Torres Del Paine

Been almost a week since I made an update to my blog so Im going to make this one a little longer than usual. So much to update over the past week. Here are a few pics of the hostel I stayed in in Puerto Natales ...  (See also link)

http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Backpackers-Kawashkar/Puerto-Natales/14902

Heres a picture of Omar, the guy who ran the hostel. Sound bloke but a bit mad off his head. He spoke perfect English when he was describing things to you but when you asked him a simple question he hadnt a clue what you were talking about. Funny bloke.

I had a good nights sleep the first night in Puerto Natales and the next day (Tuesday) I spent organising everything for the 5 day trek to Torres del Paine (also known as the ´W´ trek).

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/chile/southern-patagonia/parque-nacional-torres-del-paine

Went shopping for food for next 5 days .... tinned meat, bags of dried fruits and nuts, porridge, cheese and ham rolls, pasta etc ...

Myself and Andrew rented camping equipment ... tent, cooking stove, cooking utensils, sleeping bags and rain gear. Went out for a lovely steak dinner that night as we knew that we wouldnt get the chance to eat a good meal again for a few days. Met some German girls in the hostel who had just returned form the trek and said it was really windy and very very cold. They also said to be careful camping as some trees had fallen in the campsites becuase of the strong winds which were over 100kmph. Heard alot of horror stories from other people too which made me a bit sceptical about the trek but I was determined to do it. I think it would be alot worse if I was camping on my own as I had never gone trekking before. Myself and Andrew also met up with 2 other guys in the hostel, Pat and Pierre from Quebec region of Canada  (French Canadians) who were also heading off to do the ´W Trek´ so it was good to have a group of us trekking together.

Before I went to bed that night I unpacked my entire rucksack and filled it with only the essentials for the trek. We could leave all other non-essential stuff in lockers in the hostel until we came back which was great. I weighed my rucksack that night and it weighed appx 17kgs. Heavy enough but I figure I will lose weight in my rucksack along the way as I get through the food. 

Wednesday 24th November

Early start at 6:30am and we got the bus to Torres del Paine at 7:30 from the hostel. We were there about 11am (as the bus had to collect others and it actually broke down on the way to the park, so we had to change to another bus). We then took a small boat ride over to one of the park lodges and from here we started our 5 day trek. Heres a picture of the 4 of us starting out .. me, Andrew, Pat and Pierre-Luc.

Its impossible for me to post even a small percentage of the pictures I took on the ´W´trail on this blog, but the scenery was absolutely amazing ... lakes, waterfalls, valleys, snow capped mountains and glaciers. The trek is called the ´W´ as you trek between 3 mountain ranges and its in the shape of a ´W´. In total I think we trekked appx 100kms from start to finish over the 5 days.

Although we had to pay to enter the park itself (15,000 CHP or 25 Euro), we camped at Free Camping locations. The facilities at the camping areas were basic. You could have camped at mountain lodges called ´Refugios´ were there was a cafeteria nearby and good standard toilets but you had to pay to camp here .. I think about Euro 10 per night, and it was evevn more expensive to actually stay in the lodges themselves .. I think appx Euro 40 per night. We stayed at Free Camping areas throughout the entire trip expect for one night when we camped at a Refugio. We took our water from the rivers as we travelled between the campsites. Very easy to get dehydrated as we were trekking over rough terrain and sometime steep inclines and declines. Very exhausting and you lose alot of water so was important to keep a supply at all times.

At night we had to collect all our food (or anything with a food scent) and place it in a bag to hang from a tree as it would be eaten by mice. There were also a few foxes at the campsites.

Here are a very small sample of pics from the trek but none of them do the sights any justice. Overall definitely one of the best experiences Ive had in South America so far.

Above picture is Glacier Gray. My first visit to a Glacier .. amazing sight. We camped right next to it on the first night.

And finally a picture of the gang waiting for the reutrn bus to Puerto Natales at the end of the trek:

After getting back to Puerto Natales on Sunday evening, I had so much to do ... organise an onward bus back into Argentina, book accomodation, do a mountain of laundry as all my clothes were stinking and also have my first shower in 5 days! The joys of camping in the mountains.

That night a big crowd of us all headed out for a nice steak dinner to celebrate

Next day (Monday 29th) I was on the road again ... this time heading back into Argentina to a town called El Calafate (362km). Feels good to be heading back up north again. At least the weather should be getting nicer. It was actually by 6th time entering Argentina since I began my trip only 5 weeks ago! Looking forward to seeing more glaciers in El Calafate ...