Hydro-Aisen: Field reports from the Energy Nerd!

Word of the day: represas- dams

So I never got a chance to write about this before (nor did I actually go there), but there’s another debate currently going on in Chile over a common energy source: the hydroelectric dam. Chile has traditionally derived the greatest percentage of its energy from dams, mainly although not exclusively located in the south of Chile.
So another one shouldn’t be a big deal, right? Well, not so much. Hydro-Aisen, a multinational corporation, has highly controversial plans to build 5 dams along two rivers in a region of northern Patagonia prized for its pristine wilderness. This has draw criticism from international environmental groups such as Greenpeace, Sierra Club, etc. but other domestic groups as well. A campaign known as “Patagonia sin represas” (Patagonia without dams) has created very eye-catching bumper stickers and posters showing pollution or energy paraphenalia through the center of some of Chile’s most pristine natural areas. It definitely wasn’t uncommon to see the bumper stickers. One of Chile’s most read magazines, the satire magazine “The Clinic” featured ads for and against the project in a recent edition.

Part of the problem from the environmentalist perspective, at least as I see it, is that saving this region from the effects of the dam doesn’t immediately have value for many Chileans. Not to say that they are environmentally insensitive, but a personal connection may be lacking. Most Chileans may never have the money to go to Patagonia: its an expensive trip, even for nationals. From my perspective at least, this creates a barrier to a strong rallying cry to save the zone. Furthermore, dams are always tricky in that they create “clean” energy. When they would be potentially located in an isolated zone, without having to resettle a large population, it’s even more of a temptation in a world threatened by global climate disruption. And of course, there’s always the job creation carrot, in a region where there are few opportunities for employment. Tricky business.

Nevertheless, the environmental hazards are pretty stark. We're talking destruction of ancient hardwood forests in remote areas and damming that would affect the livelihood of farmers and fishermen. Not to mentioning trampling through one of the world's last wild places. We'll see how it ends up.

Here's a comprehensive article, though slightly outdated (in english)
http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2010/world/the-price-of-renewable-energy-pursuits-in-patagonia/

Torres del Paine Tips

My friends and I were frustrated by the lack of information for planning a backpacking trip to Torres del Paine, even in guide books. Maybe this will be relevant for future Tufts in Chile-ers or someone else, but at any rate, here are our reccommendations.

Buying a ticket
-The easiest way to get to southern Patagonia, unless you have 60 hours to take the bus or are willing to hitchhike, is to fly to Punta Arenas. However, if you are not buying a ticket in Chile itself, or have a US credit card, buying a flight on LAN, the principal national airline, will be at least 3 times as expensive as it would typically cost for a Chilean.
This leaves 3 options:
-Buy your ticket over the phone from LAN. They add a $10-20 US surchage, but it will still be totally worth it.
-Use Servipag to buy it, paying in cash.
-Fly on SKY airlines, a smaller company. You may also need to buy the ticket over the phone. If you are in a rush, they also have flights to Puerto Natales, but they are far more expensive.

-Where to rent gear
From our experience, renting gear in Punta Arenas is the best way to go, as it is slightly cheaper than in nearby Puerto Natales, the so-called gateway to the park.
We used Hostel Independencia (Direction, Phone #) and were pleased with the quality of the gear as well as the pricing. The owner of the hostal is a wonderful human being: he didn’t charge us for the last day that we had the gear since we were in transit and he let us stay at his hostal until 1 in the morning since our flight was a 3:30am without charging us a dime. He also let my friend borrow a backpack without charge after his waist buckle broke on the flight down.

Sample prices (in Chilean pesos, per day):
-Tents- $2000
-Sleeping Bag- $2000
-Sleeping Matt- $500
-Campstove, with whatever cooking accessories you need- $1500

Getting to the Park
From Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales
The bus takes 3 hours and should cost $4000 one way or $7000 roundtrip on BusSur (operated by Pullman bus) and you can buy tickets at their office located on Baquedano _____. The buses leave from there as well.

Schedule:

From Puerto Natales to the Park
1.5-2 hour ride.

Schedule:

Catamaran
Depending on which way you are doing the trail, you will most likely need to take a boatride across beautiful Lago Pehoé. $11,000 CP.

Schedule:

Entering the Park
Prices vary by nationality to get into the park. If you are studying abroad and have a Chilean identity card, you can enter for only $4000 CP. Otherwise, as a foreigner, you need to pay the much steeper $15000 CP.

-W Trail Recommendations.
The W Trail is the easiest route to see as much of the highlights of the park as possible in the shortest amount of time. There’s also a route known as “The Circuit,” but this takes several more days and therefore requires much more planning. You can do the W trail in anywhere from 3-6 days depending on your fitness level, how far you are willing to walk daily and if you are willing to skip anything.

Here’s the most cost efficient route I would recommend for the W Trail, doing it “backwards” from the traditional way. This allows you to work up to the harder parts of the trail and ease into hiking with a pack. Also, you lighten the load by eating a lot of food before you have to hike with it :)


4 day trip
Day 1: Spend the night before at Mountain Lodge Paine Grande, the site where the catamaran drops you off. Leave your pack in the free lockers and then hike out to Glacier Grey. Return and hike to Camping Italiano.
Day 2: Leave belongings at Italiano. Hike up into Valle Frances. Spend the night at Italiano.
Day 3: Longest day. Hike to Chileno, or to Campamento Torres (not much further and free.) If really adventurous, hike up to see the Torres during daylight.
Day 4: Get up to see the sunrise at the Torres. (approximately 5 am) Hike out.


