Torres del Paine
Sunday, March 30th, 2008So we made our way 4 hours from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales…the gateway to Torres del Paine. We had called to make a booking at this hostel called Erratic Rock…run by some Americans and they completely had the low-down on trekking and all that business.
We were originally, when we were planning this trip, to do the “W”. Essentially it’s a trek that hits 3 major “stars” of the park – Glacier Gray, the Cuernos, and the Torres. At this point, we were like, screw this, we’ll just do 2 nights in the park because, let’s face it, we’re not really peak baggers and just didn’t feel like carrying all that stuff for 4-5 days – which, I’m really glad our laziness carried through because I think it was all for the best. At the Erratic Rock they have this 3 pm seminar deal where they tell you about the do’s and don’ts of the major treks and the guy giving the seminar (an Oregonian, by the way) and he recommended we see the 2 left parts of the W, so essentially, we did a U. They rented us all the equipment, and we just went shopping for the food and off we went the next day to the park.
They pick you up at like 7 y media a la manana and it’s just a normal bus but the guy stopped along the way so we got some pretty good pics of the Torres which is the part we decided to skip. Around midday we hit Lake Pehoe and for kind of a rip off they take you .5 hours across a lake where you get dumped off at, if you’re looking at a map, the left side of the lake.
I just have to mention that this is one of the strangest parks in terms of set-up. Like they have actual hotels, refugios (kind of like a hostel with dorm beds) and then paid campgrounds and free campgrounds. All inside the park. So you don’t actually have to carry the big heavy pack to do the W. You can stay at refugios the entire time. Or you can just dayhike from one of the hotels or refugios. Or just camp at one place (like the place where they dump you off the boat) and dayhike from there. So you are hiking with big backpacks next to a person just carrying water.
Like the first night, we hiked 4 hours up to the paid campground at Refugio Gray. You could stay at the refugio there and just take a daypack. Or you can rent one of their tents at the campground. And they’re already set up for you. But we did it the hard way (I know, surprise, surprise) and had tuna sandwiches (which would be our meals for the next 2 days since we didn’t want to carry a stove) and it was fine. Except for some of our neighbors got robbed. One girl got a camera and money taken…another guy a jacket and pants. From the vestibules in front of their tents. We found out about it at the next campsite since we left really early. Which totally sucks because when you camp and stuff you’re generally safe no matter where you are. John was pissed because he saw a guy, in the middle of the night, crouch in front of our tent and when he said something the guy took off. So it was probably the guy getting ready to rob us but John scared him off.
The Glacier was really cool. The views to get up there were incredible. And so were the winds. Oh my gosh! I mean, I almost fell over several times (I did, later on). But we had really incredible weather – no rain which I guess is most important!
Anyway, the next day we walked down the 4 hours the way we came and went 3 hours to the right. To a campground at the bottom of the middle part of the W. It was pretty nice and the views were fantastic in the middle. But at this point we were so grateful that we didn’t decide to do the W. Several people just went one more day and essentially did a U with a tail. We were done.
Torres del Paine was really beautiful and I’m glad we went but I think it’s a bit over-hyped…or maybe it wouldn’t be over-hyped if we hadn’t been to Nepal…Africa…okay, maybe it just takes more for us to be impressed anymore!
Our short stay in Chile ended with us staying at a cool little hostel after Erratic Rock overbooked us and so we stayed at their friend’s hostel…she was very cool and we were able to gather a bit more insight into the area and into Chile in general.
Onward back to Argentina to see the Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate!
JohnCin