Chilean Sea Blog: Spring Break Part 2: Patagoing to Make an Outdoorsy Girl Out of Me

WARNING! THIS IS LONG. FEEL FREE TO READ IT, READ IT IN PARTS, OR PRETEND TO, OR DON’T, BUT I REALLY CAN’T HELP THIS ONE!

Torres del Paine Stats:

3 very strong, funny, and attractive women

2 named Emily

1 named Rebecca

3 very heavy, packed to the brim, and stanky backpacks

1 two-person tent

21.6 miles hiked

12 new friends from

7 different countries

4 wipe-outs (not bad right?)

0 showering

Now for the real meat and potatoes of my trip, though I assure you there were no actual meat and potatoes anywhere to be found, only cans of tuna and bags of flavored rice.

DAY ONE: Did Anyone Bring an Inhaler?

We arrived in Torres del Paine in the evening with our new Israeli friends to the first campsite. This campsite sat below the biggest mountain I have ever seen in my life; it was covered in snow and we jokingly dubbed it “the ugliest mountain in Torres del Paine” because we couldn’t believe that this was what we were looking at and we hadn’t even started the actual trail yet! We figured that it would be too late to begin the “W” trek (it’s shaped like a “W”) without it getting dark on us, and anyway the Israelis were beginning the “full circuit” trek which begins in the opposite direction that we were going in, so we decided to spend one last night hanging out together. We created a sort of double tent that had space in the middle for us to hang out in that we dubbed a “Frankentent” and spent the rest of the night making dinner and playing games that involved funny accents.

The next morning we made some breakfast, packed up our tent, took some last pictures together, and headed off in our separate ways. The first part of trail was ALL UPHILL. It was a shock to my system and I spent most of it a few yard behind my friends breathing heavily and taking lots of breaks! I couldn’t believe what I had gotten myself into and this was only the first day! I had flashing images of myself being helicoptered out of the trail, and was nervous about holding my friends back. They of course were very supportive and assured me that I was not, that they would stick with me until the end. A couple of German giants came up behind me and squeezed my hands for reassurance, and I kept going. This trail is a very popular one and there are many people who you can see walking back and forth on it. To keep myself entertained I said “Hola” to each and every person that I passed. My friends and I called the trail the United Nations since we ended up meeting people from all over the world.

Emily R has a friend who is a sound technician and he gave her a fancy recording device to record the sounds of Patagonia. At first Emily wasn’t completely sure when it was recording and when it was not so there is a portion of the tape where you can hear me breathing embarrassingly heavily and asking “Is it… flat… up there?” in a breathy exhausted sounding voice! It is hilarious listening to it now and I think a great way to illustrate how I was feeling!

The last part of the day involved an hour-long uphill hike to the infamous “Torres” (meaning towers). Looking at the massive iconic faces of the “Torres”
I felt very blessed, and wondered if that feeling was coming from the incredible views or from a gratefulness of having survived my first day backpacking. We took a lot of goofy pictures then headed back down to have dinner and give our sore muscles some rest.

I wish my pictures did this view and all of the views of Torres del Paine justice. For a little bit of context I did some math (believe it or not) and the mountains of Torres del Paine are about four times the size of the Empire State Building! So far none of my life experiences compare to the feeling of being so small beneath the glorious jagged mountain ranges of this national park.

DAY TWO: The Pain and Pleasures of Paine or The Hardest Day

Our second day was very difficult because not only did we essentially have to go all the way back down 3½ hours to where we started to move on to the next leg of the hike (due to the “W”-ness of the trail), but we had to make it to the next campsite at the base of the “W” which was 7 hours away. As I was taking my usual spot at the caboose of our trekking train (sorry I had to) I noticed someone behind me. I said “hola” and informed him that he could go ahead of me because I liked to take my time and enjoy the views (lie). Instead he asked me where I was from, and lo and behold an incredibly kind German named Christian joined our group. He had been working in Colombia for the past nine months and is hoping to pursue a career in the coffee industry. I very much enjoyed hearing his story, among the many others that we heard along the way.

This next set of views came with an enormous river below us, with the trail cut into by creeks that would flow into it. One of the coolest parts of the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine is that the water in these streams was completely safe to drink. We felt very Pocahontas-like filling our empty canisters and camelbacks straight from the river. The water was freezing cold and very tasty; I wish I had some to bring back to the States as proof.

