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Published: February 2nd 2007
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For the last week and a bit I´ve been getting in touch with nature in Patagonia, which is the very very south of Argentina and Chile. After a 35 hour bus ride from Bariloche (yes 35 hours!), we were in El Calafate, Argentina! I was with two chirpy Northern Ireland girls named Julie and Kate that were from the Spanish school in Bariloche and by coincidence were on the same bus to El Calafate, so we banded together to check out Patagonia!
The town is very small and touristy, but pretty with lots of wood cabins. Mostly it serves as a base for the Perito Merino Glacier nearby. The glacier is one of the few in the world still advancing (bloody global warming!), and it is HUGE! We took a boat ride that goes quite close to the face of the glacier, with lots of icebergs in the water, and they said that the part of the glacier that we can see above water is only 10% of its total! Huge chunks would fall off and crash into the water, it sounded like thunder and was amazing!
The next day we crossed the border in Chile to Puerto Natales,
Before the trek
Note the smiles.. short lived! another small town that serves as a base to see the Torres Del Paine National Park a few hours north. The park has lots of great treks and is really scenic, named after its most famous feature, three steep peaks called the Torres (Towers). The two most common treks are the circuit (7 days) or the W (5 days), and most people either camp (therefore carrying everything with them), or stay at nice cabins along the way called ´refugios´. Of course being hardcore we were camping all the way for the W! So it was me, Julie, Kate (who are both physios, could there be any better trekking buddies?!), and two Aussies Phil and Laura that we met in the hostel the morning before we left for the hike... two Aussies that happened to be from... Darwin! I was so excited because I have literally met no other person from Darwin, and it was great to be able to chat about home!!
So there we were on the first day, carrying our tents, sleeping bags, mats, clothes and food for five days, walking over rocky mountainous terrain for about 5 hours. And good lord. I have never felt such
pain. I thought my back was going to snap. Gone was any optimism or smile on my face! It was absolute torture and I nearly cried with relief when we got to the first campsite. It was beautiful, along a lake with a glacier nearby and blue icebergs floating past, and as soon as I dropped my backpack and had a little recovery time I was happy again, but dreading the next day....
So the next morning (Day 2) I realised that my backpack hasn´t been properly adjusted the entire time I´ve been using it in South America, so no wonder I was in agony! After adjusting it, walking was a lot easier but after 7 hours of walking once again I was grumpy and sore and thinking "why the hell do I keep doing this to myself!" Camped at Campo Italiano, a lovely camp hidden under trees alongside a river.
On the third day we left our backpacks at the campsite and the Irish s and I walked up the Valle Frances, with massive mountains either side and a rocky river through the middle. There was still snow on the mountain tops and occassionaly you would hear
Baby iceberg!
A baby iceberg near where our campsite in the morning a thunder noise and look over and there was an avalance of snow falling like a waterfall off the mountain. That was all pleasent until the girls thought it would be a good idea to climb this crazy ridiculous steep rocky possibly-fall-and-break-my-neck mountain side because apparently the view would have been nice. So we climbed up maybe 90% of it until it got really dangerous and the girls agreed with my cries of misery. So after returning to Campo Italiano for our backpacks, we trekked 2 more hours to Campo Los Cuernos. Walking was getting much easier due to food being in our bellies rather than stored in our bags, so all up that day due to crazy mountain detour we walked 10 hours!!
On Day 4 we all trekked the the base of the Torres and camped at Campo Torres which was hidden under trees. And my God was it windy!! The wind would rip though the trees like I´ve never known! It was so windy that a gust could easily knock you over the side of a cliff!For our last morning, we woke up before sunrise to climb the last hour to see the Torres, FAR OUT
Campo Italiano
At the campsite on our second night was it cold. Every night had been absolutely freezing, but this is just beyond freezing, I climbed as fast as I could to get warm. The two Irish girls gave up and the other Aussie girl slept in, so it was just Phil and I and when we got there the Torres were misted over but it was still so beautiful, so we sat there freezing and feeling proud of ourselves!
It was such a great experience despite the pain and hunger!!! Julie, Kate and I would cook for one another, so all we ate for the whole week was porriage, dried biscuits, pasta and two minutes noodles and drinking from the streams (by Day 3 I placed a ban on talking about what food we were craving). They were such lovely optimistic girls, and the Irish slang was sooo cute, like they´d say "aye" for yes and "Gorden Bennet!" instead of swearing, and even had me saying at one point "shall we stop for a wee little lunch perhaps?"! Sleeping in my little one-man tent was painful, we wore the same clothes the entire week so we all smelt PUTRID, and I ripped a giant hole in the
Valle Frances
Storm cells forming over the Valle Frances on the third day crotch of my pants, which I resewed everynight, only for it to rip again the next day, therefore I resewed it, etc etc.. And there was not one part of my body that didn´t hurt - back and shoulders (I still have a golf-ball sized lump on my collarbone from the backpack), cuts on my hands, heels a mess from blisters, bruised hips, parched face, ankles, knees, calves, hamstrings....
But ahhh I loved it! Such beautiful landscape with mountains, snow, rivers, lush forests, waterfalls, and we were blessed with great weather which is very, very unusual in Patagonia! After everything we all felt so proud that we had done the trek the hardest way possible, with these mixed emotions of freedom, independance, exhaustion, and achievement. So now I remember why I keep putting myself though this!
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tracie
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Enjoying your story
Your grandmother Doris sent me your link and i have been watching and reading with much interest. i am Doris sister Jean's daughter and they have been telling me of your travells i thought i would check out your site. would love to do this trip i am reading.