Torres Del Paine, Chile 智利百内国家公园

吴宁众

Torres Del Paine (TDP) is a national park in southern Chileno Patagonia. Supposedly, it was on the National Geographics list of most beaufiful places in the world.

We have heard about the TDP national park in Chile for a while. As the spring break was approaching, we decided: let's go to TDP. Given that we went to Africa and Thailand in the last two spring breaks, how far can Chile be, when it is roughly in the same time zone? Turns out, the trip Chicago to TDP took almost 30 hours, longest trip we have ever taken.

Torres Del Paine means Towers of Blue Sky. In the two weeks leading up to our trip, weather report of Puerto Natales, the nearest town outside of the park, was almost daily rains. I was praying daily for blue sky in the Park, with the full awareness that some unfortunate travelers never saw the Towers with uncooperative weather.

百内国家公园位于智利南部巴塔哥尼亚。 据说，这里曾经上了美国国家地理杂志的世界上最美丽的地方的名单。春假将近，说走就走吧。

前年春假去了泰国，去年春假去了肯尼亚。从地图上看。智利比这两个国家都近。但是实际上从芝加哥到百内国家公园日夜兼程花了将近30个小时。这是我们目前为止所有旅行中最长的。

西班牙语里 Torres Del Paine 的意思是蓝天之塔。 在我们旅行前的两周内，来自公园外最近的Puerto Natales的天气报告几乎每天都是下雨。 这的确让我忧心忡忡。这会儿为蓝天赶紧攒人品还来得及吗？

Day 1: Tour of TDP National Park. This a bus tour of southern half of the park from east to west.

第1天：参观百内国家公园。 今天从东到西游览公园的南半部。

Northeast entrance of TDP National Park.

百内国家公园的东北入口。

My pray for blue sky paid off. We started our day with beautiful blue sky. According to our guide, since the New Year, he has seen the Towers in clear view only 5 times (in nearly 90 days).

到了这里，第一天就见到蓝天白云，真让我们喜出望外。导游说过去三个月里，绝大多数时间山峰处在云雾遮掩之中。如此清楚地看到山峰，屈指可数。

The most striking structures of the Park are the three towers. Without hiking to the base of towers (the most famous and also most strenuous hike in the park), this location is the only place to see all of the three towers.

国家公园里最让人叹为观止的景色大概就是这三座塔了。在公园周围只有这一个位置可以看到三座塔。

The iconic animal of Patagonia: guanaco

这里最有标志性的动物，google翻译成原驼。

A guanaco perched on top of a ridge, looking at us as the bus drove by.

在我们行驶在路上，看到这只原驼伫立在山梁之巅向我们行注目礼。

Breath-taking views of the mountains as we drove around the park.

百内国家公园的山峰无论从哪个角度看， 都有壮丽的景色。

View of the mountains from Mirador del Nordenskjold.

从Nordenskjold景点看到山峰的景色。

Lake Pehoe. By now, we have moved to the south side of the park.

从公园的南部观望山峰。

View of TDP mountains from southwest.

公园的西南角。

View of the mountains in the waning dusk light, from the bank of Serrano River.

黄昏时分，Serrano河畔。

Next day. Quiet morning near Serrano River.

第二天清晨，Serrano河畔一片寂静。

Serrano river carries water from the TDP area, meandering through southern Patagonia, eventually ending in the Pacific Ocean.

Serrano河起源于百内公园, 在巴塔哥尼亚南部蜿蜒，最终流入太平洋。

The plan for Day 2 is to visit Grey Lake and Grey Glacier.  We have walked on a glacier in Canada and landed on a glacier by helicopter in Alaska.  This would be the first to observe the end of a glacier in close range by boat.  Because of strong wind, only one of the three scheduled boat tours would set sail today.  Luckily, we got the tickets.  To get on the boat, we first needed to hike through the dry lake bed.  A piece of floating ice is seen at the edge of the lake.

我们第二天的计划是游览灰湖和灰湖冰川。尽管我们以前游览过阿拉斯加以及加拿大的冰川，但是从来没有坐船近距离观察冰川的边缘。由于大风，平常一日三班的游船，今天只有一班出航。上船之前我们需要徒步穿过干枯的湖床。远远望去，一块从冰川下来的浮冰漂到了湖边。

TDP is notorious for its unrelenting wind.  Try to lean against the wind, it will support you. The "wind" in Windy City is no match to the TDP wind.

百内公园的狂风是有名的。到这里可以试试风力和重力的抗衡。芝加哥的所谓"风城"的风到这里来绝对是小巫见大巫。

Floating ice at edge of Grey Lake.

灰湖边缘的浮冰。

After 45 minutes of bumpy and nauseating boat ride against the wind, we finally came close to the edge of the glacier.

迎着狂风在湖上颠簸了45分钟之后，我们的游船终于到了冰川的边缘。

We were very fortunate to have sun shine on the ice field. The blue ice and blue sky complemented each other specutacularly.

阳光之下，蓝色的天空和蓝色的冰川相互辉映。

Rock and ice, intertwined.

