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Having arrived the previous evening to extremely strong winds, we spent the day walking around the deserted town trying to arrange some hiking in Torres del Paine National Park. Similar to Punta Arenas, the season hadn't yet kicked off and most places were shut. Our only opetions were:
A. Trek for 5 days indepentantly, camping or staying in basic US$60 refuges
B. Hire a car and do a few day trips into the park
C. Do the 1 day guided minibus tour
Not confident in our trekking and survival skills in unpredictable and freezing weather, we tried to instigate plan B but the car hire places were closed so our only option was the day tour.
We randomly bumped into Katie and Rich (who were preparing for their 5 day hike - far more hardcore than us) and we had a good catch up with them later that evening and then toddled off back to our hostel dodging the marauding packs of street dogs.
After visiting a cave formed by a retreating glacier we parked up just before entering the park for stunning views of the mighty Torres towers, which were once magma chambers of a volcano which has since been eroded away. At the entrance of the park with closer views of the towers we could clearly see the azure blue of the ice fields ready to tumble down the sides of nearby mountains. A brief stop to help a couple with a blown tyre (that would definitely had been us if we had hired a car!) we headed for Lake Pahoe - a stunningly beutiful turquoise lake with utterly breathtaking views of the park. Onward to Lago Grey, the highlight of the day, where we saw our very first icebergs. The battle walking through the gale force winds across the shore of Lago Grey was well worth it for the close up views of the beautifully sculpted icebergs. Despite the gale force winds and precarious path we headed out onto a penninsular for more brilliant views of the massive icebergs and the distant glacier from which they had broken off.
Back in town we took a breif walk down to the port and out for dinner that evening it dawned on us that it was our last night in Chile. As we were chased back to our hostel by the roaming packs of street dogs we couldnt wait for Argentina.
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