Torres Del Paine

´Time may change me, but I can´t change time´Changes by David Bowie

Hola everyone

We´re in Patagonia in Southern Chile and late last night we returned from 4 days trekking in the absolutely stunning Torres Del Paine National Park. It was a pleasure to trek in such a beautiful and diverse part of the world with glaciers, mountains, lakes, rivers, streams, condors circling overhead and plenty of fresh air. Details of what we have been up to since I last wrote are noted below.

Monday January 7th
We got up at 8am, had breakfast and checked out at 9am. We walked to the bus stop and the 10am bus left at 10.20am. We both conked out for the first two hours of the trip, which was good as it killed some time. We arrived in Puerto Montt around 3pm. There was a light drizzle in the air and Puerto Montt didn´t strike us as being a nice place. It´s an essential stop though for travellers heading further south in Chile.

We checked into a hotel for the night and wandered around town, breaking the rule of no MacDonalds for the third time in 6 months. Sometimes you just feel like junk food and a real sugar rush from a regular Coke. Well I do anyway! After that we booked a flight from Puerto Montt to Puerto Arenas at the very reasonable price os $125US for the two of us. We only booked a single flight as we didn´t know how long we wanted to stay down south. After a wander by the harbour we had an early night.

Tuesday January 8th
Quite a long day. The alarm woke us at 7am and after a light breakfast we were back at the bus station at the back of 8am for the 8.30am bus to the airport. Our flight left at 11.10am, an hour late. Lynn sat next to a Spanish girl who filed and painted her nails for the whole 2 hour flight.

After picking up our bags we found the bus into town was full but someone sorted us out with a lift for 4 quid and we got dropped off at the door of our hostel. The hostel looked a little rundown from the outside but the owners son Allessandro welcomed us with a big smile and it was cosey and homely inside. We walked into town and booked the bus to Puerto Natales for 2pm the next day and got a bite to eat. Back at the hostel Allesandro had decided to have a BBQ for dinner so we all chipped in 3 pounds each for meat and wine. We met a nice English couple called Dave and Louise, an English girl called Teresa and an American called Jacob and chatted away while Allessandro readied the BBQ. It took a while!

Allessandro´s brother is a dentist in Buenos Aires and happens to be the dentist for Diego Armando Maradonna! A photo of Allessandro and Maradonna takes pride of place in the hostel. I was pretty jealous and it brought back memories of the 1986 World Cup when I was ten. Maradonna almost literally won the World Cup single handedly for Argentina. His solo run against England and his two against Belgium in the semi final were moments of football genius.

Anyway, the BBQ was eventually ready at midnight! Chileans take their time preparing food. After a week off alcohol we had a couple of glasses of red wine with the meal - steak, some excellent sausages, veg and all kinds of stuff. Allessandro and some of the other hostel guests were raving about the steak in Argentina. Can´t wait for that!

Wednesday January 9th
We didn´t surface until 10am and had breakfast chatting to a nice Englisg guy called Ritchie that had just arrived. We hung around until 1pm and then walked to the bus stop for 1.30pm. The bus left promptly at 2pm and we were delighted to discover that it was brand new with big leather seats, loads of leg room and a toilet for emergencies. We slept for a bit and arrived in Puerto Natales at 5pm and wandered to the hostel we had booked that morning.

A cool dreadlocked guy called Rodriguez answered the door and told us he was just finishing preparing our room. He was still making the bed - actually building it! We dumped our bags and walked to the main square and had a lovely meal of beef, mashed potatoes and veg in a red wine sauce. While walking back to our hostel we bumped into Dave and Louise who had got an earlier bus and went for a few drinks with them. They are travelling for 3 months in South America and 3 months in South Africa. We ended up playing table football and unfortunately Dave´s Liverpool beat my United 5-4 in two thrilling games with both teams playing adventurous 2-5-3 formations.

Thursday January 10th
We had a nice long lie until 10.30am and then got up to sort out our Torres Del Paine trekking. That in itself wasn´t too much of a problem, however we were told that if we paid in US dollars it would be cheaper. Changing Chilean money into US dollars was a problem. Rodriguez and I went around 5 places that all refused to change more than $100US. We eventually found the only place in town that would give us the $400US and had to wait an hour in a queue. Still by 3pm it was all sorted and we felt that it was great value. For $200us each we stayed in refugio´s (glorified and very nice hostels) each night and got all our meals.

