Hiking in the Torres Del Paine National Park, Chile

For those of you to whom we said we’re off for 18 months of summer, you can begin laughing now… for those of you who claimed we’re flashpacking, read on and weep…

Short Version

We hiked 71.6km over 4.5 days, sleeping in a tent for 5 nights, carrying all our sleeping gear, clothes and food, getting our water from mountain streams. We went up mountains and down them. We got rained on, snowed on, sunburnt, windswept and very very cold. We saw amazing scenery that can only be reached by foot. We had a great time with no permanent damage and NO BLISTERS!!!

Long version

Sit back, get a glass of wine or cup of tea (how we missed tea!) and enjoy…

The Belgians

So, we’d read in guide books how the best way to explore the Torres Del Paine Nacional Park was to do a 3-4 day hike, called the W, due to the shape the route makes across the park.

We’d always planned to do at least a day or two’s trekking in the park, possibly staying in the refugios (think basic hostels) along the way. Then we met the Belgians….

We were sharing a dorm with them in El Calafate and they had just finished doing the W route. They said that the refugios were expensive and the cheap way to do it was to camp and take your own food and cook yourself. They also mentioned there were free campsites so we could keep the cost down even more. We asked them how hard the route was and they said as long as you were reasonably fit, it was fine, anyone could do it. We thought, they’re Belgians, they live in a flat country, we live next to Constitution Hill, this’ll be fine…

We then assessed our past experience in these things.

• Camping – well we’ve been to Glastonbury and that nice middle class campsite in Dartmoor where you could pre-order your breakfast croissants and cafetiere of coffee must count.
• Hiking – done a lot of this. Okay, often going to a warm bed and a bathroom at the end of the day.
• Carrying all our gear – we’ve been walking from bus stations to our hostels with all our gear. Surely that was good practice for walking up to 7 hours a day with all our stuff…

We headed to Puerto Natales, Chile, the nearest town to the Park.

4Elementos

Ros put us in touch with a Chilean scientist, who put us in touch with his good friend, Trauko. We kind of got the gist that Trauko had created an environmentally hostel, but we didn’t realise the extent of it til we arrived.

Basically, there is no recycling in Chile. It all goes to landfill (boo!!) – apart from this small hostel… Trauko built the interior of the hostel from materials he found or made himself from other materials. Awesome. But the hostel is just a concern to fund his real passion – recycling.

The Torres Del Paine has thousands of visitors a year. All the rubbish in the park is then carried out on mules and taken by boat to landfil. Trauko wants to change this. However, he has to show people what recycling is…so in his back yard he has a sorting and sifting plant. We kid you not.

He sorts all the hostel's rubbish, then, having got the machines from Sweden, he crushes the glass and plastic and paper, ready to sell to a recycling company... he's trying ot introduce it to the Park, but currently they are having none of it as it costs them money.... he needs support and funding to build a proper sorting and sifting site...if you are interested in supporting all this, let us know and we'll put you in touch...

Anyway, the long and short is we agreed to carry all our rubbish out of the park so he could recycle it. This was largely in order for us to be able ot come back and have more homemade bread and oj for breakfast...

As well as being mad to save the planet, by happy coincidence one of Trauko's former jobs was in the South Pole. He has loads of gear from this and his Swedish trips which he loans out to guests. We were sorted with awesome sleeping bags, therma rests (roll mats) and the most amazing tent, tried and tested by him in Antartica, for our trip. This thing was 100% water and snow proof and weighed less than Martin's pants bag (unsoiled)...

So, off we set.

The trek

First, it was hard work carrying all our stuff. We reckon we carried 35kg between us. This got lighter as we ate as we went along. Turns out those nice rucksacks for backpacking aren't so great to carry weight around for up to 7 hours a day. Especially not if one of them is a knock off one from Bangkok...

Second, it was cold. Turns out spring in Patagonia means "a bit less windy" so only gusts of up to 50kmph instead of 80kmph and snow every other day. As a general rule, if you can see a glacier or hear avalanches from where you are pitching your tent, it's going to be a cold night.

