We'd heard people raving about the Torres del Paine national park - touted by Lonely Planet as the finest national park in the whole of South America - so we decided to take a 100km detour to see what all the fuss was about.
Our route would take us via Cerro Castillo, the place we would eventually have to return to cross into Argentina on our way to el Calafate.
Dicky and the Ecuadorians left for the Park a day before me and Blinky. The Norse Woodsman and myself passed a quiet day preparing for the journey to the park. Buying lots of bread, jam, biscuits and of course pasta.
The ride from Natales was lovely - there was little to no wind, for the first time in a long while we experienced some really nice views - mountains, valleys and an extinct volcano that looked like it had blown it's top for the last time a few thousand years ago. We had been told that the road was gravel all the way but that some stretches might be paved. This turned out to be true, for us at least. The stretch of road between Puerto Natales and Cerro Castillo had been paved in great strectches every few km's but none of it was open and there were workmen on every stretch. Miles of empty virgin pavement and we had to ride on gravel! Just as we were cursing our ill luck a couple of workmen spotted us and waved us over - they asked us why we weren't riding on the pavement - it's not open we replied - don't worry it's okay for bikes they replied. Suffice to say the Chileans are much more relaxed about people bombing about on their construction sites! So we had vast stretches of road all to ourselves - pretty much all the way to Cerro Castillo. This made us happy.
We had planned to stop at Cerro Castillo for the day and set up camp but with the wind being fair and the best cycle path in the world beneath us we made very very good time. We decided to push onto the park entrance - which was another 50km away. It was worth it. After some pretty tough riding over some really rutted ripio roads we made it to the Park Gates for about 9. I say it was worth it because we got to pitch our tents facing one of the most spectacular vistas we have ever seen. For those who don't know the Torres del Paine are three large rock pillars thrusting 2500m into the sky, surrounded by snow covered mountain peaks and fast flowing rivers, cascades and incredibly blue lakes. Our campsite gave us a perfect view of the Torres at sunset, framed by the surrounding mountains and wispy clouds floating amongst them it truly was a sight to behold. We have photos but not the technology at the moment to post them - they will be up soon though and they will be worth the wait!
A word of warning - the National Park is beautiful but expensive. Take your own food and be prepared to pay the equivalent of 15 pounds or 30USD for entry.
We yomped over to where Dicky was camped the next day and once again we had some amazing views, and some terrific climbing (we gained 400m vertical height for about 5km riding at one point)
We were welcomed by Dicky and the Ecuadorians with open arms and more tantalisingly freshly caught Salmon from the Rio Sorrento which ran along the back of our campsite. Natty, one of our Ecuadorian pals made me and Blenk some Agua Panella which is basically water, powdered milk and raw unprocessed sugar. It was very sweet, but hot and revitalising. So it was that we settled down into a routine of fishing, eating Salmon, drinking Agua Panella and learning some excellent Spanish swear words (we of course reciprocated with some excellent english colloquialisms! - Paco, another Ecuadorian, was an excellent student of english in this regard, even giving Blenk a new nickname, which I'm afraid can't be repeated here.
)
The daily fishing trips were organised in an almost military fashion by Gerardo, "el dueño", we would be roused out of bed in the morning for breakfast with shouts of "trabajo! - levantate!" (literally - work! get yourselves out of bed
We would stumble out of sleeping bags and tents bleary eyed to go to work fishing. It was a little bit boring if I'm honest - i've never been a very patient man and fishing is pretty boring when the fish aren't biting - and they weren't biting...... I think after 2 days even Gerardo got a bit fed up with it.
On the last day Gerardo suggested that maybe we could all get into his 4x4 and that we could get dropped off at Cerro Castillo. On the face of it this was a crazy idea, and as it turned out in practice this was a crazy idea - but it worked! Also because I was largest Gerardo suggested that I drive, I say suggested what I mean to say is he pointed at me and in his broken English said "You drive!", I thought about it for a moment and then accepted. As an afterthought Gerardo checked that I had a driving licence! So let me set the scene - on the day of the drive there were 6 people, one baby, one small dog, five mountain bikes, five tents, all our luggage crammed into, onto and around this 4x4. With some horrendously filthy "Rigaton" music playing (like hip-hop but with a different beat) we set off and made it safely to Cerro Castillo.
next stop el Calafate where we would be reunited with Dicky and the Ecuadorians again.