5 day trip (to take things a bit slower- what we did)
Day 1: Spend the night at MLPG. Hike to Glacier Grey and spend the night at MLPG again.
Day 2: Hike to Italiano with packs and drop them there. Hike into Valle Frances. Spend night at Italiano.
Day 3: Hike to Camping Torres.
Day 4: Hike to Campamento Torres.
Day 5: Get up to see the Torres at sunrise and hike out.

-Here is a really good map, with approximate distances.


Camp Site Accomodations
During high season (December to March), it can be a good idea to reserve camp sites and you can pay in advance by credit card. However, if you change your reservations, they can charge you $10CP, so make sure you are sure of your plans.

Mountain Lodge Paine Grande
$4500 CP nightly
On site tent rentals
Lodge, common area with stoves (although sometimes they run out of fuel), showers/bathrooms/water, groceries
Call 56-61) 412742, Vertice Patagonia, for reservations.

Italiano
Free, but no tent rentals
Hut for cooking
Bathrooms but no water
Well sheltered from the wind.

Cuernos
$5000 CP nightly
There is no good reason to stay at Cuernos. It is expensive, can be horribly windy since it’s right next to a large lake and is at an awkward point on the trail for stopping. The one upside of the site is a nice lodge where you can warm up or get food.

Camping Torres
$4000 CP nightly
Not to be confused with Campamento, Camping Torres is near the tourist hotel. The site was not a favorite with our group since it is a bit far out of the way, is relatively exposed to high winds and doesn’t have infrastructure for cooking that other sites have.
Call (56-61) 614 184 / 614 185, Fantastico Sur, for reservations.

Chileno
$4000 CP nightly.
This site is fairly small. It’s a great spot to stop to eat your lunch, in the large dining room equipped with a woodstove.
Call(56-61) 614 184 / 614 185 for reservations.

Campamento Torres
Free, no rentals
Our favorite camp site. Well sheltered from the wind, gorgeous!
Hut for cooking, bathrooms but no water. 45 minutes from the Torres.

-What to Bring
-Food- We bought food in Santiago which saved a lot of money since every kind of food needs to be imported to Punta Arenas. There are grocery stores however, and you can even buy food on the trail, although it is extremely overpriced.
-Rain gear. I had rain pants, which really helped, more as a windblock than anything.
-toilet paper,

What not to Bring:
-trowel is not really necessary. Frequent bathrooms at campsites.
-Not really bears/racoons, so don’t need to worry about protecting food as much
-Iodine tablets for water. Supposedly its totally fine to just take water from most streams. They actually don’t even sell tablets anywhere in Chile, so you’ve got to take your chances. We were perfectly fine though.

Day 5: The Windiest Yet

When we looked at the map for where we would be hiking for the day and saw the phrase "Passage of the Winds," we were terrified. Hadn't we been through the windy bit already? Sure enough, after climbing up for about an hour, we found ourselves walking along a very narrow path overlooking a gorge with 60 mile an hour winds absolutely attacking us. It was certainly the most scared I've been in quite some time, possibly all trip. Needless to say, there aren't too many pictures from this day. We spent the night at the base of the Torres, a unique rock formation for which the park is famous, so that we could see them at sunrise.

Day 4: Lago Nordenskjöld

Today we hiked between our campsite in a wooded area past the length of the beautiful Lago Nordenskjöld, to a new campsite in an area of Andean steppe. It was absolutely stunningly beautiful, but the wind increasingly caused problems, as it battered our tents ferociously overnight. Also unfortunate, my camera malfunctioned, meaning that most of the pictures beyond this point are from friends.

Day 3: Valle Frances

After hiking through forests with our packs, we dropped them at a new campsite, before heading up into the glacial lined Valle Frances. On one side was a tremendous glacier, and on the other, beautiful rock formations. We got to see three avalanches! We hiked in and out of forests, with trees simply carved by the wind. I think this may have been my favorite day of the trip.

Day 2: Glacier Grey

Our first day of hiking was relatively light: while it was about a 12 mile day, we were able to leave our packs at the camp site and simply make our way to the stunning glacier grey, a large glacier situated over a lake with grey water. We got used to one of Patagonia's most interesting features: the constant wind, with incredible strength.

Day 1: Planes, Buses and Boats

Due to our adventurous spirit and willingness to save money at whatever cost, my friends and I took the cheapest flight down to Punta Arenas, the starting point for trips in Southern Patagonia, that we could find. This meant leaving Santiago at 1:30 am and arriving at 4:30. After napping for a brief spell on the floor of the airport in the small city, which boasts the largest population for anypoint that far South in the world, we got a taxi into the city past the beautiful Strait of Magellan to collect a friend and the majority of our camping supplies at a hostel. We then bused to Puerto Natales, 3 hours away, and then on to the park of Torres del Paine. Once there, we took a ride on a catamaran across gorgeous blue water to arrive at our camping site for the first night, before beginning our 5 day trek.

Hasta el culo del mundo

I was lucky enough to have the fabulous opportunity to go to Chilean Patagonia for a weeklong camping adventure in one of the most pristine environments on earth. Pictures to follow!