we sleep a little more. We stroll around the deserted streets. Have a coffee, sit on a park bench and read a book for 2 hours, have a beer, honest there is nothing to do, no busses drive, no people around, everything is closed except a few restaurants. At 20:00 we go for dinner at the El Mirasol, I really want a good Fillet de Lomo today. It was brilliant ! Cozy atmosphere, attentive waiters, great wine, and a super Lomo, a beef fillet, done just right, 600gr for a mere USD 40, of course we shared it, you can’t possibly eat that by yourself !

Thu 2: Back home

Our plane leaves at 12:00. Back home at 06:15 the next morning. It is raining and 8°C, snow coming tomorrow. Shit, I want to go back.

Big hug for Cecilia and Erik our guides, and for Sergio our driver, thanks for taking such good care of us. An even bigger hug for Hougaard, boy you did it again…

BRILLIANT TOUR

GREAT PEOPLE

AMAZING LOCATIONS

DIVINE LIGHT

AND ONCE AGAIN, I LEARNED A LOT !

copyright:  Photo & text Astrid Bluemel for bluemelphoto.ch