Torres Del Paine

The Day Before:
As I wrote in my last post, I didn't complete the last day before, so here it is.

I was directed to a place called Mesita Grande, and it turned out to be the best pizza I have ever had. It was so freaking delicious I had a hard time believing it. Unfortunately for me, I was too hungry and ate it much too fast.

Back at the hostel I started talking with a Canadian named Jenny from and bought two delicious home-baked chocolate chip cookies. Later in the evening, I had a long conversation with a German girl in German (Anette would be proud, not my stepmother, another one); Jenny and Susan (an employee at Erratic Rock) decided to watch Tommy Boy; but as it turned out guests kept pouring in and so we had to quit watching the movie and I went to bed.

1st day (February 12th) in Torred Del Paine (map for all 8 days):

The first day was fairly simple, after a nice busride where I took some pictures (1) (2) and meet a friendly couple from New Zealand and a cool Londoner named Craig (who I would meet again later), I landed at the administration around 12.00 I got dropped off at the park administration and walked for5,5 hours up to Albergue y Camping Pehoe. The first day was marked by Lucas and I spending an hour lost trying to find the trail (only time I got lost), but the rest of the day was fairly easy and straightforward. I managed to take some nice pictures (clicky).

The pictures of Lago Pehoe are incredible, the lake really is that colour, you never get tired of looking at it. Not much else occurred, the weather was a stable mix between cloudy and sunny. When we eventually made it to our campground, we simply just made ravioli, talked to some random people for a while before going to bed. I do however recall one particular conversation. A Californian (I think) told me about his travels in Colombia, and it just seems so great. He told me how he had never felt unsafe (by South American standards anyway) and that Bogota was one of the greatest and safest major cities in South America, you just had to stay in government controlled areas and you were in a really great country. I have for some time now really wanted to go there, but my parents are not too keen on the idea, and I would never go without their support.

2nd day (13th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

We (Lucas & me) tried to get up at 7 o'clock as he wanted to head up the left arm of the W with 3 American girls he met on the bus while I went to Campamento Italiano to go up and see Valle Frances (but leave my rucksack at Camp. Italiano). On my way walking there I met a group of English people, Katy with her boyfriend John, hey mother Susan and her mothers boyfriend... John. I walked with them all the way to Camp. Italiano, left my rucksack with their travel packs and walked up Valle Frances (1) (2) with them. Especially Katy and hey boyfriend John proved to be mighty good conversation, they had taken a year off to go travel around the entire world (and they really had gone to all corners of the world). We talked about more or less everything, camera's (they too have a 400D), traveling etc. We were about to get to garden gnomes (not really) when we reached Camp. Italiano again; I had agreed with Lucas that I would wait for him in Camp. Italiano for his return, and we would then walk together towards our camp for the night.

When Lucas had returned Urs appeared out of nowhere, seemingly very confused and nearly lost. However we soon got him turned around and we continued towards Los Cuernos together, but Lucas was rather slow and it was soon just Urs and me. Urs is Swiss and a very nice guy, just like with the English, I talked to Urs about more or less everything, and even managed to practice some German.

We eventually managed to get to Los Cuernos after walking along Lago Nordenskjold (1) (2) (3) for a long time. Set up our camp, cooked pea soup, ravioli and noodles for dinner.

3rd day (14th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

When we woke up there was a spectacular sight, but as soon as Lucas and I set off, we quickly found Urs and walked towards the last camp before the famous towers (1). Halfway there we found a shortcut and cut off about 2 hours of the trip, and as it was early in the day we sped up to try and watch the towers on that day, as we had been told the weather would be poor the following day.

When we made it to the last Camp. Torres we had walked 5 hours (except for a 30 minute food break that Urs had) and took a short break before climbing the last 45 minutes up to the towers where plenty of pics were taken (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (coming up the the Camp. Torres I met Tamar, Adina, Mike and Roman from Punta Arenas, and at the top I met Katy and her boyfriend John as well as Craig).

Back down in the camp I got to talking with some Americans who had come back from working in the Antarctic as volunteers, an idea which hugely appealed to me as I would really like to see the white continent. But I talked for a long while with Nick from... Maryland? In any case we all had an early evening as we wanted to get up the following day for the sunrise on the towers.

