Torres del Paine, I can feel the burn!

I arrive to Puerto Natales, the launching ground for the trek through Torres del Paine National Park, and head straight to a free talk given by my hostel that basically gives you the run down about what this trek entails.  Holy crap.  I show up to hear this American guy telling us that we can encounter 80 - 100 km/hr winds, rain, snow, sleet, and sun all in ONE day.  Are you kidding me?? So after an hour of basically being terrified about what I am about to do, Candace (my new friend from New Zealand) and I make a shopping list and get on our way to get prepped for this trip.  We have to carry four days of food on us, plus a little gas burner to cook with, plus a pot and cups and bowls and utensils, plus a sleeping bag, and clothes.  But we were advised to only take two pairs of clothes: one pair to hike in all day which get wet and sweaty and tortured through the weather, and one pair of dry clothes to change into after we get our tent set up.  Yup, I said tent. This is serious camping and trekking. 

Torres day 1:

We ended up meeting two guys on our boat ride over to the park (one englishman and another new zealander) and we decided to do the trek together with another aussie.  Within 20 minutes of starting the trek, and I am basically all the way in the back and totally out of breath thinking to myself, ¨What the hell am I doing and what have I gotten myself into!?¨  I knew trekking was harder than hiking, and I knew the weather would be questionable, and I knew I would have to carry a lot of stuff, but I never put all three together.  So we show up to the park with 70 km/hr winds, sun, and I am carrying an extra 10 kilos of weight on me.  Pain. Pain. And more pain. Especially on the up hills. Omg, I never realized how hard it was to be fat, but if that is how it feels, than I do not understand how obese people go anywhere.  The only time I was happy was when it was my turn to lead the group since I wasn't a speed walker like the rest of the people in my group, and the first time I went to lead the group, I got knocked down by the wind!  If anyone ever considered me athletic, than you can change that opinion of me right now.  I AM NOT ATHLETIC or anything close to it.  I am grossly out of shape and cannot trek for the life of me. 

The scenery was absolutely fantastic on day 1, and we say this awesome glacier, Glacier Gray, and after 6 hours of continuous hiking, we added another 2 on to get to the free camping site, and so we could be at a spot that was overlooking the top of the glacier.  That was possibly the most amount of pain I have ever been in in my entire life. Seriously.  My calves and feet started to cramp up within the last hour of the hike, and the entire last hour was basically a vertical climb up a mountain. My thighs are NOT muscular.  I totally felt the burn and by the time we finally got to the campsite, it had started to rain.  Candace and I got our tent up, but realized it was ridiculously small and was going to be incredibly cramped. After a quick look at the glacier and a bite to eat, I got a much needed massage (in exchange for one) and attempted to sleep in my tent fully clothed.

Torres day 2/3:
An early and cold start with our first attempt at cooking with our portable burner.  Porridge with mixed nuts. YUCK.  I hate oatmeal if it has no sugar and artificial flavoring, and we definitely had none of that.  I stomached as much as I could since we had another 8 to 10 hours of hiking to do, and we set off.  I was way better at trekking today, but that was probably because the majority of it was downhill since we had to backtrack the entire way we came since the trek we were doing was in the shape of a W.  We stopped for lunch pretty exhausted, and set off to our next campsite which was about 2 hours away and again, with lots of hills.  Unfortunately, it started to rain when we started this part of our trek, anbd of course the wind picked up. Like the first day, I basically fell behind, but I fell really behind today, since I was so tired.  Luckily for me, one of the guys, Chris, was nice enough on both days to take it upon himself to make sure I was never left behind or alone.  He trekked by my side and kept my spirits lifted.  That second day was pretty much completely mentally and physically exhausting, and by the time we arrived to our campsite (a full 12 hours after we started) it was raining and freezing cold.  We got our tent up and had a quick cup of instant noodles and then hung out with the guys in their tent and I learned how to play a game called 500 while attempting to get warm.  I never got warm, but I did learn a cool new card game.  Went back to our tent hoping to get some sleep and recover from the day, and instead, I was up ALL NIGHT because my tent flooded and our sleeping bags got absolutely soaked.  I was so cold I was shaking, and my friend finally pointed out that my socks were completely soaking wet.  I had no idea because I couldn't feel anything. There was rain being blown through the tent somehow, and at some point we ended up turning to sleep horizontally in the front third of the tent. A horrendous night to say the least. I finally got some sleep at like 8am when I moved into the sleeping bag of one of the guys in the next tent for 40 minutes.  Woke up to discover the mountain was freshly coated in snow, and we were absolutely broken that day. With a soaked tent and saturated sleeping bags, Candace and I packed up and backtracked back to the boat that got us to the trail and headed back to Puerto Natales.

Back in town we spent the next 2 days waiting for the guys to get back and relaxing with hot showers and cozy down blankets at our hostel just reading books and chilling out.  I tried to cancel my bus ticket, and the lady who booked it for me proceeded to steal 200 chilean pesos from me and even though I got the police involved, I never got it back.  Technically, it was only $7 that she stole, but it was the principle of the matter! Just because I am from America, it does NOT mean I am rich. After getting through that ordeal, I had a tasty piece of fish at a restaurant for dinner with a new set of friends so I could say that I have had sea food from Chile (it is as good as they say), and got on a boat, the Navimag, to head up the coast of Chile with Candace and those two guys, Chris and Mike.  The beginning of a lasting set of friends to travel with I think.  The boat is kinda expensive, but as long as the weather holds up, it should be a really fantastic way to see the coast of Chile, some volcanoes, and hopefully some whales and dolphins over the next four days.