Mon November 26- The 26 hour bus journey from Salta to Santiago (with a 45 minute layover in Mendoza) was more comfortable than expected. We slept quite comfortably, we were well fed and by 6pm we rolled into Santiago. Our friends in Salta had previously rented an apartment in Santiago (apartmentinchile.com) - since they had really enjoyed it, we decided to do the same. The downtown apartment was small, but very comfortable, and it was great to have our own kitchen and fridge! We got some groceries, made dinner and drank a bottle of Torrontes wine that we had bought in Cafayate.
Campamento Seron
Tue November 27- A big day today - we both got a hair cut! After more than 5 months Maurits was definitely in much need of one... In the afternoon we met Jess (a cousin of Marie - a friend of LB) who took us on a walking tour of Santiago. It was nice to meet her and her 1 month old son, and it was interesting to get some local insights. After we said goodbye to Jess we walked around another part of the city and enjoyed a drink on the plaza. We think Santiago is quite a pleasant South American city: clean, lots of green, nice architecture and close to the mountains.
Lago Dickson
Wed November 28- Our second and last day of sightseeing in Santiago. After a lazy morning we 'climbed' one of the hills in the city and enjoyed a good view of the city and surrounding mountains. There can be a lot of smog in Santiago, but the two days we were there it was pretty clear. The weather was at least 10 degrees C colder than yesterday, but this made walking around more pleasant. For lunch we went to the fish market where we enjoyed (once more) some excellent 'ceviche' with a cold white wine. Even though we had been to South America before, we had never had ceviche (raw fish dish) until this trip. We love it!! In the afternoon we went to the movies and saw the latest James Bond: "Operacion Skyfall." Since the Chileans do not like to go out to dinner before 10pm, we once more enjoyed a timely home-cooked dinner in the apartment.
A cool flower that we saw a lot
Thu November 29- Southward bound to Patagonia! After a 3.5 hour flight from Santiago we landed in Punta Arenas around 2pm. In 2005, after we had just met, we travelled in Patagonia as well. Since we liked it so much, we decided to come back and do some more trekking that we were unable to do in 2005 (because we had no tent). Our plan was to go to National Park 'Torres del Paine' and hike the 8 day circuit around the mountains - in 2005 we had only hiked the 'W' (about half the park). To get to Torres del Paine we first had to get to the town of Puerto Natales, 3 hours North of Punta Arenas. Shortly after we landed, we got on the bus to Puerto Natales right from the airport. We got very lucky that there were seats available! By 6pm we arrived in Puerto Natales and checked into Hostal Nancy, affordable and comfortable.
In the woods
Fri November 30- After breakfast we talked to Nancy about our Torres del Paine trek. She told us that currently the mountain-pass on the circuit was closed. Although it was likely to open in the coming days, it was uncertain because it depended on the weather. As somebody in Alaska had told us: "you just cannot wait for the weather," so we booked the bus tickets to go to the park the next day unsure if we would be able to complete the entire circuit. It was hard to get some decent trekking-food in Puerto Natales, surprising for such a big trekking town. We settled for pasta with a sauce of dried tomato soup powder and parmesan cheese. If anyone wants to open a store with freeze-dried foods, dried fruits, nuts, etc. - we think this would do really well! Well, at least for 3 months of the year... It was fun being back in Puerto Natales. We had lunch at the same place (El Living) where we had lunch more than 7 years ago! And it was still good. For dinner we went to 'Afrigonia' - a restaurant rated "Top Choice" both by Lonely Plant and Shelley Chamberlain. Peter and Shelley (LB's parents) were in Patagonia a couple of years ago and loved Afrigonia. Shelley even made a reservation for us! The food was indeed delicious! And we even got free champagne, because apparently it was our honeymoon / anniversary :-)
Los Perros glacier
Sat December 1- Day 1 Torres del Paine Circuit - from Hosteria Las Torres to Seron - 8.9 km
At 7:30 Buses Gomez picked us up from our hostel and, after several more ho(s)tel-stops, we drove the 2 hours to the National Park. As we arrived in the park the rangers told us some good news: the mountain-pass was open! We could walk the circuito! But before we could start the 125 km trek, we had to pay the entry fee ($36 USD- wow) and watch a mandatory make-no-fire video. Not too long ago a huge fire caused by a careless hiker burnt a large area of the park.. After all the formalities we took another bus to the trailhead at Hosteria Las Torres. The Torres del Paine (the three pointy mountains the park is named after) were in the clouds, it was cloudy in general, and the weather forecast for the next day was poor- so we decided to go to the Torres last. Today we hiked to the campamento Seron; easy, flat, lots of cows, almost like a 4WD track on a farm. The 'toughest' thing this first day was the weather; rain, hot, cold, more rain, sun, hot again, but very un-Patagonian: it was not windy at all. The scenery was pretty, nothing spectacular, just very enjoyable. Around 4pm we got to Seron where we setup our tent on a large field next to the house where the caretaker lived. Almost all campsites in the park are privately owned, charge a fee between 8 and 16 US$ p.p.p.n., have hot showers (nice!), meals for purchase and a little store. It is not real wilderness, but is comfortable. We had dinner, talked to other trekkers (we counted about 20 tents) and went into the tent early 1) to escape the mosquitos and 2) to rest since we were pretty tired from yesterday's champagne.
