Torres Del Paine

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On 31 October 2009 the highlight of my trip to South America began. The much anticipated Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine was just a short plane and bus ride away. And after all the hassle of trying to book Sky Airline tickets, the airline came up trumps. Due to a brief stop over in Puerto Montt on the way from Santiago to Punta Arenas we were fed twice within the space of 2 hours and were even given extra leg room seats without asking, it was a life of luxury after all my bad nights on buses. The only down side to the flight was the landing in Punta Arenas. With Patagonia being mainly flat and exposed to extreme winds, the landing over the ocean was hair raising to say the least. The plane was being blown all over the place and it actually made you feel quite sick, thankfully Courtney kept it down on this occasion! Once in Punta Arenas we took an overpriced taxi from the airport into town and bought our bus tickets to Puerto Natales, the gateway to the park. As the next bus wasn´t for 3 hours or so we decided to go stock up on supplies for our trek. Breakfast would consist of cereal bars, lunch would be bread, cheese and peanuts while dinner would be pasta and sauce. This would be compimented by chocolate to keep us going during moments of weakness. Luckily, we only had to carry food for 3 days as we had decided to take full advantage of the meal service the refugios provide along the trail. Judging by how heavy mt bag ended up, I´m glad we made this call.

After a 3 hour bus ride we arrived in a freezing cold Puerto Natales, it was raining/snowing and the wind blowing strongly. After consulting the map, we trekked 5 or 6 blocks and checked into the Erratic Rock hostel. Being Halloween all of the staff were dressed up and they were having a party in the base camp next door, this is where you can hire equipment from and get good advice on the park and the trails. The hostel itself was awesome, the staff were amazingly helpful and friendly, it was warm and they had the most awesome collection of old cheesy films you´ve ever seen, it was great. Seeming as it was already gone 10pm and we had to be on the bus at 7.30am the next morning, we decided to skip the party and pack our bags. After hiring a tent, sleeping mat and butane stove from the base camp, we set about putting it al in our packs. Courtney would carry the food while I took the tent and the pots and pans. The drawback to this was that my pack would not get lighter as the week progressed while Court´s would, but seeming as though she had done a marathon only 7 days earlier I was more than happy to carry the extra weight. The hostel run a baggage strage service so we cold dump all of our excess clothes and stuff for the week, I think if I had to carry it all I would be 6 inches shorter by now. After completely taking over the hostel with clothes and gear, our bags were ready so we headed out for food. As it was now approaching midnight most of the restaurants had closed so we had to settle for the cafe next to the hostel, I can honestly say we had the worst pizza of my life. A soggy base, tomoato ketchup, far too much runny cheese and a bit of ham, it was gross. Luckily the beer was much better. So at around 1.30am, we headed for bed, eagerly anticipating the first view of the park.

Breakfast in the rock was superb. Not only did we have cereal with fruit flavoured yoghurts, but we were also provided with home made sweet or savoury bread and an ommlette. Never have I seen such luxury in a hostel, so massive thanks to Bill and Paul for providing all of this. The bus ride into the park was perfect, the skies were blue and clear, and the views of the towers were incredible. For months I had sat at my desk looking at photos of these towers of granite, now I was finally there, it was an emotional moment, a dream come true. On the bus we met an english couple who had picked up an Aussie girl on their travels. We had good fun joking around with them, mainly at the Aus´s expense, as she had decided to come to the park with either plimsoles or designer Ugg like things to walk in. Was she stupid or just totally unaware what lie ahead?!!

