Patagonia

This was supposed to be the meat of my time spent with my friend and in Chile, It would in no way disappoint. We were lucky enough to be able to find a cheap 45 minute flight across the border to avoid the very round about 18 hour bus ride. Our point of arrival was Punto Arenas, where we'd meet the last member of our hiking crew, a friend of a friend who was a valuable edition to the group. Punto Arenas was certainly not much to look at, very run down and to be fair, pretty sketchy. We found a hostel, which served its purpose and was cheap, but it should have been given I don't think the building will be standing in 5 years and most certainly would be condemned in the US.

In the morning, the 3 of us set off for Puerto Natales, the jumping off point in Chile for the Torres Del Paine (towers of pain) National Park. It was also not the nicest place, but it had an element of charm in its center as it sees multitudes of tourists yearly. We spent the day gathering supplies and getting our packs in order for an early morning departure. We stored the remaining stuff at the hostel and were each carrying nearly 20 Kgs in preparation for 5 nights in the park.

We set off for the park early in the morning. The weather was decent so we took the advice of several travelers we met and headed for the supposed crown jewel of the park, the torres. The walk wasn't so bad, about a half days walk uphill to the camp and another 45 minute rock scramble to the top. The weather didn't quite hold, but the towers were still impressive with the tops in cloud cover. We sipped Mate (Argentine tea) at the top and it began to sleet. We made our way back to camp and met a couple of French girls who we would spend the next day walking with. It was the coldest night by far and the sleep was less than restful.

We hitched our wagon to our new friends the next day and had our longest walk of the trip. Overall it was a great walk. We stopped about ¾ through the day to have lunch and then pushed through the last couple of hours. When we arrived we had a French inspired dinner including sausage,cheese, pasta and red wine...Not bad for camping. This was mostly just a travel day, but the views of the blue green lakes from the path were gorgeous.
The next day we went up into a valley overlooking the lakes in the distance and hemmed in by mountains and were accompanied by a nice group of Israelis. It was really impressive, we ate lunch on a high rock lookout in the valley and then made our way back to the original camp. This was the first of two places we'd spend the night twice.

The next day was a long walk and were on our own. It was the first day(and only aside from the last day) when I awoke and really didn't feel like moving. We had been hitting it pretty hard and my feet were tired and blistered. The first couple hours were bad enough and that was the flattest bit in the whole park. By the time we got to our lunch afternoon stop, I was downright dejected. I was angry at my existence and didn't want to move one more step. We had another 1 and half hours uphill and i couldn't even fathom it. My best friend was clearly sick of my bitching and was also getting frustrated, but luckily he knows how to goad me properly and he made me so angry that I decided to lead the way up the hill out of spite. It felt great to finally make to camp. I should probably mention that this was one of the most spectacular walks of the trip as it overlooked a massive glacier. The camp sat just over the foot of the glacier and sipping matte as the sun set over it was fulfilling.

The next day we were to keep the same camp and head further up the glacier. We were above the normal tourist trail at this point and the trails were less worn and there were less people around in general. I walked about 5 or 6 hours round trip and my friends continued up a bit further. The walk back by myself was really enjoyable. I was able to take in the silence and serenity without seeing hardly anyone and when I returned to the campsite I was the only one there.

That would be the last night we spent in the park. We awoke before dawn to trek the 4 hours or so to the boat that would ferry us across to the bus back to the city. When we arrived there was a definite feeling of accomplishment and exhaustion after walking nearly 90 miles over the past days. We also almost certainly smelled unbearable. As we readied to board the ferry we cracked beers, pulled some rum and smoked Cuban cigars my friend had been saving. It was a fitting end to a great hike.