Torres del Paine: Patagonia in Chile!

December 13 -15, Puerto Natales:

Puerto Natales was our first destination in Chile. It's a small town and a popular hub for tourists before setting off for their trek in Torres del Paine national park (an hour away). We spent a couple of nights in Koten Aike hostel, owned by a lovely lady who is a descendant of the Mapuche tribe. Her house has been converted into a hostel, with about 5 rooms (shared/dorms) and a common kitchen/living room. Breakfast wasn't included here, but our room was cheap!

Since there is not much to do in this town, we spent our time relaxing and preparing for our W-circuit trek in Torres del Paine. Many of the hostels in this town, as well as a number of stores, rent equipment for trekking and camping at a reasonable price. We rented most of the equipment we needed from our hostel, which was very convenient. A very popular hostel called Erratic Rock, hosts an hour long talk about the park, every afternoon at 3pm. We attended and were very happy with our decision, as we were told about the best route to take on the W-circuit, as well as recommendations for camp sites to stay at. The spokesperson also gave us other useful information, including tips on types of food to bring, without adding too much weight to our backpacks! For breakfast, he suggested we empty a box of granola cereal and some powdered milk into a zip-lock bag.  All we would need to do is to put some of this mix into a bowl, heat up some water (using our gas burner), pour it over the cereal and voila! we would have a practically instant-made hot cereal for breakfast! Sounds disgusting, but was actually pretty good....at least while camping!

The night before heading off to Torres del Paine, we treated ourselves to a pizza dinner. We were originally heading toward another restaurant that Rakesh found on the internet. The pizza restaurant appeared to be pretty popular as there was little space left at the common table inside, so we succumbed to our yearning for some good food...or so we hoped. The pizza, ended up being the best we had in South America!!

December 15 - 19, Torres del Paine:

In the morning we boarded a bus outside our hostel and set off for Torres del Paine national park. Ofcourse, as with many touristic events, the bus made a 15 minute stop at a tourist store/coffee shop, on the outskirts of the park. As soon as we got off the bus, I could not believe how cold it was and realized then that this is how it would be for the next few days!!! All, I wanted to do, was sit inside the bus and continue on...but, I had no choice and had to wait.

We also stopped at another point, before entering the park, from where we could see the "torres" in the distance. This was the only clear view of the three monolithic granite "torres", the most distinct feature of the national park.

The next stop was at the park's registration office, where we had to register, pay our entrance fee and watch a video about the rules and regulations inside the park. During the informational talk we attended the day before, we were reminded of the recent and very devastating fires that occurred due to the errors of several foreign trekkers!! The video and park rangers, rightfully-so, re-iterated and harped on the fact that it is forbidden to start campfires (at all), and to cook outside of the designated areas. We later found out that the most recent forest fire were actually caused due to 3 or so trekkers who attempted to incinerate their toilet paper!!! I need not say more.  We were reminded of this story towards the end of our trek, when we saw signs stating:  "Toilet paper - take it with you - Do not burn it!". A preceding fire was caused due to a camper attempting to cook on the trail!!

Many of the trekkers who got out at the first stop, were those who trekked along the full circuit (approx. 8 days). We, on the other hand, did not have enough days to complete the full circuit, so opted for the W-circuit instead (5 days). To begin our trek, it was recommended that we continue to the next stop where we would be dropped off at Lago Pehoe. Here we boarded a boat and crossed the lake to our starting point. The 30 minute boat ride was very enjoyable as we took in the breathtaking views of the Patagonian mountains in the near distance and the turquoise coloured waters of the lake

Before beginning our trek, we sat inside a refugio by the lake, to eat some lunch that we brought along. The hike on the first day ranged from easy to difficult. This was the case for most of the trek through Torres del Paine. The views, during the first day, were both horrific in MANY parts and pleasant in others. It was the first time we witnessed the devastating effects of the fires!! How horrendous!  We were in disbelief and were deeply saddened by the fact that at least 90% of the trees, along the trail, were completely dead!  We could only imagine that the trail must have been beautiful with lush greenery on both sides. But, this was no longer the case!

Enough drama! On a positive note, we were able to see some wonderful views onto Lago Grey and the surrounding mountains in the distance. We were also taken by the weird and wonderful formations of icebergs that had broken away from a glacier, nearby.

