07/04/13 to 14/04/13 - We landed in Punta Arenas, and we had two hours to quickly look around the place before the bus was leaving. It was a small city with the usual street names (O’Higgins, Banquedano, etc) plus some named after explorers, like Magellan and Drake. A lot of Antarctic expeditions depart from here, and it did have a remote, end-of-the-world feel, and was pretty quiet, probably because everybody was inside trying to keep warm. We then caught our bus to Puerto Natales, a 3 hour bus ride north.
Some of our blog readers may have the impression that travelling in Chile is all about eating huge great meals and sipping the local tipples (artesanal cervesas, vino tinto and Pisco Sours) in front of gorgeous sunsets. This is mostly true, but it doesn’t go without an element of hardship from time to time. For some reason, we’d decided to rough it for 5 days and 4 nights walking 10-hour days up and down hills and camping in near freezing temperatures in the Torres Del Paine National Park, the infamous “W” trek (its called this because its in the shape of a ‘W’).
After renting our gear, consisting of a tent, sleeping bags and cooking set) and stocking up on packet noodles, cuppa soups and sachets of coffee, we set off by bus at 7.30am to make our way to the National Park (2hrs). We got a taste of what we were in for as the bus journey was freezing and we were thoroughly chilled by the time we made it the Park Administration where we forked out for the entrance fee. Then it was on to a boat jetty, where we took a boat across Lago Pehoe, with fantastic views of the mountains, and a fresh breeze further chilling us down as we made our way across the lake to the starting point of our trek.
The adventure began with hysterics as Dave, whilst studying the map, took his first step and missed the boardwalk, falling forwards 120 degrees headfirst into the marsh below. Luckily, there was no injury and the marsh wasn’t wet, so only his pride was damaged.
We carried our 15kg backpacks up the side of Lago Grey (Lake Grey) to a campsite near the Grey glacier. It was very cold and we struggled to sleep as the cold came up through the ground and into our hip-bones, and we soon realised it was a mistake not to rent the foam mats that would have insulated us from the cold floor of the tent. It started to rain and then there was a strong wind blowing which also kept us awake. Somehow we managed to survive the night, and got up early to walk another hour, to warm up, but primarily to get a closer view of the glacier. They say that the locals use ice from the glacier to put in their whisky (but why they’d want ice in it we don’t know). The glacier went back up the mountain for as far as the eye could see, and there were mini icebergs floating in the lake. We could hear huge rumbles and creaking sounds as the ice was breaking off the glacier. We made it back to camp and packed up our tent before walking back down and on to another campsite 14kms away.
We made our way back to our tent and trekked on beside a lake, where after a full afternoon of walking, we collapsed on the pebble beach to rest. Then it was on to another campsite, where there was also a Refugio and Indoor restaurant, so we could sit in there and warm up in front of the big drum stove after yet another pan of packet noodles. We had a wee dram too to help fight off the cold as we returned to our tent, which this time was pitched on a wooden platform off the ground. It didn’t help much, and we again struggled to get any shut-eye, but we could at least rest our weary limbs.
The final full day in the park was spent trekking along the side of another lake before we made our way up a river valley, to a campsite below the Torres Del Paine. We finally got some sleep by sleeping on top of our rucksacks to raise us off the ground, but still, we woke up early to make our ascent up the final 1hr climb to Las Torres themselves in time for sunrise. The climb up was pretty steep and we had to rock-hop with a rubbish Chinese torch that we bought back in Laos. It wasn’t very bright and we found ourselves trying to hitch with some more serious hikers who had high-powered torches strapped to their heads. We’d been very lucky and had great weather for the first 3 days of our trek, but unfortunately there was a lot of cloud on this particular morning, which meant we couldn’t see the towers glow red (we couldn’t see the top of them either). However, all was not lost and as another South Korean trekker pointed out, there was still a spooky ambience to the place due to the mist, and it was still a nice place with the towers reflecting in the silver lake.
We returned down the steep hill to collect our tent and have a quick coffee before trekking the final 10kms in light rain down to a hotel where we spent an hour drying out and warming up before catching our bus back to Puerto Natales. Once there, after quickly washing our clothes and having long hot showers, there was only one thing to do… after walking 100kms in 5 days and only eating packet noodles and drinking boiled river water, it was time to go for a huge big feed and a bottle of Chilean red.
The next morning, on the way back to the airport at Punta Arenas, we passed several Llamas, Flamingos and Ostriches as we went past lakes and fields. We even got a free coffee on the 2-hour trip (the service on buses in South America is a bit like it used to be on aeroplanes). We took off to return to Santiago, stopping at Puerto Montt on the way up, and getting fed twice (not bad for a budget airline). We finally got to see Volcan Osorno when we were above the clouds (although it was on the other side of the plane), which was a nice ending to a tiring, but rewarding week.
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