4th day (15th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

I had agreed with Urs to get up at 5 in the morning, but when I didn't appear from my tent he came to check if everything was alright... Well 3 things were wrong; it was too cold, too early and too dark. Instead Lucas decided to get up (he had previously had no plans of such), so I didn't get to watch the top of the towers turn red, instead I got to see some rainbows (1) (2), and I waited around at the top for an hour and a half to get a fairly cloud free pictures (1).

This was also the day that Lucas, Urs and pretty much everybody else went home as the W was done, and unlike me they weren't doing the circuit or the Q. As a result they had all headed down way before me to catch the 14 o'clock bus back to Puerto Natales, so my walk down from the mountains was very much solo. Down at the bottom I did however meet up with all them for a proper goodbye before they left.

At the Hosteria Las Torres I got my camera recharged for free and during that break, ate an outrageously priced but VERY good sandwich (6300 Chilean pesos) and wrote I bit in my diary.

Once my camera had fully recharged I walked to Camp. Seron. which was a very very very very long walk, it was rather scenic (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) but very flat and monotonous. When I finally made it to Camp. Seron, it was rather late and I just cooked some quick ravioli, borrowed some salt from my neighboring Germans and went comfortably to bed (although a bit cold).

5th day (16th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

The backside of the trail is very different from the frontside (the W). The paths are far less trodden, they are sort of flat on the ground (although clearly visible), whereas they on the frontside the path could be as deep as 25 cm. The frontside also had very open terrain with almost constant views over a lake or mountains etc. far far away. Here on the backside it is more valley like, much more closed (1) (2) (3).

But mostly it was just a very long day (6 hours), and it felt particularly long as I walked this day alone. The weather was very changing; the weather changes a lot around the trek, but on this specific day I got hail, strong winds, heavy rain and lots of sunshine. The terrain wasn't very good however, for a very big part of the day I walked in nothing but marsh, but the views were good and I found some interesting places (1).

After a long day of struggle against the weather, the terrain and the fatigue of my legs; I came upon the beautiful location of Camp. Dickson (1). Situated on a peninsula in a glacial river, the view is spectacular. You climb up a little while until suddenly you are standing in the southern direction looking north at the camp with parts of the river in between, it truly is stunning (I apologise for the poor colours, they don't do it justice). The view from the campsite itself was quite good (1).

It was at Camp. Dickson that I would meet my next hiking partner and soon-to-be lifesaver. Rafael a psychiatrist from Porto Alegre in Brazil, he was very good company, good conversation and a very funny guy (1).

For dinner I ate some pasta with an Alfredo sauce that you will soon hear more about.

6th day (17th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

BLAARGH! That was the sound I awoke to half past midnight. The 200 gram of pasta and the 125 gram of Alfredo sauce exciting my stomach in noticeable portions every 10 or 15 minutes for much too long. I was only saved by the nofloxacin (antibiotics) and ondansetron (for my nausea) that Rafael had with him (hence he was my saviour); I did have anti-biotics myself, but I had no flashlight, no contact lenses on and I wasn't very much able to go through my rucksack. I was extremely cold but sweating in my joints and trying not to get worse. When the sun eventually rose after a horrible night, I got up to stretch my legs, ran to the toilet and just walked around trying to regain some strength.

The worst part of being on the backside is how remote it is, there was no easy wasy back to Hosteria Las Torres, and all the horses were rented out. So I went back to bed hoping to get some sleep, recover a bit and go on. I woke up again around 13 o'clock, took my tent down, packed my bag and walked towards Camp. Los Perros.

The previous day had seemed very hard, but due to my condition, this was far worse. I once again walked alone all day, the terrain was constantly going up and down, and it was all in forest. The best sign of me feeling ill is the very low amount of pictures taken on this day; even though those I took were quite nice (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6).

I had been wondering about whether I would write the following, it can be quite strong to read (it was to experience), but I will write it in white so that you have to highlight it in order to read it.

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I was walking in the forest near a bridge when suddenly, the second part of food intoxication kicked in. The human body has two main openings meant for food to pass through, I had already vomited so that only left one. In the case of food intoxication your "leavings" are quite fluid and not easy to control. Suffice it to say, I was tired, ill and suddenly my trousers smelled horribly. So I just sat down and thought "I quit", but of course that would do no good. So after a short break I was standing around in the forest wearing nothing but a tshirt, packing my pants and trousers down into a plastic bag folded 3 times over; and so I walked the last 3 hours, high in the mountains wearing nothing but pants (that's underwear for any Americans who might stumble by); you would also be surprised at how much people stare at you. Furthermore knowing the challenge the following day, I had to wash my trousers (eww) as I couldn't cross the pass without them, it would be too crazy.

