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Torres Del Paine
We first tried to organise our Torres trip from El Calafate in Argentina, but this was unsuccessful. After being ripped off by a nasty woman at a gear rental shop (long story, do not use "El Barraco" rental), we took the bus to Puerto Natales in Chile to organise our trip from there.
We stayed in an extremely cheap room, at Hospedaje Olguita, basically a woman's (Olguita's) house with a couple of rooms. She was very friendly, but the bathrooms were not the cleanest we have seen. We rented some camping equipment (tents, cooking equipment, floor mats and waterproof pants) for the 6 days the "W" hike takes. This hike is named the W as a result of the route one walks, basically a W if seen on a map.
We waited for the bus to pick us up at 7:30 the next morning. At 9:00, Olguita decided there was something wrong and called the bus company. Apparently, they had "forgotten" us. We were rushed by taxi to a place just before the entrance to the Torres Del Paine National Park, to be told that the buses were full. We hung out there for three hours
before negotiating transport with an alternative company. This actually worked out well, apart from the fact that we missed a day of hiking. The bus we used was part of a package tour and we were taken to a few stunning lookout points and a waterfall. The wind was incredibly strong on that day, see the photo of LM leaning into the wind. The locals were very nonchalant about the wind, stating that if the bus is still upright, the wind is not bad. That's Patagonia for you.
We took a ferry across a very choppy and sky blue Lago Pehoe to our first camp, called Camp Pehoe. The camp is not free, but this also means that there are hot showers and gas for cooking, so we did not use our rented cooking gear.
The next morning we set off to Glacier Grey. We planned on hiking all the way to the Glacier, spending some time there, then hiking back to Camp Pehoe, then on to Camp Italiano. This was to make up for the previous lost day of hiking, as we had already used some of our food. This, we realised half way to Glacier Grey,
would be a task that would almost kill us. This was our first hike with full gear, meaning heavy packs, which we found made a huge difference. It would have been a 12 hour hiking trip for that day (almost 30 km). We decided to rather be careful and turned around to hike to Camp Italiano. Both of us were really sad about missing the Glacier, as it is apparently stunning, but were glad by the time we reached Camp Italiano, absolutely knackered.
Camp Italiano is a free camp, meaning there are only two toilets and nothing else. Its really beautiful, though, in a nice forest between the trees and next to a river where one could re-fill water bottles. A note on this, all the water in Patagonia is pristine, coming from glacier melt, so its great to drink and always ice-cold and tastes almost sweet. We stayed at Camp Italiano for two nights, as it's at the entrance to the French Valley, Torres Del Paine's most amazing attraction. We spent the day after we arrived hiking and sitting in the French Valley and took loads of photos (as you can see), as the valley is absolutely breathtaking.
Park Entrance
Torres Complex There is a mountain (Cerro Paine Grande) on the left side of the entrance to the valley, covered in glaciers, including the French Glacier. The entire mountain rumbles occasionally as the glaciers move or crack and we managed to photograph one large ice block falling off. We met two very friendly Spanish guys at the main lookout point in the valley amphitheater, and they took some photos for us and we for them. This meeting proved to be quite beneficial for us in the end, but more about that later.
After spending the second, bloody cold night in Camp Italiano, we set off for the longest hiking day of our trip. We, however, felt great and almost ran the entire stretch, just stopping for a lovely snack of tuna on bread (one of the best tuna sandwiches we have ever eaten). Its not that we didn't enjoy the hike, we just felt so good physically that we really enjoyed walking briskly, but we really still enjoyed the views and forests. We reached our third camp for our fourth night at Camp Torres. The scenery had changed quite dramatically over this day's hike, and the scenery was less forest, more
Patagonian savanna at this point. This camp and land is privately owned (these guys are making lots of money, we think, as three very popular camps are run on their land, with absolutely mad food prices - like US$ 3.50 for half a loaf of bread) and we camped next to a pasture where the owners keep all their horses. These are really beautiful horses and gave the camp site quite a nice feel.
We set off the next morning early to the last camp on the hike. We had run out of substantial food at this point, but reckoned that we would buy the bloody expensive food, as we did not really have a choice. As we arrived at the camp, however, for the first time on the hike the weather really started getting nasty. Cold ice-rain started coming down and the entire mountain complex was covered in cloud and fog. This was to be the final, grand scene, the Torres themselves, up close. We stayed put at the camp for about two hours, but the weather just got worse. We asked the staff what they though of the weather, they all reckoned that it was not going
to improve for the day. At that point, we decided to rather head back to the previous camp, with better amenities and cheaper food. This is probably predictable, but when we arrived at the camp, the Torres started clearing up and an hour later were completely open. We were devastated, but decided that seen as we'd made a choice, that was it. We had seen the French Valley and the entire hike was absolutely awesome, one of the best experiences ever, Torres or no Torres up close.
We ate and rested well, and set off the next morning back to the pickup point. This is a nasty 8 km hike on a gravel road, with some bus traffic, meaning after it people and their nostrils are generally covered and filled (respectively) with dust. It was also a bloody hot day. To say the least, we really did not feel like this portion of the hike, but clenched our teeth and set off, trying to ignore our sore and blistered feet. After about 15 minutes of hiking, however, a pickup screeched (more accurately, ground) to a stop next to us revealing the Spaniards to the Rescue! They took us to
the pickup point, no sweat on our part. We felt very fortunate and clean.
Torres Del Paine was absolutely stunning. Anyone visiting Patagonia would be mad not to come and see this complex of mountains, but Do Not Stay For Only One Day, like some farts did. That, in our opinion, is an utter waste of time. Also, bring way more food then you think you need. We wished we did.
As a last comment, we are far behind with our blogs. We were visited by Liza-Marie's father, then stayed in the Peruvian jungle for a month, so we feel it is justified. We will attempt to bring it up to date in the following couple of weeks. Also please note that there are four pages of photos on this blog. ¡Hasta luego!
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Donna
non-member comment
great adventurers, you two
makes for a great vicarious adventure here at home