We arrived to El Chalten and met with Klara and Mitja - our Slovenian friends that we actually got to know during our stay in Munich. They stayed in a hostel where the friendly staff allowed us to use its amenities while actually sleeping in our car at the parking lot (We are saving on every step of our trip :) ). In the next days, we did some warm-up hikes and organised everything for the Huemul Circuit - a four day trekking through beautiful landscapes that gets you right to the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice field and includes some zip-lining to cross the glacier rivers. Of course we decided to make the already difficult trek even tougher and added a significant detour on our first day. A couple of hours of walking and we arrived to the Laguna Toro where a gale almost blew us of it's shores while we were watching the stranded ice-bergs that broke off from the glacier at the end of the lake. We were accompanied by dozens of people that came for a day-hike from El Chalten. For them it was already time to turn around while for us the adventure just began. We successfully crossed the first zip-line which crossed the river just at the edge of the lake and then continued to cross a mountain pass into the neighbouring valley. The path was unmarked and with some insecurity we managed to find a way to the other side. Pretty tired, we set up our tents, made dinner and collapsed onto our mats keeping our fingers crossed that the strong wind doesn't brake any of the suspicious looking branches above our heads.
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We finished our last blog with impressions of Perito Moreno glacier and the idea of a perfect day in Patagonia. But we quickly found out that perfection is easily found in Patagonia and it is impossible to choose one of the experiences to be the best. In the days that followed the competition would get even fiercer :) We were on our way back to Chile, towards the national park Torres del Paine - one of the most visited places in whole Patagonia. The trails in the park are crowded, the campsites in high-season need to be booked months in advance and the prices are insultingly expensive, but with a little luck and planing one can still enjoy pristine moments in the park. There are legitimate reasons that people from all over the world want to see this amazing piece of land. The panoramic views over the mountain massif with many lagoons and lakes reflecting the beauties are breathtaking. Despite the numbers of tourists, the park still contains plenty of wildlife and has the highest concentration of pumas of all the parks in Patagonia. Unfortunately we didn't see one, but Gašper was delighted to be able to creep-up on a proud condor that was fearlessly showing off on a rock - it's usually impossible to come this close to these magnificent creatures. There are some phenomena that emit a sense of nature's power which we don't experience during our normal day-life. A heavy storm or a tornado, huge oceanic waves thundering on the coast, a volcano eruption or a night sky full of stars all have something in common that makes a person feel small, overwhelmed and powerless. Glaciers are definitely one of the wonders that awake those kind of feelings and can make a person just sit and stare for hours. In our case the magnificent Perito Moreno is the first glacier we've seen in our life and the experience was incredible. Turquoise waters of the lake General Carrera which were accompanying us all the way from the marble chapels suddenly find an exit from the lake and form a beautiful whitewater river named Baker. Just meters away from the river's birthplace, a spectacular wild campsite offers shelter between the trees and amazing views of the water suddenly starting to foam at the encounter of the river-bed. We stopped for the night and since the tourist season in Patagonia was already starting we were joined by four more travelling couples during the day, each with their particular way of transport (campers, motorbikes, bikes). Some ten kilometers downstream, a smaller river Neff from the Northern Patagonian ice field joins the flow and the result is spectacular. The azul waters of Baker river mix with the light brown colors of the Neff and the confluence becomes an incredible nature's work of art. There is no picture that could capture the essence of that place and replace the experience of sitting on the rocks just over the confluence while observing the endless and random variations of color mixtures, patterns and vortices. |
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February 2019
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