So we made it back, and it was awesome! Steve, Giorgio and I just spent the past five days trekking through Torres del Paine, a Chilean national park in Patagonia, and it was beautiful. Patagonia is one of the most tempermental areas for weather that I have ever seen, however, and we were seeing all these people return from the trek, soaked and covered in mud…not to mention some bad moods to match! We got lucky, however, and had five days of sunshine.
We did the “W” trek, a common trek the skirts around the base of Paine Grande, Los Cuernos, and finally, Las Torres. We began by doing an extra 17 km hike in that was really easy and relaxing, although Steve called it boring. That night, we had a bit of a run in with some mice who seemed to find everything inside of our tent too appetizing to pass up, so they proceeded to chew holes to find our stuff….needless to say, it was a loooooooooooooong night!
We hiked up to Grey Glacier on the second day, battling serious wind the entire day….there were a few times when I felt that I would honestly get blown over, and I definitely got knocked around a bit. The glacier was cool though and we even saw some icebergs floating around in the water.
Next came the valle Frances, which was my favorite part of the trek. We hiked up between Paine Grande and Los Cuernos, and it was so pretty. We even got to watch a pretty big avalanche tumble down the mountain, and of course, I videoed it so I can showeveryone when we get back. Definitely cool
Last part of the trek was the hardest since we gained more elevation in one day than we had during the last three combined….but it was worth it. Unfortunately, the bad weather started to blow in the last night, cutting short our chances of a beautiful sunrise behind Las Torres, but it was still fun. We actually got snowed on a little bit which was a nice surprise since Steve and I didn`t think we would see any snow until we got back to the States
Anyway, Giorgio, our new Italian friend, left this morning, so Steve and I are once again on our own. We are thinking of heading up to Bariloche, the outdoor capital of Argentina, and maybe doing some rafting and mountain biking up there. It is in the Lake District which is supposed to be really nice, soI am psyched.
I PROMISE to put some pictures up soon, but the internet here in Puerto Natales is so slow that it isn`t even worth it….but they are coming soon, I swear!
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