Discovering the Parque Nacional de Torres del Paine
Yesterday I was casting about trying to come up with something more interesting to say about our first day at Parque Nacional de Torres del Paine other than “Holy cow wouldja look at those mountains!,“ when I stumbled across the name Lady Florence Dixie, who was one of the first Europeans to travel around Patagonia. She was also the first European woman to go to Patagonia. But the coolest thing about Lady Florence was that she wrote a book about her trip, and it was published in 1881. Lady Florence was a Scottish Upper Class Victorian Tomboy. She could ride horses and shoot a rifle; she loved the outdoors and had a passion for adventure. She was also a pretty good writer, a claim needing no further proof other than the fact that her books are still in print today! You can order them from Amazon, and you can read her book “Across Patagonia” for free online at Google Books.
Accompanied by her husband, two brothers and the artist John Beerbohm, Lady Florence sailed to Argentina on a ship, and traveled to the Andes on horseback. Led by local guides, they camped and hunted for their food, met tribes of native Teheulche, endured all kinds of weather, encountered pumas, foxes, condors and herds of wild horses, deer, guanaco and rheas (she called the ostriches), not to mention a vast array of other flora and fauna. A trip to Patagonia was an unusual choice for an upper class Lady in the 1870s. It’s still an uncommon destination for tourists, given Patagonia’s well earned reputation for rugged peaks, harsh weather and remote location. Lady Florence’s rationale for going to Patagonia still resonates today:
” Patagonia ! who would ever think of going to
such a place ? ” ” Why, you will be eaten up by
cannibals!” “What on earth makes you choose
such an outlandish part of the world to go to?”
“What can be the attraction?” “Why, it is
thousands of miles away, and no one has ever
been there before, except Captain Musters, and
one or two other adventurous madmen ! ”These, and similar questions and exclamations
I heard from the lips of my friends and acquaint
ances, when I told them of my intended trip to
Patagonia, the land of the Giants, the land of the
fabled Golden City of Manoa. What was the
attraction in going to an outlandish place so many
miles away? The answer to the question was
contained in its own words. Precisely because it
was an outlandish place and so far away, I chose
it. Palled for the moment with civilisation and
its surroundings, I wanted to escape somewhere,
where I might be as far removed from them as
possible. Many of my readers have doubtless felt
the dissatisfaction with oneself, and everybody else,
that comes over one at times in the midst of the
pleasures of life ; when one wearies of the shallow
artificiality of modern existence; when what was
once excitement has become so no longer, and
a longing grows up within one to taste a more
vigorous emotion than that afforded by the mono
tonous round of society’s so-called “pleasures.”
Well, it was in this state of mind that I cast
round for some country which should possess the
qualities necessary to satisfy my requirements, and
finally I decided upon Patagonia as the most
suitable. Without doubt there are wild countries
more favoured by Nature in many ways. But
nowhere else are you so completely alone. No
where else is there an area of 100,000 square
miles which you may gallop over, and where,
whilst enjoying a healthy, bracing climate, you are
safe from the persecutions of fevers, friends, savage
tribes, obnoxious animals, telegrams, letters, and
every other nuisance you are elsewhere liable to
be exposed to. To these attractions was added the
thought, always alluring to an active mind, that there
too I should be able to penetrate into vast wilds,
virgin as yet to the foot of man. Scenes of infinite
beauty and grandeur might be lying hidden in the
silent solitude of the mountains which bound the
barren plains of the Pampas, into whose mysterious
recesses no one as yet had ever ventured.
I couldn’t have said it any better myself.
Lady Florence and I have some things in common: a love for adventure, a deep appreciation of the landscape, and a desire to share the sense of wonder with others. In my case I had a camera to help capture the landscape. Lady Florence had pen & paper. She was conveyed to the Torres del Paine on horseback, I came on a bus. She had wonderful companions and guides; so did I.
Both I and Lady Florence crossed the endless open grasslands, dotted with herds of guananco and rhea. For both of us the Mountains were invisible, hidden in clouds. And then suddenly we saw them:
had seen two days ago, but a mighty mountain chain, which lost itself westward in the gathering
dusk of evening—standing like a mysterious barrier between the strange country we had just crossed and a possibly still stranger country beyond.
The sun had long set, and the base of the mountains was wrapped in darkness, but their jagged fantastically-shaped crests stood clearly denned against the light which still glimmered in the sky, and here and there a snow-covered peak, higher than its comrades, still retained a faint roseate glow, which contrasted strangely with the gray gloom of all below.” Lady Florence Dixie, Crossing Patagonia, 1881.
I couldn’t help but be moved by the grandeur and beauty of the mountains. I struggled to hold back tears, and obsessively pushed the shutter on my camera. Florence captured it in words.
For a long time after complete darkness had
fallen over everything, I stood alone, giving my
self up to the influence of the emotions the scene
described awoke in me, and endeavouring, though
vainly, to analyse the feeling which the majestic
loneliness of Patagonian scenery always produced
in my mind—a feeling which I can only compare
—for it would be impossible for me to seize on
any definite feature of the many vague sensations
which compose it—to those called up by one of
Beethoven’s grand, severe, yet mysteriously soft
sonatas.
I have to say, Florence nailed it.
Our Tour
The IVS itinerary on our first day in Parque Nacional de Torres del Paine called for a grand tour around the south side of the mountain massif. A few of us who were dying to go hiking elected to climb up to the Mirador Ferrier (Ferrier Overlook), and the rest of the group took a boat ride up Grey Lake to see the Grey Glacier.
The rest of our day’s adventure is told in the photos below.
Coming up next- Lady Florence (and I) get a good close up look at the Torres del Paine (aka Cleopatra’s Needles)! Stay tuned!
Have a good hike,
Shirley
Thanks:)