Blogs from Torres del Paine, Magallanes, Chile, South America - page 16

Hola!!!!! Ficamos muito tempo sem escrever porque em El Chalten a internet nao funcionava! Mas isso é um capitulo a parte, mais la na frente!!! Entao vamos lá, voltando pro dia 13: O nosso objetivo era fazer uma trilha chamada 'Circuito W', que sao 76km e que queriamos fazer em 4 dias. Dia 1 do circuito W: Acampamento do Lago Pehoe - Glaciar Grey - 22km de caminhada!!! ... depois de uma noite excelente e bem dormida por mim e pela Erika... Deixamos nossas coisas no camping e comecamos as 9:00 o nosso primeiro dia e primeira perna do circuito W. Comecamos bem, com Marcello (depois de muito roncar a noite) cantando numa subida interminavel (que depois pareceria brincadeira de crianca) sem perder o folego e animando a gente. Depois de 3,5 de caminhada e uma ... read more

Having arrived in Puerto Natales on the Navimag Ferry, there was no other reason to hang around in the windswept city besides a visit to the internationally renowned Torres del Paine National Park. And it was well worth the visit - stunningly beautiful, in spite of the erratic weather conditions. Before we arrived at the point where you pay the entrance fee (15,000 pesos or US$30), the fields surrounding the road were jammed with guanacos - the wild, smaller relative of the llama, as well as the odd ñandu (rhea) or two. Torres del Paine translates as Towers of Blue - the most famous attraction in the park are these very towers, which are mountains of granite reaching over 2000m, independent from the Andes, which are made up of granite as well as sedimentary rock, ... read more

Epic hiking adventure... read more

We set off at 8am and had a 6 hour hike (the longest stint with our packs so far) to our lunchtime resting point. 10 minutes in I had to give Sophie a quick pep talk and show her the map, proving that carrying on rather than retreating backwards was shorter. The path from sea level to 750m was a steep one, but our korfing fitness allowed us to power ahead of Duncan and Mahnee (and many other trekkers) on the inclines. We arrived at our lunch stop (a refugio) looking forward to another bottle of Fanta, only to discover it had closed for the season and having to make do with glacial water. Having arrived ahead of schedule, we decided we would make the summit (the viewing point for the park’s name sake - Torres ... read more

We awoke to what we thought was pouring rain and struggled to dress inside our tiny tent. Turned out it was merely spitting with rain, amplified by the tent. Me, Duncan and Mahnee has dry Cheerios and leftover pasta for breakfast while Sophie turned her nose up and stuck to the cereal option. Although we’d put all of our food in a sealed box in the kitchen area, Duncan’s pack still got nibbled by the mice. An hour into our hike, the weather turned very wet and windy, and stayed that way until we reached the campsite at the base of the second leg, where we stopped for a snack and a cup of tea for the others. The ranger at the campsite advised us that the weather was bad and that it was be potentially ... read more