18.3.2008
Bariloche
Up ‘north’ here in Bariloche, we are
still in Patagonia, but in climes that don’t require at the
minimum a fleece, windbreaker and woolly hat everytime you walk out the
door.
Torres del Paine
We decided on a return trip to Torres del Paine after the last
drenching chased us out. The friendly rangers let us in for half price
for being the first Liechtensteiners. Just a few days to relax and
enjoy the views of the Cuernos from a distance without having to
shoulder a heavy pack.
Through the straits and narrows of Chiles coastline
Following in the footsteps, or should I say wake, of explorers who
sounded out these narrow channels we travelled for four days from
Puerto Natales to
Puerto Montt. After being welcomed aboard by our hosts at around
midnight we made our way to our cabins - four cosy bunks we
shared with an Australian couple. We had stocked up on liquor
for the journey in case the bar was too expensive but that night we
headed straight to bed after our rainy, windy ride back from Torres del
Paine. We left Last Hope sound in the early morning hours and motored
slowly through a twisted and tortuous route that is the inside passage
for ships avoiding the pacific storms. Our morning coffee was taken on
deck while our ferry squeezed through channels with names like Victoria
Pass, Nelson strait or the English narrows. The names of the narrows
and islands sounded mostly like the ‘landed gentry’
of the emerald Isles rather than anything south american. The reason
being that British naval officers did most of the charting in these
areas.
The only port-of-call on the trip was Puerto Eden. A tiny settlement of
250 people who survive on the fishing and mollusc industry. Among the
inhabitants are about 15 pure-blooded kaweskar or alacalufes, among the
last of the indigenous population who made their home in these waters.
The alacalufes were amazingly adapted to the severe patagonian
environment, studies show their body temperature was a degree higher
than the caucasian average ( Read ‘Rounding the
Horn’ by Dallas Murphy). To think that the woman would dive
for crabs and shells in these freezing cold waters and that even the
children went without any form of clothing as it would just get
uselessly wet in the erratic weather characteristic to Patagonia.
Unfortunately they couldn’t adapt to western civilisation
which killed off most of them with their diseases or their greed.
As we sailed through the mist past sheer granite cliffs cloaked in
green and ribboned with waterfalls it wasn’t hard to imagine
a small family of alacalufes
collecting mussels on the rocky coast, gliding through the dark waters
or making camp on some sliver of a beach.
The northern half of the route left the calm, protected waters of the
channels to cross an area known as the Golfo de Penas, or Gulf of
Distress. Before reaching the relative calm behind Chiloe island we had
to supress queasy stomachs from a swell off the Pacific for about seven
hours.
The last day of our trip, included a few firsts: the first time we saw
any signs of civilisation (apart from Puerto Eden), our first views
onto some impressive volcanoes and it was a gorgeously hot day. The
first real summer for us in 5 months!
It being the last day we consumed our last rations of liquor and danced
the night away.