You know you're cold when:

• you risk burning your hands when putting the camping stove away because it's better than cold
• you sleep inside the sleepingbag. As in, inside, completely sealed in from all sides, wearing all your clothes. And cuddling. And still feel cold.
• A cuppa soup with pasta in it is a breakfast fit for a king
• you can't tell the difference between hot water and cold water as it all just hurts
• you hope that the next bit of walking will be uphill so you might warm up a bit
• note to mothers - we had good quality gear and were only at mild risk of hypothermia.

So, camping outside for 5 nights. The sound of the gale whipping through the trees punctuated by the occasional avalance in the distance wasn't exactly soothing. It was quite exciting when on our 4th night we woke up to see the sun.

Cooking over a stove - but tricky but surprisingly satisfying, as long as you like pasta. Most commonly used phrase "This is gorgeous, mind you, anything hot would taste good right now". Competitive cookery note - we were the only campers not living off instant noodles. Fresh veg and homemade sauces (well, garlic and stock cubes) everynight. Oh, chocolate. A large bar. Every day. Essential.

But the scenery... once again, our photos are just too inadequate. The park is awesome and every section of the route had different scenes. The Cuernos (seires of 3 moutains) were stunning, the Torres, breathtaking, the lakes glistening and unbelievably turquoise. We've seen a lot of lakes in the last few months. Still not bored of them.

Condors - surprisingly common for an endangered species. Really beautiful and graceful. Absolutely massive. Little bit disconcerting when you realise what they are circling above is you!

Overall, we had a fantastic time, although there were sections that felt more like an endurance trial than a fun holiday activity. Would we do it again? Absolutely, but with better backpacks, and possibly in summer.

Photos of our 5 day hike in Chile's Torres Del Paine National Park

Day 1. We are still warm here.








Hiking to our first campsite, next to Glacier Grey. Kara still has energy to lift her arms.







View of Glacier Grey, halfway along the path on the first afternoon.








View from our campsite. Yes, those are icebergs.








Day 2. Kara isn't stopping to pose for photos now. She just keeps on walking.







Amazing* valley we camped at the bottom of.
* this means gales, snow, but pretty.







Day 3. Check out the view!










Cos a blizzard closed in while we were at the very top so we saw nothing on the way down...we had to follow someone else's footprints back to camp...

Campamento Italiano. This photo doesn't convery the wind or cold. Only source of water - glacial stream. Chilly.

Only "toilet" - 50 metres away. In a hut. Fortunately the little orange tent you see is a work of engineering genius and kept us not as cold.

Day 4. The lake! The sun! No snow!

Day 5. We made it to the Torres on a perfect day!! This does not show the pain and steepness we went up to get here. And yes, Kara sobbed like a girl when we reached the top.

AWESOME!!! The 3 Torres.

Part of the route to get to the Torres.

Heading back to camp after seeing the Torres.

Day 6. Bonus weather, bonus cold. Should have got the evening bus back rather than camp another night "because it looks like it's warming up." Packing up a tent in a snowstorm is character building. Honest.

Question time

Your questions answered....

"I thought South America was a lawless place but Argentina sounds very bucolic...."
Argentina is the most European of S.American countries. When you talk to people, there is real sadness and frustration that they aren't one of the great countries in the world, as they have the capacity to be. The general view is that the political corruption is currently holding them back, on top of years of military juntas. At the ground level, most people are very keen to give a good impression of their country and help you out. While we have heard stories of backpackers being mugged and robbed, it's pretty rare.

The country has a developed infrastructure (coach network that puts ours to shame) and educated, cultured people. There is an underlying current of poverty (especially since the economic collapse in 2001) but it is not as exaggerated as other S. American countries. There also seems to be more of a middle class here than in other S.American countries (where there are just rich and poor).

So, yes, it has its issues, but it is pretty safe, easy to travel round, good tourism infrastructure (the Argentines travel a lot inside their own country), and the scenery is stunning.

What, apart from friends and family, do you miss from home?
Hah! There's a big assumption!

Kara: I thought about this long and hard. In the first week I missed my lightweight jumper I forgot to pack but I bought a new one out here. I also wish we'd bought a small laptop as there is free wifi everywhere. But, to be brutally honest, I miss nothing. I love backpacking, having all I need in one bag, I love travelling, I love meeting new people, speaking in Castellano...just love it.

