October 20: Catedrales de Mármol
Today's the trip to the Marble Cathedrals. 0730 pickup, an hour spent leaving Argentina and entering Chile, then a hundred kilometers of increasingly hairy gravel road.
In fact it's so hairy I should describe it. The route to the Catedrales de Mármol is in the gallery below, and the section between the lake and the mountains is the hairy part. The mountainside is steep and mostly rock so this road has to cut through it. Since it's solid rock the slopes aren't just steep, they're basically cliffs ... So the views are great! But the road is basically a single lane taking a creatively winding route up and down the mountainside, so it's complicated. And passing other cars can get interesting.
When planning my cycling route I looked at going this way; the map gave no indication that it would be this dramatic. I ended up choosing the Chile Chico ferry option, and I have no regrets; this route would have been quite hard work.
Anyway, did I mention that this excursion was not cheap? To its credit it was very efficiently run; after an hour or two of roadtrip we arrived at a very nice lodge in the middle of nowhere for tea and coffee. (Bag and instant, but nicely presented and served by uniformed staff.) After that the party was loaded up onto fast motorboats for a bumpy trip over the lake to the Catedrales de Mármol.
From left to right: The route. Llamas! Up close with the marble. The view from inside. Some amazing fluted shapes.
And they are spectacular. Apparently only about 6000 years old, they are marble that's been eroded by water to create finned and fluted shapes. The water is blue like the Carribbean, from minerals in the glacier meltwater. The boats took us right into the biggest and best of the caves, and everyone took their various ritual selfies. The cave was like wide enough to accommodate the boat, it wasn't very deep, but there was a lot of stone above water so it would have been possible to get out and explore - if it wasn't forbidden, because the whole area is protected.
The level of the lake changes by about two meters through the year: it's fed by a glacier so when it's melting faster, the lake is higher. This means the marble is eroded over a two-meter vertical range; this is low-water time and the full circular shape of the eroded cave holes is above water.
Next stop on the tour was a huge marble mound with short caves eroded into it. On any other day it would be the highlight, but now it looks a bit shabby in comparison with what we've just been in.
The last stop was a tall rock island, so old it's covered in grass and plants and there was even a dead tree up there. Its support is being progressively eroded. The marble holding it up was only thin walls, and there's a few places you can see all the way through. So it's clearly not going to last forever...
From left to right: pretty clear what the erosion zone is, and what’s going to happen here. Views through the layer. Another stack with more greenergy on top.
A kayak tour was arriving as we left. Since they're small and have such a shallow draft they're able to go into a lot more places. Still disappointed I couldn't find a way to join that tour.
After that we were taken back across the lake for lunch, and then took the bus back to Los Antiguous with another hour spent in border control.
So an expensive but successful day! The Catedrales de Mármol are spectacular, and worth a visit if you have the chance.