Inside the park we had to pay the 15,000 chilean peso entry fee and then got back on the bus to take us to the Catamaran. The catamaran would take us from Lago Pehoe to the Paine Grande lodge where our trek would begin. As we had an hour to burn before it set sail, we took the short walk to see the waterfall, it was here we had our first taste of how strong the winds are. On reaching the top of a small hill to take pictures of the Cuernos, I was almost taken off my feet, and not by a gust of wind, the winds here are a constant force battering you with any debris it picks up. Boy it was impressive. Whilst on the catamaran we sat on the top deck to take advantage of the amazing views, it was simply mind blowing. It was here we would run into an Israeli girl I had met several weeks earlier in Bariloche while cycling the Circuito Chico. Amazingly, she loved my fury hat so much, she asked to have her picture taken in it. I was honoured, as everyone else I would met dispised it. While Court was explaining to her that she had come down here for a week just to hike and then had to fly back to work straight after the girl turned round and said to her "wow you must really love him"! After an embarrassing moment and explaining the story, she had changed her response to "you are totally crazy"! Crazy Court may well be, but I was very glad she was there with me. We were both living out a dream in being there.

After a quick lunch at Paine Grande I popped into the lodge to look at their shop and on seeing Snicker bars (our favourite) couldn´t resist buying some for our trip. Wow, they had to e the most expensive Snicker bars in the world, but the look on Court´s face when I pulled them out from behind my back showed they were worth every penny. We pulled on our packs and set off for the 4 hour walk to Lago Grey, where we were to camp the night. The hiking started off easy, walking along level ground in a sheltered valley with the sun on our backs. It wasn´t until walking up a small hill to Laguna Los Patos that the fierce Patagonian winds hit us again. This time they were rediculous, and you couldn´t look into the wind for more than 10 seconds without your eyes totally drying out. As for standing there with a pack on, forget it, you became a sitting target to be bundled over. A further few km up the trail we got our first view of glacier Grey, it was mind blowing. To see this big expanse of ice stretching back well over 30km was surreal. To cap it off Lago Grey had big ice bergs floating down it. This was the first time either of us had seen anything like this, it is definitely a moment I will never forget. To get to the campsite we had to walk down the side of a steep mountain, with the trail sometimes resembling a stream over the jagged rocks. It was great. It took us four hours to reach the campsite, where the fun of putting the tent up began. Having quite a lot of camping experience between us we thought it would be a piece of cake, however 4 attempts later we still hadn´t got the poles in the correct positions. Oh how foolish we must have looked, good job we were the only ones there. Eventually we cracked it, and there it was, our bright yellow palace for the week. Once filled with our packs it dawned on us that the tent is actually quite a small tent and the sleeping space looked ample for one of us, but two, no way!!

Before we took dinner in refugio grey we walked to the lookout point over the glacier where there were lots of ice bergs the big blue face of the glacier looming over you. We scrambled over a rocky hill to sit directly in front of the glaciers face, the winds were calm there and it was surprisingly warm. It was magical just sitting there staring at this huge wall of ice, so many different shades of blue, it was perfect. We definitely shared a moment right there and then. I will never forget my first encounter with a glacier of this magnitude.

For dinner we were provided with a 3 course meal. They came out with soup and bread and some dips for the bread. Then came roast chicken, mash and a mushroom sauce followed by rice pudding. The portions were huge and we struggled to get through it. After eating we sat around the log burner with the fellow trekkers and shared a beer. It was here we met Wolfgang and Suzanne form Germany, Eric and Bridget from Belgium and Rudy from Switzland/Austria. We would bump into them quite regularly over the course of our trek, they would turn out to be a really fun bunch of people. After the beer we headed for bed, our tent was pitched on a beach on the lake front, there were icebergs floating past on the lake and it was bloody cold, at least outside. Once inside the tent it was apparent I wasn´t going to have much room to sleep all week. Court had adopted her favourite star sleeping position, laying on her tummy with her arms spread out above her head, this left me with little room to do anything. To say our palace was close and intimate would be an understatement, at least being so close together kept us warm.