Martin:

• the pub (particulary ale)
• curry
• pesto
• being fit

Argentina by numbers

As we leave Argentina (for a bit - we might have to come back to take advantage of superior transport infrastructure as Kara "sealegs" Stanford just about handled 3 hours on a catamaran and does not fancy the 3 day "it might be rough all that time" trip up Chile that is the other option) we thought we'd do some summing up.

• number of planes been on: 1 (to get here)
• number of buses been on: 39
• number of nights on buses: 7
• Places (ie towns, villages, etc) stayed in: 18
• National Parks visited: 7
• Boats been on: 6
• Rickety 4x4s been in: 1
• Distance travelled: we started working this out but got hungry
• Awesome scenery to sitting in bus station ratio: approx 3:1

Ushuaia - El Fin del Mundo (end of the world)

So we know why Argentina is so safe - they don't need to bother stealing your money in the rest of the country they just need to wait for you to get down here then rob you blind on laundry services. Double the price everywhere else. This has led to some differences among team Stanford. Operative Husband feels that clean pants are an extravagance that can be done without. Operative Wife already had to rewear her pants and refused to do it three days running (you can only turn them inside out once you know) or wash a bin bag's worth of dirty laundry by hand in a bathroom sink. So, chicken stew for us again tonight (and tomorrow).

That aside, we are at the most Southernly City in the World or, as they call it here, at the End of The World (there is a town in Chile called Puerto Williams that is further south but apparently that doesn't count as it's not a city). It felt like the end of the world to get here. Three buses, one "ferry" (think what they used for the Normandy landings and you've about got it - we were thinking Dover-Calais ferries...so naive) across the Magellan Straits, 2 border crossings (Ushuaia is cut off from Argentina by a big bit of Chile) with long dull waits, and a random change of bus, and we finally made it.... Or we could have flown into the airport with the great name of "Aeropuerto Las Malvinas Argentinas".

We have seen the train at the End of The World, and seen a golf course at the End of World and various other "End of" and "The Last" and "xxx at the end of the world". These guys know what their unique selling point is!

But okay, it is AWESOME. Ushuaia is backed by mountains (covered totally in snow still) and sits on the sea, with the Beagle Channel stretching out in front of it, covered in islands.

THE thing to do here is to get a boat out on the Beagle Channel. So we did. In a gale. And a blizzard. And sunshine. And hail. The weather is a bit changeable here... It was great. There's no point describing it as we'll do a poor job and you'll cry with jealousy into your work keyboards and get sacked. We got off on one island into a howling gale and then 20 minutes later were legging it back to the boat in a blizzard. Except Martin who stood on a hillock arms outstretched, like blinkin' Highlander. Even the tour guide left him stood there and got on the boat before him.

We saw an island full of cormorants and one with seal lions and another with a funky little lighthouse (strangely not the lighthouse at the end of the world - that's futher on). All the time our catamaran was leaping up and down. The two Armenian-British women we met almost got blown off the stairs coming down from the top deck. Fortunately we were able to comfort them by allowing them to buy us hot chocolate!

We'll put some photos up when we're not using the internet connection at the end of the world.

Today we got a bus to the National Park of Tierra Del Fuego (the name of this province) and took great pleasure walking alongside a lake for 3km to the Chilean border (marked by some weird metal sculpture and a sign). We did the obligatory photo poses.

Tonight we're going to see what's kicking on a Saturday night at the end of the world. Our hostel seems to be sandwiched between an Irish Pub and a strip club - Operative Wife is being quite strict about which direction we head out of the hostel tonight (Guiness it is then!)

On Monday we make the lovely long bus journey to Puerto Natales in Chile. Really like it down here but hey, we are rolling stones....

Photos of this corner of Patagonia

Sections of the Perito Moreno Glacier


























Mount Fitz Roy










Valley that we started both walks from



















Tall spiky mountain is Cerro Torres. 2 different views including from the lake.

Adventures in the Parque Nacional De Los Glaciers

First, it is twenty to one in the morning here and we are waiting to go get our 3am bus. We've already done a 3 hour bus journey to get to our hostel, and before that we did a 22km walk in the Andes... we are tired!

