Hotel Cerro Castillo Puerto Natales

... than everyone else and was feeling really unwell. We went for tea at 7pm but she returned to the hostel after deciding eating was making it worse. It was then bed watching films for us all. 11th May 2009 Woken up by what sounded like a hurricane, it was rather scary and very difficult to sleep through. We went down for breakfast at 7am, after putting on our thermals and several other layers, just hoping the weather that woke us would pass quickly. Luckily ...

... ahead of schedule)<br>and decided to camp at the bottom of the valley for night &#8211; the nicest campsite we&#8217;d seen &#8211; grassy pitches, fire pits and hot showers!! Oh yeah, and Tom thought we passed Martin Bayfield on the way&#8211; I put it down to exhaustion!<br><br>DAY 4<br><br>Today should have been a day for packing up the tent and heading up Valle Ascencio, to Campamento Torres. However, tiredness clouded our judgement and we decided to take the easier option ...

Torres del Paine National Park attracts visitors the world over for its stunning landscapes and amazing hiking opportunities. The classic hikes - the "W" or the full circuit - would each require quite a bit more time than we had. So we decided to simply see what we could in the two days that we had. After breakfast, we got into the rental car and set out towards the park. There are two routes that you can take to get to TDP from Puerto Natales. The first route is almost entirely ...

... Paso and back - 3 hours How I spent the nights - setting up the tents before dark, cooking dinner, eating, laughing a little then going to bed early, exhausted, a little chat in the tent with Mary about random stuff then totally passing out until we had to wake at 7 the next day! Summary - absolutely at the top of my travel experiences, just amazing, beautiful, challenging and lots of fun.. my South America highlight of highlights.

... through the windows. It's really magnificent and impressive! So as soon as I got there I went to the harbour to take tons of pictures of everything around. The only thing that the picture don't show is the wind! It was incredibly strong, and the puny natural that I am was pushed around by gusts coming from all sides... Over there the weather is a bit peculiar. It changes litterally from a minute to the next, and we sometimes find ourselves running for cover while ...

... came nowhere close to this spot. To sit there in the incredible wind and appreciate it was a pretty cool thing. And finally the sun was shining at a pass - nice moment. The following day was the last and no harm there as we were all pretty wrecked at this stage. One of the Dutchies feet were especially mangled (his boots were a little too small for him - had about 10 blisters on one foot alone and was hobbling badly by the end of the day). Everybody´s knees were ...

... on the way back. 3/2/09 Went upto Torres del Paine national park and finally got to set up the tent, stayed 2 nights and when I got to the tent site bloody Adam was camped next to me. The next day we decided to head upto the famous horns of paine which was a 3 hour walk up but it was worth every minute of the pain in my legs when we finally got to the top, we hung around for 3 hours for the sun to break thru to get the perfect photo but it didn't happen ...

... Sound of Music, Wild Rover and anything else that came to mind. We continued and and as we approached our final destination we came over a peak and could see in the distance Glacier Grey and the amazing ice field beyond. For as far as they eye could see was the ice field with the Glacier dropping off into the lake. We saw giant pieces of ice floating and melting with an amazing blue color and all of us stood awe struck. We continued to hike towards the glacier ...

... me much happier. <br><br>So the 3 musketeers set off again back down the valley and towards the bigger 'hostelria' which was about an hour from the start of the valley. <br><br> <br><br>We passed a few horses en route and a couple of groups of day tourists (who get dropped off at the first stop ...

... the unpaved roads). <br><br>I had never driven a manual left hand drive before and bless the residents of Punta Arenas they didn't beep me once as I struggled to get it into gear as I negotiated my way out of the town. <br><br> <br>Once out of the town miles of open road stretched before us and before we knew it we were in Puerto Natales. <br><br>As I pulled up outside the hotel ...