Unfortunately I have to go change up some Chilean Pesos so you will have to wait to hear about the journey to el Calafate.
Until then.
Ciao!
Our route would take us via Cerro Castillo, the place we would eventually have to return to cross into Argentina on our way to el Calafate.
Dicky and the Ecuadorians left for the Park a day before me and Blinky. The Norse Woodsman and myself passed a quiet day preparing for the journey to the park. Buying lots of bread, jam, biscuits and of course pasta.
The ride from Natales was lovely - there was little to no wind, for the first time in a long while we experienced some really nice views - mountains, valleys and an extinct volcano that looked like it had blown it's top for the last time a few thousand years ago. We had been told that the road was gravel all the way but that some stretches might be paved. This turned out to be true, for us at least. The stretch of road between Puerto Natales and Cerro Castillo had been paved in great strectches every few km's but none of it was open and there were workmen on every stretch. Miles of empty virgin pavement and we had to ride on gravel! Just as we were cursing our ill luck a couple of workmen spotted us and waved us over - they asked us why we weren't riding on the pavement - it's not open we replied - don't worry it's okay for bikes they replied. Suffice to say the Chileans are much more relaxed about people bombing about on their construction sites! So we had vast stretches of road all to ourselves - pretty much all the way to Cerro Castillo. This made us happy.
We had planned to stop at Cerro Castillo for the day and set up camp but with the wind being fair and the best cycle path in the world beneath us we made very very good time. We decided to push onto the park entrance - which was another 50km away. It was worth it. After some pretty tough riding over some really rutted ripio roads we made it to the Park Gates for about 9. I say it was worth it because we got to pitch our tents facing one of the most spectacular vistas we have ever seen. For those who don't know the Torres del Paine are three large rock pillars thrusting 2500m into the sky, surrounded by snow covered mountain peaks and fast flowing rivers, cascades and incredibly blue lakes. Our campsite gave us a perfect view of the Torres at sunset, framed by the surrounding mountains and wispy clouds floating amongst them it truly was a sight to behold. We have photos but not the technology at the moment to post them - they will be up soon though and they will be worth the wait!
A word of warning - the National Park is beautiful but expensive. Take your own food and be prepared to pay the equivalent of 15 pounds or 30USD for entry.
We yomped over to where Dicky was camped the next day and once again we had some amazing views, and some terrific climbing (we gained 400m vertical height for about 5km riding at one point)
We were welcomed by Dicky and the Ecuadorians with open arms and more tantalisingly freshly caught Salmon from the Rio Sorrento which ran along the back of our campsite. Natty, one of our Ecuadorian pals made me and Blenk some Agua Panella which is basically water, powdered milk and raw unprocessed sugar. It was very sweet, but hot and revitalising. So it was that we settled down into a routine of fishing, eating Salmon, drinking Agua Panella and learning some excellent Spanish swear words (we of course reciprocated with some excellent english colloquialisms! - Paco, another Ecuadorian, was an excellent student of english in this regard, even giving Blenk a new nickname, which I'm afraid can't be repeated here.
)The daily fishing trips were organised in an almost military fashion by Gerardo, "el dueño", we would be roused out of bed in the morning for breakfast with shouts of "trabajo! - levantate!" (literally - work! get yourselves out of bed
We would stumble out of sleeping bags and tents bleary eyed to go to work fishing. It was a little bit boring if I'm honest - i've never been a very patient man and fishing is pretty boring when the fish aren't biting - and they weren't biting...... I think after 2 days even Gerardo got a bit fed up with it. On the last day Gerardo suggested that maybe we could all get into his 4x4 and that we could get dropped off at Cerro Castillo. On the face of it this was a crazy idea, and as it turned out in practice this was a crazy idea - but it worked! Also because I was largest Gerardo suggested that I drive, I say suggested what I mean to say is he pointed at me and in his broken English said "You drive!", I thought about it for a moment and then accepted. As an afterthought Gerardo checked that I had a driving licence! So let me set the scene - on the day of the drive there were 6 people, one baby, one small dog, five mountain bikes, five tents, all our luggage crammed into, onto and around this 4x4. With some horrendously filthy "Rigaton" music playing (like hip-hop but with a different beat) we set off and made it safely to Cerro Castillo.
next stop el Calafate where we would be reunited with Dicky and the Ecuadorians again.
Unfortunately I have to go change up some Chilean Pesos so you will have to wait to hear about the journey to el Calafate.
Until then.
Ciao!