The mountain pass we crossed
Sun December 2- Day 2 Torres del Paine Circuit - from Seron to Dickson - 18.5 km
It rained a little during the night, but by the time we got up it had fortunately stopped. The hike today was on a 'real' trail. We walked next to the Paine River in a beautiful open landscape with mountains and glaciers in the distance. Like the day before the biggest challenge was the weather - drizzle, sun, rain, sun, etc. - we kept changing in and out of our rain-pants! Around 2pm we arrived at the Dickson refugio. After we setup our camp we had a shower and a beer! :-) It was fun hanging out in the cozy hut, especially since it rained hard in the early evening.
On top of the pass - glacier Grey in the background
Mon December 3- Day 3 Torres del Paine Circuit - from Dickson to Los Perros - 8.7 km
We woke up to a fog filled valley, chilly, but no rain. We had an easy hike through a lovely forest today - lots of green, flowers, singing birds; we even saw a fox - it felt like spring! Around lunchtime we arrived at the Los Perros glacier and to our good fortune the weather started to clear. After we had setup our tent we spent the the afternoon relaxing in the sun and enjoying the view of the glacier. Not just the scenery reminded us of Alaska, also the 10 pm sunset! We used airplane-eye-pads to escape the light...
Descending from the pass
Around 10pm, we were half asleep in our tent, a couple arrived at the campsite and decided to setup their tent right next to us. We had camped a little away from everyone else (we like the peace and quiet), and there was plenty of space all around us, but somehow this cigarette-smoking Dutch couple wanted to be very close to us... LB was not impressed!
Flowers and glacier Grey
Tue December 4- Day 4 Torres del Paine Circuit - from Los Perros to Lago Grey - 22 km
After a rather cold night - 500 meters above sea-level in Patagonia equals 5,000 m.a.s.l. in Peru & Bolivia - we left our camp at 8 am. Today, on the hardest trekking day, we had to cross a 1,100m mountain pass. We could not have asked for a better day; pretty clear, sun, great views and not much wind. As we went over the pass we had a great view of Glacier Grey, the surrounding mountains and a low flying condor. At first we had wanted to camp at a campsite called 'Guardas', but this camp had been permanently closed.. even though it was still marked on the official parks-map that we got when we entered the park.. We decided to push on to Lago Grey and after a long but beautiful day we arrived there at 5:30pm. In 2005 when we hiked the 'W', we stayed at Lago Grey as well; we remembered it as a very basic hut. Since then, perhaps due to the large fire, the hut has been replaced by a phenomenal lodge! A gorgeous building where we hung out most of the night with Ben and Pierre (two of the four fellow hikers we met on the circuit.) We had a shower, enjoyed some drinks, ate free peanuts.. Great!
Burnt trees from the big fire
As expected, quite a few people followed the same route as us. We talked to many people and after a couple of days a nice party of six took shape. Ben, a Transworld Snowboarding Writer from Colorado, Pierre, a paramedic from Montreal and a German doctors-couple Daniel and Anne. In the end we hiked together, had dinner together and camped together. A lot of fun - very social!
Mirador Brittanico
Wed December 5- Day 5 Torres del Paine Circuit - from Lago Grey to Italiano - 18.6 km
Happy Sinterklaas - but we did not find much in our shoes - maybe too smelly?!? After yesterday's long day (plus the couple of beers) we woke up at 8:30 and got going at 10:30. The weather was good, high-level cloud, sun, and for the first day real Patagonian wind! The area we hiked through had been severely damaged in the big fire a couple of years ago and there were still many blackened trees around. We ate our own lunch at the Paine Lodge, bought some groceries, and around six we arrived at Italiano where Ben & Pierre had reserved a very nice site for us right next to the river.
