Puerto Natales and Parque Nacional Torres del Paine (27 March - 3 April 2008)
The flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas boasted one of the best aerial views I have ever witnessed. We flew over the Andes range and also over the mountains of Patagonia with scattered emerald lakes amongst snow capped peaks. I wonder if the view should justify the $200 that we paid for the flight?
We arrived in Punta Arenas, paid way too much for a transfer into town and then hopped onto a bus to Puerto Natales. This little town is nothing more than the gateway to the famous park Torres del Paine. It is not a very attractive town, but it does supply one with info and gear for any hikes in the park. We booked into Hostal Nancy, another referral from friends that turned out to be a winner. The hosts are extremely friendly and helpful and we got a private room with cable TV! It is always a treat to have TV to catch up on CNN’s biased world news and just to relax while watching some sitcoms before bedtime.
We rented some gear from our hostel - tent, very, very thin mattresses, a small gas stove and some cutlery. Then we stocked up on the extremely limited stock from the local supermarket - instant oats (breakfast), chocolates and snacks (lunch) and pasta galore (dinner). Then we attended a short talk by one of the hostels, informing us about the trek and what to expect - it basically came down to “be prepared for very extreme and fluctuating weather!” And the next day it was off to the Park to start our four day trek.
We took the bus to the park and then a catamaran to Lago Pehoe from where we started trekking the “W”. It was the first time on our trip that we were trekking and camping and we could immediately feel the impact of trekking with a big backpack with tent and everything else. (Where is Rem, our Nepalese porter when you need him 
Day one stretched through some forests and along a huge emerald colour lake and then turning up into a gorge called Valle Frances. We were very lucky with the weather - clear blue skies and sunshine! The trek up into the valley was beautiful with the autumn leaves just starting to turn yellow and red. We also trekked through some grey, dried out forests that looked amazing against the snow capped mountains. We covered a total of 13,5km and arrived quite exhausted at camp Britanico at the far end of the valley. We were the only two campers at this campsite - most trekkers only trekked to camp Italiano, left their bags there and then did the last 5km with no bags and trekked back to Italiano and overnight there. This is probably the easier choice, but they had to sleep in an overcrowded campsite that looked very much like a concentration camp. Normally, I would sleep like a baby after a days trekking, but it was exceptionally cold and a mouse kept us up trying to get into our tent.
Day two was an easier 11km trek from camp Britanico to Los Cuernos, but unfortunately the weather did not play along so nicely. The sky was a murky grey and it was drizzling softly for most of the day. We had to pay to camp at Los Cuernos, but at least it included a heavenly hot shower and a warm social area to kill time until we had to crawl into our freezing cold tent. Again, there was a mouse and this time it managed to eat through our tent. I woke up when I felt something running over the hoodie of my sleeping bag. I was just too cold to do anything about it, so I just pulled the hoodie tighter and tried to ignore the fact that Mister Mouse might have a midnight feast on our rationed food supply.
The weather was better on day three - it was a bit cloudy, but it did not rain and it was not too hot or too cold to trek the gruelling 21km to Campamento Torres. We trekked through various terrain including multi-coloured fields, rock-strewn lake shores, barren hills and forests. We were exhausted when we finally arrived at the campsite. We set up camp and made our last supply of 2-minute noodles - who would have thought that four packs of 2-minute noodles would totally fill our pot?! We force fed ourselves and managed to finish all the noodles - it was hilarious! At least my noodle-filled stomach kept me warm during the night and I had a proper night’s sleep.
We had to get up at 5:30 the next morning to trek up the mountain for an hour to see the highlight of the “W” trek - sunrise at the Torres del Paine. These granite towers jots out above the mountain range and are illuminated during sunrise to make the most amazing photos (that is to say if you are lucky enough not to have any clouds). We were not that lucky, but at least we had a 5 second glimpse of what the show can look like.
So we trekked all the way down to Regugio las Torres, starting with a winding up and down roller-coaster trek and ending with a monster of a down hill. This covered about 12km. Then we earned some bragging rights - instead of waiting at the refugio for a pick-up to the bus terminal, we decided to spend those two hours walking the 7,5km to the terminal. Yes, I was very tired, but it feels great to know what you have achieved. 65km in four days!
So we were back in Puerto Natales by 17:00, took a long hot shower and headed straight to the restaurant to enjoy a steak and red wine! Oh and the joy of sleeping on a soft mattress…
The next day was a ‘do as little as possible’ day. At least we did some laundry and repacked our backpacks. And then it was off to El Calafate in Argentina to see more of this weird and wonderful region called Patagonia.
Click on image below to view Torres del Paine gallery: