Torres Del Paine, a challenging week!

Flashback: Saturday, 13th of March, destination Puerto Natales, Chile...

To get there we had to cross the border and Chilian people are very strict when it comes to enter their country. They are very vigilant about food especially. So you need to prove that you are acceptable and that takes a long time!! The bus journey probably last 2 hours, of which 1h30 was spent in customs where our passports and bags were carefully checked.

Thirty minutes after the necessary procedure was over, the bus dropped us off on a footpath in Puerto Natales! We didn't get a chance to book a hostel earlier on so we had no idea what was going to happen... until Melinda (a granny wearing a tracksuit and a flowery straw hat) ligthened our day! As soon as we got off the bus  she gave us a little leaflet describing her hostel in english. We told her that we were not interested and we ended up on a bench a couple of streets away to check our travelling guide hoping to find the perfect place. That was without counting on Mélinda's determination! She happened to  be in that same street few minutes later and she came to greet us with her leaflet again. Then she realised that we were the same people she alreayd talked to earlier on and she decided to  resort to drastic measures! She told us to get on her car to go and check the room. Her husband was driving.... quite an impressive family business they are running Once we got to their place (200 metres away!) it was quite difficult to say no! The room was very cheap (7€ each, breakfast included). Well it would have been awful of them to ask for more: it was about -10°C in the room and it was so damp that some little bugs were running all over the bathroom! Despite the arguable conditions it's in that hostel that we met the nicest people, especially a dutch couple with whom we got on well during our stay.

Once in Puerto Natales our plan was to go trekking in Torres del Paine national park. We wanted to go there on Sunday but after talking to people in the hostel we realised that we were not really ready! The circuit is called the 'W', it's about 80km long and it's recommended to walk there for 5 days.  The refugios on site are very expensive so we decided to go camping at the very last minute. We rent all the equipement on Sunday and thanks to Nacho's advice (a nice argentinian guy) we were ready to go:

10pm the night before trekking! How are we going to fit everything in our bags??!

Mélinda made our lives easier as she agreed on storing some of our things while we were gone. Despite her help, our backpacks were still very heavy:  the tent, the sleeping bags, our clothes and the food for the next 5 days ... we wondered if we could even walk a kilometre!

Monday 15th of March: departure  at 7.30am for what was about to be one of the most difficult days of our lives!  The time to go from Puerto Natales  to  the  parc, to pay the entrance fees, to get on the boat to go to the other side of the parc, we only started to walk at 1pm. We had to walk 12,5km  that day and our backpacks were about 15kg each. We got to the first campsite around 8pm. We were so tired that we didn't really have a chance to enjoy  the glacier

The morning after we already had to rush to be sure to get to the next campsite on time in the evening! Not everything went always right! For example have been attacked by mice on the third night! They gnawed at our box of cereal and ate what was supposed to give us some energy when we woke up! Moreover, go camping in the mountains, in a -non waterproof- two people tent that can contain nearly one can be tricky! It's not always motivating to wake up in a damp sleeping bag when you know you will have to walk for the next 9 hours either.... no shower on top of that... hummmmmm going camping is great

At the end of the week, after 5 long days, we had walked about 90km! It was tough but that was worth it! We had the chance to see absolutely amazing landscapes and incredible animals (ostriches, guanacos, flamingos, birds, foxes...) and the weather war beautiful. We regret only one thing: that our camera didn't picture what we saw the same way we saw it! We haven't sorted our pictures yet but as soon as it's done we will upload them on the website. Here is a small selection of what is to come:

It's Wednesday today... (we couldn' finish the article yesterday)... it's 7.30am and we have to go. Our bus to El Chalten is at 8am. We will tell you more about last few days as soon as possible.