Today we did a beach walk along the Grey Lake and boat ride to the glacier in the park. We left late, at 11, so we had a relaxing morning. It was very, very windy for the beach walk. We walked across a suspension bridge and a rocky area that was really, really, really windy to a little island from which we could see that Grey glacier and an iceberg. Here are pictures from our walk.
The lake water is grey from silt from the glacier. The silt is so dense that it prevents sunlight reaching the bottom so there is very little plant and animal life in the lake.
After our walk to the island we crossed the windy, rocky area again and returned to a picnic area for lunch. Then Rick and I had to walk back across the rocky area to get the boat to the glacier. The rest of the group went for a another walk.
There were about 10 officers from the PDI, policia de invescionnes and 2 dogs boarding the boat with us. We didn’t realize it but the boat was also dropping off people to do the W trek, a famous 4 day trek through Torres Del Paine. The officers were going to the drop off point because a woman had gotten lost in the woods. One free pisco sour was included with the boat ticket. Interestingly the officers drank their pisco sours while on the way to start their mission. Also we visited the glacier before dropping off the officers. It seemed weird to us that they didn’t get dropped off first.
The glacier has three fronts moving into the lake. The ship went quite close to all three and gave people plenty of time for pictures. The glacier was beautiful! I thought they did quite a good job. Here are pictures from the boat ride.
After about an hour of moving around the glacier we went to the W drop off point and the officers, dogs and a couple of trekkers got off. Then we headed back. We had to walked back across the windy, rocky area. Four times in total across the rocky area.
We returned to the parking lot and found our van. It was almost 7:00 so we had assumed they had taken the rest of the group back and come back for us but we were wrong. They took the rest of the group on a long walk. One of the people we talked to didn’t go on the long walk because they had gone on a really difficult walk yesterday and his big toenails were black. They sat in the cafeteria for several hours. Needless to say they were angry, not at us, but at Patagonia Camp. I agree this walk was not handled very well.
We didn’t get back until 8:00 so we went directly to dinner. Our friends from the ship had already eaten since they heard we would be back until later.
The toenails are still messed up! (Looks like they will eventually fall off). I hope you guys are having a great rest of your trip. I look forward to seeing the pictures!
We stayed at the park lodge and saw Grey Glacier out the dining room windows. Watched people walking across the rocky area to get on the boat. We did not get close to Grey Glacier but Perito Moreno looked very similar to your pictures! Can imagine how windy and cold it was walking across the rocky area! We were there Jan 31-Feb 2.