Today we take the 5 hr van ride back to a woodsy cabin retreat called La Casa Escondida run by Mauricio nearby Punta Arenas airport. He built this place and the surrounding cabins with his brother-in-law.
It’s just us and a German couple from Hanover Germany (Heinrich and Babel). They’ve been traveling for 4 weeks through Argentina and Chile.
This was our first time on Wi-Fi in 6 days. Sweet. Tomorrow we take our 3.5 hour flight to Santiago and then a 10.5 hr flight to JFK. Looking forward to be home again. Adios.
Today we took a van ride to Laguna Azul to see some wildlife and just take it easy.
We saw a lot of guanacos which are similar to alpacas and a lot of condors and other indigenous birds.
We stopped at a waterfall and then went to the southern part of the park for a final view of Torres del Paine mountains and a picnic lunch.
We had our final dinner with our group as well as sharing what was positive and negative with the group leaders as they wanted to hear from us so they can improve on each tour they guide.
After dinner we sat around together and Felipe took us back to the kitchen so we could show appreciation to the cooks who we never seen. Their food was always delicious.
Today’s trek is 22K and over 4,000 feet of elevation gain. The last 1.4 miles has 2,000 feet of elevation gain which is STEEP.
Beth has decided to take the day off as her feet are hurting and the climb today is steep.
We went from walking through forests to walking up boulders. At one point we came across a bunch of guys carrying a guy in a wheelchair. Incredible team effort.
The weather today was spectacular…blue skies, warm, no rain, low winds and manageable crowds.
The view today was definitely worth the climb.
Climbing back down was just as hard as we had to make our way through hundreds of people coming up the same trail. Hiking etiquette is to give way to the people coming up the hill as they are expending the most energy. That rule was lost on this crowd.
Beth spent the day at Eco Camp taking a nap and treating herself to a massage. Eco Camp is such a cool place.
It is amazing how fast this group climbs. This is definitely not a walk in the park.
At night, it is surprising at how clear the stars are due to the lack of pollution down here.
Today is a 20K trek with over 1500 feet of elevation gain. Today we head to see the glacier on Grey Lake. This was suppose to be an easier day that included a boat ride near the glaciers on Grey Lake but the boat was cancelled due to the high winds. So instead we will need to hike back down to camp to catch another boat that will travel west to east to get us back to Eco Camp.
The highlight of the hike today was to see the glacier from the mirador and then the group got to lean into 45+ mph winds without falling forward.
Afterwards we had lunch in the woods protected from the winds.
The boat that was to take us back to camp only takes first come first serve so we needed to queue up 1.5 hours before the arrival time.
Felipe told us that the boat ride back would be OK for us since the wind will be at our back but for the people it was dropping off they were sailing into the wind and the boat might smell like puke. Good times.
Today is a 26K trek with over 4,000 feet of elevation gain. The winds were gusting over 35 mph in many exposed areas.
We are the slow hikers in our group. The leader Felipe and all the other hikers trek at a very fast pace which was not what we expected.
The climb today took us to the Mirador Francés to see the Torres del Paine towers.
At one point on the climb, David from southern CA had his boot sole come unglued. Felipe used some glue and gorilla tape to McGyver his boot back together. Felipe is an experienced climber and said he’s been to (and hiked) in over 68 countries.
Part of our trek today went through the area that was burnt down in 2011 by a careless hiker.
Felipe told us if the wind gusts are strong enough you need to get down or it will knock you over. It didn’t take long for that to happen but everyone in the group did get down to be safe.
Once we reached the summit we got to see the towers but the wind was brutal at that point. We were lucky that we had no rain today but this trek is a lot harder than we thought it would be.
It was a brutal 9 hour day and we are pretty beat up. We are spending the night in a tent at the Paine Grande Refugio.
Today is a 5 hr 8.5 mile 1500 ft of elevation trek between Torres del Paine mountain range and Lake Nordenskjold.
They called today’s trek on Patagonia flats which is to say all ups and downs.
There was a lot of single track, small stream crossings and a couple of suspension bridges.
We had great weather. What was interesting is that the water is so clean in most streams that we use them to fill our water bottles.
For the next two days we will be camping as opposed to staying in the Eco Camp as we make our way into Torres del Paine park on the W trek.
Our Refugio we are staying at tonight has tents on platforms 4 feet off the ground.
When we got to our tent the entry way was covered with lime green bugs both in and out of the tent. We spent 20 minutes trying to kill them all and then headed for a beer and dinner. God, I love camping. Sleep tight.
Today was a 3 hour van ride to Puerto Natales for lunch and then a 2 hour van ride to Eco Camp. We met Alex and Michele from Phoenix AZ who will be in our group as well as Alejandro and Alana from Brooklyn NY who will be in the other hiking group.
We will be staying in small geo-domes that have 2 twin beds. Communal bathroom is a separate dome as well as the dining/bar area.
After a traditional pisco sour, we shared a dinner with David and Brian (southern CA) , Ivonne (our Chilean co-leader) and Robin and Carol (Calgary , Canada).
Last night we had a great dinner on the terrace of our hotel.
When the bill came we wanted to charge the dinner to our room but we didn’t know what our room number was so we showed the waiter our room key …..
…. Yep, the shepherd’s room.
It’s raining this morning so we’re just killing time at the hotel. While eating breakfast, we’ve decided to give our “shepherd’s room” key a nickname. We call him “Wooly”. I think his real name is “Baaaaahb”.
I took a quick walk up behind the hotel to take a few pics.
Inside the lobby, the front desk guy certified me on how to operate this early 1900 cash register.
Success!
Anybody have two tens for a five?
Took a Sunday morning stroll around sleepy Punta Arenas.
That’s Beth pointing towards North. Also came across some “Penguin like” birds on the beach called Comorans.
Decided to go for a light lunch and ended up with this…..
For dinner, we took a 20 minute walk to the outskirts of town to Luan’s Restaurant. A nice family run place where we got to try Chilean desert “Leche Asada” (similar to flan).
This may be our last post for awhile as we are going off the grid tomorrow as we enter “Torres del Paine”.
On our way to hike the W trek in southern Chile. It was always on bucket lists we see online so we thought we’d give it a try. Flying out of JFK to Santiago, Chile on LATAM airlines. I also decided to cross another item off my bucket list and fly first class for the first time in my life. It was great being able to fully recline on the 10.5 hr redeye flight.
Waiting for our next 3.5 hr flight to Punta Arenas which will take us down by Antarctica.
Nice views of Andes mountain range leaving Santiago.
24 hours after leaving our home in NJ, we finally arrived at our hotel “La Yegua Loca” (The crazy horse). We are staying in the Shepherd’s room (El Ovejero). Each room has its own eclectic decorating theme.
The view from the room is looking out over the water at the southern tip of Chile.
Hoping to make it an early night and get some sleep but sunset isn’t until after 9:30 pm down here.
We had a relaxing communal dinner at O Lagar de Jesus last night. A lot of nice people from all over…Madrid, Slovakia, Canada, Australia,…
Today was only 20K but was a very hilly day. We walked in the dark for an hour and got to SdC around 1:30. From there we went to the pilgrims office to get our Compostela (ie certificate) and headed for a well deserved beer.
The end of the walk is always anticlimactic for us. It’s what happens on the walk that we enjoy. It was a big accomplishment for us to do the whole walk and carry 14-15 lbs on our backs. We weren’t sure we could do it but that’s what makes it an adventure.
“With age comes wisdom, with travel comes understanding”..Sandra Lake
