Torres Del Paine (Hosteria Grey)

Un-Roughing It & Returning to "Civilization" 

Tuesday January 15, 2008

While the mini-buses  were loading up everyone to leave the Eco-Camp early Sunday morning, we felt extremely lucky to be the only people among our group that wouldn't be actually leaving the park. After dropping four people who were taking a off at a dock on the Rio Serrano (they were taking a boat-ride out of the park down to Puerto Natales following a navigable waterway leading to the Seno Ultima Esperanza), and before taking the rest of our busload overland down to Puerto Natales, the bus took us back to a place right near the beginning of our trek - Hosteria Grey at the base of Lago Grey. Here we spent two more wonderful days relaxing and walking around on the east side of the park.

When you look north from the deck of Hosteria Grey, you see Lago Grey and the Grey glacier at the far north end of the lake. There is a long sand spit connecting to an island that you can walk out on for a nice couple of hour excursion.

And this is what it looks like to look back south at the Hosteria from the sand spit.  

We were expecting to spend the rest of Sunday and all of Monday "on our own," but Roberto accompanied us to the hosteria and reported that he was assigned to be our guide for those two days (apparently we had paid for guided services for the whole stay).  Since we had pre-paid for the whole visit quite awhile ago, it seemed only sensible to take him up on the offer somehow. We sent him away on Sunday since we really just wanted to hang out at the hosteria, but asked him to come back Monday and take us on a hike up the Pingo Valley.  He seemed quite happy to have the half-day off, and returned to the hosteria about 10am Monday accompanied by his younger brother Horacio  to take us on a relaxed-pace, 3-4 hour hike up the Pingo Valley. As the map shows, the Pingo valley runs parallel to and along the west side of Lago Grey.

The conveniently named Rio Pingo runs through the Pingo Valley.

Looking back down the valley after we'd walked for an hour or so.

The incredible forces of nature have folded, twisted, and transformed the sedimentary layers that are now exposed on the cliff walls of the west side of the valley.

A nice little yellow flower that must have some name but I don't know what it is. We have a bird book but not a flower book.

The shack is called a "Puesto" and it is where the ranch-hand for an estancia that used to be here lived with his family.  Who knows where the horse came from and who it belongs to, but we enjoyed watching it scratch its neck and head on the tree branches,

as well as watching these Chilean Swallows get fed by Mom & Dad (who periodically swooped in with a mouthful of baby-food). 

After about 90 minutes of smooth walking, Roberto lead us up a little side stream in a small gorge to these falls. You can just barely see Roberto  (via his "Bob Marley hat") and Lynn in the top photo.

Of course Tom and Geoff had to skip rocks (what else is there to do?).

After returning to the hosteria in the mid-afternoon, we sent Roberto back to camp and walked out on the sandbar for just a little bit more exercise. 

Tuesday morning, Roberto showed up to wish us a good morning for the last time, and rode back to Puerto Natales with us in the mini-bus. The weather was better than ever, and we couldn't resist taking more and more pictures of those same mountains that always - just too beautiful to resist. 

The Cuernos.

The Paine Grande.

The whole range, with and without visual obstructions. Left to right you see the Paine Grande, French Valley (with the shark fin sticking up in the middle), The Cuernos, the steep Bader Valley, and the right-most mountain Almirante Nieto.

When we turned around to look towards Puerto Natales, the calm and shining Lago Toro was there to accompany us southward along the left side of the road - providing a nice, calm, and tranquil way to say goodbye.

-Rolf