TORRES DEL PAINE, BLOG 9

A combination of the strong wind rattling the dome last night and that chocolate dessert I didn’t have the will power to turn down at dinner kept me wide awake last night. I finally gave up and took half a sleeping pill around one a.m. The good news is that we have another late breakfast so I got to sleep in.

As we walk to breakfast the temperature is definitely colder, the wind is gusting, and it is raining hard enough that we get a little wet. The towers are lost in the misty clouds so this is the first morning we haven’t had a clear view of them. Paul and I both have porridge this morning which is very tasty and the hot concoction helps warm us up. After we finish eating, we make sandwiches for our lunch. I also grab the chocolate bar that Paul has left beside his plate. Never pass up chocolate just don’t eat it late at night!

My energy is fairly low this morning due to this “half” cold I have come down with and add that to the rain, cold, and windy conditions my enthusiasm for hiking is not high. Paul and I put on rain pants and also affix rain covers to our day packs. I place my camera in Paul’s pack as it will be easier for me to get to it in his pack then it would be to take my pack off to retrieve it. Okay, maybe part of the reason I put it in his pack is because I don’t want the weight. We walk to the reception area in spitting rain and load up in the small vehicle with four other people. The man who was helping scout our way to the parking lot yesterday, the expat Russian man, and two Canadian women are our tour companions. Angie informs us that the man who was supposed to drive us this morning was coming from Port Natales last night and his vehicle blew over. Geez, I knew that the wind was strong last night but to blow a vehicle over it was really gusting. The good news is that the driver is fine.

We have more good news when we arrive at the head of the Fauna trail because the rain has stopped falling and the air has warmed up, however the wind is still blustery. As I mentioned I am a bit off my oats today and I walk right by two people who obviously are watching something. Paul stops me and says, “I can’t believe you didn’t see the Rhea”. Sure enough, a Rhea is eating grass 20 yards away. How did I miss that? Even then I didn’t get my camera out to document the big bird.

Angie stops now and then to talk about some of the plants we are seeing. She also tells us about the time she was taking this hike and a female puma walked onto the trail in front of her. I don’t remember how far ahead the puma was but Angie said that the big cat continued on the trail for nearly the full length of the hike and would glance back at the young woman from time to time to keep an eye on her. Angie admitted she was a little afraid at first but soon realized the feline was not interested in her and like most animals wanted to walk the “path of least resistance”. That would get your adrenalin pumping.

Angie leads us up a steep path to a cliff with an overhanging ledge where there are some prehistoric paintings. I am panting by the time we reach the top but the climb didn’t seem to bother anyone else. Once I catch my breath, I admire the incredible view from our lofty perch. We also peer up at the deep red paintings that some ancient people painted on the ceiling of the overhang. Angie explains that researchers can’t pinpoint the date of the cave paintings but put the creation of the art at three thousand to eight thousand years ago. I comment on the size of the hand print because it is larger than my hand and our guide tells us that there was a race of people who existed here that were very tall. I do remember reading about the “giant people” that Fitzroy and Darwin encountered on their adventures in Patagonia. Perhaps the people who created the paintings were derived from that race of people. There also is a figure of a man and the other figures are probably guanacos but you have to use your imagination on these figures. We stay here to eat lunch and feast our eyes on snow-capped mountains or the lagoon below us occupied by Coscoroba Swans.

As we make our way down the trail there is another group climbing up but they stand aside to allow us to get by them. The remainder of the trail is fairly easy, some ups and downs on hills of course but nothing like the steep incline to the paintings. As we near a small water hole which is surrounded by green grass, we find a group of guanacos grazing. There are two small babies with them which are really cute but I notice one adult, ears flattened back, moves closer to them when we draw near. Angie is very cautious about an adult guanaco that is just a few feet from the trail but it is grazing and seems unconcerned about our guides close proximity and the animal doesn’t move as our guide passes it. I am watching two adults to our left that are staring at a lone guanaco that is approaching the herd from the right.

