There’s a lot of trekking on the Patagonian part of my trip. Currently I’m on the carretera austral, Chile’s southern highway, and it’s basically a string of national parks. But after many hikes, it was nice to make Puerto Río tranquilo my base for a few days of different activities. Well, somewhat different at least.
The town is pretty small, but surprisingly touristy. Not only are there people like me, who stick around for a couple of days, but there are also day trippers and road trippers making a quick stop. So right around the highway, in this case a gravel road, there are a bunch of restaurants and over a dozen of tour operators in little shacks, offering trips to glaciers and the famous marble caves.
On my first full day I got into a kayak to visit these caves. I was picked up at 7am and driven to the Bahia Mansa. There we got the gear ready and headed out for a short stretch to reach the marble caves. It was the first time I kayaked with a skirt that covered the entired opening of the kayak and thus my legs. It kept me nice and dry. I quickly picked up the paddling techniques and enjoyed being on the calm water of lake General Carrera. Apparently it can get choppy later in the day because the wind picks up. It’s actually Chile’s largest lake, so it makes sense there are waves out there. We got to see the cathedral and chapel and then kayaked through a marble tunnel, where we could touch the walls and feel the marble. The sun was rising and lighting up the mountains around me. The refreshing water looked the perfect shade of blue. In the tunnel the water was lighter, like a tropical island.
The next day I saw a different kind of blue. I had another 7am start to reach glacier Exploradores. We drove from the sunny town into a cloudy valley. The clouds wouldn’t disperse till later in the day, revealing a truly impressive landscape. First, we had a hike to do. You had to watch your step to balance on the rocks. When we reached the moraine, we were basically on the ice, but it was mostly covered in dirt and pebbles. Occassionally some slippery black ice came through the dirt. Once we got to the icier parts of the glacier we put on the crampons and harnesses. Soon after we found our first cave, another shade of blue.
I loved being on the glacier, but at times I felt like we were more on an Instagram photoshoot than an adventure. The caves are found for photo moments. They are not particularly long, but stunning. You can take photos climbing through it, or from the inside looking out. Inside we found the Patagonian dragon. It’s a little creature that feeds off bacteria in the ice and occasionally eats its own kind. The holes were pretty small; I couldn’t stand up in some parts. Good thing we had a helmet, because I hit my head a couple of times. To make it more exciting, we had to leave the caves with ropes sometimes. My thin gloves quickly got wet ftom the little showers of meltwater and the dripping wet rope.
Maybe more exciting was our walk back. We took a more exciting route, with steeper hills where you had to lean back as you walked down with the crampons. We were closer to crevasses and walked over seemingly small edges. There were some pools of water on the way. One day, all this ice will be melted and those pools will grow into a glacial lake. When that happens, the glacier can only be seen from a boat. At the rate glaciers are retreating, we are lucky to be walking on it.
We walked back over the rocky terrain, into the forest and out of the valley. Looking back we saw the mighty mountain of San Valentín appearing through the clouds. It was valentine’s day and I was staring at this Valentín mountain. There were a lot more glaciers in our view now, all part of the northern ice field. In the sun the valley and the drive back were so much more impressive. The whole car was sleeping, apart from our four guides. I was staring at the lakes, the waterfalls and the glaciers on the cliffs. Río tranquilo offered a nice, and different, way to explore a national park. There will still be plenty of hiking in the future.
OMG what incredible scenery!