Puerto Natales / Torres Del Paine NP

We came to Puerto Natales over a week ago so that we could visit Torres Del Paine National Park. I expected it to be a big town for some reason. It is the location where ferries from the North (Puerto Montt) start and end. Chile doesn't have a road that connects the Southern part of the country to the Northern portion. The stretch where there is no road is a place where the Andes are too close to the coast leaving little room to build a highway, there are also fjords, islands, glaciers and the Southern Patagonian ice field making it even more difficult. Unless you travel through Argentina, the only way to get to Northern Chile from here is by ferry or airplane. Earlier in the trip we had considered taking this ferry because we hear it is very scenic, but we have run out of time.

Puerto Natales is smaller and more isolated than I had expected. They usually have cloudy cool weather and lots of wind. None of the buildings appear to be more than two stories high, and all of them have an exterior of brightly painted sheet metal. There are tons of tourists here because this is the gateway to Torres del Paine National Park and most people spend a night or two here on their way in and out of the park. Even with all the tourism money coming in, the town appears to be depressed and many of the houses as neighborhoods run down.

We took a bus into Torres Del Paine on Wednesday afternoon. It's about a 2 1/2 hour ride from Puerto Natales, a lot of it being on dirt road. We saw hundreds of guanacos on the way! Our plan was to do the W trek, which as named as such because on a map the route follows a W shaped path. It can be done in 3 days, but we decided to go easy and do it in 4 days. The route follows around the base of the Torres (Towers) and Cuernos (horns) which form a mountain range unique from the Andes. The park is a UNESCO biosphere reserve and contains 17 different ecosystems! There are multiple milky blue green glacially fed lakes and rivers, many glaciers and rocks and mountains everywhere. The rock is particularly interesting because you can see layers and patterns in the cliffs and mountains where glaciers have carved away and the towers and Cuernos (which the park is famous for) are composed of layers of granite and compressed sedimentary rock (which looks like basalt but is not). Surrounding all the rocks, mountains and glaciers are the rolling green hills and flat grasslands of the steppe. It is all very visually pleasing. (:

We had phenomenal weather every day. Mostly blue skies and little wind with clean mountain views and it wasn't too hot either! This is unusual most people have to deal with clouds, high winds and rain. We never saw any rain. In total we hiked about 60 miles and are quite tired now, and looking forward to rest. We were able to pack really lightly though, because there are refuges along the trail, so we didn't have to bring camping gear. The refuges are extremely nice compared to ones we have previously stayed in. They are like deluxe hostels contained inside of a log cabin and you can even get all your meals from them! They are very expensive, around $50 per person for a bunk bed and $50 per person for full board (meals). All of the refuges are privately owned and they can get away with it! The trip was very hard to plan because there are many different options for where to start and how long you will hike each day and where you will end up each night. There is also the option of renting camping gear in town and camping the whole way, as there are a few free camp sites. We decided we'd rather hike with little weight so we stayed in refuges and purchased all the meals.

Here is a link to a map of the w trek. This is a map someone else made and not the same order we did our trek in.
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The first day was a 3 1/2 hour hike from the park entrance to a lookout out point at the base of the towers, which included glaciers and a lagoon below and then 2 hours partway down the mountain to Refugio Los Chilenos. The second day was a 6 hour hike along the length of a large mint green glacier lake (Nordenskjold) to Refugio Los Cuernos, which sits just below the Cuernos (which are black on top yellowish on bottom, the black is sedimentary, the yellowish is granite). Day three we hiked from Los Cuernos, up the glacier filled French Valley (where we watched multiple avalanches) and back out to Refugio Paine Grande. It was a long day, at ten hours. The Paine Grande Refuge was by far the nicest place we stayed in the park and the lodging and food there put the others to shame. On the fourth and final day, we hiked four hours from the refuge along a greenish grey glacier lake to a cove where we had a view of Glacier Grey, a tidewater glacier. It was extremely windy for most of the hike, but we figured it was normal. We took the same route back to the refuge where we were supposed to get a boat across Lago Pehoé and out of the park. On the walk back the winds got worse and worse. It was at our backs on the return as we could feel it pushing us. By the time we made it back to the refuge the wind was forcing us to walk at 45 degree angle. And we watched a fancy North Face mountaineering tent get blown out of the camping area next to the refuge. It was ripped open and almost blown into the lake. The lake was a mess of mist and vapor, as the surface of the water was being blown off. Still we thought this was normal! We have heard over and over that the winds in Patagonia could be crazy. It turned out it was too windy for the boat to run and 50 people, including us, were stranded until the following day! The only way out was by hiking 5 hours to the administration building, which would do us no good, as there would be no bus when we got there, and we were also exhausted and it would get dark soon. The people at the lodge could only remember this happening one other time! We were amongst the lucky people claiming a couch and window box to sleep in. Jeff took the couch and I took the back cushions and put them in the window box. We were quite comfortable, and the lodge didn't charge us to sleep there. Some had tents and others we not so lucky and slept on the floor of the ranger hut, which overflowed with bodies. It was a big mess.

The next day we got up early and decided to skip the boat, saving $50. We took the mostly flat five hour (10 mile) long trail to administration. It ended up being a nice hike we had lovely views of the towers and Cuernos from far away and we walked through grassy golden meadows that rippled in the wind.

We didn't get back to Puerto Natales until 5 pm last night. We had missed our morning bus to Punta Arenas and all the evening buses were sold out. We had no choice but to stay another night. We were lucky our hostel, which was storing our luggage had been able to fill our spot and didn't charge us for the night we missed. But I don't think we will be so lucky with the place in Punta Arenas. We also had to push back our bus tickets from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia (the last stop on our trip) and move our hostel reservations back as well. It was a big headache for me.

Even with all the mess at the end of our trek, we had a great time and couldn't have asked for better weather! I am afraid to ever go back because I don't believe we could ever be so lucky again!

We got up early this morning and are en route to Punta Arenas. It's a short three hour ride. We will spend three nights and three days in Punta Arenas. The highlight will be a visit to the National Monument of Penguins at Magdalena Island, with 50,000 breeding pairs on penguins!! (:

** I wrote this blog 2 days ago Tuesday but was until this moment not able to connect to the wifi at our hostel (Hospedaje Costanera).