Torres del Paine day 6

Trip Start Oct 19, 2007
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Trip End Ongoing


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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Today is the big day.  we have a 25km walk which features a steep climb at the end.  The good thing is though our packs are fairly light since we only have 2 days worth of food and even better than that is the fact that this will be the last night I have to sleep in the tent.  According to the map it will take 10 hours to do this trek but we'll probably make it in 7 knowing us.  Today inocorporates a lot of walking though which in turn incorporates me having a bunch of random thoughts.  There is nothing like walking for hours in the middle of nowhere to spark random memories and I have recollections of past events that I can't believe I still remember.  I remember how in 5th grade my best friend Tom and I set a lady's backyard on fire and she had to come out with buckets of water to put it out which leads to another memory of Tom and I lighting a couple of smoke bombs, throwing them through the window of a parked car and coming back an hour later to find about 10 people standing around the car which coincidentally enough was engulfed in smoke.  Aparrently the upholstery caught on fire (from what we could tell anywyas).  I think of this goofy lil black dude back in like 10th grade who once told Tom and I this story of how he was getting a blowjob in an alley from this chick and that he had never nutted before and he started to feel all weird and he didn't know what to do so he just punched the girl in the face (man, one of the funniest stories I ever heard, especially when I picture him telling it to us because he was so animated).  I could go on and on but the point is that it was a nice little trip down memory lane and it was sort of cool existing purely in terms of my random memories and thoughts. 

The trek today is pretty intense as we have to climb up and down ladders in certain places and we have to cross a powerful stream in which I slipped on a rock and my foot fell in and got completely soaked.  Sweet, now I have to walk about 10km with a wet shoe and sock.  If that's not a good way to get athlete's foot than I don't know what is.  The current was so intense that I almost lost my balance completely and if that happened I would have gone for a nice little ride and probably gotten fucked up.  Why are the Isrealis' balance so good and mine so bad?  When they cross rocks (esp Avida) they just hop from one to the next effortlessly and for me it's like Howard Taft trying to fit into the bathtub at the Whitehouse.  We come to a bridge and for some reason Tom walks around it and I scream at the top of my lungs "I love bridges", I'm like"dude, if we had to pay $15,000 chilean pesos to enter this motherfucker I'm taking every bridge I see in order to get my money's worth".  From this point on whenever we cross a bridge I scream "I love bridges" and for some reason it's actually funny.  Only after trekking for 6 days would this ever be considered humorous.  After this catches on I take it one step further and start humping each bridge that we cross which makes this whole thing even funnier and much more disturbing.  Along the way we run into another group of people which features this crazy American from Colorado and his friend starts telling us how when they were walking alongside Glacier Grey the American took off all his clothes, jumped into the water, swam out to a small iceberg (presumably the one in my picture from a couple of days ago), stood on top of it, had them take a picture real quick and swam back.  What!!!  This is one of the most remarkable things I ever heard in my life.  But they weren't lying as one of the girls in the group busts out her digital camera and shows us pictures of him standing on the iceberg.  Unbelievable.  I can't even imagine how cold that water must have been and how he didn't get hypothermia.  He tells me that the water was so cold that he instantly went numb and then couldn't even feel the coldness anymore so it didn't cause him any uncomfortableness.  Man, I wish I could have seen the crazy fucker do it as I still can't really believe he actually made it.  Like, I have this feeling that that dude died and this is just his twin brother taking the credit. 

We finally make it to camp and we meet this American named Dave from NY.  He actually took a week off from work and came down here just to trek the W.  That is fucking awesome.  How many people take 5 of their 15 vacation days to come to Southern Chile and trek around the Torres by themselves?  Not many.  We hang out with him for awhile but the mosquitos are awful and I set up shop inside the tent earlier than I would have liked.  Camping is a bit of a pain.  You are always dirty and it's always a bit annoying to get stuff out of your bag especially when the thing you need is at the bottom and you have to take everything else out just to get to it.  You are always filling up your water bottle to either clean dishes or to wash your hands or because you are always thirsty.  All your shit as well as you smell and all your clothes are dirty and washing dishes is a complete pain in the ass and a lot of other inconveniences are present as well.  But the good thing about camping is eating.  I have never tasted food so good in my life.  Not because the food is good but because you are so hungry that every bite tastes like frosted flakes.  We make the biggest meal I have ever had in my life tonight since we only have 1 more day and we have extra food and we don't want to waste it.  Plus we are starving after walking the 25km today.  I can honestly say it was the best meal I have ever had even though it consisted of nothing more than pasta, rice, some soup and raisins. 

Fin
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