We arrived at the campground of Refugio Grey, around 7 pm and found a nice quiet spot, away from the main area to pitch our tent. We were happy that the campground had shower facilities, even though we had to pay a little more for such privileges and we wasted no time to freshen up! It was during my shower, that Rakesh was pleasantly surprised by Taté and her boyfriend. We last saw them in El Chalten (Argentina), though knew that they would be doing the full circuit, starting a couple of days before our departure for the W-circuit. Taté seemed to be confident that we would bump into each other during our trek...and she was right! I, however, was skeptical as I didn't think they would get to the same campsite in that time frame. I was surprised, but then found out that they were ahead of time, by a day or so. They wanted to get to the end of the circuit, in order to be able to see the "torres" before the weather spoiled. A tricky decision as, in this area, the weather can change unexpectedly and can also vary quite a bit from one part of the park to another!

At this campsite, there was also a "dinning room" area where people could cook, inside vs outside. Rakesh and I took the opportunity to  cook in the dining room, instead of batteling with the cold and forest flies outside. True campers?, you ask. Answer: yes! We've often roughed it up, but since this cozy little room was available, it was hard to pass up! We made our pasta dinner with packaged tomato sauce and ate it while chatting with a couple of American girls who were sitting at the same table.

Before resigning to our tent, Taté came up to our camping spot and invited us over for a cup of tea. We gladly accepted. We sat on a tree trunk, chatted for a while and then went to bed.

The next day, we got up a little later than we had originally planned. Taté came over to say "goodbye"as she and her boyfriend wanted to continue on. We prepared our hot cereal breakfast and then set off with just a bottle of water and our camera for a two hour hike. We had been told to continue on the trail beyond the campsite to a couple of lookouts onto a glacier. The scenery from the 2 view points were  spectacular! We wanted to go by the side of the glacier and hiked an hour beyond the recommended lookouts. We managed to get to the side of the glacier, but were stopped by a rocky ridge. There were metal ladders to go up and down and across the ridge.  We decided to not go beyond this point, as we had already lost time in making this longer trip.  Nevertheless, we enjoyed the view of the glacier through the narrow opening at the end of the ridge. Had we done the full circuit, we would have come from the opposite direction and would have had even more impressive views, as the trail runs along the side of the glacier, from further in. We could only imagine...but we were still happy with what we saw. [Rakesh writes: We will come back to do the full circuit another time... for sure].

We couldn't waste much more time in the morning, as we had to get back to our campsite, pack up and start heading to our next campsite destination. I remember not particularly enjoying the first half of our trek to our second campsite. This part involved retracing our footsteps from the first day's hike. Hence, the same trail, the same scenery, the same BURNT trees, as the day before. Not only that, but, my backpack seemed to be weighing me down, making me feel uncomfortable...I'm sure, this was mostly psychological, due to the fact that I wasn't particularly enjoying this part of the hike.

After about 6 hours, we finally got to the same place we set off from, the day before. We took a short break at a lodge in this area and then resumed our hike toward the second campsite. We had 4 more hours to go. I was re-invigorated after our short break and was looking forward to hiking through "new" territory. The trail from there on, was fairly easy and the views and terrain were different. We hiked along side a lake, a river, over streams and looked out toward mountain peaks and waterfalls. The unfortunate part, however, was that most of the trees, again, had all been burned down!! Regardless, my backpack was no longer bothering me during this part of the hike :)

The second campsite, Campo Italiano, was beside a beautiful gushing river. By the time we arrived, the campsite was packed and it was a little bit of a feat to find a fairly good spot to pitch our tent. The campsites, here were not delineated from one another. We eventually found a spot that wasn't completely overtaken by tree roots and stones!

This camp ground did not have any of the conveniences that the previous camp had. For instance, there was no running water and so, in order to make our powdered soup for dinner, we had to collect water from the river. We did not mind this at all. It was in fact a treat to get water that came straight from a glacier! So crisp, clean and fresh! Delicious! (I think Rakesh mentioned this in an earlier blog!).

We had to make our dinner in a designated cooking area - an outdoor shelter. We were pretty exhausted by then and cooking in the dark, with only a headlight as a source of light was a little more challenging. Since we were both pretty hungry, we initially thought we would have soup to start with and then a   pre-packaged rice mix for seconds...that thought didn't last for long, as it took about 20 - 30 minutes just to cook the soup!! Boiling, ice-cold water from the river, using a small gas burner takes forever! Our patience quickly ran out and soup was all we ate that night.

The next day began in a similar manner to the day before. We left our backpacks and tent at the campsite, grabbed the bare minimum, filled up our water bottles with river water and off we went to continue along the trail, up north. The hike took us up to another camp area, Campo Britanico and beyond. It was probably one of the toughest hikes, without our backpacks on. The trail took us over boulders, rocks, muddy patches, streams etc., many ascents and descents, but the views from several lookouts were unbelievable and included several hanging glaciers.  [Rakesh writes: boulders and rocks always hurt my already sprained ankle.... Never realized how much we twist the ankle for good balance over uneven surfaces]. Thankfully, this was a section where the trees still existed! We had left the burnt trees behind on our trail the day before and from then on, we were able to enjoy Torres del Paine in its full glory!!

