Three National.Parks in South America KC Lee

Three National.Parks in South America         KC Lee

In January 2013, my wife and I had a wonderful tour with the "Overseas
Adventure Travel" of USA to the very south of South America.

In this tour, we also cruised (5 days in small ship for 120 passengers) on the
Strait of Magellan and Beagle Channel and landed on Cape Horn (Hop Yun Kok in
Chinese). What we enjoyed most are the visits to 3 national parks in this very south,
1 in Argentina and 2 in Chile.

They are :(1) Los Glaciares N.P. in Argentina - created 1937, 1,700 sq. miles
and nearly50 large glaciers. It is the 3rd largest ice cap in the world after Antarctic
and Greenland. This N.P. is so big, we could only afford to visit just one glacier,
the Perito Moreno Glacier - 30 km long, 5 km wide and 60 m high. It is one of the 3
Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating.

(2) Torres del Paine (Blue Towers) N.P. (Chile) - for years I had been fascinated
by the scenes of this black (or blue) slate "horns" of the Cuernos del Paine. This
time in this N.P., we hiked 4 km (very windy) to get a closer
look, absolutely fantastic (heights of these 2 horns, 2,600m & 2,200m). In this
park, we also hiked to Lago (Lake) Grey, Hidden Lake, etc. (We spent 2 days
here.)

(3) Isla Hornos N.P. (Chile) - Cape Horn is at the very south of this island
(Lat.56 degrees South). Landing is only weather permitting (Chances, 50 & 50) and
by riding the zodiac boats from the mother ship. We were lucky, we had a beautiful
sunshine morning (on Sunday, January 13th), 7 degrees C. We landed smoothlythen
climbed a wooden staircase of 160 steps to reach a hill ridge. Then hiked 1.5 km to
reach the Albatross Monument in the south. This monument was erected by the
Chilean Navy in 1992, 7 meters high and is made out of 10 steel plates.The scenes
looking south from this monument where Atlantic and Pacific meet areabsolutely
terrific, magnificent, incredible ...

While I was working in the HK Housing Department in the 1980s, a New
Zealander colleague call me a "national park freak", knowing my habit of visiting
national parks abroad in every possible circumstance. I think I still am such a freak.

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南美洲南部的三個國家公園              李君聰

2013年一月我和妻子參加了美國Overseas Adventure Travel 的旅行隊，前往
南美洲之最南端，展開一次奇妙探索之旅。

行程中我們曾乘坐了五天遊輪，途經麥哲倫海峽（Strait of Magellan）、比
格爾峽（Beagle Channel），又曾登陸合恩角（Cape Horn）。這次南美洲行程
中最令我們難忘的是遊覽了三個國家公園，其中一個位於阿根廷，兩個位於智
利。

（一）阿根廷的大冰川國家公園（Los Glaciares National Park）創立於
1937年, 面積達1,700平方英里，公園內包括近50條巨大冰川。這是繼南極洲和
格陵蘭後世界上第三個最大冰冠（ice cap）．由於大冰川國家公園面積龐大，
我們只能探索其中一條名叫貝利托莫蘭奴（Perito Moreno）的冰川，這條長30
公里、闊5公里、高 60米的冰川是巴塔哥尼亞高原（Patagonia）三條沒有退卻
的冰川之一。

（二）在智利的藍塔國家公園 (Torres del Paine National Park），我們逗留
了兩天。 在疾風中我們攀登遠足，前往觀看藍塔 (Cuernos del Paine）那雄偉高
聳、由黑藍色板岩構成的尖角雙峰（高2,600米和2,200米）。接著我們在第二天
又曾前往灰湖（Grey Lago）、隱湖（ Hidden Lake）區漫步。

（三）要登陸智利的合恩島（Isla Hornos），因為風浪氣候，通常機會率
只有五成。我們很幸運，在一月十三日（星期日）這個天朗氣清的早上（攝氏
7度），大家從母船乘搭橡皮艇，順利登島。這合恩島國家公園（Isla
Hornos
National Park）的南端便是合恩角（Cape Horn）所在地，南緯56 度。登島後，
我們在一峭崖之下登了一百六十級特設的木梯階到崖頂，然後循一木板步道，
南走1.5公里，便到了合恩角山崖上在1992年由智利海軍建立的信天翁紀念碑
(Albatross Monument)。這塊七米高的紀念碑是由十塊鋼片組成一飛翔中之信天
翁的形狀。在這裏南望茫無際涯的大西洋和太平洋交匯海域，很是壯觀、震人
心絃。

記得在1980年代，當我仍在香港房屋署任職時，一位紐西蘭籍同事知道我
習慣在海外旅遊時，必爭取每一機會去看當地的國家公園。他常常取笑我是個
「國家公園」痴迷（freak），時至今天，我相信我仍是這種痴迷！
(編者按：本文譯自李君聰先生之英文來稿 “Three National.Parks in South

America”，原文將上載旅聲157期網頁。)

阿根廷大冰川國家公園內的貝利托莫蘭奴冰川

智利藍塔國家公園的尖角雙峰

筆者夫婦攝於智利合恩角的信天翁紀念碑前