towers of pain

Torres del Paine

puerto natales is the starting point for the crazy disorganised four day hike we were about to embark on. we found a hostel, showered (!!), slept a lot, went shopping sporadically and randomly, luckily were rented a cooker by our hostel-lady (not sure what we wouldve done for food otherwise...) and then took the bus in the afternoon.

about the park (see wiki): "The park is dominated by the Paine massif, which is an eastern spur of the Andes located on the east side of the Grey Glacier, rising dramatically above the Patagonian steppe. Small valleys separate the spectacular granite spires and mountains of the massif." see? amazing.

that first day was easy, two or three hours to the free campsite and then another hour to the amazing torres del paine (towers of pain... or needles of paine - assuming that´s a name). the view was beautiful (have patience, photos will come), and the walk to the top tiring.

the second day came closer to the name of PAIN(E), and our legs and blisters were hurting everywhere. we walked to the french valley and collapsed into our sleeping bags.

day three: oatmeal gruel for breakfast, another loong loong hike, soup for lunch, and then glacier grey. after seeing this huge and magnificent glacier (but not as active and lovable as the one in the last entry) we camped illegaly again (love doing that) so as to make day four less gruesome and long.

day four: we got up horribly early so as to make it on time to our 6.30 bus that evening. we hiked and hiked and hiked and the surrouding landscape changed dramatically over the course of the day. used to the continuous ups and downs of the last few days we were awed by the plains that we walked through that day. we did about half of the kilometers of the whole hike on that day - it was flat and we had the wind in our backs (we used a garbage bag as a sail and nearly flew awaaay).

we made it to the bus with time to spare, and got back to the hostel late late at night, discovering that we had one more thing to add to our list of stupidities for that trip. the list goes as follows:

- we had not planned the food amount (and were lucky lucky that it was enough)
- we had taken a total of 3,5 liters of water with us (a 500ml bottle each and then one more big one) and again we were lucky because there were drinkable streams and rivers of fresh and sparkling delicious glacier water every few hours
- our guide wasn´t up to date on the entry price, so after having paid that we had about 12 dollars between the three of us (and so, had the food not lasted, we would´ve been in just a little bit of trouble)
- the final bit of stupidity was that we had not called the hostel to tell them we were arriving... so it was full... but luckily we got a place in Casa Theresa, where the hostel lady was a little less friendly than you would expect with a name like that, but at least we finally got to shower and had some beds to sleep in.

the next day it was time to leave to the south, the end of the world...