Sunset from Lake Pehoe
From Punta Arenas we bussed it to Puerto Natales, the gateway to the Torres del Paine National Park. We spent a day stocking up with food for 6 (or so) days trekking, as well as getting our dirty clothes washed. As my LAN airline loyalty points (which I collected last time I was in South America) expire at the end of the month I spent some time cashing them in for a flight from Lima to Santiago in June. I hope I got the date right... Kerry has no points. I am thinking of sending Kerry on the bus (a 60 hour ride). Lets see if she behaves herself...
We had a 2 hour bus ride into the park. Almost had a disaster before we had even started walking - I left my down jacket in the hostal and had to get the bus to stop and wait for us while we ran back to get it. Not fun. Once we had arrived, it was a 2 hour walk from the Administration centre to the "Las Carettas" campsite, and we certainly felt the weight of our packs and 6 days of food on our backs. We have decided to explore the lesser visited parts of the park on this visit - we were here 3 years ago we saw much of it whilst walking around "El Circuito", a 9 day circuit. Anyway, here is the rest of our trip, blow by blow;
Day 2
After a night of little sleep we set off for "Campimento Italiana", and 5 hours later we had arrived. This turned out to be our longest walking day. From our last visit here I remember this campsite as being one of the nastiest in the park and we were not dissapointed. It is located right in the center of the "W" trail, and gets lots of traffic.
Day 3
Rain all day today so we bundled down for a lazy day in the tent. Through shear bordom we invented the games "Hang Monkey" (remarkably similar to hangman) and "slap Benny" where I basically get slapped around the face a lot (whilst singing "Patacake Patacake bakers man"). Then there was "Bouncy Fly", which involves flicking flies through the tent fabric, getting then to bounce off the flysheet and back again, the winner being the one who gets the most repititions. Its amazing the fun you can have in a tent. Our "luxury" item, the MP4 player I bought in Hong Kong, loaded with the complete second series of Extras lasted precisely 2 episodes before the battery died, much to our disapointment. Stupid chinese crap.
Hours of fun in the tent
Day 4
Still raining, but bored of Camping Italiano we packed up and hiked the 2 hours back to the edge of Lake Pehoe and the paid campsite there (3500 pesos each). Due to a spectacular language disaster our lunchtime cheese and ham sandwiches turned into full blown cheese burger meals that pretty much put us to sleep for the rest of the afternoon.
A bunch of dead trees
Day 5
Fantastic orange sunrise at 7am this morning. The rain has at last abaited. We spent the day walking up the side of Lago Grey to the campsite at the base of the grey glacier. I spoke to soon about the rain as by the time we got there we were soaked. We were kept awake for most of the night by some idiot pissed up Canadians puking on each other in their tent.
Day 6
Luck was with us today - we got great views of the glacier bathed in glorious sunlight. We didn't have any gin or tonic and so had the next best thing - coffee made with ancient ice. We had planned to take a boat to the bottom of the lake but were put off by the US$70 price tag, and so decided to walk back down to Pehoe, which turned out to be a really nice (dry) evening walk. Cena was taken in the lodge - chicken, rice and salad.
Kerry and Glacier Grey
Day 7
We had a chance to lay in this morning as we had decided to hang around for the only ferry to take us across Lake Pehoe. In the high season there are 3 boats each day on this route, and until yesterday there were 2. On the other side we hiked up a hill in an incredibly strong wind to view the largest waterfall in the park - The "Salto Grande", and then back down and around the lake to camping Pehoe. The walk would have taken a good 2 hours had we not managed to hitch a lift. This campsite is the best so far. Being new, it has been really nicely laid out with great views of the Paine massive across the lake. We spent the last of our cash on wine, helping us celebrate my bro's birthday, which is today.
Day 8
After the 2 hour walk back to the ferry port (in very windy conditions - the wind here has the amazing ability to be blowing in your face no matter which direction you walk) we made the coach connection to take us out of the park and back to Puerto Natales.
The towers of paine
We are back in the town now. We headed straight for a good old traditional Chilean lamb asado when we got back. I have great memories of one of these at one of the lodges when we were here last. It's low season now and there are very few tourists around. We at last found the only place that sells the "Torres del Paine" clothing brand, and got chatting to the owner who is desperatly trying to crack the market. It's good stuff but due to the lack of infrastructure here it's all being made in China at the moment. Last night we witnessed an incredible pink sunset. Unfortunatly we couldn't get the best view due to being in an internet cafe writing this up. Blogging isn't all fun.
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