Dear friends,
We arrived in Puerto Natales, and with a long list of chores we hurried about the sleepy town. After the laundrette, we visited several equipment rental stores to hire a tent, aware that without this key element our plans to complete the trek would fall apart. We tried a few companies and were beginning to lose hope, but luckily, we stumbled across a hostel who had a tent and some sleeping mats that we could use. In the park opposite the hostel we were ordered to practice setting the tent up, and we were warned that the next time we would be doing this, it would be in high Patagonian winds. Next, was the supermarket, we needed enough food for our five days, and it needed to be lightweight as there would be no porters carrying it for us! With our plans coming together, we enjoyed a hearty meal of delicious Patagonian lamb, before walking along the seafront. Where we visited the Monumento de la Mano, a large sculpture of a hand rising up out of the promenade.
The following day we attended an informative talk by a guide at Erratic Rock, where they discussed the routes, what to pack, campsite facilities and the logistics of getting to Torres del Paine National Park. We were also reminded what to do in the unlikely case we encountered a Puma, under no circumstances were we to run! Feeling confident with our preparations we packed our bags and made our way to a bar for some drinks. After a few too many G&Ts, we stumbled into bed already dreading our early alarms. At 5:30am we crawled out of bed, leaving the majority of our clothes and belongings at the hostel, we picked up our rucksacks and trudged to the bus station. For two long hours the bus sped along winding roads, making me feel very sick! Eventually we reached a large lake called Lago Pehoé, where we piled onto a catamaran, which would take us to Paine Grande, our starting point.
Torres del Paine National Park is located in southern Chilean Patagonia, 112 km from Puerto Natales and is full of mountains, glaciers, vivid coloured lakes and rivers. In the native Tehuelche language paine means “blue” and is pronounced PIE-nay. The park is named after the three distinctive granite peaks of the Paine mountain range, also known as the Paine massif. In the park there are several day hikes you can complete, but the most famous are the multiple day treks such as the 110km ‘O’ trek, which takes 7-8 days or the 75km ‘W’ trek, the 5-day route we had opted for.
Starting in Paine Grande we were going to complete the ‘W’ trek west to east, but we met plenty of others completing it in the other direction. Disembarking the catamaran, our first day would be relatively short with an 11 km walk to Mirador Glacier Grey and on to Refugio Grey, our campsite. We battled the wind, getting used to our heavy packs and regretting our indulgence the night before. We reached the viewpoint and gazed out at the impressive glacier, before following the trail along Lago Grey, filling up our bottles from waterfalls and rivers along the way. Tired from the late night, and early start, it was a relief to finally see the wooden buildings of the campsite through the trees. We arrived, set up our tent and collapsed inside!
There have been several fires in Torres del Paine National Park, but the worst was in December 2011, started by an Israeli tourist who set fire to toilet paper in a forbidden area of the park. This fire burned about 176km2 (68 sq mi) of the park, particularly affecting areas around Lake Pehoé. Although these affected areas have begun to recover, we’d noticed the remnants of burnt trees as we made our way to the glacier, it was like something out of Alice in Wonderland. Because of the devastating fire, understandably park rangers are working hard to reduce the chance of this happening again. Now, you can only cook in designated areas, sometimes these are shelters outside but mostly bare kitchens or dining halls – but at least they were warm. That evening, severely miscalculating the water to powdered mashed potato ratio, we enjoyed a rather soup-like dinner of mash and chorizo!
The following morning, we packed up and retraced our steps back to Paine Grande, where we stayed by the lake, looking out at the impressive layered rock formations. Now pros at putting up our tent, we could do it in all of five minutes. Others weren’t so good… and Simon took pity on a lost American, who despite this being his second night camping still couldn’t work out how to put up his tent! We’d completed the first arm of the ‘W’ and enjoyed a much better dinner of rice, chorizo and tomato sauce. We got an early night, aware that the next day would be the longest of our entire 5-day trek at 22 km and would be much more of a challenge.
