EcoCamp Torres del Paine

... some great views if you don´t have the time or fitness to the walking. For bikers (or anyone else) from Lago Pehoe take the road north and you nativate round the North shore of one the lakes (Del Toro) and connect back on to Ruta 9 South to Puerto Natales.
We made a spur of the moment decision to go to El Calafate in Argentina and to take a little used border crossing back into Argentina, at a place called Cerro Castillo. This village is ...

... Along with the usual don´t bring any food, fruit, have you been to a farm recently questions there was the rather obtuse, “please don´t bring any semen into the country”. As it was rather cold and most of the women on my coach trip were of the middle aged variety, I was able to keep control of myself to adhere to this request!

On reflection this trip was almost an exercise in vanity, 12 hours of travelling just to get a Chilean passport ...

... this barren land and the penguins have to walk in groups to stop themselves from being swept across the plains.  They all lie on their bellies on the beach in the hope of keeping warm.  The only thing I can say to their credit is that they are a fine group of property developers as their nests have the smallest entrance holes buried deep into the ground and heavily camouflaged.  We did not hang around for long and virtually jogged back to the warmth of the ...

... cohesive paragraphs, or body wash, hence I present to you:

Patagonia in Point Form (Now grammar free!!)

The “Questioning Our Decisions” Travel Moment

Sitting in the cafeteria at the Rio Gallegos bus station after getting only four hours sleep just in case the only bus left early, which it didn’t, so now we’re watching the Pink Panther cartoon I grew up with (no talking – translates remarkably well) and playing an ...

When I first visited Torres del Paine eight years ago I fell in love with the leandscape. So here I am back again. The wild landscape doesn`t change easily, but infrastructure does. Refugios, park ranger stations, many daypacking tourists, "I survived the Torres del Paine"-T-Shirts - well, you can`t stop the change.

This year the weather in Patagonia is more crazy than usual. After a mild winter the ...

... down here, called a chacarrero (I think), consisting of a beef steak on toasted buns with mayo, tomatoes, and green beans. For some reason, the green beans make it SO good. Also, I was very hungry. But really, the sandwich was delicious. I cannot rave about the combo enough.

Anyway, we then caught a 3-hour bus to Puerto Natales, the closest major town serving the Torres del Paine national park (Torres del Paine = Towers of Blue). After wandering the very cold ...

... the tent case to get to some food that was wrapped inside. *******s! In 3 seconds of stupidity, i decided to tighten the stove whilst lit (=burn hand) and, in that moment of pain, turned and put my arm on the stove...thus burning a hole though my down jacket. Fuuuuuuckit. Apart from that, all good :-)

It`s a small world...at various points in the park, i probably met a dozen people that i would be sailing north on the Navimag with.

... heelhuids aangkomen na 6 uur lopen. De 2e dag was het zwaarst met een tocht van 9 uur door de sneeuw van paine grande naar los cuernos. Op weg naar de top van de route een stuk met een groep fransen meeglopen. Wij waren de 1e groep die dag en door de sneeuw was het pad niet meer zichtbaar. Het was dus even zoeken opweg naar boven. Een half uur voor de top gaven de fransen op (losers!), gelukkig kwam ...

... We were joined by Fabien (Swiss Guy) and the Dutchies (Liesje and Arnou) for this final leg. At the refuge, we had about an hour to kill before the bus arrived. As Arnou stated.....¨the sun is out, so we must now drink beer¨...very Dutch! Not to be outdone, ¨Swiss Guy¨ plonked several large bars of chocolate on the table! At times like this, it´s difficult to argue with our European brethren.

... the distant peaks which make up the rear of the Torres. But would the clear skies hold until we reached the mirador?

We reached a clearing which was around 10 minutes walk from our destination of the mirador. The Torres were still in sight. It's well known that the weather changes pretty fast down here and today was going to be no exception. Just as we reached the place where we were expecting magnificent views, an ...