Paine Grande
Thu December 6- Day 6 Torres del Paine Circuit - from Italiano to Cuernos - 18.9 km
The day started with a small tragedy: while Maurits was doing the breakfast dishes in the river he accidentally lost a cup in the raging river! We started the morning with a side-trip (without our heavy backpacks) to Mirador Brittanico. It was a gorgeous day and we spent over an hour enjoying the views of the French Valley - spectacular! We got back to Italiano around 1:30pm, had lunch, packed up the tent, and walked the 2 hours to next camp at Cuernos. A very scenic day, big blue lakes, very cool mountains and beautiful weather! At Cuernos we sat outside till 10pm, just enjoying the beautiful view.
The Torres del Paine
Fri December 7- Day 7 Torres del Paine Circuit - from Cuernos to Campamento Torres - 23.5 km
WIND!!! The wind picked up dramatically during the night and since we had setup our tent on one of the convenient tent-plaforms, we were pretty exposed. On top of this we had not fastened our tent the way we should have.. End-result: a bent pole and a ripped fly! O no!! Our palace broken!! We packed up, had breakfast in the cooking-shelter and by 9 we were on our way to the Torres del Paine. The weather was bad all the way to the refugio at Chileno; high wind and horizontal rain. We had first wanted to camp at campamento Las Torres, closer to the Torres del Paine. Given the bad weather and the fact that there was a hut at Chileno, we decided to camp at Chileno. After we had setup our tents - of course - it cleared! So typical... The Torres appeared from the clouds and we decided to hike the 1.5 hours to the base of the Torres. Beautiful!! Still very windy though - Maurits got literally blown off the trail once(luckily not off the cliff!) Back at Chileno we had our last pasta with soup-sauce dinner and hung out in the refugio (with some fine Clos wine-in-a-box) till late.
As we went to bed, the staff at the refugio had a birthday party in the cooking shelter right next to our tent. They were so loud for so long that LB went out of the warm sleeping bag to ask them to be quiet. This did not really help.. but after some time they too went to bed. The various campamentos and refugios are best summarized by: "European prices, South American service."
Daniel, Anne, Maurits, Ben, Pierre and LB
Sat December 8- Day 8 Torres del Paine Circuit - from Campamento Torres to Hosteria Torres - 5.5 km
If the weather is nice, the sunrise at the Torres is spectacular with the peaks turning red. We woke up at 4am to check the weather, it was cloudy, so we went back to sleep. Ben however had spent the whole night at the Torres to do some star-photography. As we were having breakfast he came back from the Torres, the stars had been good, but the sunrise had been a non-event. We hiked the 2 hours back to Hosteria Las Torres. It was still crazy windy and we had quite some trouble keeping upright. As we got to the Hosteria, a large tour-group had just left for a nice horse-ride to Chileno.. that must have been very scary with such wind and a narrow trail with a long drop-off to the river valley below! Ben, who had left the campsite about an hour after us, had passed the group on horses further up the trail, and indeed verified that the group was terrified- as a gust of wind charged through the valley one of the woman on horseback screamed out "oh my god- we're going to die!" We had lunch at the Hosteria and the six of us took the 2pm bus back to Puerto Natales.
It was definitely worth doing the circuit. The 'back-side' has more alpine scenery, less people and in general a very different feel than the 'W'. The 'W' is very picturesque and even though we had the 'W' in 2005, we did not recognize much. A lot has changed in the last 7 years.
LB in the flowers
We got back to Puerto Natales around 5 and went back to Hostal Nancy. Nancy only had dorm-beds left, but her aunt at Hospedaje Costanera still had a private room. Together with Ben and Pierre we went to Costanera which turned out to be a lovely place - very homy, like staying at someone's house! Shower, beer, pizza... and the 4th outdoor-store we visited told us they could fix our tent - yippee. By the time we went to bed a big storm was raging outside. A lot of rain and we could hear and feel the wind howling through the hostel! Very cosy in the warm, dry bed with clean sheets! However, the next morning we saw in the newspaper that two buses had been blown over by the strong wind while leaving Torres del Paine. The exact same bus we were on earlier in the afternoon.. A coupe of people got injured and one person unfortunately lost his foot.. We were lucky..
Nice blue lake
Posted with Blogsy 