The hike took us about 3 hours to get to the top. From there, we took in one of our favorite views.  An "ampitheatre" of peaks surrounding us. Each peak of a different relief. Most of them granite. Most of them snow-capped. Breathtaking! I could have sat there, on top of a pile of boulders and taken in the view for hours!

After hiking back to Campo Italiano, we packed up our tent and continued onto our third campsite, Refugio Los Cuernos. We took a different trail to get to the refugio. Like before, the trail went through different terrain and the views over the park were stunning. This time we enjoyed the scenery onto and around Lake Nordenskjold. We were pleasantly surprised that the trail, at one point, took us along a small pebble beach by the lake. It was the only lake along our trek that we could walk right up to.

Shortly after, we arrived at the campsite which, again, was pretty packed out. Nevertheless, we found a small spot, big enough for our tent and a little private from everyone else. Since this was part of  another refugio, we had shower privileges one more time (and final time). We showered and then made dinner. This time, while making dinner in a sheltered space (luckily, as it was raining at this point), we got into a nice conversation with an Australian guy. He was toward the end of his lengthy travels and it was nice to exchange some thoughts.

As mentioned above, the weather started to spoil the night before. Sure enough, there was heavy rain and thunderstorms over night, which woke us up from time to time. When we got up, fairly early in the morning, we saw that our tent was completely soaked. We were not provided with the best tent and the water managed to seep in a little and our sleeping bags were pretty damp. Our sleeping bags that were recommended to us in the U.S. were not up to par for the cold temperatures of Patagonia!! No wonder it was hard to stay warm at night!

We did not wake up as early as we wanted, partly due to the fact that we hadn't slept very well and also because it was raining pretty hard. By the time, we managed to unwrap ourselves from our sleeping bags, the rain had practically come to a halt. Perfect! We were able to pack up our tent and belongings, without too much hassle. We made our last of our hot cereal breakfast (we did not plan for enough) and then set out for our hike to the last campsite (Campamento Torres).

This was the longest hike during which we had to carry our backpacks. About 8 hours! Again, the views were impressive. Along this trail, we saw many greenish coloured mountains in the distance and we were taken by their ridge formations created by previous glaciers. These mountains were on the other side of a vast plain in which we saw more glacier lakes. It was the first time we were looking over onto such a plain, in the park.

Unfortunately, during our hike, Rakesh's shoe lace got stuck in the other shoe's hook and tripped him over!!  It was his second fall after the one in El Chalten, which had already messed up his ankle. I was in shock and he was trying to console me!! Somehow, he managed to continue...[Rakesh writes: I had trekking shoes with ankle supports, but I had tied these low to allow for flexibility at my ankle. Tying it high hurt my ankle as it restricted movement.  Little did I realize that this had led to long shoe laces hanging by the side that were to get entangled. This fall unlike the one in El Chalten was rougher.  Slightly bruised palm and knees and a small rip in my rain pants from the gravel path; makes for a real souvenier. I had to console Nicole since she had such a distraught look on her face and was so concerned...At this point I could no longer worry about the ankle].

The trail leading up to Refugio Chileno, where we ended up taking a short break, had beautiful vistas. It went along the slope of a mountain, from where we looked out onto a narrow valley with a gorgeous river running through it. Along this route, we also saw horses for the first time. Horses on which other tourists were riding on, but also ones being used to carry food etc. to and from the refugio.

At the refugio, we took a short break to fill up our water bottles and to pre-order boxed lunches for the next day. We had clearly not planned for enough food for the entire trek. We had already run out of our breakfasts and by then our lunches, too.

It took us another 3 hours to reach our final campsite. From the refugio, most of the trail went through forest areas. It was not an easy trek (going uphill through slippery, muddy slopes), but nevertheless we made it. Toward the end, I could see that Rakesh was getting exhausted. He, after all, was carrying more weight than I was AND after 2 falls, he was the trooper.

I entered the campground shortly before Rakesh arrived. In that time, I had already introduced myself to the park ranger. He wanted Rakesh to be there in order to go over the rules and regulations of the campsite. So, I looked back to see whether he was approaching and saw him standing, with a look of utter exhaustion, at the edge of the campground. I then motioned to him to come over. We heard the usual rules etc. and then pitched our tent. This campsite was between a couple of streams. Again, any water we needed for cooking etc. came straight from these streams.

By the time we started making dinner it was getting dark. Our head lamps came in useful, once again. While I was making the pasta, I got chatting to a guy standing next to me who was also cooking. I came to find out that he is from Belgium and was there with his Belgian girlfriend and friend. Very nice people, though this time I didn't know of the town they came from.

