This amazing, giant park is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, the 8th natural wonder of the world. It’s very famous for hiking and trekking, especially 4 to 9 day hikes staying in refugios (very basic lodging) or, if they didn’t book a year in advance like some I talked to, camping. It has become recently very famous with hikers from around the world.
Since I am a wimpy almost non-hiker, I took the bus tour through the park.
When van arrived, the driver apologized and said the other van had problems running, so they had changed vans.
There were only four of us on the trip: a Chilean lady, two German guys, and me.
It took two hours to get to the park entrance where we had to show our paid park entry document.
We drove a lot and got out a lot to take a lot of pictures.
We covered the big lakes on the south end of the park, but it was raining and overcast, so the lakes didn’t look turquoise blue like you would see on a sunny day. We didn’t even come near the northern side of the park where most of the serious hikers go.
I found that you can actually take a public bus to the park for a few dollars. It takes you near the famous three towers. According to a lady I talked to, a short, easy hike from there was completely possible. I had everything I needed except waterproof pants, which was stupid of me not to bring. I could’ve done it, and I’m sad that I didn’t take hike of a lifetime.
The road to Torres is horrible. This is what everyone said on the blogs I researched and it’s true. They are washboard gravel or paved with a million potholes. The drivers swerve wildly like they’re driving a Maserati instead of a van to avoid the potholes
With thousands of people paying $32 every day to enter the park, they have to making buckets of money. One would think they could fix the roads.
We took a walk up to Cascada Paine.
Then at a later stop we went to Cascada Salto.
The van stopped for pix many times.
It finally stopped raining around 12:00. At the visitor center we had free time so the Chilean girl and I had the cheapest thing on the super expensive menu and talked around our language barriers. Then we walked the path to the beach.
Next we went to the Milodón cave area. This was super exciting to me because I love caves.
The cave is 80 million years old. In 1895 a German guy discovered the remains of a Milodon, a prehistoric creature related to the sloth that became extinct 10,000 years ago. It is so cute I bought a stuffed Milodon animal.
Observations
- Tourism here is very new; it started within the past 20 years. The tourism infrastructure is good in many ways like every store and restaurant is credit card ready. Many menus have an English version. There are airport shared shuttles. But there are gaps. For example, there are thousands upon thousands of people going to the park on tours each day that don’t include access to lunch. They are told to bring their own. But there are no boxed lunches or early breakfast services available. Backpackers know to go to the local grocery store and buy bread and fruit and meat and cheese and make sandwiches.
- Very few people speak English which is the international travel language mostly used my Europeans and the few Americans that come. It is fine as long as you know some Spanish.
- There are two more caves to be explored at the Milodon cave area. I would rent a car and spend half a day there.
- Research how to take the local bus into the national park and plan a short hike from there if you’re not really a hiker.
- Don’t be afraid of the street dogs. They’ll ignore you but will happily accept a rub on the neck.
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