Patagonian Grand Adventure

Day Eight – 20 February 2014

Weather: Cloudy with peek of sun, 14-18º.

Today was the day that we overdosed on Wow.

I was up early at 6:30 and went down to breakfast for seven. The eggs were cold and tasted a bit funny, so I feasted on toast and tea instead. And a nice crumble cake that I had at breakfast in the other hotels.

We left Puerto Natales at 8:30 and headed for the Miloden Caves. This marked the sixth continent on which I’ve been inside a cave.

The cave was not far from Puerto Natales and at the end of the large plain just north of town. The area used to be underwater, so the cave was formed by wave action carving into the softer rock below.

The cave was discovered by a German man in 1895 and inside they found the remains of a Giant Sloth.

Big guy.

The sloth. Not the German.

We took the short walk into the cave. I found it was like a huge mouth and that we were going for a walk into its throat.

There was evidence that ancient man used the cave as fire pits. Burned bones were found and they dated back more than eleven thousand years.

It was a nifty spot to live. Protection from the cold, a roof over your head and it even had a view.

I managed to get a fridge magnet and then we were off to Torres Del Paine which translates to Bluish Mountains.

Or as those who hike the trails there call it – Torres Of Pain.

It’s not often that you can see your destination when you’re still more than an hour away. We turned off the highway onto the Park Road which was gravel and bumpy. So much so, Christian asked us to take down anything that might fall from the overhead.

It is no wonder that we all had to hit the restroom at every stop.

As we entered the park, we drove on a road called Bull Road, near Bull Lake and Bull Hill. That was a lot of bull.

Then the east side of the mountains came into view.

Wow.

We had passed people who had stopped and got out of their cars to take photos and Christian said they stopped there cause they didn’t know there was a great view farther on with the lake in the foreground (above).

From that vantage point, we also got our first look at The Towers. Christian said the whole range was carved by glaciers but it looked like parts of the mountains just split off. He said climbers like to scale The Towers but they do it from the other side.

Then I dropped my camera.

Wow.

Oh wait. It still works.

Whew.

After a photo snapping extravaganza, we headed farther into the park and Christian stopped the bus next to a herd of guanaco.

It was a side route few people take and Christian said it was too bad because the guanaco were always there and made for a nice shot.

Just watch where you step.

We drove on, making photo stops along the way, and we moved towards the west side of the range.

Wow.

If you thought the east side was Wow, the west side made me happy we had three doctors and a cardiac care nurse on board.

Wow.

And wow.

And the clouds just added to the drama.

The formation is also known as the Blue Massif – a term I’ve heard before – but the Argentines don’t like it.

We stopped for lunch but I had already eaten mine so that I could have the maximum time possible to view the mountains. So, while everyone found a picnic table, I walked to a secluded point and just sat there and went, “Wow.”

I stayed for twenty minutes, enjoying the quiet and the view, and then I strolled back to the campground where everyone wondered where I was. Some wondered if I had eloped with Luis.

But alas, I was alone.

From here, the State of Wow continued with a drive to Grey Lake.

We had an hour to walk down to the beach and back, so Christian said to walk for thirty minutes then turn around and walk back.

I made it out twenty minutes but my sore foot began to ache, so I turned around and strolled back. (It would later turn out to be plantar fasciitis that I linked to the memory foam mattress I had bought the year before. Once I figured out it was making my back worse, I stopped using it. The problem with my back and the plantar fasciitis cleared up as well).

On the way to the hotel, we stopped at an overlook and got a view of the distant Grey Glacier which feeds the lake.

Then we drove down to our hotel on the plain below.

We were staying in Hotel Wow (Rio Serrano Hotel).

Because when you walk into your room and there’s a window almost the size of the wall looking at the mountains, you can only go “wow!”

And there were horses! Lots and lots of horses. I dropped my stuff and went for a walk around the hotel to say hello to all the horses.

There were dozens of them walking freely around the hotel grounds. Some of them were pretty skittish, but a couple didn’t mind getting some chin scratches.