Torres del Paine (25/Jan-3/Feb/06)

El Calafate, Argentina

Last time you heard from us was over a week ago as we have been in the big outdoors, with no modern conveniences like Internet, toilets or biscuits...

The Torres del Paine national park in Chile is absolutely amazing. There are two main trekking routes, the W circuit (5 days, for wusses) and the full circuit (7-8 days, for cool people). We obviously went for the big one. Did it in 7 days but sincerely recommend doing it in 8 to split up a 10h stint which had us nearly in tears for the last 2h.

We left from Puerto Natales by bus, and by 12ish we were in the park. We'd stocked up on food the evening before and were armed with pasta, rice, tomato sauce, sausages and cereal bars (water isn't necessary as you can get it from any mountain stream, all fresh, cold and perfectly drinkable). Not the most varied of diets for a week. We'd been told to pitch tent at the entrance and go up to one of the viewpoints on the first day (rather than leave it to last), as it was a hard uphill and we would have nothing to carry and have fresh legs. As it turns out I think this wasn't the best advice as on the last day we were OK, having got used to all the aches and pains, and on the second day we had muscleache from our big toe to our eyelids. And the second day was the big 10h stint. No matter, the views from the top were amazing. Winds are normally 80km/h but that day it was around 120, which was pretty scary, but we were brave.

Third day was a short 4h and we recovered from the second day and started getting into our stride. These few days are outside the W circuit so there were less people and there was a great air of camaradery at the campsites. On the fourth day we crossed the main mountain pass and had amazing views of the valley we had been crossing, and of the huge glacier at the other side, which we walked next to for a day (and camped for the night).

The park itself is a mixture of steep peaks, a central massif (which is basically what we walked around), and various glaciers and lakes. Even though you see snow & ice it isn't cold - pretty hot in the sun and a bit chilly in the shade and at night. Wind is generally on the strong side, especially in the W circuit and higher up, but you get used to it. There are signposted tracks, a few capsites and even hotels. Oh, and we think we saw our first condor! Sadly Esther got a toe infection (doctor blames the boots, he says all trekking boots are very bad as they squeze your feet too much) but is slowly recovering.

Back in Argentina now, in the Glaciers national park. Tomorrow we take a boat tour of a few glaciers, including the magnificent Upssala, and the day after we visit the famous Moreno glacier. After that we are off a bit further North to the other part of the park to do a bit more (lighter) trekking.