Torres del Paine National Park

So now I will relay to you the disaster that was the Torres del Paine trip - only organisational mind, the place itself is amazing. Also, I have finally worked out how to put pictures in this thing, so enjoy!

The trip I was supposed to take was a 5 day, 4 night trek through the "W" section of the park, stopping at 4 different "Refugios" along the way (shown in the picture above). Now due to an Israeli boy setting up his own camp a few months ago and burning down a third of the national park, one of the Refugios, Paine Grande had now been sold to another company, meaning that the last 2 nights would both be spent at Los Cuernos. Additionally, although the booking was made in October last year, they hadn't actually allocated the accommodation to me, so the Refugio Chileno was booked out, meaning 2 nights in the Hosteria Las Torres. The idea of the accommodation I had booked was to make my life easier, and after doing Aconcagua, my legs could certainly use a break! Not just that, but down to the recommendations of some people, I had to see the Grey Glacier. Bear in mind that now I would be walking from Los Cuernos, and the boat out of the park actually leaves out of Paine Grande, thats a very long day!!

Day 1: Before I leave Puerto Natales for the park, I find a great English-run cafe with Chai tea and Camembert. Bliss! The bus picks me up from the hostel and we make our way to the national park. The refugio is nice, a bit like a slightly run down hostel, but I guess a bit better than I was expecting. The only problem is that they give you the option when you book the refugios of bringing your own food, or for just 300 pounds more, you can sample the delights of their cooking for 5 days. The only problem is that although you're already staying in these lodges you're not allowed to use the kitchen area. Ridiculous no? AND, on top of this, they don't provide an area for you to cook your own food if you do bring it - no shelter from the rain, not allowed to eat indoors, nothing. I am outraged. And this is just the first night.

Day 2: Woke up early to begin the walk up to the Torres del Paine, the famous granite towers that give the park its name. Very steep for the first hour or so, and reached the el Chileno without any dramas! I ran into the Aussies from the boat here, and round the corner, some friends from Pucón.

By this point I'm already pretty tired, but the views are amazing and it's a beautiful sunny day. I surprisingly find phone signal and someone texts me to get to Starbucks tomorrow for a free coffee...not likely I think!

From here up to the final hour or so of walking was a lovely trail, crossing rivers and streams, and was mainly in the forest. The whole park is stunning. At the last restpoint, I meet some Canadians from Toronto, who take me under their wing for the rest of the day and pretty much quiz me on my life. When lunch comes round, they give me some of their lunch (they had a packed lunch made for them at the hotel they're staying in back in Puerto Natales.

The MOST AMAZING tomato soup and roast beef sandwiches I've had for a LONG time. I feel like I'm in heaven. And the top itself is just amazing - breathtaking. Even though by now the clouds have come in a little, this is unbelievable. This is why people come here, even with the stresses of the refugios!

Quote of the day came from a German guy who literally walked to the top of the Torres, took a photo, and went straight back down. He passed us on our way down both times. When he walked past

the second time we said, "Didn't you just go up?"
To which he replies "I've got a bus to catch."!

We were in stiches for quite a while. Why bother, the point is to take in the views surely?
I'm given a beer at the bottom from the Canadians as a thank you for putting up with them. Luxury!

I get back to the refugio and (naughtily) cook inside the building on my little camp stove. I, of course, get told off. But with no places on-site I'm allowed to cook, what do they expect?!

Day 3: The trip today was Hosteria Las Torres to Los Cuernos. A lovely sunny day, and what was supposed to be a fairly easy walk proved slightly more difficult after suffering mild concussion 1 hour in! Whilst crossing a stream, in my usual clutzy style, I didn't see the branch above my head as I was stepping out. D'oh! It hurt quite a lot, and made progress pretty slow. A day that was supposed to take 3-4 hours ended up taking 6 or 7 hours.



Got to the top of a pretty big steep bit and sat for a while, head pounding, and another group of Aussies came along and 'nursed me' ie. put on a 'band aid'! But they were lovely, and walked with me to the refugio, making up more elaborate stories about how the concussion occured as we went along. The new 'official' story goes along the lines of a condor and a puma attacking me and Nick fighting them off single handedly!

We got to the hostel with the sun still up (just about). I find someone else who's braving cooking, and we find somewhere to cook outside, because this place is even smaller than the place before, and there's nowhere to hide! I have a very cold night's sleep here - "bed" was a mattress on the floor. I had expected to at least have a bed when I organised the tour. If I had wanted to sleep on the floor, I would have chosen the camping option!

Reminders around the park of the Israeli boy who burnt down 1/3 of the park.