The area that we've been walking in today is possibly the most beautiful on the planet. If you own a passport and a pair of legs, you owe it to yourself to come and see. It is a national park with over 300 glaciers and two very famous mountain peaks, the Fitz Roy and Cerro (which means mountain) Torre (which means tower). We were pretty impressed with Argentina before but the last few days have blown us away.

We started a hike yesterday afternoon from El Chalten to see the Fitz Roy mountain. There is no point describing the valley, the woods, the mountains, the views as it won't do it justice. Then we began this morning at 8.45, with a steep uphill climb, then followed a river through woods, with the snowcapped mountains ahead of us. 3 hours later we arrived a glacial lake at the foot of Cerro Torre, complete with little icebergs. We caned our way through about 100 photos because every step we took took our breath away (with the scenery, not the exercise!!). Awesome, awe inspiring, and just down right beautiful. And, against all the odds, we did the whole thing in sunshine with a clear blue sky (very unsual for here). This was particularly surprising as 2 days ago the area we had been hiking in had been snowed in...

Before we did this trekking trip, on Monday we went to Glacier Perito Moreno. It's a lump of ice. What's the big deal? It's MASSIVE. The end that we saw was 5 miles long and the height of a 15 storey building....that was just the end that drops off into the river. And it does drop off. You'd hear an explosion then see lumps of it falling below. To make this day perfect, we woke up to a small blizzard of snow. THis meant that on our journey to the glacier we got complete winter wonderland scenery and on the way back it had all melted to reveal stunning Patagonian scenery. We also saw loads of condors as they come out after the snow as a lot of the new born animals don't survive a snow fall this late so they come to pick them off.

So, our late / early bus is taking us to the most southernly city in the world - Ushuaia. We don't know how to pronounce it either. 20 hours on a bus (oh, when we say bus, they are actually coaches that put UK coaches to shame), crossing into Chile then back out, and a ferry across the Magellan Straits....

Did we mention before that we love this country?!?

Thick as a whale omlette!

We are in Puerto Madryn, near the wildlife tastic Peninsula Valdes...

Animals we have seen:

• Southern Right Whales - both alive and dead. More fun alive, but easier to get a good look at dead.
• Maras - crazy kangaroo/rabbit/deer combination. Apparently tastes like pork though.
• Rheas - not discernably any different to an ostrich
• Some tiny ostrich like thing - might have been a baby rhea, might have been something entirely different
• Elephant seals - very large, very lazy
• Cormorants - large, black
• Flamingoes - large, pink
• Sea lions - very cute. Got to go snorkelling with these boys. Very playful and good fun.
• American teenage girls - listed here as we are fairly convinced that they are a different species. Nothing in our gene pool would see a group of whales for the first time and declare "it´s like an orchestra of love".

Animals we have not seen:

• Killer whales - they don´t turn up till November
• Pumas - ´cos they only come out at night and are very rare

We are in the "go on tours of the amazing wildlife and parks" section of Argentina. This is good because you get to see lots of cool stuff, but bad because you have to pay for it. Consequently Martin´s steak habit has hit rocky times. But the sun is shining and we are by the sea, so all is good.

We are about to go meet some Londoners for a beer in the sun, then it´s another 20 hour bus journey overnight to get to El Calafate to look at the glaciers. There is currently some debate amongst the Stanfords as to whether the best method of seeing a glacier is by boat, on foot (with crampons) or by kayak. Watch this space...

Photos of El Bolson and Trevelin

Martin today in the tea shop









View on today's bike ride









View of Valley El Bolson is in

Sculpture park, with El Bolson in background

El Bolson on market day

Our log cabin

Welsh Patagonia

So, at the end of the 19th Century a group of Welsh folk set sail from their land. According to the woman we met from Cardiff last night (who had her own Tetley tea bags with her) it was all the undesireables -and we thought they'd fetched up in Swansea... Anyway, they made it across the Atlantic to Argentina. When they arrived they then crossed 500km of land to reach a place that looked a lot like Wales... a lush green valley, surrounded by beautiful mountains, with clear running rivers and lakes... The only difference between this and the real Wales, is that the sun actually shines here....Tidy.

Now we have isolated / angered a good percentage of our family and friends, we can say that we know why those folk stopped and founded Trevelin. Just as we think Argentina can't get any more beautiful, it does. We spent a good part of today cycling around it going "Wow". Yes Brian, this is a bucolic, gorgeous place.

