--- Apologies in advance for any errors, I am more concerned about getting behind that having everything perfectly accurate ---
As usually happens, any bus ride or flight begins with reuniting within someone from a previous hostel or bus ride. I bumped into Susan who I had met at the 41 Below Hostel in Bariloche. I was aware she was on a similar schedule to me but was a couple of days behind, but I guess my layup day in El Calafate allowed her to catch up. She as travelling with a chap from Italy, Ivan, who I would later get to know better. The bus to Puerto Natalas, the launching platform for the Parque Nacionales Torres Del Paine, is only about 4 or 5 hours from El Calafate, crossing over into Chile an hour or so from Puerto Natalas. The scenery was flat, brown, dusty and seemingly typical or all the scenery even a few kms away from the Andes mountains but were were treated to flamingos and a few ostrich type birds (I must find their proper name) which was a little exciting. We crossed the boarder into Chile and headed into Puerto Natalas.
Jacqui had said the town was pretty cute, situated on a nice lake and pretty laid back. I took her advice and did not arrange any accommodation as I had her assurances that were would be mobbed by desperate people at the bus stop wanting to rent out a room in their guest house: she was not wrong! We first headed to the Erratic Rock, which my previous hostel had recommended and also featured in a guide Susan was carrying. Nobody was around and after 5 minutes of waiting and calling out we decided to move on to the first guesthouse in the stack of pamphlets. Pretty terrible and not exactly homely and for 5000 pesos (around 15 dollars) we moved on pretty quickly hoping that we could do better. After wandering the streets with our backpacks, Susan, I and Ivan were approached by a couple of ladies in a van who we recognised from the bus stop. They offered to give us a ride to their house for a look so we pile on in. Hostel Paulette turned out to be pretty darn reasonable, with a large room for the three of us to share, great breakfast including eggs, an awesome kitchen and cheap rental gear, what more could one want?
We settled in and started our planning for the Torres del Paine trip. We had thought of hitting up the track the very next day as the forecast suggested that were would get better weather. My cold still hading fully recovered and it was getting pretty late in the day to organise things for a 730am departure so we made the call to take it easy, relax, and launch into the planning proper the next day. Staying with Susan and Ivan was working out really well. Ivan could speak Spanish but not very good English, probably only a little more than my Spanish, and Susan could speak (amongst other languages) both English and Spanish so she was able to act as our translator as Ivan and I tried to communicate in our weaker language. I was already looking forward to the 5 day trek to pick up some more Spanish and be around Spanish speakers. I had a funny conversation with Ivan trying to explain what has been doing for walk. It transpired that he worked in Peru with disabled children, but it was classic all his gestures to try and demonstrate disabled kids....first the whole groaning and dripping thing, then trying to lick his lick his shoulder staggering around the room, then he pulled out the imaginary zimmer frame! Communication between people without a common language really is like pictionary and sharades combined!
Puerto Natalas seemed nice enough. We strolled around and checked out different prices for hire equipment and went back to the Erratic Rock for their free information session they run every day at 3pm (we missed it the day before partly due to our clocks being an hour out due to the time difference). We got some useful advice about the way to best approach the trek and some truly awful advice about appropriate clothing to wear. Apparently, according to the Yanky guy running the joint, one should never wear a gore tex jacket during the day, irrespective of what the weather is doing. One should, instead, simply get wet, snowed on, cold and basically exposed to the elements in every way because at the end of the day one can simply change into the dry clothes protected inside the pack. If one should choose, the a gore tex could at that point be worn to keep the dry clothes dry. Absolutely useless advice given the nature of the Patagonian climate and would (as we would find out on our trip!) prove to pose a real risk of exposure or hypothermia in the horrible weather conditions.
We managed to organise all of our hire gear and purchase the food from the supermarket. I had a one person tent from Erratic Rock and a sleeping back from our hostel. I made a late night walk around town to track down an extra gas cylinder after the hostel provided us with an extra one which only had a few minutes of burn time left (we had purchased 2 for ourselves). By late evening the weather had started to pack it in. I was walking around in my gore tex just to get to and from the supermarket. The next morning wasn´t any better and the bus ride out to the park proved to be an adventure in itself. Only a few km out of town it started to snow and as we neared the mountains the entire road and paddocks were covered! The windscreen wipers on the bus struggled to keep up with the huge snow flakes falling from the dark sky. We stopped at a cafe for a toilet break about half way to the park. Getting out of the bus we all just looked at each other at the cold hit us - were were about to spend 4 nights in the snow and would likely not see anything if the weather didn´t clear. There was a feeling in the bus that ´we didn´t buy into this sort of weather!´
To get to the start of the trip we had to first pay a fee of 15000 pesos (it had rise from 8 the day before to mark high season!), which got us a map and little else. We got back onto the bus and made our way along the lake edge to the catamaran which would deliver us to the track start at the western end of the massif. We occasionally got views of the mountains as the sky broke and of guacos (lama like animals) grazing the paddocks. We had time before the catamaran to duck up to a nearby waterfall, only to be struck by a snow Storm on the way back down! The weather was just amazing, and very cold.