 Day 4: Quote of the day: 'you snooze, you win'. We woke up pretty late and thinking the Aussies had gone ahead, I headed for the French valley - absolutely pouring with rain. Got to a campsite along the way and stopped in the sheltered area for a while: my head was hurting anyway and it seemed like a good idea considering the miserable weather. I was contemplating going down when yesterdays Aussies, Nick, Bryce and Ingrid turned up. As we're standing in the shelter, the rain eases and the sun comes out a tiny bit, so we head up the valley. 




We were not disappointed, it was STUNNING! I can't begin to describe the idyll of the lakes and glaciers. The photos don't even do it justice (particularly because of the clouds). We got to the top for lunch and headed back down as the rain started to pick up again. We even managed to catch an avalanche on the way down! 

A great day, and we head back to the refugio. I somehow manage to wangle a free dinner by sitting with the others and some Americans confused the waitress with a vegetarian order. Score! I did NOT want to have to cook outside, so a double win! 

Nick has invited me to his sister's birthday party in BA on the 26th...she lives there, and it certainly will be a good way to get to know the city! I'm already trying to get up to BA for that day anyway. We'll see...

Another very cold nights sleep...not too happy!!

Day 5: Long day! Do the 5 hour walk to Paine Grande in 3 hours. It's shocking to see all the burnt areas of the park. It's quite sad really, but a melancholic kind of beauty.









Bryce said something that made me think: This is quite special, as horrible as it is that 1/3 of the park is burnt; we'll be one of few who see it in this state. 

It's cool to see the new vegetation growing already! The park will be back to normal in about a year probably.

My feet hurt like crazy when I got to the refugio, so walked around only an hour towards Lago Grey. Got to the catamaran, and took the long journey back to Puerto Natales. Hannah and I go to Afrigonia, a Chilean/Kenyan fusion restaurant: Scallop and prawn curry, rice, pisco and dessert for £10! 

 A nice lie in once I'm back in civilisation, good to be in a proper bed. I suddenly realise I left my camera on the bus last night! I had fallen asleep on the bus and woke up suddenly, disorientated. THANKFULLY Chilean people are wonderful and the bus company sent it to me in a taxi. Phew! Stress over, we go somewhere for the BIGGEST sandwiches EVER and then wander by the port before leaving on the bus to el Calafate, Argentina.

The Navimag: Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales.

Major catch up time.

So I leave Ancud at stupid-o'-clock in the morning and sleep all the way to Puerto Montt, a fairly dreary and drab city (so glad I made the choice not to stay here). "Boarding time" is between 9:30 and 11:30, but in true South American fashion the boarding time isn't actually until 14:30. Luckily I bump into the Dutch girls from Ancud, and we stop to buy some alpaca hats (glaciers are cold don't you know) and grab some alcohol from the local supermarket to keep us going on the boat (only an overpriced bar on-board). The carrier bags are akin to the new super-thin-can't-use-them-for-carrying-a-pint-of-milk-bags Tesco are currently demo-ing. So when the bag-packer puts two bottles of wine in one of these bags, it's bad news. Within 1m of the till, the bag breaks and a 1.5L bottle of wine comes crashing to the floor. A very nice old man starts yelling that it's the boy's fault, and soon we're being profusely apologised to by management and presented with new bottles of wine. Phew!

With that fiasco over with we head back and finally board the boat. The bunk beds are rather squashed looking, and hit my head sitting down on the bed when I first arrive. Not a good start. On the top deck, we find a giant chessboard, and while waiting for the boat to leave, I find myself watching a couple of Australians play. Well, one was getting a thrashing. His ass was getting handed to him, so I offered a few suggestions and suddenly I'm an "expert" (with my VERY rusty chess skills...) and before I know it I'm on the team! The boys are pretty cool and the real chess champion comes along and wipes the floor with everyone.

Soon afterwards, we are introduced to every single member of staff on board (no word of a lie) and we were expected to clap for the introduction of each person. Personally, I thought it was a little over the top considering they hadn't done anything yet. Maybe it would have been due if we had docked at the other end safely! Safety briefing over, we watch a National Geographic documentary on Patagonian wildlife. A sign of things to come.

Breakfast is at 8am. Not cool. Don't people know that sleep is a cherished past-time? We spend most of the next few days on the lookout for whales and dolphins, and we do catch a glimpse of some dolphins swimming alongside the boat. I find out these guys are also headed to Torres del Paine (along with pretty much the rest of the boat, there isn't that much to do in Puerto Natales). Due to the poor visibility (it had started to rain by this point), the captain decided to take a detour from the usual route and take us past an glacier called the Iceberg glacier, which is a lot wider, but not as high as the other glaciers we would have passed. It was breath-taking. The lead-up was a series of small ice-bergs (there were lots of people re-enacting Titanic), and the glacier itself was just SO BLUE. It was unbelievable.