For interested gastronomes and gourmands, we will reproduce below (with English translations) the entire ordering process of our meal last night:

Us: "Hola, Buenos Noches. ¿Una mesa para dos?" (Hi, good evening, a table for 2?)
Them: "Si." (yes)
Them: Put a plate of meat with little bowls of sauces on our chosen table
Us: Puzzled but start eating
Them: (who is now the big owner / chef of the restaurant). "¿Carne?" (Meat?)
Us: "Si".

20 minutes later a big grill of meat arrives. Gorgeous lovely meat.

20 minutes later...

Them: "¿Un poco mas?" (A little more?)
Martin: Si!

And repeat til we get the bill.

Today's culinary delights consisted of, after our 40km bike ride, going to a Welsh Tea Shop. For 6 quid each we each got:
- a scone with butter cream and jam
- a ham and cheese sandwich, home made white bread, crusts cut off
- slice of home made white bread and home made butter
- slice of chocolate cake
- slice of cheesecake (old fashioned way)
- slice of treacle & date cake
- slice of apple pie
- slice of nutty cake with icing on
- limitless tea with milk

Martin had seconds.

We like it here.

Cultural note
Welsh isn't spoken here widely as a first language. However, it is taught as an option in schools and there are a lot of visiting Welsh teachers and professors out here. Next week, our hostel has 22 Welsh kids coming over to share the language, dances, culture etc of Wales. This happens a lot. It seems to be a matter of pride for some locals to speak Welsh.

There are Welsh flags about the place and roads called things such as "John Murray Thomas" and "William Underwood" (our favourite is the street called "Las Malvinas Argentinas"). There's even a street called Brown....(for Martin's family).

The tea shops are "Welsh" (almost but not quite as good as Martin's aunty Gil's cake though and no Barra Brith!) and have displays in them of the pioneers and their stuff. What we have learnt from these is that if you are setting out on a perilous journey across the Atlantic from which you may never return, you bring your best china.

Oh yes, there is now a waitress in a Welsh tea shop who will be explaining Welsh devolution in all its complexity to tourists from all over the world as described by Martin and Kara, in Spanish, whilst on a sugar high.

Heaven in a Patagonian Valley

El Bolson is a small town in an Andean Valley, with Chile just 5 miles away over the Andes. Parents - you are very lucky, we would stay here forever but there is a school party of 30 teenagers arriving this afternoon so we have to leave.

This is a fertile valley and our hostel is 5km north of town, in the countryside. After getting a local bus, where the driver knew where we were going before we opened our mouths (Scary!!) then told us where to get off and which path to walk down, we arrived at hostel El Pueblito. http://www.elpueblitohostel.com.ar/

We walked in to a large log cabined room with an open fire, a friendly welcome, and then the best bit... we didn't realise we were staying in our own little log cabin!! The heater had been turned on, it was warm and cozy.

Martin says the best bit is the home brew beer, light and refreshing, only comes in litre bottles.

Or was it the company? Unsually, on our first night there were 3 English backpackers here, two of which were another married couple (we've not met another couple travelling). Martin feels like a soft city boy, again, as the other was a lad of 21 (Oli), who had just spent 3 weeks trekking across Argentina by himself, following a river, killing his food as he went. Apparently eyeballs and brains give you the protein you need. He was still getting used to socialising again.

Saturday was hot and sunny. The three of us went to the town, taking a leisurely hour stroll via back roads and fields to the artesan market. Kara looked at crafts, Martin and Oli decided what to eat for lunch. As usual in Argentina on a weekened, the place was full of families and kids and dogs all chilling out.

To help Oli regain his place in the world, we let him play Scrabble with us in the evening.

Yesterday the two of us did this journey:
- taxi to track at the bottom of a mountain (10km away from hostel)
- walk 1/2 way up mountain
- hitch lift to the car park 3/4 way up mountain
- walk up steep track to woods where there is a sculpture park. Admire sculptures.
- carry on to Refugio at 1400m. Admire stunning views of Andes and the valley below. Drink hot chocolate.
- Refuse lift back town off couple who gave us one up. Walk for 2 hours back down whole of mountain.
- walk back 5km along road to town. In pouring rain. Get taxi back from bus station to hostel.