On Monday we had breakfast and grabbed the packed lunches they provide, which must have weighed 2kg due to the size of the sandwich, and walked back down the trail to Paine Grande. The weather was much colder today and after walkijng to Paine Grande in just a T shirt I was frozen when we stopped for lunch. My T shirt was soaked from sweat so I stripped it off and started piling on the layers. After a quick lunch we walked a few hours around to Camping Italiano, a campsite at the bottom of Valle Frances, right under the Cuernos Del Paine. On the way the scenery changed as often as the weather. One minute we would be hiking through open land, the next we enter a forest with wooden platforms to take you over bogs and then we would be climbing over small boulders when we approached the river. To get across the river to the campsite we had to use the small suspension bridge, which had a small sign next to it saying only two people at a time. It felt so dodgy walking over it, I couldn´t imagine what it would have been like if there was any altitude involved! The campiste was lovely though, we found a sheltered spot under some trees right next to the river. From here we had amazing views of Glaicer Frances and the Cuernos Del Paine. It was the perfect place to camp. We had arrived in camp around 3pm, but we were so tired we literally put the tent up and crashed. We only left the tent to make dinner some 5 hours later. And for some reason, whenever we needed water it was my job to go get it. As you can imagine this involves dipping your hand into a freezing cold river, it was not pleasant. But in all fairness, Court did a grand job of cooking dinner. I tried to stay up to watch the stars come out, but Patagonia is a strange place. Sunrise is at 5.15 and sunset at 9.30. There is so much daylight here that I got fed up waiting for it to get dark enough to see the stars. I was shattered and needed some sleep.

The next morning we had a quick breakfast before heading up into Valle Frances. We left all the gear behind in the tent to make the walking easier. And good job too as it was no easy walk. The first section involved clambering over massive boulders where the trail was very poorly marked. However, once at the end of the trail, the view were incredible. You literally had 360 degree panaormaic views which you could look at all day. After a quick lunch we headed ack down to the camp and collapsed the gear before stting off to Los Cuernos where we were to camp the night. Once again we took advantage of the refugio meals here and had a good night sharing beer and wine with our trail buddies. Wolfgang was so funny after too much wine, I´m sure Suzanne was quite embarrassed by him!! Before our meal this night we had taken advantage of the hot showers in the refugio, our first shower in 3 days. It was so nice to be warm and clean. Luckily, neither of us actually gave a damn if we stank, we were mountain folk after all. This took me back to my fishing and camping days where I would happily go a week at a time without washing. All of a sudden wearing a suit to work everyday felt lightyears away.

Wednesday was the hardest day so far. We were hiking from los Cuernos to Camping Torres. The first part of the day was spent walking alongside Court´s favourite lake, Lago Nordenskjold. She literally took over 50 photos of this lake, all from slightly different angles. It was beautiful, but still..... The weather weather was nice and the hiking was relatively flat. After veering off from the lake we climbed a small hill before we came across a small lae surrounded by moon like terrain. It was dry, flat, rocky and had no plants at all. It was here that somehow we took the wrong trail and missed the short cut up into the next valley. It was only that two people stopped us at the bridge on the way into Los Torres that we realised. This had left us with a long slog up a very steep hill, we would literally climb up fopr over an hour. Once we reached the peak of the climb we could see refugio Chileno below in the valley. The path to the refugio was all downhill and was made of very fine granite dust which made it all very slippery. Just as we arrived at the refugio it started snowing so we dropped our packs and headed in for hot chocolate and to eat a late lunch. Our trail buddies were already here, having taken the correct path and travelling light as they were not camping. After luch, we pushed on up the valley through the snow to the camp ground. It took just over an hour to get there. As we went the snow got heavier and the ground would eventually be totally covered. This made walking very interesting, with both of us slipping and sliding around. At the campsite one of the park rangers came out with a broom and swept us a clearing in the snow for our tent. It was so so cold. After putting up the tent we jumped into our sleeping bags to get warm. Luckily the campsite had a wooden shelter that we, and everyone else, decided to cook under. It was here that we met "weedman". He was quite clearly a northerner but when Court asked where he was from he said "I have no home". This man had spent the last 7 years travelling the world and had come up the mountain with no stove, just a kg of ham, oats and honey. His plan was to mix this with a bit of water and hey presto, he was a magical character. It was so hard not to laugh in his face. He told us that he tries to spend 8 months a year snow boarding and had worked on a cocaine farm in California for a while to get some money together!!

