Torres del Paine

We have just arrived back from a 2 day hike in Torres del Paine, well I use the term 'hike' very loosely.. After our horse riding adventure the day before, we were quite tired and a tad on the sore side, as such we spent the morning travelling to Torres del Paine and the Refugio of Paine Grande (that one you can see in the photo to your left) and then promptly fell asleep on our very comfy £20 per night mattresses (after unrolling our sleeping bags that is).

For that price though, the following picture is an example of what we got to see out our window...



Later that evening (after waking from our snooze), we bumped into Laura & Paul, who we had met in Puerto Natales just before they started the "W" trek. It was good to see them again, still looking very lively after their 2 days trekking. Hi guys if you're reading this, hope the rest of the trek went well!

The following day we started out on a 'short' eight hour hike to see some more of the spectacular views in this national park; unfortunately because of our timing (only allowing for 1 day of hiking) and some less than helpful advice from the tour operator at our hostel the day before; we realised that we would not actually see the famed Torres del Paine, however we would be getting out into nature, working off some more of that Argentinian steak and hopefully seeing some amazing views.

Quickly into the first leg of the hike we found ourselves struggling slightly along the 'easy' bit, unused muscles complaining of being used again (hadn't they done enough in Peru!) and general aches and pains setting in.. This was not helped by the scarily strong wind on some of the spots, which literally blew me over at one point, so Cath didn't stand a chance! So the start was not going well.. The views however were definitely up to standard!


After a short rest at Camp Italiano we were feeling a lot better, there was a lot less wind, and even though the ground was rougher (lots of rocks to scramble over) we seemed to be having an easier time of it, definitely helped by our muscles no longer complaining at being used and abused.. Up this particular valley we got to see the 'baby' glacier of the park, Glacier Frances (you can see a tiny bit of it at the base of the mountain in the photo on the left).

It was about this time that upon looking at our watches we found that the guardaria telling us 8 hours to get to viewing spot, take some photos and back to the Refugio was over-estimating our fitness levels, as such we decided to find a nice viewing spot and have some lunch then turn back (we needed to be back by 6pm to catch the last catamaran and bus back to Puerto Natales).

Luckily for us we did turn back at that point as the weather started to turn even more blustery, with rain and then hail coming down. We were glad we got out here and did a 'small' 18km hike and got to see what we did, but were very glad to get back to the campsite and enjoy a nice hot cup of tea (with some of the chocolate I'd been hiding from Cath).. After being here, I think we will take away beautiful mountain images (it is very spectacular, though not the most spectacular we have seen on this trip), but most of all the changing weather, and that wind!!

We were also relieved to hear that the towers themsleves were pretty much hidden by a blanket of cloud for the time we were there so people who had headed out that way hadn't been able to see that much. So it seemed that despite it all we had been "lucky" with the weather in the places we had been...