Vacation: Part II

The difference between our hostel in Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales was night and day. At Erratic Rock we had heat, lots of it, a constant flux of people coming and going which made it seem like a hot spot of sorts for travelers, a nice kitchen (where they make breakfast for clients every morning), eating area, and a TV with hundreds of movies beneath it. The people that ran the place also double as guides to Torres Del Paine, Tierra Del Fuego, and pretty much anywhere you want to go in the Southern parts of Chile and Argentina. There is little wonder why after such demand they made an Erratic Rock II in Puerto Natales and even one in Punta Arenas!

Everyday they hold meetings at 3 pm, providing insight on what you can do in the park and how long everything takes to accomplish. We had thought about a day-trip or something where we could get our feet wet but not put our whole body in. Then we changed to a two-night-three-day trip. Then Tyler, a fellow volunteer, asked us, "Why don't we just do the whole thing?" The whole thing as in the W Circuit that carves itself into the famous Towers of Torres Del Paine. Woah. We thought, thought some more, and then said why not, we have time and it's relatively cheap. So that was that. After we bought groceries for the trip including pasta, oatmeal, hot dogs, mashed potatoes, more pasta, quesadilla supplies, lots of chocolate, gummy bears, and fruit, we packed our bags and went to bed, ready to head out at 8 am the next morning.

The drive to Torres Del Paine Parque takes roughly 40 minutes and the scenery only gets better. We saw the sun rise over the mountains, and then finally, the shape of the Torres Towers that steals front covers of many adventure magazines and also is the Patagonia clothing logo. After registering at the sign-in, confirming our pick-up with the driver, and finalizing the comfort of our backpacks we took off...in the wrong direction. For 45 minutes, we walked completely in the wrong way after a misunderstanding with the park ranger who said to turn in front of the house. There were two houses and we went in the wrong direction from the wrong house.

Thus our five-hour hike took us nearly seven hours through rolling countryside, heavy winds, streaming rivers, all of which had the giant Paine Grande mountain casting a bigger and bigger shadow over our group. We stopped along the trail, munched on our trail mix (thanks Alex), and took photos of the magnificent views. As the sun set we finally arrived at camp one. There is a hostel, which has a kitchen, and also bathrooms with running water, so the first two nights were rather luxurious. While we slept in our tents, we prepared our food inside and were able to do the simple things like wash our hands and take showers.

Day two we day-hiked to Glacier Gray, a monstrous glacier that reaches heights of 119 meters high at places. It is truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen and we were able to enjoy lunch with the glacier as our backdrop. Day three we went to the middle part of the W and witnessed two avalanches high up in the mountains. Sighting an avalanche is no easy task. First you hear something rumbling in the distance. Then you look and look until you see white stuff moving fast down the mountains. After seeing the rapidity of the avalanche you realize how massive it actually is. One of our Dutch friends was able to capture nearly a minutes worth of footage on his video camera.

Day four was the hardest day. We had a mostly uphill hike and the final haul had quite a steep fall to the right. The river down below reminded you how far the drop really was. But we did it. The nights were incredible, as we ate delicious dinners, conversed, and passed a Sprite bottle with some hard stuff in it. The third and fourth nights we had fires, nature's tv, and of course we played many a game of Phase Ten. It is safe to say that much of Southern Chile is familiar with this card game now. Finally, after a rain storm on the last day held us back an hour or so, we managed to get out of the park having accomplished the W. 50 miles, four nights, five days, and just enough food to keep us all happy. It was the trip of a lifetime and future backpacking trips will have a tough time beating this one. The weather was hiker-friendly (43 degrees would be a good average), the five of us got along splendidly, and aside from getting lost on Day One, we knew what we were doing. We even made friends along the trail which was hard to do seeing as we only saw maybe 10 people for five days.

That night back in Puerto Natales we all slept the best night's sleep in a long time and stuffed our mouths with pizza. Two days later, after spending the night in a Chilean couple's apartment that we had meet on the trail in Torres, we flew back from Punta Arenas to Puerto Montt, having experienced the best spent ten days in the Southern Patagonia that I could ever imagine.