Monday, January 09, 2006
5 January - Walk to the base of the Paine
Things started going really well today.
We were picked up at 530am by Guide Carlos and driver in the most clapped-out van you could imagine. Zero suspension, and we mean zero. There were two other couples with us - Marta and Xavier from Spain, and Chiann and Lebna from NYC. We drove for about 90 minutes over dreadful roads to the start of the walk, but it was all worth it with the view that we had of the Paine mountains and the Towers on the way. We also saw many Guanacos and native hares.
Our walk was 9 km each way. We arrived after about 3 hours 50 minutes at 11am. We were very lucky as shortly after that it became cloudy, and I don´t think the rest of the walkers that day would have had a very good view at all. It was a fantastic walk, fairly steep at the beginning, and the last hour was climbing up boulders. You can´t see the view at the top until the second you arrive, and it literally takes your breath away! We had lunch at the top, and contemplated the descent. It turned out to be relatively easy.
Mostly I had managed to make my toilet stops fairly discreetly in the bush. Other than one time when I realised that the other side of the bush was open to the traffic, and so for a few moments I became the tourist attraction for a group of Germans coming the other way. Carlos obviously did not realise that I had been making my own toilet stops - on the way home in the van when we stopped at some toilets, he asked me if I needed to go. I said no, and the look on his face when he said ¨Are you SURE?¨ had to be seen to be believed. I think I will go down in his history as the girl who could drink 3 litres of water and didn´t need a wee for 12 hours!
What a fantastic day! Dinner at the Hosteria was simple family fare and just the right end to the day.
We were picked up at 530am by Guide Carlos and driver in the most clapped-out van you could imagine. Zero suspension, and we mean zero. There were two other couples with us - Marta and Xavier from Spain, and Chiann and Lebna from NYC. We drove for about 90 minutes over dreadful roads to the start of the walk, but it was all worth it with the view that we had of the Paine mountains and the Towers on the way. We also saw many Guanacos and native hares.
Our walk was 9 km each way. We arrived after about 3 hours 50 minutes at 11am. We were very lucky as shortly after that it became cloudy, and I don´t think the rest of the walkers that day would have had a very good view at all. It was a fantastic walk, fairly steep at the beginning, and the last hour was climbing up boulders. You can´t see the view at the top until the second you arrive, and it literally takes your breath away! We had lunch at the top, and contemplated the descent. It turned out to be relatively easy.
Mostly I had managed to make my toilet stops fairly discreetly in the bush. Other than one time when I realised that the other side of the bush was open to the traffic, and so for a few moments I became the tourist attraction for a group of Germans coming the other way. Carlos obviously did not realise that I had been making my own toilet stops - on the way home in the van when we stopped at some toilets, he asked me if I needed to go. I said no, and the look on his face when he said ¨Are you SURE?¨ had to be seen to be believed. I think I will go down in his history as the girl who could drink 3 litres of water and didn´t need a wee for 12 hours!
What a fantastic day! Dinner at the Hosteria was simple family fare and just the right end to the day.
