So! We bused to El Calfate. On March 14th we got on our bus. 26 long hours later, we arrived to destination with an extremely numb bum.
Not all of Patagonia is Mountains...
Stayed the night in El Calfate. Bused to Puerto Natales. Crossing the border into Chile takes forever because they don’t allow any fruit, milk, vegetables, and so on in from Argentina – so they scan and cross examine everyone. I had a ton of dried fruit I did not want to forfeit so I was sweating bullets - However the guards didn´t seem to notice. Argentina is more relaxed about the whole process, they don´t care if you bring food in from Chile, they just want to stamp your passports. Arrived to Puerto Natales. A windswept place! It’s on the ocean, near lakes and huge mountains and farming flats. Probably the most southern location I will ever be at: Latitude, 51° 43' 60S; Longitude, 72° 31' 0W. We found a hostel. We got a rental tent and stove and a sleeping bag for michele. We got snacks and supplies. We talked to a park warden. We packed.
We were READY TO GO HIKING!
Parque National Torres del Paine is a huge place. Very popular and very beautiful. The weather is unpredictable there. (Apparently) all the water is good to drink in the park, with out purifying it. We purified it sometimes when we knew there was a campground upstream. There are Rufugios (huts that are like lodges or hotels – super glorified) that are all over the trails making it possible to hike carrying almost nothing. The parks two most popular hikes are either an 8 day circuit, or half of that, the ´W´ hike that can be done in 3 days - 5 days.
We did 5 days on the ´W´, which was more like 3 full days and 2 half days, as you will see below. We did the ´W from East to West. Here is a map of what we did.
We were READY TO GO HIKING!
Parque National Torres del Paine is a huge place. Very popular and very beautiful. The weather is unpredictable there. (Apparently) all the water is good to drink in the park, with out purifying it. We purified it sometimes when we knew there was a campground upstream. There are Rufugios (huts that are like lodges or hotels – super glorified) that are all over the trails making it possible to hike carrying almost nothing. The parks two most popular hikes are either an 8 day circuit, or half of that, the ´W´ hike that can be done in 3 days - 5 days.
We did 5 days on the ´W´, which was more like 3 full days and 2 half days, as you will see below. We did the ´W from East to West. Here is a map of what we did.
Day 1: March 17th
I was so excited to get outside to go ´trekking´. However the waiting game needed to be played. OK: wait. Sleep. Get up at 6:30 am to catch your bus. Bus is only an hour late, could have slept in. Take a 2 hours bus to the Torres del Pain park entrance, 112 km northwest of Puerto Natales. Bus almost hits a heard of cows. Bus stops at a café in the middle of nowhere. Get off bus to go pee. Get on bus. Get off the bus and pay park fees. Get back on a bus. Another hour to a catamaran. Scenic: Saw guanacos (like lamas), and weird huge birds (I think called `nandús, which are small ostriches). Wait for catamaran. Get on Catamaran.
This is the view from the Catamaran 
Boat across a lake Pehoe. Get off. Finally ready to start walking!
We started at Refugio Paine Grande, that’s where the catamaran dropped us off. We stopped in at the parque guards hut to make sure we were going the nigth way, and the 2 guards there were fat old men who both lit up cigarettes when we came in to speak to them. It was wierd that they were puffing thier cigs, but I guess that is culture. We hiked 11km and about 3.5 hours to Refugio grey. We we walking in bush and forest, then along a small lake, called lago los platos, and then we popped out the forst and HOLY COW Saw Glacier grey. IT’S HUGE. It was quite funny because before we saw it, I was asking Michele: ´how impressive can it be? We have glaciers in Canada, I´m sure it’s just like the ones at home¨. However, Glacier Grey was very impressive. Huge, and seeing the ice chunks floating down Lago (lake) Grey was really neat. After gawking at it for a bit, we headed up another 4 km to our campground for the night, Campamento Los Guardas. The last hour was hard; we were tired, our feet weren´t happy with our shoes and our packs were heavy! However, after setting up camp, and feeding ourselves, we wandered out to a lookout (a mirador), about 5 minutes from our campsite and watched the sunset over the glacier. Amazing. We got some sweet photos:
Boat across a lake Pehoe. Get off. Finally ready to start walking!We started at Refugio Paine Grande, that’s where the catamaran dropped us off. We stopped in at the parque guards hut to make sure we were going the nigth way, and the 2 guards there were fat old men who both lit up cigarettes when we came in to speak to them. It was wierd that they were puffing thier cigs, but I guess that is culture. We hiked 11km and about 3.5 hours to Refugio grey. We we walking in bush and forest, then along a small lake, called lago los platos, and then we popped out the forst and HOLY COW Saw Glacier grey. IT’S HUGE. It was quite funny because before we saw it, I was asking Michele: ´how impressive can it be? We have glaciers in Canada, I´m sure it’s just like the ones at home¨. However, Glacier Grey was very impressive. Huge, and seeing the ice chunks floating down Lago (lake) Grey was really neat. After gawking at it for a bit, we headed up another 4 km to our campground for the night, Campamento Los Guardas. The last hour was hard; we were tired, our feet weren´t happy with our shoes and our packs were heavy! However, after setting up camp, and feeding ourselves, we wandered out to a lookout (a mirador), about 5 minutes from our campsite and watched the sunset over the glacier. Amazing. We got some sweet photos:
Michele glacier sunset
Looking oneway
Looking the other way - Can you see mitch?