The catamaran cost another 11000 pesos (around 30 nzd) for the 30 minute ride (a total rip off!) but we did get tea and coffee and did save 18km of walking. Getting off at the main lodge (name) were were greeted by people coming out the park, who said the 4 days to that point were amazing and that today was their first day of snow - maybe the weather would be set in for a while, perhaps our entire trip! Day one we were off up to the head of a large lake to a camping around near Glacier Grey. This would take around 4.5 hours and we would be presented with great views from a mirador (look out point) approximately 2 hours from the ferry drop off point. This leg of the trip would be the first stoke of the ´W Circut´which is usually completed in 4 or 5 days. We walked for the first few hours in falling snow and strong winds, occasionally taking refuge under trees and shrubs while eating snacks and having a drink. We were lucky with the view from the mirador, with relatively clear views and dramatic beams of light issuing from the clouds. On a clear day mountain provide a beautiful backdrop, but we had to settle for dramatic clouds haha. We arrived at Campamento Glacier Grey slightly a head of the suggested track time and set up our tents. The camping area had not officially opened for the season so camping was free (and no facilities provided). We cooked behind a service building huddling around to keep warm while the pasta bubbled away. Later that night we would pop into the refugio for a cup of coffee use of the toilet facilities. The regugios cost around 20000 for just the bed (around 60 dollars) and food has to be purchased there, for around 20 a plate so we were happy with our choice to camp!
Day two we set off by making a trip to the main mirador close to the glacier. The weather appeared to be slightly better than the day before, although the wind was still bitterly cold. By the time we had back tracked to Refugio Grand for lunch, the weather had packed it in and the thought of heading back out into the cold after a lunch with hot tea was not that appealing, but by the time we had sat around for 40 minutes I was cold and keen to get walking. We made our way along the lake towards Campamento Italiano, which stands at the bottom of the middle stroke of the W, around 2 hours from Grande. Terrible weather hit us with lots of rain and heavy winds. By the time we got to camp it had stopped raining enough to put the tents up without too much wetness entering. Susan and Ivan pitched their tent inside the basic shelter to provide a bit more protection. I unpack my gear and nearly drifted off to sleep after getting cosy in my sleeping bag, before Susan roused me to bring the cooking gear into the shelter to make tea. We prepared tea, then soup, then rice and had a nice evening yarning away. By this point Ivan had identified that his shoes were going to be a problem. He had loaned them from Erratic Rock and they were proving to be pretty useless, letting in lots of water and not giving his soles of his feet much protection. He decided that if the weather was rotten the next morning he would not make the trip up the W to Glacier Frances and Campamento Britanico, opting for a shorter route to Refugio Los Quervos.
The next morning the weather wasn´t much better. I packed up my tent and joined the others for breakfast. Ivan took much of the load as he was only having to undertake a 2.5 hour walk to the next refugio as Susan and I headed up the valley. The weather in the valley was terrible! We were unable to get any decent views of Glacier Frances which, from photos we have seen, is absolutely amazing, and by the time we got above the bus line en route to Campamento Britanico at the head of the valley, it was obvious we were not doing ourselves any favours. The wind was incredibly strong, the snow under foot was getting deeper and the snow was falling harder and increasingly more horizontal with the straightening wind! We decided that it would be better to just head down and make an early approach to the refugio to meet up with Ivan.
It was another miserable day of walking to get to Refugio Los Queros after we had returned from our short walk up Valley Frances. It was simple heads down and jackets closed all they way along the lake front. We arrived around 1pm to find Ivan looking for a tent site in the rain, which he soon opted out of upon our arrival for a hot cup of tea. We were early at the refugio due to our short walk and could have pushed on to the next camping areas to knock a day off the trip, but we decided to hang out for the rest of the afternoon to give the weather a chance to improve. The camping was 3000 pesos, which included as much hot water as we wanted and even a hot shower. I made good use of the hot water but did not have a shower as I thought that was just taking a bit to far. Ordinarily there are amazing views of the mountains behind the refugio, but we only got a peak every now and again. Perhaps the most spectacular site was the mini typhons on the lake, generated by the winds which showed no sign of dropping. We would, after even window bending gust, stand up to see if our tents were still tucked safely amongst the trees.
