September 19, 2008

Rough, beaten and ragged, the mountains arrive at the sea like weary soldiers having marched the entire continent to it’s bitter end. In a last show of defiance they thrust their spears, spires and towers heavenward and then collapse in a crumbled ice torn mass.
Impossible beauty. Impossible rock shaped and forged in patterns no human sculptor could conceive. Words fail the awe of standing among these giant masiffs of rock and sky, the land of snow and ice, lakes and forests, waterfalls and lagoons of torquoise blue. A kingdom of condors and puma, the guanaco and ostrich, and flamingo and fox. Opposing extremes twisting and pulling, stretching and shaping a landscape where words are yet to be defined to describe a place of such uncomparable strength and draw.
Like Lucy coming through the cloak room into a magical world, impossible was the only word I could muster. I stared heavenward at six condors circling in the skies above, looked north to the horns and towers of Torres del Paine reflected in glacier clear waters, looked down at the straw covered grass blowing in the winds, to the south a river meandering in the plain, and behind through the scented green forests and knew this was God’s palette. Though a painter could capture one view at a time and give their best rendering of that one vista, not one could capture the all encompassing dimensions and th need to look all directions at once, the sharp clear cold air refreshing the lungs, and chilling the hand and cheek, the utter freshness of the purest breath, the sounds of water flowing, grasses blowing, and leaves rustling. These are the aspects the armchair traveler never knows, the sheer wonder and joy, and madness of such incredible fragments of being. When one stands alone in the midst of it all, in a mind stopped by the magnitude and can only form the word Impossible.
Such was my experience that first day in the Parque Nacional de Torres del Paine. I was in a group of 9. Four Germans, 3 brazilians, an Irish girl and myself. We were all in transit on the tourist trail , straight off the Navimag ferry and hitting the next must see on the list.