It was a cold night, and in the morning one of the main zippers on the fly of our rented tent broke. Cheap rentals! Thanks to duck tape we had an almost complete fly to block the wind and rain. Luckily, we had great weather almost the whole hike.Sleep!
Day 2
Wake up! Talked to Michele about all the weird noises we heard at night. There are no major threats from animals here. You don´t have to worry about bears or mountain lions (Pumas). The mice are supposed to be the worst things to encounter as they are responsible for stolen food and chewed tents. However, we heard strange loud noises at night, that were definiantly not mice! We ate breakfast – my instant oatmeal’s had a lot less sustenance to them than the packages at home do. It is hard to plan camping food when you have no idea what’s in the boxes you buy. We packed up and headed out, retracing our footsteps to where the catamaran dropped us off the first day. We had sunny skys! 15 km and about 5.5 hours of hiking. Then we started on a different trail towards Campanmento Italiano. We hiked past another lake, Lago Skottsberg, and another 2.5 hours and about 6km later we arrived to campsite Italaino. and we had our first views of Glacier del Frances and Cerro Paine Grande. The campsite was super overused and in my opinion, it was pretty disgusting: overused, abused, broken branches and trees every, swampy, cramped, noisy = gross. Right before bed we heard what we thought was thunder so we scurried anround making sure the fly was good to go to handle some heavy rain. However! it never rained, the noises was just large chunks of glacier falling off. We laughed at ourselves later for thinking that it was a storm coming in.
Day 3
This was supposed to be our easy day. We left the tent set up and we went only with lunch up the Valle de Frances. About 5 hours return and 12 km. We had better and better views of The Glacier Frances, and we stopped to watch it often.
A large chunk falling off
The terrian was really hard on us today. We were walking on uneven shifty rocks for most of the day and we really felt our knees and ankles, nad blostered feet by the end of the day. I felt like I was walking like a baby giraffe, my legs were wobbling everywhere! We went to the top of the valley, and ate lunch on a sunny rock, then went back down to our campsite, packed up and headed to açour next campsite, Campamento los Cuernos. The campsite is right on Lago Nordenskjold. This was the only campsite we had to pay to sleep in, and we had to pay per person. The campsite was in good shape. We had a good warm sleep here.Sunset, near our campsite 
Day 4
This morning was the only day we set an alarm for; we wanted top make sure we got an early start ont eh day as it was supposed to be a long one. Today was our first super windy day. We didn´t really stop for many breaks as it was so windy! We hiked about 7 hours today and 15 km. We were warned about htis ´Patagonian wind´, and today we expereinced it. We had to crouch down sometimes as the wind was so strong. I had heard a lot of negative things about the wind, but it was fun, the only downside was when my long backpack straps got free and whipped me pretty hard.
Day 4
This morning was the only day we set an alarm for; we wanted top make sure we got an early start ont eh day as it was supposed to be a long one. Today was our first super windy day. We didn´t really stop for many breaks as it was so windy! We hiked about 7 hours today and 15 km. We were warned about htis ´Patagonian wind´, and today we expereinced it. We had to crouch down sometimes as the wind was so strong. I had heard a lot of negative things about the wind, but it was fun, the only downside was when my long backpack straps got free and whipped me pretty hard.
The bad weather brewing: 
We stopped mid-afternon at Rufugio Chileno to take a break from the driving wind. We discovered that the hot water from thier taps is almost at a boiling temperature, so we stopped to steal some hot water to have some hot coca. Then we headed up to our Campsite, Capamento Torres. We got there super early in the evening and didn´t have much to do. This super awkward guy came and hung out with us until after dinner when I think he finally got the ´go away´ vibes from us. We ate chocolate pudding to celebrate Michele´s mom´s 60th Birthday,and then went to bed early.
Day 5.
Got up at 6:30 am to go up to the Torres del Paine proper, lookout for hte sunise. Hiking with headlamps! a coupl eother groups had the same idea, and looking back down the slopes and seeing bobbling headlamps in the dark was neat. Today again was windy, and it was very cloudy out. Our sunrise wasn´t super spectacular, but it was still an amazing view.
We stopped mid-afternon at Rufugio Chileno to take a break from the driving wind. We discovered that the hot water from thier taps is almost at a boiling temperature, so we stopped to steal some hot water to have some hot coca. Then we headed up to our Campsite, Capamento Torres. We got there super early in the evening and didn´t have much to do. This super awkward guy came and hung out with us until after dinner when I think he finally got the ´go away´ vibes from us. We ate chocolate pudding to celebrate Michele´s mom´s 60th Birthday,and then went to bed early.Day 5.
Got up at 6:30 am to go up to the Torres del Paine proper, lookout for hte sunise. Hiking with headlamps! a coupl eother groups had the same idea, and looking back down the slopes and seeing bobbling headlamps in the dark was neat. Today again was windy, and it was very cloudy out. Our sunrise wasn´t super spectacular, but it was still an amazing view.
Michele, hiding from the wind
We headed back down to our campsite around 9am, packed up and hiked ou to Hosteria Las Torres, where we caught a shuttle bus back to the main road to get a bus back to Puert Natales. When we were waiting for our shuttle bus, a HUGE gust of wind came and started to blow our HUGE backpacks away. Yes our packs, with our tent, sleeping bag, food,cooking gear... everything, started to roll away on flat ground. I was so impressed by the wind. Oh and on our shuttle bus, we went over a bridge, that said it was ´breaking... make sure everyone gets out and crosses it by foot´, but nope, our bus driver just drove over it.
That´s all! Overall an amazing hike.
That´s all! Overall an amazing hike.
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