Torres del Paine

(12-18 April)

It took us quite some time to get to Puerto Natales, the closest city to Torres del Paine. Puerto Natales is a small town, at least not entirely tourist made, with a small harbor. A pleasant place to stay a few days, if you can forgive the few youngsters on dark glass cars that cannot refrain from sharing with everybody their arguable taste for music. We stayed at the Amerinda hostel, that I would entirely recommend. If you happen to spend a night here, do not forget to try the chocolate bomb that they sell at the entrance bakery, it is an orgasm of chocolate.

We headed to the Torres del Paine on April 14. We were not sure how long to stay. Actually we are never sure what we are going to do a couple of days ahead. Anyhow we started the 'W' trail, so called because it looks like a 'W', a track of about 70 kilometers. At the end we did it almost all in 4 days, sleeping 4 nights in the tent. It is definitely a nice park, but I am not sure I would recommend to fly to this side of the world from Europe just to see it, especially because we got similar beauties on the Alps. Also, the weather was not the best, we got ice, snow, rain and, as it is obvious here in Patagonia, wind, lots of wind. 

Water proof materials are essential in Patagonia.

After having troubles with the rain, with mice entering the tent at night, with me losing the glasses in the campground and the weather that showed not sign of improvement, we decided to give up the last part of the trail.  The hike felt less and less like a pleasant experience and we felt more as if we had to throw the goddamn ring into the  Mount Doom. However, waking up the planned day of come back, with surprisingly good weather, we changed our mind and finished the trail. And it was worth it, because we got to see the Torres Grande (that, as I mentioned, looks quite similar to "tre Cime di Lavaredo", in the Italian Alps). 

We have met a mouse up here, one of those that surgically made a hole in our tent and food bag.
Never leave the food inside the tent!

But I cannot hide that I was happy to come back today and get a shower after 5 days of stinking like a horse. 

We did our best to stay comfortable with food, but at end you need to carry mostly dry stuff, 

because it is light, and I was missing some fresh salad.

By the way, at the end it seems that my glasses have been found and I should see them again tomorrow. It is incredible how friendly and professional people are around here.

So now we are again in Puerto Natales, waiting for my glasses to come back, with a day of break that I will mostly use to finish some pending work. We are not sure where to go next, as usual, but probably we will try to go south the last time, towards Tierra del Fuego. Connections and weather conditions will condition our choice.

Numbers. The hike was about 72 Km. 

Day 1, 11.0 Km :  Refugio Paine Grande to Refugio Grey

Day 2, 18.6 Km : Refugio Grey to Campamento Italiano

Day 3, 15.5 Km : Campamento Italiano - Mirador Frances - Campamento Italiano - Hosteria Las Torres

Day 4, 19 Km : Hosteria Las Torres - Mirador Torres Grande - Hosteria Las Torres

Day 5, 7.5 Km : Hosteria Last Torres - Laguna Amarga