Torres del Paine

DAY 1

We arrived at the park around 11 am after taking the bus from Puerto Natales. The ferry didn't come for an hour, so we walked to this spectacular waterfall and took pictures. Then came the cruise across Lago Peohe, where we got our first views of the cuernos and the torres (2 big geological formations in the park). The water was sea green and the wind was really cold. When we got to the first refugio I was amazed, the lodge was nestled in green grass, on the lake, with the mountains in the background. And this was supposedly one of the worst campsites! After eating lunch I would have been happy to just stay there because to be honest I was a little aprehensive about the whole thing... but willam's motto for the trip was "we gotta get goin"! The first hour was all fun and games, walking through a canyon, and then the uphills started. We had trekking poles which helped lighten the load on my knees and back, but still it seemed like the mountain kept going up and up. Our first break was on a dark blue lake where we realized that though we are sweating while we're trekking, once you stop and sit down and the incredible Patagonia winds hit you, you are freezing cold and it's a little harder to enjoy the views. The know-it-all at the hostel info session told us never to stop for more than 20 minutes at a time, and we actually stuck to that the whole trek. Our first view of an iceburg came about an hour later. It was cool, just floating there in the lake. Really gave me the urge to swim out and float on it.. Then, we got to the first mirador (lookout), where we saw glacier Grey! We were still 3 hours away from it, but from the mirador we had a good view of it, and it was awesome. That was also our first snickers break. But again, the wind! It was almost better to keep walking without stopping than be cold. But as soon as you got up and walked again we started to sweat. 2 hours later we reached the paid campsite, Refugio Grey, and I was so so so tired I wanted to stop and stay there. But william insisted we walk another hour straight uphill to the free campsite. I was seriously lagging behind on the last hour, my knees felt like they were about to break off. We reached the campsite, Campamento las Guardas, and set up camp, boiled some water and headed out to the mirador. It was so worth it! We were basically right above the start of Glacier Grey, which is the 3rd largest glacier field in the world, and this spot in Patagonia is one of the best places to view it. We sat there drinking mate and gazing at the glacier, it was all pointy and jagged in places, and the tops of the peaks would be white, then get progessively more blue until the bottom which was electric blue. I realized then why the blue gatorade is called glacier rush! It was really awesome, turned out to be one of my favorite vistas of the trip. The sun set, but it was so cloudy we didn't see the sun, only the glacier getting progessively more blue. Dinner that night was mushroom pasta and sauce, which turned out to be pretty good. The weather held up all day, until we got into the tent and it started to pour down rain.







DAY 2



When we woke up, my feet, knees, legs, everything was sore and I did not want to move. Even worse was the fact that the day's hike was to return to where we were the day before, so I knew exactly how many ups and downs we were going to encounter. We boiled water for oatmeal, poured jam over the oats, and as I take my first bite..."Cassidy, I think.. you put salt in the oatmeal instead of sugar..." Yup. Salty, inedible oatmeal. It was probably our karma for trying to pilfer sugar from the hostel instead of buying some. Luckily we had soup for backups. It was 5 hours back to Peohe, where we collapsed on the grass and ate our snickers, then we still had 2 hours to the next camspite, Campamento Italiano. That part of the hike was pretty easy, but the wind picked up and kept pushing us over to the side. The wind is the most dangerous animal of Patagonia, it kills people by throwing them over the sides of cliffs while they are taking pictures, and it is actually pretty scary to know that at any second a gust can come and take you away or throw you down. We crossed a rickety bridge at the base of one of the big mountains in to our campsite, and we were kind of late arriving so it was pretty full. We picked a spot over away from the other people and as we are setting up the tent, William says it smells a little like dog poop. But there are no dogs in the park. Moments later we realized we had set up the tent in what was essentially the designated toilet for the campsite, but by that time we were so exhausted we decided to tough it out -- yuck! That evening I was seriously tired, and it was all I could do to make the effort to stir the rice.. We had rice, instant mashed potatoes, and trail mix. Then the three of us pulled out our sleeping mats and sleeping bags and layed underneath the stars, watching the wind move through the trees. From where we were laying it looked like the giant trees were having a big dance party above us. Also, the day before we heard a story about a guy who was killed because a tree fell on his tent while he was sleeping. And all around the forest were tons of felled trees. So that was a little scary.





DAY 3


We woke up with a light rain, which was not a very good sign. Day 3 is supposedly the easiest day, because you leave your tent and your pack at campamento Italiano for the 3 hour hike out and back from Valle Frances. But, as the rain picked up and I found myself scrambling up slippery rocks up the face of a mountain trying to discern some sort of path, all uphill, I realized that today probably wouldn't be as easy as I imagined. The whole way to the lookout was probably uphill, and it was raining, but the forest was incredible. It was very whimsical, all mossy and green and quiet. It seemed as if we would never get to Valle Frances, and even when I thought we had arrived, we still had to climb straight up basically to get out of the tree line. The walk was completely worth it though, Valle Frances is awesome, with three huge mountains on each side of you, and the 4th side is the valley down to the lakes. Unforunately for us, it was so cold and windy and cloudy, we could only bear to spend 20 minutes up at the top admiring the view. Then we scrambled down and headed back towards camp. I was lagging behind and got seperated from the group, and as we got to the part with the unmarked trail, I got pretty lost and disoriented, meanwhile its raining and I know my group is waiting on me, so I paniced a tiny bit, trying to figure out how to get back to the trail. Luckily I made it back, completely soaking wet (despite my parka), and we packed up and William tried to animate us with the fact that we were heading for a refugio where we would have dry clothes! The next 2 hours were miserable, hiking in the never ending rain, compltely wet and soaking, me in my chacos because my hiking boots hurt, we got lost off the trail again, bah! Day 3 was the day where my body hurt the most, it was raining, and I was about ready to throw in the towel (not really, but I was not in a very good mood). Then salvation appeared over the hills, and we saw the Refugio Cuernos. Refugio is a perfect name for these establishments, it is like oh my god civilization! A roof! A kitchen! A bar! We all beelined towards the showers, where a luke warm trickle of water felt like the best thing in the world. Cassidy and I had had such a rough day, that there was no way I was leaving the warm building to go outside and cook instant pasta in the freezing rain. But William refused to pay 20$ for a meal, so Cassidy and I enjoyed it ourselves. It was incredible (because I was so hungry) They had a vegetarian option, and I felt full and wonderful. We then found the woodburning stove and literally sat there for 4 hours, exhausted. It was so lucky that the stove was there because we were able to dry our hiking clothes. Even though "roughing it" in the wilderness is fun and incredible, sometimes it is nice to have a roof over your head and be warm and eat a hot meal. So the crappy day had a great ending.





