It Ours Always Best

Since we left Calafate, we travelled back into Chile to get to Puerto Natales, our base for getting prepped for going into Torres del Paine National Park, one of the more famous Chilean parks other than Pumalín. Crossing the border itself was a bit frightening -- we (i.e. I) had prepared a sauce for pasta the night before and had thrown it into my two nalgenes not thinking that the border police might be concerned about the 2 liters of fruits and vegetables that I was bringing into their country, along with Mack´s two packages of green beans, two pounds of cooked pasta, and other miscellaneous food items. I´m still not entirely sure how we managed to cross the border without getting fined, but I think if the food is cooked, somehow it doesn´t matter. I think the experience shaved a few years off of my life (especially as I was trying to literally dump the red sauce in the toilet at the border, I had no idea what to do. Mack had arrived in Santiago with a kid that had mistakenly brought an apple into the country and was fined $131 -- I couldn´t imagine what the fine would´ve been for us).

Anyways, after that somewhat harrowing experience, we got into Puerto Natales where after being solicited by a very talkative teenage girl to come stay in her house left there to go to a very reputable place called the Erratic Rock. The Erratic Rock has several different hostels and hotels, run by Americans who do some gear rental and the like while also booking tours and guides for visitors with larger budgets than ourselves. They failed to have any rooms left, but recommended a place down the street on the other end of the town square run by the 3 Isabellas -- yes, the hostel is run by three little ladies all named Isabella. It has actually been my favorite place so far to stay, since the little place had a lot of character, was clean, and had a nice kitchen. After dropping off our stuff, we went to a great talk at the Erratic Rock given by one of the two owners, Rustin, who basically gave us the low down on everything we needed to know about the park for free. Awesome. Before heading to bed, we bought food and packed.

We left for Torres early the next morning on a two hour bus ride to the park itself. It was a quite beautiful day, as we could see the Cuernos and the Torres just from entering the park. After a quick jaunt to a nearby waterfall, we took a catamaran across a lake to get to the trailhead.

A brief overview of our six day hike: we decided to do a somewhat longer version of the "W" trail (as opposed to the circuit) which would allow us a better view of Glacier Grey and make the trip a bit easier than the last one where we basically killed ourselves everyday to arrive at our destination before sunset. The trail, as you might guess, makes a somewhat "W"-like shape, though you still might have to squint a bit to see it. Feel free to visit the Torres del Paine map (it´s a pdf, just to warn you) to see the pictures of the trails.

Day 1:

So we were dropped off the catamaran at the Refugio Pehoé, one of the many ski resort type places that you can stay along your hiking journey. This also makes the trip waaaay easier for people that aren´t that serious about hiking because you can take a really light pack (i.e. clothes) and buy all of your meals at the refugios, as well as have a great night´s rest in an actual bed. Anyways, we started hiking up north on the W to have a nice view of Glacier Grey, one of the largest glaciers in the world save Greenland and Antarctica. After arriving at the Refugio Grey, we decided to walk the next hour to try to get to the free campsite where on the way, we all promptly bonked and had a pretty crappy evening trying to get our energy levels back up to par.

Day 2:

Did a quick day hike up north to try to get some better views of Glacier Grey, but turned back after a little more than an hour to arrive back at the campsite to get ready to move. We had planned to just go back to Refugio Grey, but since our morning light hike had been shorter than planned, we hiked all the way back to Refugio Pehoé where we cooked a hearty dinner in a nice little octagonal building provided to the paid campers.

Day 3:

Awful. We woke up to rain after not getting a great night´s sleep (the winds in Patagonia are no joke). Breakfast was great because we had bought some eggs and bread from the refugio which was a nice supplement to soup. The rain stopped for a bit but picked up with an even greater intensity about thirty minutes into the hike. We´ll just leave it that we did the hike in about half the time that the map says we should normally do it because we were cold and miserable. Early afternoon we got to Refugio Los Cuernos, where we changed into dry clothes and warmed up inside for the entire afternoon. Unfortunately, we went out later that night to find that the Patagon winds had completely destroyed Mack´s tent (i.e. the only one we brought) -- the guylines had been ripped off the tent, one of the aluminum poles bent in half, and the tent fly had a four-ish foot hole. One of the stranger things about the trip was that it happened to not matter at all. We simply rented a tent that was already set up for us, which was incredibly nice considering the fact that it was already quite late.

Day 4:

Backtracked to the Campamento Italiano and hiked north from there up Valle Frances with light packs. Just incredible views of the valley, plus views of glaciers and the Cuernos. Hiked back down and got back to camp at a reasonable hour. Justin was pretty wiped after the hike and dinner (which we bought that night, but was not nearly enough for hungry early-twenty somethings), so he slept while Mack and I patched the tent and pole. I learned that night that mooching and being able to speak decent spanish is totally worth it -- after talking with a bunch of the guys that worked there, I got a large loaf of bread for Mack and I to share for free (otherwise costing about $8). Sweet.

Day 5:

Hiked from Refugio Los Cuernos past Refugio Chileno to Campamento Las Torres about an hour away from the mirador of the Towers. The hike itself was pretty uneventful. It was a scorcher, and we were hiking uphill most of the day, thus leading to a bit of sweating. The winds in the valley leading up to the Towers were just ridiculous, enough to push you from where you were standing. We made sure to pick a somewhat more sheltered spot in the camp so that the tent hopefully wouldn´t get destroyed. Cooked dinner in a nice little shelter where we were able to meet come very cool people from all around the world (actually, one of the best things about the Torres del Paine hike was meeting lots of people). Prepped for our morning hike and headed off into a deep sleep.

Day 6:

Woke up ass early to what one might call a wintry mix, what sounded like mostly rain but turned out to be mostly snow. After sadly putting on our clothes to begin the hike, we moved pretty quickly up to the base of the towers in a few inches of snow. Once we had arrived, we could barely make out the towers because of the snow, which naturally turned into whiteout conditions soon thereafter. However, it did clear up a little bit for a few minutes, which were some great picture opportunities. Headed back down to the campamento, packed up, and then booked it down to the bottom of the valley to Refugio Las Torres, a Vail-esque huge hotel where we hung out until we were able to catch a van and then another bus out of the park. After arriving back in Puerto Natales, we bought bus tickets for the next day to Punta Arenas (our current location) and dinner in the form of many calories (1/3 kilo of cheeseburger for each of us with onions, peppers, eggs, mushrooms plus we split 2.5 L of ice cream for dessert). Overall, awesome trip.

Since the hike, we´ve travelled to Punta Arenas, which is the furthest south we´ve been yet on the trip. It´s a pretty big port town of over 100,000 people. Lots of character. The first day we got here, we basically hung out at the internet cafe and walked around town for a few hours, staying at the Hostel Fitz Roy. Today, we backed up pictures and took care of things on the internet, headed to this absolutely terrible center of consumerism called the Zona Franca (no taxes), and then went on a very cool personal brewery tour of the Cervecería Austral. Tomorrow, off to Santiago and then Friday to Ecuador to see Beels. Very excited.

Lastly, I can´t upload any photos because I can´t convert them to jpegs. I urge you to check out Mack´s blog for photos of everything, plus another take on the trip. Justin has also documented the past week or so in his own style.

´Til next time.