Blogs from Torres del Paine, Magallanes, Chile, South America - page 19

I find myself singing that line,"climb every mountain..." from The Sound of Music as we hike the staggeringly breathtaking trails of Patagonia. From Ushuaia we traveled to Chile to visit the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. We lodged at Erratic Rock, a hostel and trekking outfit operated by a few zealous guys from Oregon. The hostel was no frills but they put together a mean stick-to-your-ribs breakfast and offer you all the advice a novice trekker could ask for before heading into the park. We began our 6 day trek with two other travellers, Malcolm and Kyla. We trudged 11 miles the first day through snow flurries but were rewarded with views of Torres and Los Cuernos del Paine as the clouds broke mid-afternoon. The second day we hiked along the base of Cerro Paine Grande ... read more

I just got back from a 5 day trekking/backpacking trip in Torres del Paine, the park in Patagonian Chile famous for its towers (torres). In addition to being a bit tired, I don´t think that I can fully describe my experience in words, or even pictures. Hands down my favorite place in South America. Here´s a tease: Imagine a place where metallic blue lakes are enveloped by vibrant flowers, mountain berries and lush, pristine pine forests. Where hills give way to towering snow-laden peaks, and snow turns to massive glaciers, which creak and groan and every so often treat you to a thundering avalanche. Unique geoligically-shaped summits dot the landscape, transiently protruding from the mist to provide cellestial viewpoints. To accentuate how great this place is, I loved it so much despite having awful weather for ... read more

Here we are all safe and sound in Torres del Paine, we had a great ride up to here yesterday with the whole gang back together, as Mike rejoined us in Punta Arenas. See his blog below. Cheers, Rosco Hola, Its me again back in the land of the living - and the land of the travelling. Most people are aware I fractured my left hand and leg as a result of a get-off on a gravel road. Luckily same leg as my previously damaged one, albeit in a different place - at least I still only have one gammy leg. The accident after thorough analysis turns out to have been caused by equipment failure. Unfortunately for my pride and reputation, the equipment that failed was the control line between the grey stuff in my head ... read more

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 ... read more

We intended to send episode number 2 of our blog about a week ago but for reasons that you will discover in episode 3 which will follow very shortly, we have been in the middle of nowhere with no internet or mobile reception for the last few days. 2 November (day 9) - Peninsula Valdes The 5.15am start wasn't too bad, especially as they didn't serve breakfast on the plane (they had forgotten to load it on) so we managed to sleep the whole way. James is actually a closet plane spotter as he loves telling me what kind of plane we are on, how many engines it has etc - this one was apparently a very old McDonnell Douglas 80, all I cared about was that it got us to Trelew. We smuggled some food ... read more