Crónicas Patagónicas Torres del Paine IV

I open my eyes after one of the very few times of sleep I had that shitty night and I see a shy light starting outside through the tent. Enough, time to leave this fucking hole. I fetch all my clothes and leave the rest there. I will come back later to pick it up, now I have different priorities: get to the refugio, a dry and covered place, heaving on earth compared to the hole were I have spent the night.

Its very early and still a bit dark but I can see the snow was quite a good one. It seems Torres del Paine finally was up to its reputation of a very unpredictable place when it comes to the weather. No forecast had forecast this snow. It does not look like I am going to be able to climb to the Paine towers today as it was my intention. Thats really bad cause that was the most famous trekking of the park, the one which would give me the “official” picture with the rock towers and the lake, the proof that I was there. Too bad..I couldnt see the French Valley yesterday, I am missing this today as well. Believe me, even after the terrible night I was totally determined to climb as many mountains as necessary that day. Anyway, nothing I could do about it, here a pic from the Paine towers.

I walk the half kilometer of snow and cross the river separating the camping form the refugio. The door is open but nobody is in the reception yet. Well, I guess thats why it is called “refugio”. Sure they overcharge the rooms but, at least, there is some minimum hospitality you get for free. I enter the place and go directly to the stove in the area next to the kitchen. Key moment here: this is me, urban IT guy, with a roll of toilet paper, a lighter and some wood. I gotta get some fire with that…

And suprisingly it easily works out. After a few minutes I got myself a happy and lively fire which warms up the room. The situation is starting to improve. I get rid of my soaked socks and dry my feet, the gloves, all the clothes that got wet inside the tent.. It is still snowing out there but inside is getting more and more comfortable. Even more when I get some company. A australian people who were sleeping at the refugio shows up. Apparently it was too cold in their dorm to continue sleeping. cold? That was probably a sauna compared to the portable fridge where I spent the night.

Anyway, the australians happen to be very nice people, I already met them the night before. After a while the whole refugio starts to wake up. The reception guys show up and confirm us that, of course, there is no way to get to the towers in a day like this. It does not stop snowing out there and all the paths are closed. I remember about my instant soups and eat them with bread I got from the aussies. After the shitty dinner I had the night before the hot soup tastes great. Then I move to another room which has some sofas, light a new fire which happens to be even better than first one and, very warm and comfortable, I sleep the best siesta ever. The painful night at the tent is already a bad and distant memory.

The rest of the morning pass away in between cards games and interesting conversation with the australians. It is one of these times you are in Chile but somehow you are also travelling in Ecuador and Perú, places where these guys have been. They have plenty of stories to tell which makes me get an idea of what is wating there for me whenever I reach them in my trip. At some point Cristobal, the chilean guy, shows up. He had spent the night in a refugio up North, close to the towers to which I had thought of going the previous day till I realized I was too tired for that. Apparently I also missed a complicated way back to where I am, with snow as high as the knees. Torres del Paine started friendly but got angry in the end, denying me access to its best views.

Actually, I could stay an extra day to give a second chance to the climb to the towers in case the weather be better tomorrow but that does not look like a certain possibility and, besides, it wouldnt live too much time for visiting Ushuaia. I better leave today. In the reception they tell me there are two transer buses to go to the park entrance and link with the regular bus to Puerto Natales. I decide to take the latest one so I can have lunch with Cristobal. Quite a good idea taking into account its been a while I have a proper meal. So we cook the past I couldnt use the day before and spend a good time afterwards drinking beer and rum. I give the rest to the alcohol to the cook when I leave, partly cause he has given us the stuff we needed to cook our past, partly cause it makes me happy to think that something the french guy put money in is going to be enjoyed by someone else for free.

Coming back in that transfer bus I go over my Torres del Paine experience. Sadly, the weather has fucked up most of my itinerary and I have had a few tough times. On the other hand, I made the ice walking and enjoy a lot the trekking I could do. Actually, the great thing about Torres del Paine is that the whole trekking is amazing, every path you walk has something nice to see and not only the edges of the W. The landscape is amazing everywhere. I have just started to do trekkings in my southamerican trip (Chapada Diamantina was the first experience) so I havent got much to compare with but I am sure this place is among the best. That explains why people like Cristobal come here all the way from Santiago for the third time. Anyway, its also been a really exhausting days, I cant wait to the moment I will be in the hostel, have a decent meal, a proper shower, an ordinary bed… All that is so close, a couple of hours and I will make it. Little I knew then about what I will still have to through that day…

First problem happens when I reach the park entrance. The guys there tell me there is NO regular bus to Puerto Natales anymore. Someone in the refugio fucked up and gave wrong information to me and to the transfer driver. The transfer is not transfering to anything and I am stuck there without any way of leaving this place. They use the radio to call everybody in the park who might be leaving today to Puerto Natales. No luck. Its only a hundred km away but nobody is going there till tomorrow. To make thing worse the guys from the refugio say it is my problem and they dont wanna take any responsability. Assholes.. I clearly asked them to confirm that bus for me and they even phoned someone to find out. The minimum they can do is to offer me one night in the refugio for free, I am not sleeping in the tent again. I try to arrange that over the radio but they refused.

