Torres Del Paine

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After another long bus trip and painfully negotiating the border crossing between Argentina and Chile, where there seems to be a complete lack of staff actually doing any work, we arrived in Puerto Natales. A rather forgetable town that's used as a launching pad for treks into Torres del Paine National Park.

Nikki, the Canadian trolley dolly, and I planned on trekking together in Torres del Paine for four days. We conducted sacrifices and prostrated to the weather gods but they appeared to have ignored our pleas for good weather. Once again, it was pouring down with rain and bloody cold. This was yet another place where many travellers we had talked to had trekked for 4 - 8 days in the cold and rain without seeing the crown jewels, the Torres. So far, the omens were not good for us.

We had to start planning our trip into Torres del Paine seeing as we were leaving the next day. We had to decide whether we would camp or stay in the refugio, how much food we would need and what kind we would bring, how much gas we would need and what route we would take. Another consideration was the weight of our packs, we wanted to keep the weight to a minimum seeing as we would be lugging them up and down some steep paths for the next four days.

While discussing our plans with the hostel staff we met a Dutch couple, Micheal and Anafleur, who also planning on doing the trek. After chatting to them and deciding they weren't freaks we decided to do the trek together. One happy little family.

After checking the weather forecast we decided on camping for the first two nights, when it was meant to be cold but dry, and then stay in the refugio for the final night, as it was meant to bucket down for our last two days. All we needed to do now was do some food shopping.

We were all carrying our own food and rather unsuprisingly I seemed to have twice as much food as Nikki did for the four days. This meant a lot of extra weight, but knowing all the trekking we would do and how much I eat anyway, it may have not been enough if anything. We were now ready to set off on our adventura.

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Photos

Torres del Paine
Torres del Paine

Me and the Torres
Me and the Torres

Dinner time with the Duchies and Nikki
Dinner time with the Dutchies and Nikki

Reflections
Reflections

Lake and mountains
Lake and mountains

Valle del Frances
Valle del Frances

Are we there yet...
Are we there yet...

Icebergs near Glacier Grey
Icebergs near Glacier Grey

Glacier Grey
Glacier Grey

Farewell to Torres Del Paine
Farewell to Torres Del Paine