Kayaks and Shooting Stars

Torres del Paine

Today is mainly a free day, but there is one optional excursion and that is kayaking on Gray Lake and looking at icebergs that have calved off of the Grey glacier. It sounds pretty cool, but I’ve never had anybody do this tour. Today, my Dad and Kath have signed up for it. We’re supposed to take them out to a hotel about 40 minutes from the campground and meet the guide at ten. The guide doesn’t show up until 10:30, which is the first in a series of things that annoy me. Because the wind is up it’s probably not possible to make it out to the glaciers, but he’s not sure yet. He asks us to wait around until he can make the decision if it’s possible. If it’s not possible, we should meet them at a different place, as they’ll be kayaking down a slow river, rather than the lake. We end up waiting for over an hour and a half before he finally tells me to meet them at the river spot. So, by now, it’s too late to even go back to the campsite, so we go on down to the meeting spot and just wait another hour and a half for them to get there. When they arrive, not having seen any glaciers and spent 80 dollars on a slow river cruise in a kayak, I’m doubly annoyed. Fortunately, I’m able to convince the guide to give them half of their money back.

That evening after dinner, Neil, Claire and I climb up to the top of the truck to do some star watching. The sky is perfectly clear and the stars are incredible. Neil sees his first shooting star and we sing songs along to the music playing on the truck.