After driving over to see Lago and Glacier Grey, we headed for Hosteria del Payne, a working estancia on the border of the park. It was close to Lago Grey as the Condor flies but quite far by road mainly because we had to drive around yet another enormous lake. Lago Sarmiento is 25 kilometers long (give or take a few kilometers) and the way around it took us out of the park and onto the road back to Puerto Natales. We almost missed the turnoff for the Hosteria had it not been for Sarah’s keen peripheral vision.
We drove through open grasslands and didn’t see a thing for 20 to 25 minutes. Then we came upon a bridge in such a state of disrepair that there was a road sign stating “This bridge is in a very bad state. Drive through the creek bed. Do not use this bridge!”
After that we drove through a grove or two of trees and then we crested a small hill and before our eyes was the Hosteria. The views from this place are jaw dropping. Our rooms looked out onto the entire Torres del Paine panorama. There was a lake down next to the horse corral, cows were mooing, the wind was howling and the hospitality of the staff was like no where else in Chile. Our dinner was terrific and the peace and solitude of this hosteria’s location was as refreshing as it was stark.
The next morning, none of us wanted to leave and drive back to Punta Arenas. We wanted to stay another night and just sit by the fire in the main house, play cards and have a lazy day. Of course our reservations were only for one night so we packed up and drove off, but we made sure that we took in as many of the views as possible on our way back out to the main road for we knew that soon we would be back in urbanville.
We had a vegetarian lunch in Puerto Natales and then drove back through the Patagonia steppe to Punta Arenas. One of our afternoon goals was to visit the old Seno-Otway Penguin colony nearby Arenas. After a couple of wrong turns, we made our way down the right road, and pulled up to the entrance and we informed that the colony was closed. Closed! “How could that be?” we asked. “The sign back there said you were open!?” The attendant said, “We close at 6:15.” We looked at the clock in the car and it read 6:26. Ugh!
Upon 10 days reflection, it seems to me that moments such as this one outside of the old Seno-Otway Penguin colony make me glad I don’t speak Spanish that well. For if I did, there is no doubt in my mind that I would have told the attendant the following: 1. He was an idiot; 2. He didn’t know what the real time was since penguins don’t follow Day Light Savings (It is the Austral Spring down here – spring the clocks forward – so in fact we had one more hour left before the real 6:15 came); 3. Whoever he worked for was a money grubber who kicked out the Seno-Otway Organization (the people who really help the penguins) in order to collect money and get rich off the poor, non-flying birds that must swim for their food; and 4. Our Pesos were just as good as the Pesos of the vehicle he let in at 6:16, ten minutes before. Yes, if I knew Spanish as well as I wish I did, these words and maybe more would have flowed with a mixture of grace, venom, and flare that quite possibly would have gotten us in to see the Penguins coming home from their hard day of feeding out at sea and that would have most surely embarrassed Sarah and her parents to such a depth that they would not have spoken to me for 2 hours or more. As it happened, I didn’t get to say any of this to the attendant. Instead, I turned our car around and was bummed out.
In Punta Arenas we had to shuffle to three different hotels before finding rooms for the night because the first hotel had marked our reservation down for January 30, not December 30. By the time we got settled and the car parked, it was time to get a drink. We headed to the Shackleton Bar, complete with watercolors depicting his heroic journey. After a round of Pisco Sours, we headed to an elegant restaurant where we dined on Lamb, Sea Bass and Beaver Confit.
Upper left, some chunks of glacier floating in Lago Grey.
Upper right, the two of us at the Lago Grey mirador.
Above left, a bridge in Torres del Paine that is so narrow that the bus had 1 inch to spare on each side (Everyone on the bus had to get out and walk across! Why? Safety? Weight? We have no idea.).
Above right, the flag of Patagonia.
Lower left, Bruce and Jane on the shore of Lago Sarmiento.
Lower right, the two of us on the shores of the same lake.
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