DAY 4


In the morning we were sitting in the tent, and William sniffs around and says "something STINKS.. what IS that smell???" Unfortunately, it was us. haha! We were out of breakfast food because of the oatmeal fiasco, so we went inside and had breakfast. The two chilean waiters gave us the meal for free, and one was about to give me his horse so I could ride to the next campsite. Day 4 is the longest day of hiking, so I was not particularly looking forward to the endless beating. But, it was actually my favorite day of the trail. I physically felt great, and after the previous day I was just happy to be dry. The hiking was not that hard, and I was jamming the whole time to ozomatli, orishas, jurrasic 5, etc. This part of the trail was more rolling green hills and fields and meadows, with the mountains in the background. Then, as we are walking, we stop to rest a second and we see a rainbow!! How nice. I really did feel good, so we were cruising a long the trail, stopped at the refugio for a cola, and knew we only had 1 more hour to go! As we were walking up there, I noticed that snow flakes were falling down on us! I got really excited, not realizing that snow flakes = cold weather, but we hiked the last hour through a great misty forest, and arrived at campamento las torres, which was maybe the prettiest camp site. By night 4 we had our routine down flawlessly, we set up our kitchen, made two batches of pasta, had brownies, and were actually ready for bed by 8 pm! That night I felt sad knowing that it was our last night, now that we were feeling good and had our groove going. The snow flakes kept falling all night, and that was by far the coldest night of the trip.





DAY 5


The alarm rang at 5:00 am. It was a mad race against the sunrise, because we had to be at the top of the mountain in order to see the torres del paine painted orange by the sun..the path was pitch black and each one of us was alone, not to mention that it was basically a vertical sprint. When we got to the top we got into our sleeping bags and tried to boil water, and waited for the show to start. There were about 30 more people there, and everyone was asking us if we slept up there since we had our sleeping bags and a fire going and everything. The water wouldnt boil, so we ate this disgusting crunchy instant spaghetti and snickers. Then, the sun started to come up!! We had a great view of the towers, and for about 5 minutes the sunrise made them look orange, and I successfully captured a picture. But apparently those pictures of the towers glowing orange are all photoshopped... it was still cool, though! Then we headed down the mountain, packed up camp, and set off for our last hike of the journey. It was supposedly straight downhill, but that was not totally the case. Each time we had to walk uphill, I was getting really irritated because I was hungry and by that time my knees and feet felt like death. But, little by little we made our way down the mountains, through the valley, over a bridge, and back to society. It was exhillirating to finish, and walking into the luxurious hotel was a very strange feeling. Real bathrooms with toilets that flush?? Couches?? A menu with hot food??? The menu turned out to be too many choices for our famished minds to handle so we got bloody marys and french fries, then collapsed onto the couches to sit down for more than 20 minutes for the first time in 5 days. But after 20 minutes I started to feel all antsy and wanted to get back on the trail! It was a bittersweet feeling to have finished, because as soon as we were in the hotel I already missed the wild. It was fun to see all the people who we had been hiking with at the bottom, everyone was very happy and blissed out.

We all passed out immediately on the bus, and arrived back in Puerto Natales where it was raining, turned in our gear, and Cassidy and I sped off to the vegetarian restaurant (El Living). We stuffed ourselves with fresh veggies and tea, relishing the taste of something that was not instant pre packaged trail food.

That night we were watching the news and apparently 90% of the country was experiencing a blackout, oh and we had apparently missed another strong aftershock while we were on the trail. So we were all like, hmm what is it going to be like back in Santiago?? Maybe we should just stay here??

Then we went and had delicious food at a microbrewery called Baguales, where we were entertained by this little trail guide who was wasted and hilarious. That night I slept very well, enjoying the bed and the pillow.

On the flight back to Santiago it was a definite feeling of homecoming. When we landed at the airport, all the airport operations were based under tents due to the roof caving in during the earthquake.



It was wonderful, wonderful experience!! None of us had ever gone treking for more than a weekend, so i'm proud that we were able to figure out this whole thing, cook all our own food (minus one meal), carry everything we needed, and last 5 days with only two sets of clothes. It was hard hiking, but the difficulty made it even better, because at the end of each day it was a big sense of accomplishment and pride. We all had a great attitude the whole trek (except for the rainy day), and everyone pitched in equally to share the work and the load. The guide at the beginning of the trail said that the more days you are out there the better it gets because the first 5 days are lots of aches and pains as your body gets used to the trekking, which I definitely think makes sense now. So, we'll have to come back and do the 10 day circuit, or go find another trek!