Torres del Paine

South America » Chile » Magallanes » Puerto Natales
May 7th 2007

Published: May 7th 2007

Edit Blog Post

Long awaited journey

Very old cave carved by Glaciers many moons ago

When we arrived at Puerto Natales following a meer 5hr bus ride, we checked into the much celebrated Erratic Rock which is run by a few Americans. Our host, 'Bill' embarked on an indepth briefing regarding the Torres del Paine stating: -

Well thats what you came here for isn't it? in a broad American twang.

...er yes of course...

So we then found ourselves the next day with all the gear and no idea setting out on an 'expedition' of the Torres del Paine travelling a circuit known as the 'W'.

There are not many people on this circuit this time of year and as such we benefited from the enforced solitude.

In total the circuit is around 76km long and takes 6 days. We will not go into details of how far we travelled each day but the main hightlights were: -

Day 2 - Glacier Grey
This is the first glacier we had seen flowing into a lake and after a strenuous trekking session complete with laiden rucksacks to reach it we were awestruck by the sheer magnitude and colour.

Day 3 - Lots of walking - A windy

Miladon - extinct beast

night battered out tent. I found a rat in out tent early evening and in the night a rat ate its way into our tent and had a look around - I cannot confirm at this point if it was the same rat.

Day 4 - An easier day - still alot of walking.

Day 5 - by far the hardest day. Absolutely battered by the rain while hiking up a mountain, very steep, very long, low moral.

Day 6 - Woke up to a couple feet of snow covering the mountain, tents etc. Very beautiful, managed to get down the mountain in time to enjoy friendly hospitality from workers who shared their food and hot beverages - we ate all their bread.

Common features throughout this tour: absolutely stunning scenery all the way around, from the glaciers to the Torres (towers) mountains. The autumnal colours in combination with the lakes, snow and blue skies.

Fires are not permitted on the circuit. i have to say however that this rule must apply for summer time because without a fire to warm ourselves and dry our clothes each evening we would have been pretty miserable throughout.