Catching up on the last several days

Guillermo's email today:
Lashed, buffeted, and staggered by the wind, stung by the snow, and bruised and bloodied by the rocks, our prodigal son and the old man have returned from Torres del Paine.

It was great talking to you last night and I can't wait for the next 5 days to go by so that you will be with us. We left Puerto Natales at 10:00 today and are now on the Strait of Magellan, in Puntarenas. P. Natales only has about 15 or 20 thousand people?? but this place is much bigger. The population has to be over 100,000.

Torres del Paine was kind of a frustrating place in some ways because of the way the buses run, the expense, the services provided, etc., but it is also a very impressive.

First day: We didn't get to the albergue (Paine Grande) until well after noon due to waits for a bus and a ferry. During one of the waits, we took an hour hike to a waterfall and after we got to the albergue and had lunch, we took a four hour hike through a valley, part of it between a snow capped mountain on our left and a pretty lake lake on our right, and another snowcapped mountain ahead of us. We got back after sundown and there was a very pretty half moon rising over the mountains.

Second day: We did a nine hour and 15 minute hike. The first 2 hours of the trail were fairly easy, no snow, but wind gusts that I would guess were about 60 miles per hour, especially on the ridges. They would knock us off balance and coming off of the snow and ice on the mountains made them quite cold. After two hours we got to campamento italiano and took a left into valle francés. The trail started getting steeper, we got into snow, and the trail itself was covered with snow and ice. We also had to go through a snowy, icy, inclined bolder field that was tough and very slippery, but we continued on past it, had our lunch at the top of it and then continued along a narrow ridge, past campamento británico and on beyond. The views looking back and to the sides were spectacular of mountains and lakes. On our immediate left, there was a jagged peak with glaciers. We heard six avalanches, but only saw the snow flying up from one of them. The trail back was even more difficult to manuever because of the wet and slippery conditions. We slid a lot and both of us went down hard twice. I cut my finger and banged my knee hard and Fernando cut the palm of his hand and one of his fingers too. The last two hours from campamento italiano to the albergue were like a nice stroll in the park compared to what we had faced in valle francés.

Day three: We did a 3 and one half hour hike to see glaciar Grey. We didn't have much time because we wanted to get to Albergue Las Torres and we had to catch the catamarin headed in that direction at 12:30. They don't serve breakfast until 8:00, so you can't get an early start unless you skip breakfast. It was a good hike, not easy, but no significant snow. It was very windy and cold, but we made it to the mirador to see the glacier and ice bergs in the lake. We got back in time to catch the catamarin, but then had to wait for a little bus to the Torres albergue which was 7 kilometers away. By the time we got there, the weather was bad and too late to do any more walking. Our problem was that the Torres hike is listed as a 9 hour hike and the bus for Puerto Natales was going to leave at 2:00 the next day. So, we considered skipping breakfast and trying to leave at 6:00 a.m. the following day, hiking with our headlamps for about an hour because it doesn`'t get light until about 7:00, but that would still only give us 8 hours and we didn't think we could knock off a whole hour from the usual time for that hike. So we decided we would leave after breakfast and hike for a couple of hours, if the weather was good, we would keep going and spend another night there, if it was bad, we would turn back and try to catch the bus for P. Natales. The problem with that hike is that the valley is so narrow that you don't see the towers until the last 5 minutes of the hike. We left at 8:30. The first hour and a half was an incline where every step put you higher than the previous one, but we never stopped, just kept going and cleared the ridge. The patches of blue sky were larger than when we started, so we decided we would would go for the towers. We had the usual cold wind, but we had gotten used that and expected it. We past campamento chileno and then the trail got prettier through trees, but it also stared getting icy and slippery. Eventually we got to campamento Torres, and from there, a steeply inclined field of rocks and bolders several hundred meters long covered with snow, some over two and a half feet deep, separated us from the ridge that was hiding the towers. The climb up was tough, but we made it and what a spectacular sight as we cleared the ridge. We were able to see the towers from top to bottom and the lake in ftont of them. The sun shined on them for about 10 minutes and then a cloud came over them from behind, shaded them and a few snow flakes started falling. The wind was fierce and very cold, so we took shelter behind some big rocks, and ate our lunch. Some other guys got to the ridge just as we finished our lunch, so we took one more look and headed down. We stopped only one time to eat a little bit of dried fruit and made it back to the albergue at 3:48 -- so if we had left at 6.00, we probably could have made it to the towers and still caught the bus back to Puerto Natales.

Day 4: We had breakfast and went back to the room thinking we would just have to wait until 2:00 to catch the bus down to the ranger station from where we would catch another one to Puerto Natales. We also thought we would go crazy doing nothing all morning. So I asked for my money back for the almuerzos I had paid for, and when they gave it to me, we packed our things and headed down to the ranger station. It was 7 kilometers, so we thought it would be easy compared to what we had done. We only walked about half of it because a worker came by in a truck and gave us a ride to within about thre quarters of a mile of the ranger station. In fact, we got off because we saw a bunch of condors. We then walked the rest of the way, left our big bag at the ranger station, and walked another 3 or 4 kiilometers to Laguna amarga, a bright green lake beyond the ranger station. However, the weather was bad, cold, sprinkling and we didn't see much other than guanacos. So we waited at the ranger station and caught the bus back to Puerto natales and you know what I did as soon as I got there.

Well, I sure did sleep better last night, knowing my two guys were fine. Today, I walked in our park, the weather was "beach-like" again. With the wind and the humidity, if I closed my eyes, I could almost feel like I was by the ocean. The only thing missing was the sound of seagulls. I met my friend Sandra at Mimi's Cafe in the afternoon and we enjoyed a great lunch!!