At night we went to meet Dave and Louise, stopping off at a second hand shop and each buying two retro ski jumpers for 2 pounds 50p each. After that we went for a lovely meal with Dave and Louise at a pizza and pasta place called Mesitta Grande. We then went back to the pub for a few games of table football and United won two games.

Friday January 11th
Ooh it was a 6.20am alarm today. We got up and had breakfast and waited for the 7.30am bus to Torres Del Paine, which eventually arrived at 8am. We slept on the bus and woke two hours later at the park. We were swiftly transferred to a boat that took us across Lago Pehoe. The scenery was already pretty spectacular.

We checked into our refugio and after sandwiches we set off on our first trek. A 22km round trek to Glacier Grey and back. We moved swiftly as we had set off at 1.30pm and were giving ourselves around 8 hours for the trip, so we would be back for dinner!

We wound up a couple of hills until we were walking alongside Lago Grey, glistening and shimmering in the sunlight, with chunks of ice that had broken from the glacier floating peacefully on the surface. It took us almost exactly 3.5 hours to reach the Mirador (lookout) to Glacier Grey. We had caught glimpses of it on the way but up close it took our breath away. A seemingly endless stream of ice stretched in front of us. I´ll upload some photos to flickr later. I hope they do it justice. You could always do a google search to see some professional photos.

After a break for a sandwich we headed back and made good time, getting back at 8pm with time for a shower and change of clothes before dinner. We met and chatted to a nice English couple called Ben and Sheena and also Ritchie who was camping but had sneaked into the reugio for dinner. We were sharing a room with two Swiss girls and we chatted to them before crashing out at 10.30pm.

Saturday January 12th
The alarm went off at 8am and we prepared for our hike. We were heading from Refugio Paine Grande to Refugio Los Cuernos, around 13km. It was going to be tough as we had to carry all our stuff. We had left some stuff at the hostel in Puerto Natales but we still had around 10kg each to carry in our backpacks. The sun was shining after an early morning shower and we really enjoyed our days treeking along the banks of Lago Nordenskjold. We met Teresa about an hour into the trek and walked with her until her campsite at Campamento Italiano. We sat on a pebbly beach just before we got to our refugio and marvelled at the natural beauty surrounding us.

We had a shower and a relaxing afternoon playing travel draughts. At night we had dinner with Ben and Sheena who were camping outside and headed for an early night at 10pm.

Sunday January 13th
Woke up at 8am and organised our bags before breakfast. We had a 12km walk with our backpacks along the Lake to Hosteria Los Torres. We walked for 4.5 hours and the backpacks didn´t feel as heavy. I suppose we were used to it. We checked into the hostel in the afternoon and enjoyed a couple of beers and a nice chilled night. In the distance we could see the rising peaks of where we would be climbing to tomorrow. We had a quiet night and chatted to a dutch couple for a bit.

Monday January 14th
We left our big bags in the hostel and set off up the mountainside towards Glacier Torres and the 4 peaks that dominate the skyline of the park. The first hour or so was completely uphill, but after 45 minutes we got into our stride and motored on. We wound down into the valley beside a stream and then back up again through a wooded area. We then got to the final ascent, a one hour scramble up some rocks to the viewing area. It was a real scramble but great fun. It was quite cloudy at the top, it wasn´t as sunny as the previous two days, but the clouds parted at times to allow us a beautiful view of the peaks. We met a nice Italian couple at the top and then Ben and Sheena appeared so we ended up spending over an hour at the top.

On the way back down we bumped into the Italian couple sitting on a rock by a stream about 3/4 of the way down. The guy looked in real pain and his girfriend informed me that he had slipped and his shoulder had popped out. Thankfully a guide was leading a group of older people behind us and I managed to flag him down and with his first aid knowledge he ´popped´the shoulder back into place. Ouch!

We enjoyed a leisurely walk back to the hostel as our bus wasn´t until 7.30pm. We had a shower and a couple of beers before the bus back to Puerto Natales, checking back into our hostel at 10pm and heading out for a pizza immediately afterwards!

Tuesday January 15th
Had a long lie until 10am and we´re now just deciding what to do next. Puerto Natales is a nice wee town so we may stay a couple more nights to chill out and then head back to Puerto Arenas and try and book a flight to Puerto Montt. From there we may get a bus to a town called Bariloche in Argentina for 4/5 nights, but we´ll wait and see.

Off for some lunch now.

Love
Murray and Lynn
xxx