Our stay here was definitely made better by staying at a gorgeous little hostel, really nicely designed with feather type duvets!! That afternoon/evening we light heatedly planned our 4 day walk around Torres del Paine, found there weren’t any beds at any of the refugios so camping it was! rented all the necessary equipment from the hostel, (husband worked in the park, very nice, we went through our plan with him and it seemed fine!) and enjoyed a proper meal and a decent bed!
The next morning we literally DRAGGGED ourselves out of our really really warm and cosy bed in our lovely hostel Yaganhouse, we were downstairs for breakfast by 7, (really nice breakfast!) and waited for the bus to pick us up (outside the hostel! Bonus!) The old bus was full of clean people with their full rucksacks ready for trekking! It was only a couple of hours drive on the bus, passing great scenery (and a great chance to sleep), and it was perfect weather! We then had to pay to enter the park, where there was a fantastic view of Torres del Paine in the sunshine (The best we ever saw!). We then got dropped off at the boat (had decided to do the walk west to east) which dropped us off at the first refugio. The weather was hot! We were very happy to be able to leave our big bags at the refugio! We added 4 hours onto our first day of walking by including going up to the Glacier viewpoint! So we headed off and stopped after 10minutes for lunch! It was so hot! The walk was really hard along the valley, not that much to look at to distract you so it felt painfully long!
First impressive view was of a perfect still blue lake, so nice to finally get a reward! The walk improved a lot from there as there was far more scenery around, beautiful lakes, mountains etc! We were on the lookout for the glacier, ice bergs were spotted a long way before and I was really started to wonder if it was worth it all, but then we saw the glacier and it was pretty good! It was worth it, we chilled out and enjoyed the view, it looked spectacular with the sun bouncing off it, and so unlike previous glaciers we’d seen. We then walked SUPER fast back, (3hours there, 1 hour back!) We were back in record time which made the next leg not feel so bad! Had a cold sprite for a reward and were off to camp Italiano.
It was supposed to take 2 hours but it took over 3, it really dragged and we were ready to die with our bags when we reached the campsite just before it was dark. We set up camp, and the dark was definitely a good cover when using the free toilet! We huddled around the stove and ate a bowl of pasta in seconds!! With everything piled high in the tent we slept in every layer and were soon off!
Next morning I woke up panicked, my left eye having swollen in the night from one of what turned out to be over 50 mosquito bites from my shoulders up! An antihistamine later and a bit more sleep woke up with a little better vision! Had stale bread and jam for breakfast and tea (powdered milk greatly appreciated!!) We set off on the walk up the valley, accompanied by the thunderous noise of avalanches crashing down the mountain in front! Loved them! After a long walk all uphill we reached our first viewpoint which was great, after another long walk we got to the end, it was impressive, but I couldn’t justify the pain to the view! As we’d set off so late we couldn’t make the 2/3 hour walk to the next camp before dark so we nursed our feet, cut our losses and had dinner with a bottle of wine in the tent! (which James was very happy to shed the weight!) We planned to set off super early as would be having a seriously hard day ahead, but obviously we didn’t set out as early as planned! (Some things never change!!)
Day 3 was technically the hardest, we walked all day (left 8.30 am, arrived at the camp at 7) with our bags uphill, up, down and more up! But we did it a lot better, got into the swing of it a bit more and was probably the most enjoyable day, when you look back at it that is! We left at 8.30am and were at the next camp 1hour50 later instead of the 2.5 the map said, so we went fast! And was a good feeling overtaking people and arriving there before people at that camp had even got up. It was raining but this was a lot better than dying in the heat! The next leg was 4hours, then 2hours solid up to the Torres del Paine campsite. We ended up going at a similar rates another couple who we overtook a lot and got to know! We paced it well, walked well and kept marching on! We took the ‘shortcut’ route which cut off a corner to a camp, and made it to the final campsite by 7, very proud of ourselves! There were thoughts of another hour and half to the base camp of the viewpoint, but the weather was bad, as in really bad fog and we could no longer see Torres del Paine or a few feet in front of us! So couldn’t justify walking that much further uphill with our bags to maybe see nothing in the morning and have to walk back with them! So we had a shower, (I don’t think we’ve EVER smelt so bad haha) a box of wine, sat in the warm refugio, met a couple of guys, one from Australia and one from Germany who were sharing a dinner there, and a dorm bed – Clare reckons they were just friends…! Had a good day, did soo well walking and despite the bad weather (it didn’t rain all day!) and the sandflies (grrrrr) it was the day I enjoyed the most.
The last day we woke up in the middle of a cloud! Deliberated for a while in our usual fashion whether to walk to the viewpoint, not that we’d be able to see ANYTHING! The couple from Israel headed back to catch the afternoon bus, but we decided to do it anyway, we’d come so far, even if we didn’t see anything we hated getting so close but going back without doing the last bit!! We walked through the cloud, and were feeling pretty disappointed, realising there was no way we would be able to see anything, we were so close, and although hadn’t been bothered about seeing them at the beginning, now we were actually so close it was really sad not to be able to see THE view even though there! After an hour of so walking up in the cloud we checked the bus times and realised we’d got it wrong and that if we ran, all the way down the mountain, we might just make the afternoon bus instead of the late evening one which there was no point in staying around for now! So somehow packed up in seconds and climbed up and out the sandfly valley, and made really good time getting back down the muddy paths. Felt soooo happy when realised we were going to make it and were almost back! feet were dying!! Met the couple on the bus, made them feel better that we’d gone to the last viewpoint and the weather didn’t improve so they didn’t miss anything! We slept all the way back on the warm bus, said bye to the Israeli couple, and were very very happy to get back to our lovely hostel, YAY! Straight out for an amazing huge pizza each and a bottle of wine! Then back for a night of spooks and sleep, was in heaven!
The next morning we woke up very happy and cosy, and really had that Saturday feeling which probably hadn’t had since home! In comfy warm clothes we went downstairs and had 2 peoples worth of breakfast each (she kept offering more food so we kept saying yes, we must have looked hungry!), took our time packing up and went and sat downstairs till it was time to get the bus to Punta Arenas. It really was so nice having the perfect morning and got to talk to home on skype!
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