Friday, November 13, 1998

Everyone in the hostel started moving at around 7:00. I didn't. I slept until about 7:59 and then awoke to find almost everyone else on the bus ready to go... There were 11 of us in the mini-van, most of them very good new friends from the Fjord Cruise.

An hour or so outside of town, we hit the "Milodon Caves", a disgusting tourist trap. You pay about 4 bucks each and then hike about 10 minutes down to a cave where about 20 years ago some scientists discovered the bones of the now extinct giant sloth. A quick 10 minute walk through the somewhat interesting cave and you come across a plaster replica of the giant sloth. No matter what you do, it's just impossible to make a sloth look dangerous, and I don't came how big it is... I hoped that the Torres del Paine park would be better.

It took another couple of hours to reach our first excellent views of the granite pinnacles of the park. I was impressed at the incredible site. We were quite lucky that we had excellent weather. It's impossible to describe the beauty within the park -- I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Torres Del Paine National Park

Just after lunch, quite generously shared by Steven and John because I thought lunch was included and didn't pack my own, we hit an interesting waterfall. I decided to climb down a wall and get a better picture angle. Unfortunately, it was very very steep and no one else was with me. Once down at water level, I found it very difficult to get out. A few bumps and scrapes later, I managed to climb out just in time to get the bus.

We finally got back to the hostel at around 9:00. Unfortunately, yet another goodbye: my friends Rebecca and James left the bus inside the park for a 5 day hike around the mountains. They tried to convince me to go but five days is a little long I think and I have tickets to Equador in a few days... Instead, I decided to head even further south to Punta Arenas, at the very tip of Chile and South America. Except for being particularly cold and windy, there wasn't much down there. I stayed only one day and then left Steven and James and headed back North for a 3 day car ride through the Lake District...