Weather was not a friend today. When I got up at 6am, I poked my head out the door to check, half the sky was clear, while the other half (towards the mountains) was somewhat greyish cloudy. It was windy and chilly, the ground was wet, there was evidence of overnight rains. I remained hopeful, maybe we could still see the mountains with a partial cloudy sky. The tour van came to pick me up just before 7:30am, I hopped on and just sat at the first seat by the door, there was a masked Chinese guy to my left. The folks in the back also seemed to be english speaking, so it seems we would have an english tour today. We continued to pick up guests along the way, and a few other folks hopped on. When we got to this last hotel at the edge of town, it picked up a family of 4, Indian. The young ones all went to the back, the mom looking woman being total Karen right off the bet declared that she would not sit in the back, because she would get sick as the car turned round and round, meanwhile she drew the circles in the air, she demanded to sit in the front and asked the guide who was sitting up front, the guide said herself and the driver would sit up front only. She said she would get sick and vomit and if that is ok. The naive me said you can have my seat if you want, I moved a seat over toward the chinese guy, and now I am sandwiched in between them. That bitch took my seat, which was practically the best seat with a huge window to the right and in front.
The Indian family was from Pittsburgh, the Indian Karen mother evidently is a doctor. She was literally nonstop asking the tour guide and driver questions, who were sitting just in front of us. Some questions are kind of intrusive in my opinion, who on earth would have asked if the tour guide is married and has children. It is absolutely none of your business. Turns out the tour guide is a single mom, it was kind of awkward. She also asked me where I came from, I said Chicago, and she assumed the Chinese guy was with me, I said I did not know him, and we asked him where he was from. Simon (I later learned his name) was from China, but he has been a student in Singapore. This trip is a reward for himself from graduating and a trip before he goes back to China. Nonetheless, Simon honey, you might want to take a mint. The mask may have sealed the germ, it did not seal the odor. No actually, he seemed like a good kid. We were supposed to buy the national park ticket ahead, and of course, he did not. And he was also anxious and scrambled to buy the ticket online. That ticketing system was in spanish, he had so many questions. While the driver was driving, he asked him what is the reason he should pick for visiting the national park, the options are all in spanish. I said to just pick "fotographie". Who cares really. After he successfully completed the transaction, he was holding on the phone screen until we had a stop, like a studious student, he rushed to show the guide that he finished his homework.
Our first stop was a shop, where we stopped briefly for a morning coffee and souvenir already. The shop was quite close to the Argentina border, I had no idea that the Argentina border was only 30 mins from Puerto Natales. The spot was so windy, it dawned on me I better put on the wind gear. Just as we headed out to the car again, it was raining. So, I put on my waterproof pants too. I am glad I had that. We were warned by the guide that we would unlikely be able to see the 3 towers, which are the famous mountain peaks. Oh well, what do you do? We can control a lot of things but not the weather. We got to the first lake where we were supposed to see the mountain range which was completely hidden under the heavy clouds. Our tour soon became more like a safari tour in which we started spotting different animals: guanaco (aka lamas), rheas (aka ostrich), flamingos, and condors. We were taken on a journey to look for pumas, but we did not see any.
Indian Karen never stopped her questions, she asked Natalia (our guide) what is on the left, it is a bloody "river". What do you think it is?! We got to the first waterfall, which was quite stunning, but it started to rain quite heavily. I think my tour mates all rushed to the car, while I hiked up to snap a few more shots. I had my waterproof gear, so I did not feel too bad. But when I got back, Karen said, you are all wet. Studious Chinese gave me a wrap to clear off the rain on my pants and jacket.
We got to the viewpoints, where the turquoise blue river or lake again the mountains which we saw faintedly. It was beautiful. I could only imagine it would have been even more beautiful on a sunny day. After seeing a second waterfall, we went for lunch. I noticed that there was a lookout path next to where we had lunch. So, I quicked finished my burger and just started walking on that. It took about 12-15 mins, I ended up at a beach which connected to a lake, in the distance, there are two isolated icebergs in the lake. I didn't think about it at that time why there were icebergs in the lake. It was where the glaciers were, but from where I stood, I did not see the glaciers. If I had walked out toward the middle of the beach, I would have seen the glacier. Nonetheless I walked back since our lunch hour was about over, we were going to hike to see the glacier. Little did I know that what I had just done was the hike we were going to do. Since it started to rain again, we took a vote and decided to skip the hike and take the easy route to drive to a hotel and walk 6 mins to see the same glacier. I am so glad that we did that, it was a much better view than the beach where I was clearly not impressed. And the rain started pouring down soon after we took a quick peek at the glacier, it disappeared from view completely within 5 mins.
The weather changes in that region are no joke. The guide said one could experience 4 seasons in Torres del Paine, I could totally see that. After the not so impressive glacier view, we drove to our last stop of the day, Milodon Cave, which has been inhabited by animals and humans since 11000 years ago. The weather was slightly better there, I was hoping to scatter the last bit of Scott's ashes in Torres del Paine national park, which did not happen, I did not even see the mountains. So, I decided to scatter them at the Milodon Cave, which has a nice view of the valley. My mission was accomplished. I have brought Scott's ashes to Antarctica and Chile. One of his last wishes was to have his ashes scatter everywhere in the world, since he loved to travel. I am glad I did this for him.
I wished I had seen Torres del Paine, but oh well. Every trip has to end at some point, and this trip has to end here. There is always a next time of course.
Day 16 Photos: Here
