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We´ve ventured across the border again to Chile (along a very long dirt road, the famous Ruta 40) and headed down further south to Puerto Natales which is basically a town that serves as the main entry point for Torres del Paine national park. One highlight in Puerto Natales was breakfast in our hostel, Erratic Rock, which homemade bread, omelettes, cereal, yoghurt, the works! It´s the small things in life :)
Torres del Paine did not disappoint, it was probably the most amazing scenery we have ever seen in our lives. We didn´t do the entire W trek but decided instead to do the 2 best bits of it - the Torres and Glacier Grey and take a catamaran between the two. We headed into the park and took a shuttle bus (which had to stop and let everyone off the bus before it crossed one lane bridges as the weight with all the people and our luggage was too much for the old rickety bridges!) before we started our 2 hour trek up to the first stop, Refugio Chileno, at the base of the Torres and right beside a very rapid mountain stream. We were camping the first night and let me tell you that camping in 80k per hour winds is not fun! The Refugio was a real basic trekkers place to stay but we did get a good dinner there before we tried to sleep in the cold and the huge winds.
After a very bad nights sleep we set off at 6am to walk the 2 hours up to see the Torres del Paine at their best, it wasn´t a bad hike but the last 30 minutes was serious, climbing over boulders! But it was all worth it! The torres were just breathtaking (they looked just like every postcard of them we´d ever seen) and we sat and ate our breakfast enjoying the view and the peace. Then a group of guys climbed up too and the peace was shattered as they proceeded to strip off and have their photos taken in front of the Torres! Crazy! We headed back down to the refugio and collected our bags to walk back to the start of the trek and catch another shuttle and then another bus and a catamaran to get to Paine Grande. Even the catamaran ride was breathtaking, as we crossed Lake Pehoe we had beautiful views of the Cuernos del Paine and Paine Grande mountain. We stayed in the Paine Grande mountain lodge that night and luxury of luxury even had our own room which made for a much more pleasant night. The rows of trekking boots outside the doors of the room was just hilarious, obviously smelly boot from days of trekking were not welcome bed partners.
The next morning we watched the sun rise over the lake and the Cuernos and Paine Grande before we set out and honestly we were the first people on the track, we walked for an hour and a half before we saw anyone. The scenery on the walk was just amazing, all clear glacial lakes and huge mountain ranges and snow capped peaks. It was a long walk, 11k each way but not as steep as the day before. It took us 3 and a half hours to reach Glacier Grey where we had a well deserved rest and took in the lake which was scattered with icebergs including the biggest iceberg I had ever seen about 50 metres in front of us! Then we had to start the 3 and a half hour trek back to catch the catamaran and leave the park.
As well as amazing scenery we also got to see bright pink flamingos, cormorants, lots of llama type animals called guanaco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanaco) and emu type birds called nandu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandu).
Torres del Paine has definitely been the highlight of our trip so far and if we ever get a chance again we´d love to do the entire W trek and see all the sights, but staying in refugios is definitely the way to go with the gusts of Patagonia to contend with.
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