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Hiya. Currently in the far south of Chile, holed up for a couple of days to recuperate from the trekking / camping mission around the Torres Del Paine national park, which is around 5 hours away from here.
I actually reached Torres Del Paine from the town of Puerto Natales, which is closer to the park than my current location. Was staying at the Erractic Rock hostel, which is operated by some North American outdoor nutters. The guys give a presentation every day for an hour or so for those about to visit TDP. Itineries are suggested, equipment rented etc and it's also a great place to hook up with other travellers who arrived in town on their own. Lucked out in that department as met three other solo adventurer's, so we decided to split the cost of the rental camping equipment and take on the Torres together. In our happy go lucky group we had 2 boys and 2 girls - Francisco from Lisbon, a great lad who loves his rugby, Madryn who is a teacher from London and a Canadian called Robin. Bring on the Torres!
So Torres Del Paine is one of the premier destinations in this part of the world and should not be missed. The park is paradise for tent totting hikers, climbers and outdoorsy types from all over the world. There's a myriad of trails and camping areas covering mountains, valleys, lakes, glaciars and woodland. We decided on a 3 night / 4 day trip but some people spend 3 weeks or more out there!
The highlight was the last day when we got up at 04.30 to trek up the steep trails and boulders to the huge giant spires of the Torres. Once there you can watch the sunrise and gaze in awe as the sun's rays focus on the spires themselves. Quite hard to get out of the tent in the freezing darkness but the reward of reaching the top of the trail as the sun rose was surely worth the effort. One of those mystical moments - got some great photo's!
We arrived back in Pt Natales around 17.00 that day, aching but happy. Had the first decent food for days as whilst we were in TDP we had survived on dehydrated pasta, cookies and the like. Depite the early start to the day we made it out that evening for some drinks before a comfortable bed and monster sleep.
Before the TDP trip I had tried to book a flight to Santiago (Chilean capital city) but my credit card wouldn't work on the website. Therefore I had to buy one from the airline office when I got back from TDP which meant to fly the next day (Friday) was twice as expensive than to wait until Monday. Thus I had a weekend to kill, so headed south to Punta Arenas, where I currently am on this here Sunday evening. The town itself is not up to much, a small affair on the Straits of Magellan, a former stop off for shipping until the Panama Canal was opened. Only Ushiaia is further south on this continent and I feel like I´m in the Outer Hebredies or something. Still, staying at a nice and cheap place and there's a few people about, we had drinks on Friday and last night an Asado (BBQ). Not up to much this eve, have my flight up to Santiago tomorrow.
Well, my time in Patagonia is over but it's been a fantastic three weeks. However, looking forward to heading back up to warmer climes, ditching the bad weather gear and getting back into shorts and a T shirt.
Hope all is good.
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