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Published: March 16th 2015
If we still needed anything to detach from work then our hiking in Torres del Paine did it. A wonderful park with mixed weather and beautiful sights!
When we arrived in Puerto Natales a bit past midnight, we did not have a place to stay yet. Luckily we slept an hour or two on the bus so we were fit to find one. Walking around the dark streets of mostly residential neighborhoods we knocked on any door that said Hostel, of which there were quite a few. Full, full, full. After a bit over half a hour we found a nice place though. Ricardo, the owner of the hostel didn't seem to mind the late hour and elaborately helped us with suggestions of how to best go to and hike in Torres del Paine.
The two most common options are the W-trek and the O-trek, named after the shape they trace on the map. The O-trek takes 7 days or more, while the W-trek takes about 5 days. We did the W-trek, but compacted it into 3 days and a bit. The main reason was that the weather was not that great, so we chose
for a little more suffering on the hikes in return for one less night of pitching the tent in the wind and rain 😉
For us the highlights were Valle Frances (with beautiful views of glaciers, snowy rock peaks contrasted by a green valley), hiking along Lago Nordeskjold and the views of Los Cuernos. We had rented camping equipment in Puerto Natales, which turned out to of good quality: one night the rain had formed a puddle underneath part of the tent, but luckily the tent kept the water out! One good thing was that all campsites that we stayed at had a small cabin that could be used for cooking and eating. Which meant we could warm up after hiking, and was also a nice place to socialize with some of the other hikers.
The first day we arrived at 6pm at the trailhead (we needed the morning for rentals and transportation to the park) and then walked 1.5hrs to the first campsite. During the remaining three days we hiked more than 60km with over 2000m of altitude gain. This combined with regular rain and wind speeds of up to 90km/h
made for quite a strenuous few days. We enjoyed it very much though, and also the camping was quite cosy. Now, we need some rest 😊
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zweiindians
Tulika
Patagonia is awesome in any weather! Good to hear that you are having great time, I see some clear days in photos which I heard is always bonus in patagonia.