Torres del Paine National Park

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We arrived in Puerto Natales on Thursday afternoon a couple of hours late and had a couple of hours to get everything sorted for the trek - tent, food for 4 days, fuel, clothes, headtorches etc etc. We checked into a friendly family-run hostel who provided us with everything we needed and helped me to organise my travels on from Puerto Natales next week.

We prepared for the times ahead by going out for a big asador - basically a BBQ meal with huge chunks of meat and steak. Yum yum yum. Although after 4 days sitting on a ferry and eating and sleeping i'm not sure we really needed to indulge so much, but we did anyway.

On Friday we left the hostel at 7am to make our way to the park. Like nearly everyone else we were planning to do the W trek - a 76.1km trek which takes anywhere from 3 to 7 days and we were planning to do it in 3 and a half. You can search it on Google if you want to know what any of the following details actually means! We decided to do the less-popular route, going west to east starting with Lake Grey and the glacier on day 1, trekking across the bottom of the park, then up Valley Frances on Day 2 (the hardest day), then Day 3 getting to the base of the famous Torres Del Paine in order to get up at 6am for the steep uphill part in time for sunrise at the towers themselves on Day 4.

In total we trekked around 7 hours on day 1, 9 hours on day 2 (in the rain, nice), 8 hours day 3 and then just a measly 4 on day 4. We also did this carrying around 15kgs of food, fuel, camping equipment etc on our backs. Even more incentive to eat loads as you go around so as to lighten your load! After the first day I had a swollen knee (a problem i got first in Quebec City and I'm still not sure what it is) and had sprained my ankle so I doubted i'd finish, but thanks to Ibuprofen Rub, Tiger balm and deep heat, I made it in the end. I actually spoke to some French doctors who were behind me on the hike and noticed my limp and she thought i'd just strained a tendon so i just need to rest it. It feels fine now so hopefully it'll hold out for the Inca Trail next month!

I did the trek with Navimag buddies - Beth (English), Alex who is on his GAP year and also English, Seth a very keen hiker and climber from Chicago and Tilo a German teacher. The camping part was fun and we had some good meals although the boys lost most of their snacks to a whole load of mice who kept them awake the entire 2nd night running around stealing their food. And they thought they had the best spot in the campsite!!

After 4 days without showering and enduring most weather from rain to hot sunshine, I was ready to get back to Puerto Natales. So after a quick beer and some tasty empanadas (my fave Chilean food so far!) we headed back to the town and for a second asador.

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Photos

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Their exact words were "lets take a photo to show Jon how lucky he is..."

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The jippy knee!