Day 4: Pietro Grande

Waking up after our one-night stay at Hosteria Lengas, we packed our bags, enjoyed a scrambled egg breakfast, and headed out at 9:30 am. We drove back out via the very long ‘driveway’ carved into the hillside amongst the Lenga trees (aka. Deciduous Beech). We hooked back up with the main road, and continued towards our hiking destination for the day.

On the way, we drove through Pampa Guanaco – a town with a population of 100 people (and many more guanacos) where our team leader Matias once needed to make an emergency stop ~20 years ago and was offered refuge at the local police station. If we continued east, we’d soon hit the Chile-Argentina border, but we turned right and continued south.

Public enemy No. 1 in Tierra del Fuego

Our hike was in a transition zone between two ecosystems – Patagonian steppe and Andean forest. We entered Karukinka Park, a natural (but not National) park. After registering at the gate, we parked the van and started the hike to Cerro Pietro Grande. The first part was a nice walk through the steppe. We spotted a whole bunch of guanacos, a variety of mushrooms, and plenty of evidence of lumber harvesting from the mid-twentieth century.

Pietro Grande game plan

Remnants of early 20th century development

Along the edge of the Pampa is another Lengas forest. We entered and immediately felt warmer. We were protected from the wind and the cover of the trees helped trap some heat. This forest is also home to Canadian beavers, which were probably introduced in Argentina for purposes of the fur trade, but now are an ecological problem. Beavers are evolutionarily predisposed to hate the sound of running water. When they hear it, they immediately get to work to stop it. This causes changes in the landscape, flooding areas of the forest, and killing the trees (unlike in North America where the topsoil layer is deeper).

Entering beaver paradise

Beaver paradise

Along the hike in the forest, we stopped to marvel at all the different mushrooms we could find, even tasting one that wouldn’t kill us — according to Matias —the tasty digueñe mushroom.

Matias Guide foraging for lunch

Digueñe mushrooms

We saw some guanacos in the forest as well. Typically, guanacos only live in the steppe because they need visibility to protect themselves from pumas and other predators. Since there are no pumas on Tierra del Fuego, the guanacos roam farther and more freely than usual, including forest terrain. (P.S. We don’t have to worry about trying to see any pumas on this trip.)

The first half of the forest portion was a gradual ascent. When we arrived at a lookout point, we stopped for lunch. More Explora soup!

Obligatory camping chair photo

From there, the trail got more steep — alternating between steps and dirt ramps. At this point, Ann decided she should head down and went back with Matias. Jen, Jon, Matt, Jo, and Matias Guide kept on going towards the summit.

Gonna be windy from here on up

Eventually, we hiked high beyond the tree line, where the wind really kicked up. At the base of the final summit push, Jen and Jon decided to stop and wait (wisely retreating to the forest line for a little bit of protection) while Jo, Matt, and Matias went to the summit. It was a steep section of rocky switchbacks with strong winds, but we crushed it. At the summit, the winds were even stronger. We braced ourselves with our hiking poles to keep from being knocked over. We spent a few minutes at the top enjoying the view.

Hello, Mica!

Wind surfing

Looking down from the top

When we were ready, we headed down the same trail and met up with Jen and Jon to continue together. The sun was shining for most of the descent, and the weather was quite pleasant.

Back in the shelter of the trees

When we arrived at the van, we celebrated with a drink and food.

Post-hike celebratory cerveza

We drove about two hours further south to Estancia Fagnano where we will spend the rest of our time on Tierra del Fuego. The drive traversed Patience Valley which meant many switchbacks on the way down, many switchbacks on the way up, and many GREAT views.

Patience Valley

Worth the wait

See Norway… It’s not that hard!!!

The estancia has three cabins, and we were shown our cozy accommodations. Our cabin has a small kitchen, dining room and three bedrooms. The dining/living room area has a wood burning furnace that provides heat. We had some time to settle in, shower, and relax before having a delicious steak dinner.

Cozy cabin stove

Today’s turndown note… Pampa and Wind: “The tragedy and celebration simultaneously experienced in the Magellanic region is the wind. My memory of Magallanes is primarily auditory: that of an immense wind. The wind is like an old gentleman of the region who has followed its whims and has been sacred and master of the plains”. — Gabriela Mistral