By then, the weather had turned bad again and it was raining. We somehow lucked out as during our trek, that day, it didn't rain at all. The rain stopped before we set off in the morning and resumed in the evening. The rain gods were being considerate with us!

The shelter was pretty cramped with campers trying to stay dry while cooking or eating. While eating our food we sat on a log next to an Indian family (mother, father and 2 young kids). They were an inspiration, that we too can do such trekking with children. Even more of an inspiration came from another family sitting on the other side of us. They were mother, father and baby!! Like the Indian family, they also had trekked along the W-circuit!! Wow! Definitely quite amazing.

Our aim was to go to sleep early that night. The recommendation was to get up at 4am in order to take a hike further north, to the very end of the W-circuit trail and to be there in time to to see the "torres" during sunrise (these are the 3 most distinct peaks which we saw from afar on our first day while entering the park). Ha! Ha! From the looks of the weather, a view of the torres, let alone the glimpse of the sun during sunrise, was highly unlikely.

It was raining at 4 am and we remained in and out of sleep until about 5am. We finally made our way toward the top, around 5:30am. The rain had stopped by then, but we could tell that there was quite a bit of fog around. We took our daypack and set out, with some hope that maybe the fog would clear up a little by the time we got up to the "torres". The hike was quite a challenge, especially since the trail was quite muddy. During the last portion of the trail we had to walk along boulders. Nevertheless, the path along the boulders was well marked, making it a lot less daunting.

By the time we got to the finish point, there were already quite a few people there. Those were the optimists who set off at 4am to catch the sunrise. Though, I can't imagine they saw much. All we could see was a small emerald green glacier lake in between the cloud and fog covered peaks (we knew the peaks were there, but couldn't see them). We hung around for a half hour or so, just to see what the rolling clouds would uncover. At one point we caught a glimpse of part of a peak, but it still wasn't much. We took a picture by a sign depicting the different peaks and stating "the end of the trail". Shortly after, we made our back.

Once at the campsite, we packed up and set off for a fairly long hike toward the park's hotel. We first stopped off at Refugio Chileno where we picked up our lunch boxes and ate our lunch by the river, below us. The trail up to a certain point, was the same as the day before. It then branched off to go down hill toward the hotel. Much of the views, on this day, were the same as what we had seen the day before. We nevertheless, felt invigorated as, by then, we already had a sense of accomplishment.

We were told about a shuttle that could take us back to the park's entrance, from the hotel. We also had the option of walking for another 2 hours, from the hotel to the entrance, though we would have had to be masochists to do so [Rakesh writes:  We both agreed that one needs to be a little masochistic to embark on such a trek, anyway... we did not want to prove this and seal the deal all the way through :)...]. Instead, we were happy to pay $2 each for ride.

We arrived at the hotel a half hour before the first shuttle. During this half hour, we were pleased to visit the hotel which was built in great taste. I almost fell asleep on a comfortable and plush sofa in the lobby. We sat at the restaurant bar and ordered two cups of hot chocolate to celebrate our feat. Unfortunately, the hot chocolate did not taste much other than boiled water. I instantly remembered that we had a bar of chocolate in our daypack, left over from our lunch box and turned our not so chocolatey hot chocolate, into quite a tasty one! We weren't too sure, what the bar man would think upon seeing the left over streaks of chocolate in our cups! We had a good laugh and still have one, reminiscing about it :)

We boarded the shuttle and arrived at the entrance in time to catch our bus back to Puerto Natales.

December 19 - 20, last night in Puerto Natales:

To celebrate our accomplishment, once again, Rakesh and I went back to our favorite pizza restaurant of South America (the one we went to the night before we set off on our trek). We treated ourselves to more good pizza and a glass of wine, each. We sat next to an English couple who had also finished the W-circuit and found out that they would be on the same plane to Puerto Montt, the next day.

Our flight wasn't until the late afternoon the next day. In the late morning, we spent a couple of hours in a laundromat in order to wash and dry practically all of our clothes. Normally, we would have left our laundry to be done for us, but we were limited on time and after our trek we were desperate for clean clothes!!!

For lunch we went to a vegetarian restaurant that Rakesh had read about on the internet (and from which we were side tracked by the pizza place some days earlier). It was definitely worthwhile going to that restaurant, too!!

We returned to the hostel in time to pick up our backpacks and head to the airport. From there we boarded a plane to Puerto Montt. It was our only choice to get a plane. There are only lakes and no roads immediately north of  Puerto Natales. Other than by flight, one could get to Puero Montt, north of the lakes, by ferry which takes 5 days, or via bus which goes through Argentina. Neither of these were options for us considering our time frame.