We´re a bit stuck on this circuit right now, and given that it´s the middle of summer here it is completely packed. What does that mean? Lots of people doing the same thing, difficult to find a place to stay, and expensive. It is what it is for now, but we want to get out of this "rut" as soon as we can, to have a real local experience down here (if possible!). We´re having a great time and seeing/doing amazing things, but that´s not the only reason we took this time off...
Anyway, one of the "must see" things down here is a National Park equivalent to our Yosemite or Yellowstone, called "Torres Del Paine" (literally, the Towers of Pain!). There´s a famous 4 day hike here called the "W", and it is simply stunning (google it). There are all sorts of places to rent hiking and camping gear, and it is organized pretty well. If you´ve done the Inca Trail or Kilimanjaro, it´s the same idea, but you´re on your own rather than doing the hike with an organized tour. Unfortanately, some knuckle-headed tourist started a HUGE forest fire 2 weeks before we got here and burned down half the park. Literally. So here we are, at this amazing national park, and half of the park is closed. People travel from all over the world just to do this hike and A large portion of it is closed. Turns out, it was probably good that the entire thing wasn´t open...we aren´t quite yet back in good physical shape, so a few days less was okay with us!
Hiking Torres Del Paine
Day One
Hosteria Las Torres to Refugio Los Cuernos
5 hours, 7 miles
We took off and decided that we´d carry our own gear - packs, food, stove, etc. In hindsight...this may not have been the best idea! The first day we trekked for almost 5 hours for a distance of almost 7 miles (11km) to a campground called Los Cuernos. This place was awesome. Just imagine a crazy long day of hiking - up, down, fording rivers, all with a 30 pound pack on your back. We booked a cabin here, mostly because there was a hot tub, which was AMAZING! The view from here was just ridiculous. Imagine yourself surrounded by a glaciar, crazy granite towers, and a waterfall just outside your cabin. Stunning.
An amazing cabin...and view!
The rude awakening happened around 2am, when a blast of wind woke us up. The gust not only woke us up, but shook the ENTIRE CABIN...including the foundation. Scary, yes. Needless to say, this didn´t stop the rest of the night...or the next day...or the next night...or even when we left. At first I was like, this wind would be sweet for kitesurfing...but then realized the gusts were up to about 75 mph. No joke, someone measured it. Try hiking with a pack, at the apex of a mountain, unprotected by trees, trying not to fall down into the glacial lake. Yeah. I´ll try and upload the video another time...it is crazy!
Day Two
Refugio Los Cuernos
Day of rest and relaxation! We stayed at the Cuernos campsite - oh, and by the way, they have a really cool thing here called a "refugio". It´s basically a big cabin or hut that you can hike to and stay in so you don´t have to bring a tent or food! Pretty pricey though, so we haven´t stayed in one yet. Oh, the howling wind continued. We slept probably about 2 hours total this night because of the crazy wind.
It´s not windy at all...
Day Three
Cuernos to Refugio Chileno
9 miles, 5 hours, 45 minutes 2750 vertical feet at max
Yep. This was a tough day. After fighting the crazy winds from Cuernos, we made it to the base of the mountain to get to next night´s campsite. Turns out it was straight uphill. For hours and hours. We were more than worn out after this hike, but decided that since we are here, we might as well do the sunrise hike tomorrow to see the infamous Towers at sunrise. This is after two nights of basically no sleep.
Day Four
Refugio Chileno to the Torres at sunrise, return to Hosteria Torres and depart
3am start, 10 miles, 5 and a half hours (4 hours before 8am!)
Let´s just say that coffee was our friend at 3am. Especially after another night without a lot of sleep! We´re so glad we rallied though for the sunrise hike - a crazy uphill ascent of about 2000 feet on a winding, rocky, boulder-strewn one-person path - that was TOTALLY worth it. The sun rising and the crazy pre-dawn colors hitting the Towers in the morning was simply spectacular.
We went back and slept for a few more hours in the tent, then hiked down and made it back to Puerto Natales by sundown...exhausted, but glad we succeeded in our challenge!
3am Sunrise hike to the Towers!!
Heading "home" after the adventure
Oh yeah, to add to the fun, check out what happened to Lisa´s shoes in the pic below!
That was not fun...and it started the first day, 30 minutes into the hike!
Lisa´s new shoes
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