I am next to last in the group and I caution Nick, the expat Russian, that I am not liking the guanacos body language. I hesitate to walk by them because they have their ears laid flat and their shaggy necks stretched out. I make the decision to hurry by the sour looking animals and catch up with the rest of the group as does Nick, (we were both taking photos). We have barely made it past the surly duo when they begin barking and run towards the strange guanaco. The intruder holds his ground and when the front-runner reaches him the two feuding guanacos raise their front legs slightly off the ground and crash their chests together and bite at each other. However, the trespasser is smart enough to know that one against two angry defenders is not a fight to pick and turns tail, running off as fast as he can. The guanacos oddly enough chase the interloper just a short distance then come to a halt as they watch their enemy running away. I guess they don’t want to leave the herd unguarded.

We end the hike at a ranger station where our driver is waiting for us. We were on the trail for three hours which was just right for me as the strong wind takes a lot of energy to hike in. When we arrived at Eco camp at mid-afternoon the rain started to fall again. We felt so lucky to have had no rain fall while we were hiking. The other people who took the longer hikes weren’t so lucky as they ended up hiking for several hours in the rain and cold. Nick’s wife was so chilled she was shivering when they returned to Eco Camp.

At our briefing this evening, Paul decides he wants to take the medium excursion which is tracking the wild horses that can be found in one area of Torres del Paine park. The hike isn’t that far but the drive is long and there are no trails to follow when you do hike. Paul doesn’t really care about the horses but would like to see some new country. The easy excursion is just riding in the van and stopping at viewing areas, most of which we have already visited. I hem haw around and agree to sign up for it too, with the option of canceling if the weather is really crummy and if I am not feeling better.

We walk back to our dome in light rain and it is still pattering against our dome when we go to bed. I wake up at midnight with chills and a clogged nose. It seems my cold has hit full force so I take some cold medicine and as I drift off to sleep admit to myself, I will have to forego the outing tomorrow. When the alarm goes off, I wake up to hear rain still splashing against the plastic walls of the dome. I tell Paul that I am not going on the excursion. Paul replies that he was hoping to talk me out of going because I have no energy when I succumb to a cold. I can’t argue with that.

I do go up to breakfast with Paul and this morning the towers are completely hidden by fog and clouds. When we get to the communal dome, I tell the guides that I will not be going on the wild horse outing as I am not feeling well. The concerned young women encourage me to drink some ginger tea then ask if I want housekeeping to clean our room. I tell them that the cleaners aren’t necessary and then ask them if I should make a sandwich for lunch. Marcella says that the chef will have a hot lunch for me and anyone else who is in camp at one o’clock. Paul and I walk back to the dome in more rain, the good thing is that there is very little wind.

Paul leaves at eight and I crawl back into bed and fall asleep. I wake up to someone knocking at our door and assume that the order to not clean our room wasn’t given to the staff. When I am opening the door, I hear Paul say “I’m baack” which really confuses me. Paul tells me that there is a vehicle stalled on the bridge and they all waited in reception in hopes that they would get a call that the car had been removed. When the problem still existed a half hour later Marcella and Angie told everyone to come back in an hour in hopes the problem would be fixed. We can’t figure out why someone just doesn’t pull the car off the bridge. I go back to sleep but wake up when Paul leaves to see if the outing is back on. I wake up around ten and since Paul is not here, I assume he is on his way to track wild horses. I also note that the rain is still falling and I can hardly see our neighboring dome through the foggy gloom.

I spend the rest of the morning reading a book on the Kindle and blowing my nose. It is a good thing I brought lots of Kleenex! I am not the only one in camp with a cold as several other guests and a couple of guides had been fighting colds or sinus infections when we got to Eco Camp. I walk up to the communal domes at one o’clock surprisingly hungry. When I walk in, I think I am the only guest here but then I see the two people who got left behind on our Gray Lake outing already eating lunch. I know they were signed up to go on the wild horse outing except they weren’t going to do the hike. I ask them if they decided to stay in camp because of the weather but they inform me that the excursion was canceled.  It seems the car that was stalled out wasn’t on the bridge but trying to drive through the water that was flooding the road that leads to the bridge! The river is out of its banks and no vehicle is going to be getting across that body of water by car any time soon. Some of the group, including Paul, decided to take a trail from Eco Camp instead of just sitting around camp but the man and wife weren’t interested in that and I don’t blame them.