岩石和坚冰咬合在一起。

The rugged rocks and rugged ice, which is more resilient?

岩石和坚冰，谁比谁更坚硬?

To illustrate the height of the iceberg (23-30 meters), here is an internet picture showing the tour boat in front of the glacier.

冰川边缘的高度大约有20到30米。这张网上的照片显示出冰川和游船的相对高度。

The mesmerizing blue color of the iceberg reminds me of gleaming precious stone.

冰川令人心醉的蓝颜色，让我不禁想起蓝宝石。

Floating ice of various shapes in Grey Lake.

湖中漂浮着大大小小形状各异的冰块。

Day 3: our original plan was to hike to the base of the Towers. This is the most famous hike that everyone came to TDP for，which normally would take 9 hours. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at), the hike was canceled due to strong wind. We decided to do a much shorter hike to go to the "horns" of TDP. We were told that this trail is also in one of the three most windy spots of the Park. We were advised to leave before sunrise in order to complete the hike before wind picked up. What a lucky advice given to us: we encountered the most spectacular scenes in my life because of this advice.

第三天的原本计划是徒步行走到百内公园三座塔峰的底座。这条路线，来回大约九小时，是公园最有名的徒步路线。可惜的是（也可以说幸运的是），由于风力太大，这个徒步计划被取消了。我们临时改计划去走另外一条短途徒步。旅馆的工作人员告诫我们这条线路也是在公园内三大风口之一。所以建议我们太阳升起之前就出发。阴差阳错，由于这一计划的改变，我们看到了有生以来最美的景色。

On the way to the hike, the sky and the ground all turned orange and red from the rising sun.

刚刚出发，就看到天空地面都被初升的太阳染成了橘红色。

Are the mountain tops ablaze?

有生以来头一次见到了火焰山。

The colorful sky turned out to be fleeting.  Within moments, the sunlight was blocked by thickening clouds.  Time to go on to the hike before the weather turns sour on us.

绚丽的天空转瞬即逝，不多久，阳光就被厚厚的云彩挡住了。赶紧上路吧，天有不测风云。

The three lone hikers marching toward the "horn" mountain.

空空的旷野里只有我们一行人，目的地是右侧的犄角山。

The three lone hikers looked minuscule in front of the majestic mountain.

在雄伟的山峰下，几个徒步行者显得如此渺小。

On the way, we visited the Salto waterfall.

路途上，有连接两湖的瀑布。

And we studied the local plants.

也不时停下来研究一下当地的植物。

Most of the land was covered by browning grassland dotted by bare tree truncks from a wild fire years ago.

绝大部分的旷野是枯黄的干草和干枯的树枝。

But once in a while, one can still see the beautiful fall color.

但是偶尔也会碰上绚丽的秋色。

The end of the trail is the beach on Lake Nordenskjold.  Across the lake, is the formidable "horn" peak.  The lake, the beach, and the magnificent mountains were all to ourselves. 

小路的尽头是湖边的沙滩。湖对面是令人望而生畏的犄角山。优美的大自然全由我们一行人独自欣赏。

Before we could have too much fun, the wind picked up and the thick cloud was moving in.  Time to go back.

独自享受大自然没多久，开始变天了。眼看着风起云涌，赶紧打道回府。

The unique disc shaped cloud in Torres Del Paine.

百内公园经常可以看到这种独特的圆盘型的云彩。

Our fearless hiker leading the way into the approching storm.

风起云涌，无所顾忌。

The wind was strong enough to whip up water from lake surface to creat a "rain shower".

狂风将湖水卷到空中，如果走到湖边，可以感到阵阵雨点浇身。

By the time we reached the beginning of the trail, it was already blocked by the local authority due to the strong wind; the later comers were all turned back.

A few hours later, the entire national park was engulfed by a rain storm. At this time, we were on another hiking trail. Although we were "rain prepared", we were still half-soaked due to the strong wind. Luckily, we were only one hour hiking distance away from hotel. Cannot imagine what we would have been like if we had gone on the 9-hour hiking.......

等我们返回到徒步的起始点时，由于风速太高，道路已被封闭。此时只可出不可进。

若干小时之后，我们又上了另外一条小路徒步。此时整个百内公园被阴雨笼罩。尽管我们对雨是有备而来，但是对风的准备显然不足。尽管我们在风雨中只徒步了一个小时，大家还是被淋了半湿。不敢想象如果我们去了那个九个小时的徒步行，并且在半路上碰到风雨，人会是什么样？

The Patagonia rain storm left as fast as it came. By night time, it was already clear enough for me to take a photo of Torres Del Paine under star light.

这里的风雨来得快，去得也快。到半夜，云彩所剩无几，得以拍下一张星空下的百内。

The next morning started again with the rising sun paining the mountains with golden brushes.

第二天一早又是晴空万里。初升的太阳再次把山顶涂上了红色。

A three-day trip to Torres Del Paine is barely enough to scratch the surface of this awe-inspiring park. Will have to save the rest for a future endeavor.

这次来真是蜻蜓点水。希望将来有机会再次到这里领略大自然的壮丽风光。