Wild Patagonia

Hello everyone!! It is Hallye and once again I apologize for not posting for so long. I think that last time I posted I wrote about our first impressions of Chile. I LOVE CHILE. It has just gotten better the further we travel down south. Santiago was very cool for a big city...our week in Angostura (wine country) was wonderful and relaxing...Pucon was great because we climbed an active volcano....and now we have just returned from the very southern tip of Chile (Patagonia). It was incredible how close we were to Antartica. We visited the Torres del Paine National Park where we completed a four day, three night trek. Luckily, we met some other travellers who wanted to test their fitness on the 85 kilometer hike with us. We started the ¨W¨ (the name of the trek) on what seemed to be the opposite side of most people. We setup camp around lunchtime and set off on the first leg of the journey- Glacier Grey. The hike itself was not too difficult (until it got dark on the way back!) and each viewpoint that we came to was more beautiful than the one before. We reached the best mirador to see the glacier glistening as the sun started to set. You could not have asked for a prettier scene.

The second day we started off about an hour later than we planned however we still made it to the next part of the ¨W¨ - Valle de Frances. On this part of the trek we watched avalanches come rumbling down the snowy mountains. It was a strange noise - a crack and then a thundering boom. However, the craziest thing about these avalanches is that they were so loud and we were still pretty far away from them. The Valle de Frances was a difficult hike (the muscles around my hips felt like they were ripping apart the entire time), but the view at the end of hike made it worthwhile...I will try to post some pictures later! Camping that night was interesting. I kept waking up trying to decide if the noises that I was hearing was wind, the nearby river or avalanches.

Our third day was the longest hike. We started off at eight that morning and reached our stopping point at about four that afternoon. However, we made great time because we originally thought this part would take at least nine hours and we had to carry our backpacks the entire time. It was a pretty hike. We went on gorgeous beaches of the lakes and through patagonian farmland filled with cows. The last part of this hike was fairly difficult. Actually that is an understatement. I was really not sure if I would make it up the steep, rocky hills. It helped being with three other people because we silently pressured and pushed eachother to keep trekking up the vertical and never-ending hills.

We camped that night at a campsite about forty five minutes from the infamous Torres del Paine. We set our alarms for a little before six in the morning (so we could see the Torres with the sunrise) and then made some hot drinks to attempt to keep ourselves warm. The next morning we woke up and started hiking up to the mirador in the dark...and rain. Luckily our trekking buddies (Chris and Aaron) wore their headlamp lights to light up the trail (but my book light worked pretty well too...thanks Allison!). Looking back at this part of the hike, I am glad that it was pitch dark out because it was so incredibly steep - I do not know if I would have made it up the hill if I had seen how long and steep it looked. Once we reached the top we had to wait for at least thirty minutes for the sun to show itself through the rain clouds. It was cold, windy and rainy. We ate chocolate and trailmix to keep ourselves warm. The sun began to peak from behind the mountains and shine a bit on the base of the Torres and at one point there were signs of a rainbow. The clouds never fully lifted but the views were still amazing! We will post some pictures soon...but for now here is a link to a google image- http://guia.ojodigital.com/albums/userpics/Torres-del-Paine.jpg

We quickly made the descent back to the campsite, drank some hot tea, packed up and started the last leg of our trek. This last part was not too difficult even though by this point Katie and I were both hurting a bit from our rented hiking boots. And truly, the worst part was the last 7 kilometers to the bus that we chose to walk instead of catching the shuttle bus.
Overall- I think that past week has been the best part of our trip thus far. I catch myself saying this every week or so about something that we do...but deciding to spend the little extra money and time to travel to the end of the world was a great decision.
We have a bus to Bariloche, Argentina in a few hours so I am sure we will have some posts about Argentina soon! All my love, Hallye