Puerto Natales: 51.7° S Lat. Sun & Cloud, 16°

 Torres Del Paine! I Never Thought I’d Get Here...

Since getting off the ship things have been busy. I’m writing this on a bus, now in Argentina on our way east. It’s been a long day with a few complications, but we’re still moving towards El Chatlen. After the ship arrived we ran around getting bus tickets sorted out and our park passes. There was a large, noisy nonviolent protest as we arrived in port, but I’ve not had time to review those photos yet. After that was finished we met Francoise and Brigitte our neuve ship friends from Quebec City. They are spending a year travelling and we seem to have much in common. We had a lovely evening together and finally enjoyed that bottle of wine. We even talked politics! Great seafood restaurant and so reasonable! We have made a nice connection and expect our paths will cross again somewhere on this planet.

Home and into bed late then even later I posted my last journal entry. The next morning up early to experience something quite special. A trek into Torres del Paine National Park! This is a place I never thought I’d make it to and it’s been on my to experience list for a very long time. For walkers/trekkers it’s kind of in the realm of one of those must experience journeys. It’s a two hour bus ride to the park gate where we were greeted by a park warden who provided us with a spirited speech on all the do’s and don’ts. We then picked up one of the regular shuttles for the ride into the National Park. It of course rained all the way there and into the park, but we’d decided to go anyway. We might never come this way again and we had nothing to loose. So we did. Great decision! This trek is part of the famous ‘W’ trekking route, but we didn’t have the time for the whole 5 day experience. We did however walk the eastern / of the W which was enough to satisfy this guy for some time.

There were initially a few trekkers and tour bus day-groups, but we soon distanced ourselves from the group guided walks. Saved ourselves about $250 by going independently. A bit of bus hassle, but overall a better way to go. The clouds are low on he mountains as we set off, but the rain has stopped. On the way to the bus I was cursing leaving my wet pants at the hostel, but as it turned out we never needed them. From time to time a few sprinkles, but I sweat so profusely that it didn’t really matter very much, and Nike most others I just wore a light t-shirt and my thin cycling vest.

The first kilometre was pretty easy, but then we started the main event. An 18 km round trip full of thrills and spills! We climbed away from the glacial outwash plain and looking back the views were quickly becoming pretty nice. Still rain here and there and too much cloud for my liking, but overall we were really pleased.

Once off the plain the walk continues up a gorge with steep scree slopes and precipitous drops to the right. 

Eventually we approach the first stage hut. Things are beginning to get better and better. 

We cross small creeks and and at one point our second bridge crosses the glacial meltwater stream.

Then we arrive at the W’s first base camp. One can rent a tent already set up, and most folks do I think. There is food here which is brought in by pack hire. Beer too!

Those who can’t trek, or won’t ride up to here, but not beyond. Accommodations within the park are astonishingly high, so some just rent a horse as well...maybe: )

We set out on the second phase to the next camp area. We meet some hikers who are clearly going the distance for the complete W, and most are a whole lot younger than we are. Big packs and hiking sticks as well. Hats off to them. That’s not to say that fit ‘older’ types couldn’t do this trek; )

The views get better as we climb and the clouds continue to lift which makes me happy and also hopeful that the day will be a success. 

We arrive at the second camp where the trail leaves the glacial valley, hangs a left and goes pretty much straight up..

At this point Annemarie tells me that she may not complete the third stage and that if she makes that decision she will return to camp 2 and wait for me. This in fact happens, and after making sure that she is ok with me continuing alone, I do so. 

I decide as I climb that Annemarie has made a very wise decision. The climb gets seriously steeper. Remember, we’ve been on a ship for 4 days (eating too much!) and prior to that in a car for a week, albeit with 2 decent treks during that time and multiple laps of the ship. Not the same, and after 5+ weeks of travel some conditioning has seemingly evaporated. However I’m too excited to stop and I push on. Stunning climb.

I’m pleased on the way up through the boulder scree that I don’t have my poles. Those many with them are off balance and actually a little dangerous as there are few places to plant them. Here you need your hands free. 

I crest the top of the climb and in front of me....

The famous granite spires aren’t quite clear, but I don’t really mind.

I can’t resist having my photo taken here and I approach a young woman who has a beautiful camera and ask her if she would consent to the task. She does and her boy friend jokes that she just got the nice camera yesterday. I don’t think so.

I sit on the rocky shoreline eating my favourite hiking food, mountain mix and bananas and try to rehydrate as best as I can while taking in this spectacular place. 

