24 January 2003: Puerto Montt, Chile
Subject: Chile (2)
Torres Del Paine Photos
As promised I have scanned some photos from Torres Del Paine.
The first part of the trip was a walk up the Valle Ascecio to see the famous Torres. The weather wasn't perfect and I got to see this much of the towers:
One of the nicest parts of the day was the final bit of the walk up where the path follows a stream that is flowing down over old morraine where the vegetation is getting established. Imagine the nicest cascade in your favourite garden and eextend it to about a kilometer in length! One of the most spectacular plants I've seen, first in Argentina and then at this cascade, is the Waterfall Plant - bright red flowers, and it really does seem to grow practically under the waterfalls!
Next I started on the circuit round the back of the mountains, first going up the Rio Paine valley. This was full of dasies.
Here is the river itself:
After my rather wet and windy crossing of the John Garner pass, during which I didn't get my camera out once, the route continued down into woodland alongside the Grey Glacier. In a few bright damp spots I found this tiny variant of Topa Topa (I think it must be a different species, but it is not in my book). The plant is at most three or four centimeters tall.
Here are a couple of pictures of the Grey Glacier where it enters Lago Grey.
The bits of ice that fall of the glacier get blown around by the wind, and at this time they were all being blown up to the other end of the lake and getting stuck on the beach.
The final leg of the walk, back to my starting point, was past the most famous views of the mountains. Here is a view of the Cuernos Del Paine (I think Cuernos means Horns). There are some more pictures still in my camera...
