Patagonia: Torres del Paine

Patagonia is magical.  Pachamama is incredible--the views here are unreal.
I did the ¨W¨in Torres del Paine--a 4 day hike through the National Park, and although the things I saw were amazing, I do not understand the appeal of trekking.  If I want to see nature, I can get in a canoe--that way I enjoy the journey as well as the end result.  Walking for 8-12 hours a day with 20 kilos on you back is not so much fun.  But the rewards at the end of those walks were completely breathtaking.

Lago Grey

The first day I hiked up to Glaciar Grey.  The Aussies I had met on the bus and started the hike with had shot up way ahead of me, but I ended up meeting some Israelis who were going more my pace.  We climbed 11 km up to our campground and set up.  From there we went up another 4 km to get up close to the glacier and it was crazy!  We saw pieces falling off, crashing down into the water, filling the entire park with the sound of thunder.  From there we climbed back down to our campsite.

Glaciar Grey

The second day we climbed back down to Paine Grande, and then another 7.6km to campamiento Italiano. The second half of the climb was alright, but the first part was not fun at all, as at times youre climbing down rocks that aren´t even a path with a giant pack on your back making you less balanced, terrified you're going to go tumbling down.  We then had to argue with the park rangers because the camp was supposedly closed, and they wanted us to walk another 2.5 hours to the next refugio, where they were going to make us pay 8000 pesos each just to camp in our own tents.  It´s complete bullshit that they have private companies operating out of a national park turning a profit, and essentially forcing us to stay on their land and pay them by shutting down the CONAF-run campgrounds.  I´m happy to pay park fees to finance rangers and maintenance, but to force us to pay a private company to camp in the national park that we already paid an entrance fee to? Not cool.  They eventually let us stay, as we argued we would not make it to the next campground by sunset, and it would be dangerous to walk in the dark.  They ended letting like 20 tents camp there after us anyways.

Day 2 of trekking

The third day I split up with the Israelis, as they had 5 days in the park and I only had 4, and they were spending an entire day going up and back down the French Valley.  That day was sooo long for me--first I walked 5.5km to Cuernos where I stopped for lunch.  From there it was another 15km to Campamiento Chileno, almost all uphill.  I thought I was going to die.  And I had been saving some chocolate as a reward for myself once I got to a certain point in the trail and had been so looking forward to it, but when I got there I discovered it had all melted!  It was really sad.  The final 2 hours were such a struggle, but just as I was finishing I met this other Canadian guy who was super friendly and just starting the trek (going in the opposite direction as me).  I kicked off my boots the second I got to Chileno, and after about a 20 minute break thought Fuck it, I´m going to Torres.  So I put back on those god-awful boots and went another 5km up to Campamiento Torres.  I left that morning at 8am, and didn´t arrive to Torres until 9:45pm.  Luckily the sun doesn´t set til like 10:30 here.  The valleys I walked above were unreal!  And I crossed a stream with rocks that had been coloured red.  I´m not sure why that would be, as all the rivers have the same source in the park, but I guess there were some mineral deposits in that area.  It was also crazy as I would be crossing so many little streams that all fed into the same river--there must have been hundreds of little streams from the snow on top of the mountain that all eventually meet up into one big river which leads into one of the many gorgeous lakes.  The colour of some of the lakes was unlike anything I have ever seen in nature before--turquoises so bright and vivid you can´t believe your eyes!

The third deathly day.  All uphill was exhausting, but resulted in stunning views like this.

I was really glad that I had gone that extra bit in the morning, as we woke up at 4am to leave at 4:30 and hike up to the Base de las Torres for sunrise.  It was completely magical, and the perfect culmination to 4 days in the park.

2 stages of the Sunrise at Base de las Torres

I ended up hiking back down quite leisurely with a British guy I had met at Italiano, as our shuttle back wasn´t until 2pm.  In total I hiked about 78.5km, with my bag diminshing to about 15 kilos by the end when all the food was going.  And I would have been happy to never put on my hiking boots again.  The vastness and diversity of the park though was incredible!

Sun rising up the valley, casting light on the towers on the other side.  UNREAL!

There are 18 different ecosystems all in the same park.  At certain points I would be looking at rockface jutting out of the water and think that this environment could be Georgian Bay...until I looked up and saw the snow-capped mountains as a backdrop to this scene.  At times I would be on top of a giant mountain, looking up at an even bigger one across the valley, only to see these giants dwarfed by the monstrous mountains that provide a backdrop to everything in the park.  Also, the freshly melted water from the glaciers that made up the streams and lakes in the park was so pure and fresh.  It was amazing to see the snow on the top of the mountain, a little further down see the cascada starting to form, and then much further downstream sipping that same delicious water.

Journey of the purest water I have ever tasted.

Pachamama is amazing.