Parts of this trail felt a lot like a labyrinth, or like we were ants in an ant farm, or lost boys from Peter Pan, choose your metaphor and attach it to the image of narrow paths formed with thick earth. Above us trees and vines created a canopy of sorts with only parts of the sky showing through.

Ultimately we made it to paradise. Our next campsite at first seemed like a mirage, with backpackers taking off their shoes, carrying glasses of wine into this wooden lodge equipped with dinner (for a price obviously), bathrooms, showers, but most importantly warmth! The weather in Torres del Paine is truly unpredictable at this time of year, with sun, rain, huge wind gusts, warmth, coldness, all occurring sporadically throughout the day. We spent a lot of time on the trail taking layers off and putting them back on to adjust to the changing atmospheres.

Anyway, back to paradise. My friends and I shared glasses of wine and ended up finding the Australians who we met back in Puerto Natales. Here they joined our group for the rest of the hike and we had a very enjoyable motley crew of us making our way through the rest of the trail.

DAY 3: The Social Experience of Backpacking

This day was my favorite day spent in Torres del Paine and also the one that I began to feel strangely at home in the park. The trails felt like my own, and I felt very comfortable walking through the dirt paths and over the rocks above the glittery creeks. We sang the Indiana Jones theme song as we used vines to help us across beds of water, and enjoyed the company of our new larger groups sharing each others traveling customs (ours: imitating trees which entails exactly what you think it does, theirs: using the ‘international symbol of distress’ which includes waving your arms over your head when trying to locate your friends in a club that has been extended to using it in remote places such as atop mountains in Torres del Paine) and talking about everything but mostly about where we would like to travel next (sorry mom!).

We saw a few rainbows that day, completing the idyllic portrait of my experience. Once again, the views blew my mind and I vowed that this activity of exploring nature was something I wanted to include in my repertoire. All the muscles in my body from my neck to my toes were sore, but I felt refreshed and whole from the clear air and overwhelming beauty of my location.

We dropped our stuff at the next campsite, took a break for snacks and chats, and continued up to the first lookout in the center of the “W”. It was going to be evening soon so we decided to make our way up as far as our bodies would let. As I was about to call it a day we met some of our trail friends (a woman from Germany, a man from Chile, and a woman from Japan) tell us that it was only 15 minutes away and was worth every stinging step. Thank God that I kept going because this view was one of my favorites. We saw a 360 degree view of everywhere we had trekked, rivers, mountains, trees, a culmination of our hard work in full view for us to relish in. It was SO WINDY that we had to bend our knees to ensure that we didn’t stumble across the rocks beneath our feet. I did my favorite activity atop this point which was granting the view a bellowing yell, (or yawp to use my inspiration for this Mr. Whitman) letting the sound escape from my lungs in a release only appropriate in the wild. I knew that this was our second to last day and I began to feel a bit sad to be leaving my newfound home.

DAY 4: The Last One

This day was very short as we made our way about 2½ hours to the catamaran (boat) that would take us to the entrance of the park and back on the bus to Puerto Natales. The trail was a little bit sad as most of it was part of the most recent fire in Torres del Paine. We could still smell burnt ash, and when I touched the trees some char came off on my hands. I hope it never happens again, this park is way to beautiful to have to go through that kind of destruction.

In a hilarious turn however, the last 20 yards of our walk to the catamaran felt like a legitimate windstorm! I have never felt such powerful winds and it made me laugh a lot. However every time I opened my mouth spit would drag across my face and make me laugh even harder! It was also drizzling a bit but the rain felt like hail bullets against my face! One last challenge Torres del Paine felt like handing my way but this time I felt like a conqueror rather than someone being told by nature that she didn’t belong.

Our time in Torres del Paine ended with an extremely satisfying catamaran ride down the river surrounded by all the mountains that we had seen from each and every view reminding us of our accomplishments.

The rest of our trip was spent hanging around both Puerto Natales and Punta Arenas with our new friends, enjoying the feeling of being clean and brushing our teeth regularly. Sorry to kind of cut that short but this post is getting incredibly long and next it will be time to write about my trip to Mendoza in Argentina!

Ciao!