The famous granite spires are right there in front of me! It’s not completely clear, but I’ve learned that this is secondary to the experience. I’m just happy to have the time to enjoy this natural amphitheater. I don’t want to leave Annemarie for too long as it’s taken an hour to climb since leaving her behind. So I take it all in one last time and then climb out from the lake and begin the decent. It’s almost as tough going down as it was going up. Is that possible. 

It’s now quite busy with several hundreds coming up as I proceed down. We lucked out being in one of the very first shuttles into the park. At one bottle neck I comment to those around me that this must be like what the Everest summit is like now with too many trying to summit and return. We all laugh, but the point is made that even places like this are getting busy, something of a pilgrimage for many trekkers. There is also a community among the trekkers here. I meet several folks from the ship. I also meet two young guys, one from Zurich, Switzerland and the other from Santiago de Compostella, Spain who I walked with earlier on the climb. I tell the Spanish fellow that I’ve walked into his city 5 times and we are immediately friends. It’s like that. I thought they were way ahead of me, but I guess at some point I got in front of them. They were climbing up as I descended and they tell me that they’ve seen Annemarie and that she’s fine.

I continue down noticing that the peaks are clearing and that the sun is poking through. My day is made.  

I reach Annemarie thinking that she’ll likely be a bit upset with me. I’ve prepared myself for this as it took longer to get up to the granite spires than we thought it would. However, to my relief she tells me that she just arrived at Camp 2. She had actually decided to continue on until she decided that the climb was to hard on her knees. That’s wonderful news! She is really pumped that she climbed as high as she did, well up the steep latter section. Bottom to top is 900 metres with the majority of the climb and steepness during the last third. So we are both really pleased. 

We head down together and I’m surprised how long it takes to get down. All in all it takes 6.5 hours return. They warn people it can take 8-9 hours so to be aware of the time. 

I’m wishing now that I had my sticks because I’ve pulled an upper calf muscle on the last part of the climb and it’s tightened up. A little vitamin I is taken to help release, but it doesn’t help. We stop at Camp 1 to refill our empty hydration packs. The water here is potable and ice cold. It’s the only water we’ve had since leaving home that hasn’t from from some type of a bottle. So good! More supplies on their way in.

We continue to the bottom...

???

The views back are great! 

We have a couple of hours until the shuttles start to run so we order some of the excellent ‘Patagonia’ brand beer and sit back with the crackers and pâté we’ve carried up and back down. Dinner tonight won’t be happening as with our bus back to town almost an hour late we don’t arrive at the bus terminal until well after 10. My little injury problem has tightened up and I need Annemarie’s pole to hobble to our hostel. We shower, pack our gear and crawl into bed. 

Up early this morning and after a nice breakfast, which they do so well in SA, we walk to the bus depot. I’m walking somewhat better. The bus takes us to the Chile/Argentina frontier and it takes time to clear both border crossings. The bus drives so slow that we miss our connection by two full hours! So we get the last two seats on this double decker that left at 16:30 for the three hour trip to El Chatlen which we are now approaching as I finish this. Annemarie upstairs with apparently the party bunch (she tells me at a road side break) while I’m down here with the airport pick up lot who are quieter. I sleep, take some photos and then continue to write. As we left El ...... the police with dogs pull us over and 4 come on board and check identification. They dogs go through the luggage and everyone looks unhappy and uncomfortable. Except the military type police. The young woman beside me tells me that she  accidentally left her ID in El Chatlen and came here for the the day to shop. The police, all four of them, question her and look through her personal bags seemingly without asking, write down her name, employer’s phone number and her address. It’s all quite interesting and in these disruptive times she tells me afterwards, pretty standard treatment. She’s seen my Canadian passport during the inspection and we discuss how this isn’t the norm in Canada. This again reminds me about one of the key reasons we travel. To understand, experience and to observe. I really like where We live.

Leg heals through this long day. It’s now almost 20:00 with full daylight. We still have some distance to travel, perhaps a half hour. Then straight to dinner. Not eating crackers two nights in a row! The excess we gathered on the ship is already long gone so we will hopefully enjoy a good meal tonight with a little of that brilliant Argentine Malbec red that I’ve missed while in Bolivia and Chile. Four days left in Argentina before we return to Chile so I plan to sample! 

We hope to be able to trek up towards Mount Fitzroy tomorrow. A long trek, so hopefully I’ll wake up with my normal leg again. It’s started raining out now and wasn’t forecast to do so, so hopefully it will clear for tomorrow. Little point trekking in the rain. Of course that would leave us time to shop (boring) and sample wines (much less boring).  I’m looking out the window at some huge mountains on the right side of the bus and a massive lake on the left side. 

More later.