Torres del Paine National Park

Wacky friend, Sang Kyoung (who also goes by Jennifer, Judy, and/or Kim) and I just spent five glorious days hiking at the most amazing park I have ever seen. Before leaving it rained for two days and was terribly cloudy but we had incredibly good weather. Even the bus ride to the park was gorgeous. Loads of snowy mountains, thousands of sheep and tiny lambs grazing, cows grazing, etc. As we got closer to the park we saw hundreds of guanacos (like llamas but wild)...they would run when they saw the bus coming and even jump effortlessly over the fence used for the sheep. We also saw a couple of ñandus (birds like ostriches) running pell mell in front of the bus. They were so funny. We got to the park and took the catamaran to the west end of the park to begin our hiking. The water in Lake Pehoe was like no color I had ever seen...a milky light green and blue color. It was amazing and even when I am able to download pictures, they will not do justice to this stunning lake. We hiked for about four hours to see the glaciers. The thing about the park is there is a ¨star¨feature wherever you look. In one direction there is the glacier that goes back as far as the eye can see. You turn your head and see the light green lake with blue chunks of ice (that have broken off of the glacier) floating by. You look the other way and you see the beautiful snow covered mountains. And in the other direction, still, there are the spiky, rocky bare peaks above the mountain. It was like this for five days. We, I think, were both in awe and felt lucky to be there and for the entirety of the five days said, "this is so great." Each night we stayed at the very over priced dormitories that the park provides. Some were cold, some were modern. They weren´t great but are the only choice apart from camping which I´m not keen on. We had heard the food was really expensive so we hauled a bunch with us and ate more cheese sandwiches than I care to count. We thought there would be cooking facilities but they were only available at the one campsite/lodge. We are pretty sure the Chilean college students will look back on their trip in years to come and say, "Remember when we went to Torres del Paine and there were those two dumb foreign women who didn´t know how to cook or even how to light a stove." We were unaware we had to provide our own pots, forks, etc. so they took pity on us. When we ran out of food we bought the overpriced stuff at the lodges. We hiked about 4 hours the first day,6 the second day, 8 the third day, 9 the 4th day and an easy 4 the last day. I must say, the hiking was very strenuous and Í wasn´t terribly well prepared so each day I felt extremely unfit, overweight and, sadly, very old. There was pretty rough terrain, scrambling over bolders, lots of mud, through creeks, etc. There were quite steep inclines and descents and it was rather exhausting but worth every second. One of the days where we had to backtrack, I decided to leave my backpack on a rock during the hike and retrieved it on the way down as I didn´t think I could haul it up the bolders. That day was gorgeous...we got to the scenic overlook and listened for the thunderous cracks and then watched the avalanches on the mountain oppposite us. It was amazing. I was a little sad to leave the viewpoint as it was so incredible. Each day offered different vistas but just like the first day there were four or five amazing views in every direction. We saw tons of birds: condors, woodpeckers, geese, and lots that I will have to look up. I was exhausted each night but I am so glad we went and we had such great luck with the weather. We returned yesterday afternoon to the town of Puerto Natales (where I arrived by boat last week) and met up last night with some of the crowd that we had met at the park for drinks. The nice German friends that I had met at the hostel were back here when we arrived as they´d been on a different trip. Sang Kyoung leaves tomorrow and I am terribly sad as it was so great to have her here. I know the next few days will be tough on my own. The cargo ship has docked for the night and I ran into a couple of the crew so we might meet up with them for drinks after dinner. The best part about leaving the park was being able to go to the laundromat and I have a bag full of clean clothes. Maybe in the next town (Punta Arenas---really far south if you care to check a map) they will have better computer facilities. Until next time...