Getting into a routine, we rose early, packed everything back into our rucksacks and set off again. Despite our food supplies diminishing daily, our bags still felt heavy as we wound along the path past Lake Nordenskjöld, over rivers and dodgy suspension bridges. After 8 km we reached Camp Italiano, and glad that we weren’t staying here in the basic facilities with long drop toilets and no showers, we left our bags at the ranger’s station before climbing steeply up Frances Valley. The Frances Valley is dominated by a circle of tall cliffs, and we finally reached an impressive viewpoint of a glacier and Cerro Cota 2000 (named for its elevation of 2,000m) and Cerro Catedral whose east face resembles a cathedral’s facade. From here, we continued up to Mirador Britanico, where we clambered up to the large boulders at the end of the trail. With panoramic views we could see the colossal granite peaks of Aleta de Tiburon (Shark’s Fin), Fortaleza (Fortress), La Espada (The Sword), La Hoja (The Blade), La Mascara (The Mummer), Cuerno Norte (North Horn), and Cuerno Principal (Main Horn).
After refuelling on sandwiches and a cereal bar, we made our way back down, the weather beginning to deteriorate. Picking up our rucksacks, we had a few more kilometres to walk before we reached our home for the night at Camp Frances. Moments after we’d arrived and pitched our tent the heavens opened, so we covered as much as we could in bin bags and prayed our little tent wouldn’t let us down. We found shelter in the cooking area, next to the campsites’ Minimarket and set about preparing our repetitive but tasty meal of rice and chorizo. Soon the picnic benches around us were full of other hikers, sharing stories, photos, cooking utensils, medical supplies and wine! We made some good friends and although Simon and I walked alone during the day enjoying the peacefulness of the park, we continued to socialise with the same group of hikers each night, as most of us were following the same route.
Over halfway, we had two more days of hiking left as we made our way towards the iconic Torres del Paine. Despite the rain overnight the sun was shining as we set off in the morning, and the park was completely still in the rare absence of any wind. Leaving the Magellanic forest behind, the arid Patagonian Steppe returned, and we kept our eyes peeled for Pumas. Unfortunately, there was no sign of these shy predators, but we did see huge Andean Condors flying overhead. Following the steep path, we picked our way up the mountain before rounding a corner and taking a windy pass down along a canyon wall to the valley below. We spent our final night here at Camp Chileno, meeting up again two Brazilian girls we had befriended and discussing their plans to watch sunrise in the morning. With our bus back to Puerto Natales not until the evening however, we decided that starting so early would leave us waiting around too long. So, the following morning, with everyone else sleepily making their way back down, we started our final push to reach Mirador Base Las Torres. We hurried up the trail, beating the day hikers and enjoying the views of the lagoon and the peaks of Torres Sur (2,850m), Torres Central (2,800m) and Torres Norte (2,248m).
It was nearly all downhill from here and we knew we just had to make it back down to the Welcome Centre, to wait for our bus back to town. Spurred on by the thought of sleeping in a proper bed, we ignored the advertised Horse Taxi Service from Camp Chileno and set off following the route back up along the canyon and down the mountain. Exhausted but with a real sense of achievement, we arrived at the bus stop and waited for the shuttle bus to take us to the park entrance, where we could catch our bus back to town.
Back in Puerto Natales, fed up of chorizo, rice and powdered mash, we decided to return our rented equipment before finding a nice restaurant for dinner. To celebrate our accomplishment, we then treated ourselves to cocktails at The Last Hope, the world’s southernmost gin and whiskey distillery. It didn’t look like much from the street, but upon ringing the doorbell we felt like exclusive guests entering this trendy bar. We were first given a taste of their two signature gins, a dry London gin and a gin infused with Calafate berries – the local fruit which when eaten is said to ensure your return to Patagonia. Before being presented with their cocktail list, which resembled more of a book than and menu, and unable to taste them all we carefully selected which ones we wanted to try. After a few cocktails, we decided to buy a small bottle of each gin to take with us, sure we would find some space in our bags, as gin after all is an essential item after all…
After a well needed lie-in the following morning, we spent our last day in Patagonia exploring the town’s museum, learning more about the native Tehueluche people and planning the next section of our trip.
Having made the most of our time in Patagonia, we prepared ourselves for the long journey from the bottom of Chile up to the Atacama Desert on the border of Bolivia.
See you there!
Lots of love,
Xaverie
xxx