Backpacking in Torres del Paine

Patagonia: it's a name that's recognized worldwide, conjuring up images of a wind-swept, pristine, rugged, beautiful, mountainous wilderness…a name that is rarely uttered without a tone of wonder or awe. Is all this reverence and hype deserved? I'll answer that with a resounding "yes"…and use this blog post as Exhibit A. (My next post will be Exhibit B.)

While doing research on where to visit in Argentina, Heather and I soon found out that the heart of Patagonia lies in two renowned national parks: Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, in Argentina, and Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, in Chile. These two parks are relatively close to each other (a few hundred miles) as the crow flies, but getting from one to the other is quite an ordeal (thanks in part to long, slow bus rides on gravel roads, not to mention the tenaciously strict Chilean border police) But, Heather and I were up to the challenge of working both parks into our schedule, and though there were several inevitable "bumps in the road," so to speak, we made it though safely in the end. And it was TOTALLY worth it.


We flew from Trelew, near Puerto Madryn, to the town of El Calafate (still in Argentina), which is the town that serves as a base for everyone visiting the Glaciers national park. The flight was an experience in itself: the pilot purposely stayed along the Atlantic coast for a while, before veering straight west so that we approached the Andes head-on. Within minutes from sighting the mountains, we were flying above the most dramatic landscape I've ever seen, huge rocky peaks, turquoise-blue lakes, seas of snow and ice (and no sign of human civilization.) The pilot invited us to crowd over to one side of the plane (it was only about a half-full flight) to look at the main attractions of the area: first the hulking summit of Mount Fitzroy and its imposing pyramid-shaped companion, Cerro Torre, and then the massive river of ice known as the Perito Moreno Glacier, sweeping down from the largest permanent ice field in the world outside of Antarctica and Greenland, the Southern Patagonia Ice Sheet.
The peaks out the plane window: Cerro Torre is above the wing, Fitzroy is the bigger one on the right.

On the left here is the Perito Moreno Glacier, flowing into Lago Argentina.


But you'll hear more about those sites in the next blog post…our plan was to head to Chile and Torres del Paine first. TdP is known as a backpacker's paradise, with two popular routes: the "ciruit" (going around the park, 8-10 days) and the "W" (so called because of the shape of the route on a map, 4-6 days.) We were headed for the W!

After landing in El Calafate, we spent a day getting ready for our trip: food, fuel, storing extra belongings in Calafate (where we would come back several times.)
We were really surprised, and thankful, to find this: Pasta de Mani--Paste of Peanut, or peanut butter! It's a rarity in Argentina.

We also had a chance to try out what became our favorite restaurant for the trip, Pura Vida, where they specialize in stews, like this lamb/pumpkin/veggies/cheese stew in a squash bowl (mmmmmmmmm! delicious!)

We also saw an amazing sunset over the town.



The next morning we hopped on a bus destined for Puerto Natales, Chile, a similar-sized town that serves as a tourist base for TdP. After 4 hours of slow riding, we reached the border crossing, where while waiting in line we learned from fellow passengers that the Chilean border guards are VERY strict with the rules about what could be let in. After stalling for a bit, we decided to eat all our fresh fruit then and there, and toss out our sausage. We were hopeful that our dried fruit would be OK, and it was (though we had to declare it), but when they searched our bags they still found some contraband: a bag of mixed rice and lentils that couldn't enter Chile because it had whole legumes in it. So they confiscated it, and, they told us, would incinerate it the next morning at 300 degrees Celcius! (They were nice, though--they didn't give us a fine.)

So, short some food, we got to Puerto Natales about 7 hours after leaving Calafate. We were late, and the bus to TdP was waiting for us, so there was no time to replenish our supplies, and we headed off on the 2-hour ride to the park. We barely made it on time to catch the catamaran across Lago Pehoe to the starting point of our trek, at the bottom left corner of the W, which we were doing left-to-right (west to east.)




The scenery in Torres del Paine is spectacular, as you will find out in the rest of these photos!

Heather on the catamaran

View of the Cuernos del Paine, dramatic and oddly-shaped peaks that you'll see more of soon:

Marveling at our first views of this amazing place!


We started hiking around 6:30 PM that first day, but since the sunset was around 10 PM, we had time to make a forced march 11 km to Camp Grey, at the NW corner of the W.

After some distance, Lago Grey came into view, with its blue icebergs, freshly fallen from Glacier Grey.

Still looking good, even with the 50-kph wind!