Therefore, the situation gets a bit nasty. The transfer is driving me back to the refugio, in other words, to a big argument cause I am not happy at all with them. So we are almost there when this truck shows up coming from the opposite direction… we stop it… Yeah, I got lucky!!! They are going to Puerto Natales. In a second I change vehicle and direction. Ironically, in the end I will be the one doing hithhiking like a cheap french guy… Nice deal I have made!! Instead of heading to a certain problem, I am comfortably installed in that big car with two couple of chilean soldiers and leaving the park. They give me some conversation and the subject goes to music so I ask them what Spanish bands they know and the driver happens to be a Héroes del Silencio fan. “Entre Dos Tierras” sounds in the car radio while I get out of Torres del Paine.

However I still have to deal with some issues in Puerto Natales before I can have a decent dinner and hit the bed. I have to return the stuff I rented and buy my bus ticket to Uhusaia. The guy in the rental shop happens to be honest and I dont have to pay for the crappy sleeping bag he gave me. Good. I find the place for booking the bus and discover how the soldiers really saved my ass. There are no more buses to Ushuaia this week but the one leaving tomorrow. If I had stayed the extra night in Torres del Paine I would have missed the only connection I had to the pace from where I was flying back to Buenos Aires. My only chance then would have been some really advance hitchhiking.. Ufff…

Once I am done with all this I have a huge dinner and get back to the hostel looking forward that hot shower… I am about to get in when they owner calls me. There is someone in the door asking for me. For me? Here in Puerto Natales? I wonder if it is the french coming to claim his part of my pate bar. I go down and find this very pissed off chilean guy in front of me… Can you guess who he was? Yeah, you got it, his name is Umberto and he is the driver we had hired to pick us up in the park at 7pm that evening. He just came back from an useless 200 km ride and he is not too happy about it. As I should have suspected the fucking french never canceled that. And, what is worse, when Umberto showed up in their place the two bastards said I was the only responsible of the arrangement. A huge fucking lie but somehow I am not suprised at all they did that.

Umberto is totally mad and shouts me some nasty stuff even though I am saying from the beginning I am gonna pay my part of the price we agreed. What I am not going to do is to pay for the other two treacherous snakes. The chilean gets more pissed off and, in his angry speech he refers to the Spanish colonization times and how we still behave like that. It is amazing there are still some peple around here with hard feelings about that, apparently they dont realize that was centuries ago and I was not there. I had to use all my diplomacy to calm him down and I agreed to go to comfront the others. I know is a useless trip, none of these dirty cockroaches is gonna give away a single peso but, at least, I hope this is gonna prove Umberto who is cheating him and who is not.

When I arrive to the house, the traveller parasites are very relaxed, having dinner. It wasnt a nice moment as you can imagine. As expected the backpacker hyenas wont pay anything, taking advantage of their non Spanish speaker condition. The american, about whom I had a better opinion so far, proves to be as rubbish as the french. They both totally ignore they chilean guy, they dont even look him at the face. All they say is “we didnt commit to anything, we dont pay”.

I didnt waste too much time trying to reason with those sewer rats, I knew it was pointless. In fact, I wasnt specially angry. All I felt was a very deep despise for them and a strong need to have them out of my sight. Fortunately I had achieved the real goal of my visit. Poor Umberto would not get anything from them but it was now clear who was facing the issue and who was a fucking coward. I guess these guys are a good example of a certain kind of crappy people travelling in these countries which they consider the third world. They walk around caring only for the own benefit and thinking they can do whatever they want. I have neve seen so selfish people. If been a professional long term traveler on a low budget leads you to become this shit I think I am going to pass… Well, in any case, this is the first time I do couchsurfing and get shit out of that. I will keep using it but maybe a bit more carefully.

Going back to the hostel, the chilean is more concerned about apologyising for what he said than claiming money. Although it was not my fault, I feel bad about all what happened. This Umberto looks like a very nice guy, used to trust people instead of asking for money in advance and stuff like that. It is a real pity that, because of the two bastards, this good attitude will probably change from now on. The night ends with a few handshakes and he almost hug me, apperently quite ashamed of his previous words. At last, I get that shower and jump into bed. I am leaving very early tomorrow, heading to Ushuaia, the most austral city in the world according to argentinians (the second one according to chileans). Very Southern anyway…

Paco, master of disaster

Just for this one time I think I have been rather anti-disaster:

• I properly manage to light not one but two fires without burning the refugio.
• I stop that car in the last moment and convince them to give me a ride to Puerto Natales, avoiding the extra night in the park and also avoiding to loose all my options to reach Ushuaia.
• I manage to calm the chilean guy down when he was really agressive.

An inspiration day in between the mess…

Tags: Patagonia, Torres del Paine