A Long Way Home: The unplanned adventures of two girls in Asia (and Italy and South America!): Torres del Paine!

Our first day in Torres del Paine was marked with a long wait in a longer line of foreign park visitors in the tiny park entrance hut, followed by a short shuttle ride through EPIC scenery to the trail head (grimy window views were full of pampas plains, herds of fluffy, still-life guanacos (Alpacas), and jutting, rocky thumbs of mountains)! Our afternoon of hiking to our first camp was easy - though the steep uphills were painful on our sore legs (our boredom on the ferry resulted in an afternoon of countless deck lunges. Definitely a poor choice before a week of hiking loaded down with packs heavy with... oatmeal!) - and gloriously sunny! Many a nap and long lunch break was enjoyed in the grassy plains we were traversing on our way to the backside of the Torres range, which we would eventually circumnavigate on our 8 day “O” route!

We awoke well-rested after a peaceful night in the outdoors (the infamous rains/winds of Southern Patagonia had not yet been introduced to us) and ready to continue our circuit with a long day of hilly hiking through yet more pampas plains. Glaciers, mountains, and heavy clouds all loomed impressively in the distance, but our hours on the trail were yet again beautifully sunny and comfortably warm. A lunch of canned tuna and stale bread (our meal planning skills are not yet up to par... a brief lapse of judgement caused us to leave Puerto Natales without renting a stove... so our meals of bread, beans, and salami were enjoyed cold or not at all. Luckily we had many a snickers bar to tide over our hunger!) was followed by yet ANOTHER excellent afternoon nap in the sun! After which we enjoyed more hiking, more INCREDIBLE VIEWS, and just more general excellence!

Day 3 brought with it the first rain of our trip, but the damp air and our damp tent did little to dampen our spirits! The trails were still mysteriously (and very pleasantly) absent of other backpackers... so we continued our trek in our usual manner - laughing wildly, looking at waterfalls, and whooping with joy! The rain cleared up briefly for an afternoon of majestic peak gazing, but resumed it’s rhythmic pounding as soon as night fell. We awoke to much drenched gear (our used tent was not what you would call waterproof...), including one of Megan’s boots, which was somehow left outside of the tent. But after a morning of attempting to dry out equipment in front of a barrel fire in a yurt filled with other badasses from around the world (the median age of the other trekkers we met was approximately 60. We fit right in.), we decided to continue on with our biggest day yet (a pass crossing was on the itinerary) regardless of our thoroughly rain-soaked status. And our decision was not a mistake! The hiking that followed could only be described as THE BEST OF MY LIFE. The hours we spent chugging up and over a snowfilled/windpacked pass were rewarded with UNREAL views of the famous Glacier Grey, which we proceeded to hike along for a long afternoon of AWE. 14 miles, one 4,000 foot pass, and two deep ravine crossings (we had to carefully shimmy down and then back up hundred foot ladders precariously bolted to loose rock cliffs) later, we found ourselves at Refugio Grey (the first of the many lodges on the front side of the Torres mountains which cater to day hikers, making the popular 4-day “W” trek accessible to the wider world of those who prefer bunk rooms and prepared meals to wet tents and cold oatmeal!), thoroughly exhausted and slightly put out by the sheer numbers of other hikers at the lodge.

The next morning, under (thankfully) clearer skies, we proceeded to the Grand Paine Lodge, where we were planning on stopping for a brief lunch. The warm sun gave us a good place to dry out our drenched gear, and a public stove in the lodge allowed us to eat a hot meal... so instead of continuing on to the French Valley, where we were planning on making camp, we ended up just pitching our tent among dozens of others outside the lodge.

Our disappointment with the hordes of hikers we were suddenly encountering as we transitioned from the empty backside of the circuit to the bustling front side only grew as the crowds continued to swell – so instead of finishing up our trek by hiking the “W,” as we had originally planned, we instead took a rest day at Grand Paine Lodge (where the spectacular Cuernos Mountains shot up in stark relief to the sea-level elevation of the lodge, and the glassy surface of the glittering turquoise Lago Pehoe, on the banks of which the lodge was built, reflected every movement of the clouds), and then proceeded to hike what is referred to as the “tail of the Q.” It was a long day of hiking (we traversed the flat plains from the foot of the Cuernos, all along the edge of Lago Pehoe, and out to the administration building), filled with EVEN MORE breathtaking views, and the pleasant warmth of the sun.

Our time in Torres del Paine ended with a late evening bus back to Puerto Natales, where we spent a full day taking care of laundry (so many dirty socks!), returning our rented gear, and making plans for the next leg of our adventure: Argentina!