The couple from Georgia, kindly ask me to join them and I tell them that I have a bad cold and would hate to give it to them. They shrug and insist that I join them any way so I do. I apologize again for not paying closer attention to where they were as we were wandering around lost. The woman tells me that she can’t walk very fast due to asthma and admitted how frightening it was to be left behind. We move on to more pleasant conversation as we eat our hake, (fish), which I am able to actually taste despite my clogged airways. As we are finishing lunch Paul and the rest of the hikers walk into the dome, all dripping water on the floor. Paul says that it only rained hard at the end of the hike so they aren’t soaked but Angie does tell me her shoes have water in them. They hiked around six miles but were thwarted from going further by a stream that was too swollen with water to safely cross. I can’t say I am sorry I missed that hike.

Paul and I go back to our room and I sleep for another two hours while Paul reads.  We also pack as best we can as we are supposed to be leaving tomorrow to start the last part of our tour here which is puma tracking. The problem is we need to get across the river and we wonder if that will be possible. It continues to rain and for the first time our dome is a bit chilly despite the small gas stove turned as high as it will go.

When we arrive at our departure briefing the guides tell us that we will be leaving in the morning but we will be crossing the river in a zodiac as the river is still out of its banks. The news gets even better as we must be at the river for the first zodiac in order to beat the crowd of people who have to get out tomorrow. That means we will leave at six fifteen and take our breakfast with us. I am quite nervous about crossing a flooding river in a motor boat but one of the friendly guides assures me that it is quite safe.

At dinner we sit at the table with Marcella, Angie and another young couple that are leaving tomorrow. The blonde woman is quite gregarious and has us all laughing throughout the meal. Somehow, we get on the subject of shopping online and one of the things she talks about is acquiring clothes from a site called Rent the Runway. This site lets you rent designer clothes for special occasions. The outgoing woman gives an example of being able to rent an eight-hundred-dollar dress for eighty bucks. I must have an odd look on my face as she looks at me and says “you know, renting it for a wedding where you need to have a nice dress”. What she doesn’t know is that I am seeing in my mind the reaction of people in Wabaunsee county seeing me in a dress let alone in an eight-hundred-dollar dress and my vision is quite hilarious.

When the young lady finds out we are ranchers she thinks we should let her come and do an internship at our ranch as her dream is someday owning acreage of her own with a variety of animals on it. The sociable woman then says she would love to come to our ranch and cuddle the little calves which horrifies me. I blurt out to her “that if you try to cuddle our calves it is likely the cows would try to kill you”! Suddenly there is complete silence at our table as four sets of eyes are staring at me in disbelief. I tell my audience that although our cows are normally gentle, when they calve it is like a switch flips in them and they are going to protect their calf against anything that they perceive as a danger. Again, stares of disbelief. I try a different angle and say our cows are not dairy cows they are range cows which means they aren’t handled every day like dairy cows. Finally, Paul and I tell them about our neighbor that was nearly killed by a cow as he was tagging a baby calf. We tell the group that if he had not been able to roll under his pickup it was likely the cow would have killed him. Even then our neighbor spent a few days in the hospital recuperating from the beating he took from his cow. I hear one of the guides say something like, I guess I need to learn a little more about cows. I am a bit surprised that Marcella and Angie aren’t somewhat aware of this as they work in such a harsh environment and see the cruelty of nature too. Ah well, maybe Paul and I gave them a glimpse of reality ranching rather than the Disney World images that most people have.

I must say our entertaining table mate leaves us completely flabbergasted when later in the course of our conversation she tells us that they pay fourteen dollars for a dozen of free-range, organic eggs. I think Paul and my mouth literally drop open. Holy smokes, I can buy ten dozen at home for that price. I believe all of us at the table learned a lot from each other tonight.  Nancy