Torres Del Paine

I felt like what I wrote about from my 8 days wasn't a sufficient explanation of what Torres Del Paine was like. First of all it is massive, you can never see more then a small part of it, the mountains around you take care of that. And you won't see more than the top of the towers until you are at the lookout (or far outside the park). When you walk around on the "W" you walk in paths that have been trodden up to 25 or 30 cm down; when you are on the backside, suddenly the path is just there, not trodden down but just worn away grass, if even that. Sometimes it would just be trodden grass or nothing at all, it gave for a much cooler impression of being in the wilderness. Another notion giving that feeling, is the solitude. On the W you are always overtaking people, being overtaken or meeting people walking in your opposite direction. On the 4th day when I left Hosteria Las Torres and walking to Camp Serón, I met 3 people walking in the opposite direction shortly after I set out, and that was that.

The nature also changes a lot. On the "W" (apart from heading up the valleys) you always have a view of the lakes, and you are much closer to the mountains. On the backside; there is only water near Camp Dickson (and just there), but the paths you walk on and the area around them is much greener, but then you are also much further away from the mountains. On certain (sometimes long) stretches on the backside, you are walking in forest obscuring your view, something which is really annoying. E.g. on my first sick day (day 6), I walked for 4 hours in close forest, before suddenly being thrown out in a totally unprotected area facing strong winds... To say I was surprised is to put it mildly.

It really is a magnificent place, this isn't one of those place you drop by when you are traveling in Chile (like I did); it is a place that should be the point of a travel. Had I known about it before I left I would have been psyched for ages; but I never heard about it until I reached Ushuaia, I'm just happy that I found out about it.