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View rental properties in: All Countries / South America / Chile
Destination guide to Chile
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The icy beauty of Chile From the Daily Mail Three weeks after my return from Patagonia, my toes are still the colour of squashed blackberries and, some time before Christmas, all my toenails will drop off. My calf muscles ache with the memory of the roller-coaster hikes through the wilderness and my lungs are unlikely ever to forgive me for the stress imposed on them up seemingly endless slopes. The southernmost reaches of Chile, the place where the South American continent fragments into finger-like islets, lakes and fjords, are not for the fainthearted - or for those, like me, with ill-fitting walking boots. But for people who want to experience this 'miniature Alaska' - the glaciers, the icebergs, the milky opalescent lakes, plummeting waterfalls and exotic wildlife from Andean condors to pumas - the aches and pains are worth every moment. Our first glimpse of the magnificent Glaciar de Grey, which is part of the southe rn ice cap, came two hours into a day-long trek through the Torres del Paine National Park in the heart of Chilean Patagonia. It was a moment to savour in any lifetime. From a distance and in brilliant sunshine, the glacier resembled a gigantic meringue whipped into shimmering white peaks and blue-green troughs. It would take another two hours to reach the closest viewpoint. Our journey continued along a cliff top overlooking Lago del Grey (Grey Lake), into which the glacier drains and sheds its icebergs: a stately trail of pristine white, green and turquoise monsters, sculpted by the wind, as they make their ponderous journey down the lake. We neared the glacier, the icy breeze off its surface intensified and suddenly, there it was: the leading edge of the glacier (or rather retreating edge since it diminishes by four to six metres a year). Close up, it resembled a gaping lower jaw of enormous, crooked, tombstone teeth, a sight so awe-inspiring that you temporarily forget that the glacier is only the half-way point in your 13-mile trek. The Glaciar de Grey is just one of the treasures of the Torres del Paine park. The name, meaning 'towers of blueish', was given in its original translation to the area by a long-extinct Indian tribe, the Tehuelches, who moved there 11,000 years ago from the Patagonian pampas. ... more
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