So much for getting away from the tourists.

After El Calafate, we headed south. More long bus rides, estancias rolling by the window, and mountains ringing the horizon.

Our first stop was Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine National Park. For the most part, the trip from Calafate to Natales was uneventful, except, of course, the border crossing. Come to find out, most countries don´t like you to transport fruit and vegetables over the border. This includes 2 pounds of cooked pasta, 2 nalgenes full of pasta sauce full of vegetables, and 2 packets of fresh green beans, which we happened to be carrying as the giant billboards warning you not to have vegetables rolled past the window. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god.

Thankfully (stop worrying, Mom), we told them about the pasta, and they could have cared less. I think the experience shaved about 4 years off Jon´s life. Half his beard fell out from the stress (Just kidding, Jon´s mom).

Arrived in Puerto Natales as the adrenaline drained from our systems and found a really nice hospedaje to spend the night in. Went to an information session at Erratic Rock, an even cooler hostel run by two Americans--which was fantastic, because it gave us all of the information we could have ever needed for hiking the W in Torres del Paine. Spent the evening buying dried fruit and vittles for the upcoming 6 day hike.

And then, on Tuesday morning at 7:30am, it was off to Torres.

A little background: Torres del Paine is one of the most famous parks in South America. Compared to parks in the states, it´s not terribly huge. In fact, there are only two main routes that people hike while there: the W and the Circuit. Realistically, the Circuit is a continuation of the W, so there´s really only one main trail in the park. Refugios, campsites, and lots of infrastructure is scattered evenly throughout the trail. The park is famous for its cuernos (horns) and torres (towers), which are giant basalt features that stick up pretty much out of nowhere.

And lots and lots of people like to go see them. (Hey, you would too if they constituted 90% of the images that turn up when one googles patagonia) So much for getting away from the tourists.

Setting aside the fact that you couldn´t pull of to the side of the trail and pee without having another hiker sneak up on you, it was a pretty great trip. Here´s the run down:

Day 1
Hopped on a bus full of other hikers and took the 2.5 hour bus ride to the park. Paid the entrance fee and admired the glorious view of the towers thrusting up into a clear blue sky. Rode half an hour further and got dropped off at Lago Pehoé, where we caught a catamaran. Before hopping on the boat, though, we took a quick walk up to Salto Grande, a sizeable waterfall where one lake drains into the other. Pretty cool. Really windy (at one point, the wind whipped my hat off my head and threw it about 20 feet. it must have been pretty entertaining to watch me chase after it).

The catamaran ride was spectacular and spectacularly windy. Thankfully, we were some of the last people on, which had the dual advantage of placing our bags on top of the giant pile of backpacks and relegating us to the floor on the top level of the boat. This latter fact might not seem like much of an advantage, but it allowed us to a) not get whipped by the wind b) not get splashed by the giant waves, and c) have a great view of the Paine massif. Winners.

Arrived on the other side of the lake around 12:30 and hiked up toward Glacier Grey under partly cloudy skies. Had a spectacular view of the glacier--much better than the view we had of Perito Moreno. Camped for the night at Los Guardas, a free campsite north of the Lago Grey Refugio.

Day 2
Took a short hike (without our backpacks) a little further north, where we got wide open views of Glacier Grey. The southern ice field (of which Glacier Grey is a part), is one of the biggest ice fields on the planet. Call me a total science dork, but it was INCREDIBLE to have a vantage over a giant field of blue ice, rippled with crevasses. Hopefully I´ll be able to post some pictures soon (or Mack and Jon will).

Picked up our backpacks and hiked back to Lago Pehoé, where we camped for the night next to the shiny, new refugio (really, it was a beautiful hotel). Rained a little bit on our way down, then rained and had crazy wind all night. Needless to say, it´s hard to sleep when the tent keeps collapsing down on your head.

Day 3
Woke up to a beautiful sunrise, with the cuernos poking out from behind a golden orange mist. And then the rain started, for serious. And we hiked in it.

It was miserable.

Arrived at Los Cuernos refugio and set up our tent in a nice dry spot under a big tree. This turned out to be an ill-fated location, though. The rain stopped shortly after we arrived and the wind started up. By wind, I'm not talking your average, run-of-the-mill, high pressure system wind. I'm talking wind like sticking your head out of the window of a car on the freeway. Wind like getting hit by a car on the freeway. Or a truck for that matter. Seriously, there would be no wind and then, BAM, out of nowhere, you'd get struck by a gust that would just about knock you over. I've never experienced anything like it.

Apparently, neither had our tent. At about 9pm, after several hours of enjoying ourselves and drying out in the refugio, I went out to the tent and found it wrapped around our nice big tree. One of the poles was snapped in half and had ripped a 4 foot long hole in the fly. Shit.

Thankfully, Torres del Paine is one of the few places that, when shit hits the fan, you can rent a fully-functional, fully set-up tent. Of all the places for our tent to get destroyed, it was actually a pretty good one.

Day 4
After a miserable Day 3, we woke up to clear skies and windy yet beautiful weather. Hiked up Valle Francés and then spent the night in our nice, rented tent back at Los Cuernos. Valle Francés was nice, but I struggled with the fact that Valle Hermoso and Fitzroy had proceeded it. Regardless, it was a beautiful day hike and very nice to spend a day without the big bags.

Day 5
Long, 7 hour hike from Los Cuernos to Campamento Los Torres, the free campsite just below the towers. The weather was beautiful and much of the day was spent hiking over the steppe, with the Paine Massif off to our left and a big blue green lake spread out to our right. Was feeling a little sick from days of hiking in the rain and nights of not sleeping because of the wind. (And, by this point, you´re probably sick of this incredibly long blog post. Hope you don't have something more important to be doing...)

Day 6
Woke up to a snow storm. And I thought I was avoiding winter by skipping to the southern hemisphere! We hiked up to the towers and sat in the snow waiting for the sun to come out. Eventually it did, giving us a beautiful, ethereal view of the towers covered in snow and shrouded by cloud. Definitely worth it.

And then we hiked down to Hosteria Los Torres and caught the bus back to Natales!

Wow. This post has gotten wayyyy too long. To sum up, we had a great trip to Torres, saw lots and lots of people (which slightly ruined the experience, but was okay overall), had two crummy days that gave us great war stories, and have not yet killed each other.

Life is good. We're head to Ecuador on Friday, which makes life even better.