We had a great afternoon just drinking tea and chatting to people in the refugio. We laughed when an America couple said that they had booked a cabana for 69000 pesos (like 200 NZD) and it didn´t even have a hot shower or any heating!! They spent all their time in the refugio with all us campers before heading up to their cabana at the very last minute!
The next day seemed more promising, with lower winds and slightly clearler skies. Ivan made the decision to head on out given his shoes were rubbish and had given him big blisters which were bleeding a bit and causing quite a lot of pain. Probably a good call given the guys at the refugio said that Campamento Torres had a foot of snow there! We said our good byes to Ivan a few hours into the walk before we started our climb to Refugio Chilano en route to Campamento Torres. We blitzed the track time of 5 1/2 hours by almost an hour and a half which was pleasing. We had our lunch and drank many cups of tea at Chilano before begrudglingly getting back into our wet gear to make the final 45 minute trudge up to Campamento Chilano.
We soon came upon more snow as the track gained height. Around 20 minutes into the walk it started snowing and we were trudging through ankle deep powder. We crossed a snow covered valley leading into the trees that provided shelter for the Campamento Torres. A laid back kiwi couple had beaten us to pitching the tent in the wooden shelter; they were camping out an extra night in the hope that the weather would clear up. We set up out tent in the snow before cooking up some soup and then rice, chatting away to the kiwi couple about their trips through Bolivia and Peru. The temperature had dropped and the snow was really coming down now, so Susan and I headed into the tent to cook up a pot of tea before bed and had a heap of mint chocolate. It was the coldest night so far and I slept in all my clothes and was still restless. The rubbish sleeping bag was totally inadequate but I survived.
We looked out of the tent around 8am, having decided to skip a sunrise effort, to see clear blue skies!! We were ecstatic, giving chears of woo whoo and high fives, before packing up all our breakfast stuff into my day bag, strapping on a bed mat and heading up the hill. The vista had changed dramatically from the evening before, with fresh powder and intense blue skies. We made our way up the 1 hour climb to a perfect view of the towers with only whispy clouds near the top which would later drift away. We prepared hot porrige and tea on a large rock slab and took a heap of photos and shared the moment with an Asian chap from Sydney who had gotten an early start from Chilano. What perfect timing to have 4 days of horrible weather for it to fine up on our last day..just awesome!
They trip down wasn´t so great. I slipped on some snow on the only really steep section of the track, which pushed me forward starting something that resembled an olympic tripple jump attempt, resulting in me jumping from a large rock and landing some 10 or so feet down the hill. Susan looked on in horrow as I literally flew past her and came to an abrupt end in the snow. I sat stunned, not wanting to get up in case I couldn´t walk or had broken something but hadn´t yet realised it. Fortunately I was able to move with pain in my left foot only. However, it become apparenty withing 20 minutes or so that this injury was worse than I first though and would give me difficult in walking normally with any comfort. We packed up the tent and headed down the hill, with me hobbling along in considerable pain. We decided to make a longer route, backtracking our previous day to get views of the mountains and lake in fine weather. I managed okay but knew that getting off the bus after sitting down for 2.5 hours would not be comfortable so I kept on moving not wanting to stop until we had completed the walk. We got back to our mini bus at the track end which would connect us to the park entrance. Pretty crappy given we had already paid 15000 to get into the park that we still had to fork out more to get back to the park entrance!
I spent the next few days hobbling around Puerto Natalas and backing up my photos at an internet cafe. I was on a street corner when a female backpacker saw me hobble up in pain, and she asked what had happened. We had a short conversation before we both clicked that were had met in Montevideo a month or so back! Crazy gringo trail. She would eventually end up in my hostel with her other friends I had met too, which was pretty good value.
Susan and I headed off to the supermarket to make a packed lunch for the 14 hour trip to Ushuaia. We weren´t expecting much from the Chilian bus (except for a big price ticket) so we stocked up well. We departed the hostel early in the morning and boarded our bus, which would go via Puerto Areanas and Rio Grande, or so we thought... We were an hour or so into the trip when the bus pulled over and the attendant chap (who was a bit slow) was gesturing to put our jackets on and get off the bus. It turned out that were were to change bus in the middle of nowhere onto a bus going back the opposite direction but presumably the ´correct´direction! It was all a bit strange but we took comfort in the fact that our tickets were checked and bags swapped over. The bus ride seemed to go quickly chatting and sharing music etc. We changed buses at Rio Grande to continue out journey into Teirra del fuego and Ushuaia, which was immediately a great improvement to the scenerary. Windswept and moss-festooned trees lined much of the road side as we drew closer to the mountains, at times climbing over passes and looking down into large lakes far below. We arrived into Ushuaia a little after sunset, and were rushed away from the bus stop by waiting hostel pimps, which suited me given my sore ankle.