This became a theme: being surrounded by beautiful, untouched landscapes.

Soon, we came into view of the main attraction of the W's first leg: Grey Glacier! A jaw-dropping sight to behold.

The moon was waxing!

Lago Grey

Here's the view from our campsite that night, at Campamiento Grey.

Day 2: we started out with a short hike to get a better view of the glacier.

I don't think I'd ever seen an iceberg in real life before. Hmmm, let's go in for a closer look…

I got one!

(I proceeded to hurl that poor little guy onto a rock.)
But why just hold an iceberg, when you can stand on a floating one?

(It took me a while to get up the courage to jump onto it. It was a little harder to get back. But it was all worth it--how many people can say they've floated on an iceberg??)
Then, we headed back down the first leg of the W, to begin a long day of hiking (19 km.)




We made it back to our starting point, and headed east to the middle of the W.
The Cuernos came back into view:

At long last, we made it to this bridge across the French River, leading straight into Campamiento Italiano, our campsite for the next two nights.

This place is known for its widely ranging and unpredictable weather, and we got a taste of that on Day 3, when it rained all day. Luckily, there were a few points in time when the clouds cleared, because that was the day we day-hiked the most scenic part of the W route: the French Valley (middle leg of the W.)




Day 4, we awoke to a beautiful day. We ate breakfast by the rushing river, while marveling at this massive spectacle, Cerro Paine Grande.

The view back west

Day 4 was our longest day of hiking: 23 km, all with our packs, and gaining maybe 2000 feet of elevation. Much of the hike paralleled the edge of the beautiful Lago Nordenskjold.

The view back to Paine Grande

Looking across the lake, we would watch the white fluffy clouds move over rounded hills of vivid green mixed with elegant layered rocks.

Looking west, Lago Nordenskjold and Paine Grande.

Looking north, to the Cuernos del Paine.

Then we began to climb up through grassy, marshy meadows with plenty of muddy stream crossings.

Once we made it into the valley of the W's third leg, we descended to the well-situated Refugio Chileno. Several of these Refugios were spaced throughout the park, offering dorm-style housing, a small cafeteria, and a very basic convenience store. We were running out of food at this point, and the kind people at the cafeteria give us a plastic bag of pasta and a plate (that we returned on our way back) of tuna for our dinner that night, each for $2--pretty good, for the middle of the wilderness!
Oh, and the refugio gets its power from this windmill. Cool!

Day 5: we got up before 5 AM to hike the 1-hour trail up to see the sunrise at a lake beneath the columns of rock that give the park its name. Here are the impressive Torres del Paine (Towers of Paine)!

The sunrise wasn't spectacular (no red light on the Towers, as they say happens sometimes), but it was beautiful anyway, with only a few clouds lingering on the edges of the peaks.


Then it was time to head down and out.




At last, we made it to the end of the W. About 75 km in all (~60 with packs), it took us 90 hours (less than 4 days).

Before the bus came to pick us up, we had some time to gobble down some much-deserved food:

…and also some time to nap in the cozy refugio:


Getting back to Puerto Natales, we spent a night in a hostel, where the hot shower felt absolutely amazing.
Puerto Natales is an interesting town, a little run-down, but very cute and with a port-city feel.

Puerto Natales is located on the Sound of Last Hope, which is an inlet that eventually connects with the Pacific through several channels.


Argentina has a bizarre history, but one of the strangest things about it is its recent conflict with Great Britain over the Falkland Islands (which Argentines call Las Malvinas.) Basically, they're islands that no one cared about, until leaders in each country tried to improve their personal popularity by exerting their country's claim on the islands. The conflict that ensured was basically no contest--Britain's ships had guns with a longer range. Anyway, now it's just a bitter part of Argentine history, that makes relations between the countries pretty sour. Argentina still adamantly lays claim to the islands (which are governed by Britain), as can be seen at the border crossing.
Also, the dog: there are tons of stray dogs all over Argentina. Lots of them are lame, and you don't really want to touch one, because they're pretty dirty.


As we rode back in the bus across the barren, dusty, windy plain that makes up most of Patagonia, across the fields of grazing sheep we could barely see Torres del Paine in the distance (the clump of mountains on the left side of the horizon.) Goodbye, Chile!


Whew, that was a long post! But, with such an amazing place, I couldn't write less.

Next up: (probably) the last installment of my Argentina series, with El Chaltén area, the Perito Moreno Glacier, and a little about Buenos Aires. Can't wait to share more!