Bories House Puerto Natales

... final night.

A soup with rice later (hooray, no pasta) and we saw in full view what lay ahead for us. We were expecting a climb - the guidebook had mentioned "lugging backpacks up"; all the valleys landmarks are titled "Ascencio". The valley didn't disappoint with an hour and a half hike uphill. Once at the top of the ridge however it was an easy descent to the valley and Campamento Chileno, a second privately run campsite and refugio. A little over 2 hours since lunch and we ...

... pacific for about 12 hrs. I wont go into details, but trying to sleep through 5 to 6 meter swells with, what we have later deduced to be a bit of food poisoning (see footnote 1) is not an experience either of us wishes to repeat.

The following day we were back into the channels, and also the most beautiful scenery of the 3 day voyage. Sadly, we were both still poorly. Becs had to spend most of the rest of the trip in bed and although ...

... there long and headed out early the next morning. The hike is in the shape of a W and we started from the right and worked are way to the left, seeing the Torres first and the glacier last. It is possible and more common to start with the glacier first. Going up to each point and then moving over to the next. A place with no cars and in some places no horses. The first day in the park the weather was sunny, slightly rainy, and windy. We hiked that day ...

... 1 "The Grande Circuit - This trek is the longest, with varying grades of difficulty, and passes through the wonderland of craggy, granite peaks, snow clad mountains, glacier-fed lakes, waterfalls and rivers, pampas and thick Magellanic forests. " 2. "Trekkers and backpackers should have experience with rough country, and climbers must have experience with ice and snow climbing. Be prepared for bad weather to interrupt your itinerary. Flexible planning is necessary." 3 ...

... of attack was to quick march to the first check point at Glacier Grey.

The first hour was the worst! Not much fun scrambling up over loose rocks in the heat of the midday sun. It was a long hot sweaty climb, but we got there within 3.5 hours – on par with the forecast. Well done to the person who invented trekking poles, I would have fallen over many times without them! Apart from the flies, the campsite was great, situated on the shores of Lago Grey with huge ...

... of the coastline. The following morning we were awoken by an announcement that we had reached the glacier Pio XI, the biggest glacier in South America. Everyone rushed out on deck as the ship got as close to the 100m high glacier face as safely possible. It was an impressive sight. The shoreline continued to be impressive all the way to Puerto Natales and the weather was kind enough to allow sitting on deck in the sunshine, although I have to point out it was still very cold. The boat ...

... Puerto Natales, discussion à la clef. :) ---------- After an eventless trip (only 3 hours for once!), I found myself a little bit in the North of Punta Arenas, in Puerto Natales, the southern limit of the Torres del Paine national park. Punta Arenas is on the shore of the Magellan Strait, and Puerto Natales is surrounded by incredible mountains, a wild and superb nature: before reaching town we got a glimpse of it, and everyone was jumpy in their seats, taking tons of ...

... in the crevices. You can hear an almost constant crashing sound of great mounds of ice but it can be difficult to catch it with your own eyes or camera. The highlight of the day is not the ice though - its the bus breaking down as we are about to go back into town. Avigail comes us trumps and gets us a lift back into town with a Slovianen couple. Tuns out the guy is a Playboy photographer for the Slovianen Playboy (I´ve been to Slovenia and the girls there ...

... and ran into a guy called Adam from the Uk who has been travelling around on his bike for 3 years, check out his web site www.theshortwayround.com.uk, had a couple of beers and pizza and we ran into 2 more guys travelling solo from Luxembourgh and Switzerland so the 4 of us had a good night talking about there travels. Next day I took a boat trip upto the Balmaceda and Serrano glaciers on the Chillian fjords which was pretty awesome with a BBQ lunch at a sheep ...

... as dead as a doornail, used the 'facilities' and prayed that when I went back outside there was a tropical storm in full flow or something to give me an excuse not to do this!

Sadly it was still just cold and a little bit wet on the floor, so I went back to the tent to procrastinate, which ...