We were given the opportunity to dis-embark for an hour at Puerto Eden, a town of 250 people, and while the option was tempting after 3 days on a boat, the heaven's decided to open, and I chose (wisely) that I wouldn't go. Just as well, because everyone who went looked so miserable when they came back! The entertainment on the final night on the boat is Bingo and Fiesta. It was good to break up the tedium anyway!

We arrive into port the next day, and on the approach we see more ice-capped peaks, which gets us all excited to get into the Torres del Paine national park. We spend the evening picking up last minute items and food for the trek, and then go for the unhealthiest meal imaginable: Pizza with tonnes of cheese, and a plate of chips, chicken bacon and EVEN more cheese. Thank goodness we're going to work it off the next few days!

Puerto Varas and Ancud, Chiloe

Now that I'm getting seriously behind on the blog posts, I think it's time that I did some serious updating!!

So arrival in Puerto Varas, looks pretty dodgy at first. So my experience in Puerto Varas wasn't amazing. A quaint town and probably what I needed after the frivolities of the previous  places. I head up to the viewpoint of town, Cerro Phillippi, but it was pouring down with rain; most of my time is taken up the next couple of days by chilling out on the lake and visiting the local handicrafts markets. So, bored of Puerto Varas, I head to Frutillar, a very quaint German town (literally, there were "kuchenladen"s and everything). It's pretty stunning, on the East side of Lake Llaniquehue, which Puerto Varas borders too. It's directly in front of the Orsorno volcano, and the views are pretty stunning. Is it bad that the highlight of my trip here is the toilets I found in the theatre there?? Well, it was, and while I was there, I went to a free photography exhibition on the famous people of Chile, which was pretty cool, and I definitely looked the part walking around with my DSLR. Got back to Varas in time to catch a tour to the Osorno volcano. I didn't climb it this time. Phew! No, 79 people died in the last 9 months from trying to climb the volcano, so it's off limits. Thank goodness, I don't think my legs would be able to cope! The tour was interesting - 4 Brazilians and myself meant that the tour wasn't even given in Spanish. It's in Portuguese. Great. Don't understand a thing, and after most of the talking the guide finally asks me if I understood anything and repeats what he can be bothered to say in English. Turns out the reason why so many people died climbing the volcano (which is only 2,500m) is because a neighbouring volcano (I've forgotten the name) became active and started spewing ash, much like the Iceland disaster a little while back. This not only impaired visibility, but weakened the ice, so that when people were trekking over what looked like a flat glacier, there were cravasses under some of the sections of ice with only thin sheets of ice over the top, that were giving way when people were climbing up. Probably a good thing I gave it a miss then.

I get a few recommendations while I'm here about a place called Ancud, in Chiloe, an island about half an hour from the mainland, and I change up my schedule to leave Puerto Varas early and skip over to Puerto Montt (which is a dive, so I'm pretty glad I'm not sticking around). But I make a BIG mistake on the second bus, I fall asleep and don't really pay attention to where we are. Suddenly I wake up as we leave what looks to be Ancud bus station (turns out there are 3, easy mistake). I get out of the bus and trudge the now 30 minutes back to the bus station, and then realise I'm at the wrong bus terminal to get to the hostel I've booked. Oops. I ask a few people how far it is to walk. One guy tells me that it's really far and offers me a lift. Unfortunately for me, he's a taxi driver, and so of course he's trying to take me for a ride. I'm so tired and fed up by this point that I arrange a price and get to the hostel just fine. The hostel is amazing, comfy beds, nice showers.

Now Ancud is a pretty town. All the churches in Ancud, and the other city, Castro, are UNESCO world heritage sites. I walk to the fort and have a look around (must  learn more about Chilean history) and the markets. The fish market there was pretty cool, and one of the fishmongers was cutting up some stone-looking sea creature called piura (apparently translates as sea-squirt, but I have no idea what that means either), and I tried some (raw) and it was an interesting strong smoky flavour. Strange. The owner of the hostel, Claudio, is pretty cool and he and his friend Francisco invited me in for beer and cooked me pasta. Awesome. The next morning, I get why people recommended this hostel. There are SCRAMBLED EGGS for breakfast. Sounds ridiculous to be this excited by scrambled eggs, but it's the little things..! Claudio arranged a tour of the north part of the island, and we went to see the penguins!! Everyone is into birds here, even Claudio had a book on birds of Chile in his car - and we spotted a Kingfisher before arriving at the beach. The penguin tour is a little tour around some of the islands and we learn that penguins have a gland in their mouths that pumps out the salt enabling them to drink sea water. Pretty cool! Have a dodgy empanada and head to the rocky beach of Petrohue. Stunning. I find out the Dutch girls on our tour are coming on the Navimag, the boat that leaves from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. So after much alcohol consupmtion and some pretty tasty hot dogs, I hit the sack. Drinking probably wasn't the best idea the day before a long boat trip....