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Eventually I made it to the campsite where Rafael was waiting for me. In order to be sure not to freeze, I had a bit of conversation with some New Zealanders who had a VERY strong accent (I couldn't tell the difference between bitter and better). But I had an early night as I (surprisingly) wasn't feeling well.

7th day (18th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

The (physically) hardest of all days, and I had at this point not had any nutrition since the beginning of day 5. On this the 7th day, my intention was to cross the pass and make it to Albergue Grey. I met up with Rafael who had met a Russian (Vovar) and two Americans (Connor and Matthew), so around 10.30 (two hours delayed) we set out towards the John Gardner pass. The trip up was very hard, very swampy, very wet, very rocky and generally just very hard. After 3 hard hours we found ourselves standing at the top of the pass, by far the highest point along the trek (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10).

But getting up is only half the task. Getting down proved to be far harder; it took 3 hours to get up, but getting down to the first camp on the other side (Camp. Paso) took an incredible 4 hours, and it was much harder on the legs. It was 4 very steep hours of holding on to trees, ropes and railings, trying not to get hurled down the hillside at a dangerous speed. The first part had offered spectacular views over the Grey glacier (1) (2); however the rest of the trip was entirely in forest. I took a long break and Camp. Paso where Rafael also came (I had left the others at the pass) and ate some food, I tried to eat some pasta but vomited it all up on the way to Camp. Los Guardias. It was at this time (we left Camp. Paso at 18 o'clock) also very clear that we wouldn't make it to Reguio Grey.

But luckily the trail between Camp. Paso and Camp. Los Guardias turned out to be very scenic, and unlike the first tough 7 hours, it was now easy to talk and Rafael managed to teach me a lot about aperture (on cameras) and we talked about pretty much anything (Rafael had just been given a PS2 and was very interested in it). (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9).

After about 2,5 hours we made it to Camp. Los Guardias, I pitched my tent, rolled out my sleeping bag, went to the nearby Mirador (lookout) and took a nice picture, went back to my tent and fell asleep.

8th day (19th of February) in Torres Del Paine:

The last day in the park. I wanted this to be a nice easy day, but I still couldn't get any food down, so I was feeling very weak and very tired. The weather was also incredibly gray so the 4,5 hours spent walking to Albergue Pehoe where the catamaran sails from (which would take me to a bus that would take me to Puerto Natales sails from) were rather dull and didn't create any grand pictures. Later in the day the weather did clear and so towards the end of the trail, I did get to snap a few decent picturs (1) (2) (3), although the gray colours were still prevalent (1) (2). The last part of the trail is walked in a very narrow valley with no views for orientation which made me frustrated as I was very tired, not just physically and mentally, but it felt like my legs were coming apart and I was getting annoyed at everything (even the ever so friendly Rafael, and for that I do apologise), but suddenly, straight ahead, Lago Pehoe appeared in front of Rafael at the end of the valley, and I knew that I would soon be relaxing (1).

Once I was at Albergue Pehoe, hunger swelled back. I managed to mash two huge ham and cheese sandwiches down my throat (although I had to surrender when there was only a small part of the second one left, which a nice Belgian couple I had been talking to ate). But aside from that, not much happened between I arrived and when the boat left at 18.30. The weather cleared to allow for some pictures (1) (2) (3) (4).

The trip on board the catamaran was nothing special, but the bus on the other side however, was special. I sat next to a Californian named Brian who was a really cool guy, with whom I had one of the best and most interesting conversations with. He seemed very interested in a Europeans thought on Obama and the other candidates in America, as well as my travels; and likewise I took a particular interest in his travels. As it turned out he was teaching English in Santiago with 3 of his friends (who were also traveling with him now), with whom he also went around spreading the catholic word. Which meant that we also had a very long discussion about religion, but at in a very civilized way; it really was one of the better conversations I have had in South America. The busride itself offered some nice pictures of the park whilst driving away from it (1) (2), but most spectacular was the sunset we could see from the bus, oh my what a view (please watch all 6) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6).

Back in Puerto Natales I found my way back to Erratic Rock and got a bed in their annex. Before going to bed I went and ate one of the great Mesita Grande pizza's (with salami) before hanging out at Erratic Rock for an hour and then finally going to bed.