We went to bed quite early this night, as we had good intentions of getting up at 4.30am to hike up to the summit of Torres Del paine to see the sunrise. If you have a clear day, the towers glow red in the morning and is an incredible spectacle. However,at 4.30 we looked outside and it was still snowing so we went back to bed. We eventually got up at 8am and hiked the 45 minutes to the base of the towers. The trail was very steep and slippery as it was totally covered in snow and ice. It was dangerous but when I saw that the towers were clear I literally ran up the hill and left Court behind. She was struggling today and it had been a common feature of the past 4 days that I walked ahead and then waited for her. It was nice to have some solitude but to then stop and chat to her again.

The top base of the towers was not a disappointment. It was this moment I had been looking forward to for 11 months or so. The lake in front of the towers was half frozen, the ground was covered in snow, the towers were clear, the views were incredible. It gave me goose bumps,or was that just becuase it was freezing?!! Either way, my dream of hiking Torres Del Paine had been fulfilled. I was a very satisfied man.


That night we camped outside of the last refugio at Los Torres. It just so happened it was "Happy Pisco" night. After 4 pisco sours we were both totally trashed. As an aside, a Pisco Sour is about 80% Grappa, 10% lemon juice, 8% icing sugar and 2% egg white. So our 4 piscos each had consumed more than a bottle of Grappa. Add to this the shots ther bar man was giving me to shut me up, I was drunk and asking him lots of questions, I was wankered. The walk back to the tent was a struggle. We had to cross a rocky river but before we even got there Court kept telling me we were walking the wrong way, turns out she is rather funny when drunk. She dropped her ipod on the rocks by the river and was shouting "leave it there, it´s only Toms" but I went back for it. We both stumbled back to the tent and after I had returned from the loo she had passed out facing the wrong way in the tent.While trying to move her, she woke up and said I feel sick. Before I could undo the tent door she had thrown up all over her sleeping back. So I kicked her out, well she half fell out, of the tent, laying across the rucksacks we had decided to leave outside that night. So while I cleared her sick up with her towel she was busy throwing up outside. The next morning i felt like total shit while she felt fine, why is life so unfair that I was the one having to clear up her mess and now her she is feeling fine while i was dieing. We literally stayed in the tent until te very last minute before we had to rush down the 7.5km round in 90 minutes to catch the bus. We had cotemplated catching a mini bus down the road but thought the walk would do us good.

That night we stayed back at the erratic rock hostel before catching an early bus back to Punta Arenas the next morning. We had dinner out and then watched most of Zoolander OMG it is so so so so shit. Once back in Punta Arenas we checked into a hotel for the night before going to see some penguins which Court had really been looking forward to. However, once there he soon changed her tune, it was raining, windy and bloody freezing. Luckily the penguins were really cute. That night we went for a nice meal in town to celebrate my birthday early before crashing. It was so nice to be back in a proper bed, it was massive so comfy, proper pillows, boy it was like heaven.

On Sunday I went with Court back to the airport, a lot of things had changed in the past 9 days. She had arrived in Santiago 9 days earlier pretty much as a stranger, having only spent a few days with her on the Inca Trail previously. But she was leaving as so much more, a close friend who I know I will enjoy many crazy trips with over the years to come. And who knows, after being invited up to Boston and Chicago for Thanksgiving, it could turn into much much more. I has learnt a lot about my self over the last week, somehow being out in the wilds lets you relax, take a step back and reflect. i realised I had made lots of mistakes, but I had learnt from them and this time things will be taken so much slower, to give it every chance of success. I had the best week of my time in South America with Courtney, but who knows, maybe the best weeks with her are still to come.

I am attaching a few photos from the trip, but if you want to see them all just add me on facebook and let me know who you are. I gather I have quite a wide audience reading these. And for my Dad´s colleagues, sorry its taken so long for this update!!!

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Comments

[Neil]

Torres is Awesome
Torres is awesome. That is all.