Spent the evening in front of the hostel's open fire, reading, chatting, reading, sleeping, eating.

Today we are moving on (sob!) to Trevelin, a Welsh settlement, for one night. Apparently it has an awesome tea shop. Then overnight bus to (Puerto Madryn) Peninsula Valdes, on the East side of Argentina. Going to miss waking up and seeing the mountains but we'll be back to the Andes soon.

Question Time...

What does goat taste like? (from Brian)
Martin: Somewhere between lamb and beef. Very dark quite tough, needs a lot of cooking but has a lot of flavour to it. It's not particularly controversial, if you had it without knowing you'd assume it was beef cooked in an odd way.

Kara: Tastes ok. I gave most of mine to Martin.

Are you really backpacking? (Ben and others...)
Right, it seems that there are certain rumours, started by Simpson Junior we think, that call into doubt the authenticity of our backpacking experience! All you naysayers, please bear in mind the following:

• we do indeed have rucksacks, not suitcases, that contain all our worldly goods for the next few months, and we are carrying them ourselves (No Ben, we are not paying someone called Pedro to carry them!!)
• we are staying in hostels - the fact that we are staying in nice ones is more a reflection of our ability to read a guide book and get recommendations off other travellers than the amount of money we have
• we are cooking our own meals. But unlike the USA students we met the other night, we know that powdered milk and tomato puree do NOT make a good sauce. We showed them our root veg and steak stew as evidence of this.
• we are getting public transport everywhere (buses) or walking. We did get a taxi yesterday after a 5 hour 30 hike up and down a mountain, with the last hour in the pouring rain and a failed attempt at hitching a lift. Oh, and we hitched a ride up a bit of the mountain.
• We wash our clothes in the sink (or bidet) until they get really smelly then we use the washing service at the hostels
• There were wood lice in our cabin and other bugs - but it adds to the charm.
• Whenever we get free food on buses, we ask for extra portions and save them for later
• The day we found a supermarket with plates of cake to sample was known as "free desert day".

In summary, we are backpacking, it's just we're good at it!

Kit wanted to know why we didn't stay at home if we wanted to interact with everyone

That's the dumbest question ever! A year out in Bristol....or Argentina, Chile, New Zealand etc etc. Go figure! Mate, you should be grateful - a year out in Bristol would be us sleeping in your spare room!!

However, you are all very welcome to meet us at any point of our journey, and we're very excited that we'll be seeing the parents in New Zealand and Kit & Nicky in Oz. Still time to come meet us in South America you know gang....

More Lakes...

We've had a good couple of days but not much different to what we did before. It's the Lake District. Lakes. Lots of them.

Our route so far in this region:
San Martin De Los Andes to Villa La Angostura

Highlights of Villa La A:

• boat ride on stunning lake to see amazing forest
• youth hostel full of Argentinian partying teenagers (who were very good at table tennis)
• youth hostel full of grumpy English speaking backpackers complaining about lack of sleep (see above).

Conversation had at breakfast at V L A:

Guy walks up to sit at our table. We say Hola, he says hola. He then stares at Kara, who is peeling a fruit. She looks at him and says in English "It's a Kiwi". He glares at her and says "Are you taking the piss?". She says "You were staring at it like you didn't know what it was". He says "I was trying to figure out if you were English speaking." He was from New Zealand.

Villa La Angostura to San Carlos De Bariloche:

• resort for Argentines on hols
• very beautiful lakeside setting (there's a pattern here...)
• took bus out to peninsula for a walk... through woods... by a lake... stunning, stunning, stunning
• Saw woman on moped, with her pet dog running beside her....very fit dog....

Tomorrow we're going to El Bolson - no lakes but rivers, mountains, forests...very pretty... and hippies. Apparently there's a crossing of ley lines, spiritual energy, UFOs, Buddhist type vibe going on... and like most of these places they brew their own beer. Oh, only place in Argentina you can get veggie food. We're booked into a hostel made out of logs in the middle of the woods (kid you not).

Basically, until we upload some photos, assume that for the next few days we are in beautiful mountain scenery doing walks and hikes and just chilling out.