Aborting the W - back to Puerto Natales
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
1
304
551
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
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Torres del Paine National Park,
Chile
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
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In my -18degC sleeping bag... I was hot, I did not sleep well, and woke up with a sore throat and a starting cough. Looking back, I think I had fever and that is why I did not sleep well.
The wind had been blowing real strong the whole night, and the clouds were still hanging in the valley, dark and heavy. We ate our breakfast: remains of rice and chorizo, that we heated up (luxury), and cheese on crackers.
I thought about going back to see a doctor, then decided I could wait another day. The weather looked really terrible in Valle Frances, so we decided to skip this part to go directly to glaciar Grey, and camp there, as we were told it was great (albeit cold) to stay just above the glacier.
It was a 2 hours walk along the lakes, with lots of wind, but on a very easy path, the easiest on the W as we were told... and I was not feeling any better, I was feeling like the next day was going to be with lung and ear pain. So I decided to take the catamaran at 12.30, in order to reach Puerto Natales by the end of afternoon and see a doctor to get medicine.
Lionel decided to go hiking to a viewpoint to see Glaciar Grey, and to come back in the evening wih the second catamaran.
The catamaran ride across the lake was fun, at some point we were riding waves of at least 2 meters, maybe 3. Luckily we were going the same way as the wind (and thus the waves), so the pilot was staying on top of a wave and just advancing with it, otherwise everyone would have been sick.
Then the bus, I was hot and cold and ill, and eventually we got in Puerto Natales. I returned the tent and sleeping mats, the guy was taking ages an did not want to refund the night I had paid but not used, and I got back my bags but he looked like he wanted to make me pay for it... well in the end I got what I wanted, stopped in a pharmacy to try to get antibiotics, in fact there was a doctor there, he examined me and gave antibiotics, and then I went to get a room.
Meeting up wih Lonel was another story, as his bus broke down, and I did not know how to find him, and eventually he randomly got down his bus at a corner whree I was happening to walk by, and we went for a big dinner and wine.
I was a bit upset I could not do the 4 days inTorres del Paine. But hey, better take care rather than be sick for 2 weeks.
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