Where's Andrew

PUERTO NATALES & TORRES DEL PAINE, CHILE - DEC 24 - JAN 3

It's kind of weird to be riding a bus through Argentina and then Chile on Christmas Eve. I don't think I have ever been away from home during Christmas, often right after Christmas but not Christmas itself. Christmas in my family has always been a big family time often with my cousins, the MacDonald family. I must admit, I'm feeling kind of home sick for the first time on this trip. I had hoped that I would be with some other travellers for Christmas but that has not worked out, hopefully there will be some nice travellers at the hostel in Puerto Natales. The bus ride from El Calafate takes longer than I expected and it's after 3:00PM when we arrive in Puerto Natales.

Plaza Armis Puerto Natalaes

Puerto Natales is a nice looking town on a protected inlet on the Pacific coast and has a population of around 21,000. It is surrounded by tall snow capped mountains and the temperature reaches the high teens during the day and gets down to single digits over night so it feels a little like Christmas here. A lady meets our bus when we arrive and has a hostel called Maria Jose that has rooms with private bath for $20US a night so I go check it out and it's not bad so I get a room.

South America is like Europe in that the big Christmas dinner and other festivities is on the night of Christmas Eve. It's already nearing

4:00PM and soon everything will be closing including all the restaurants until the 26th and so I need to buy some food for tonight and tomorrow. I would also like to check into reserving some Refugios (accommodations) in Torres del Paine National Park so I can start my trek as soon as possible. I was hoping to meet up with Rachel and Itamar, but I have not heard from them for a few days so I think they may already be doing the trek.

The lady at the hostel gives me direction to the main supermarket and I head there to first buy

Hotel Los Torres in Torres del Paine

food. It is crazy busy as you would expect just before Christmas and it's not that big of a grocery store. They seem to be out of almost everything like meat, chicken, vegetables and fruit. Well I guess I'm not going to cook up a nice steak like I was planning. It takes me a while to figure out what is available that I want to eat. Somewhat reluctantly, I settle on buying buns, sliced ham, cheese, canned tuna, mayo, snacks and some drinks to last me until the 26th and I'm lucky to get the buns and sliced ham as I get pretty much the last of it in the store. Not exactly a Christmas feast.

I the try and see if I can book the Refugios.

The Circuit Trail

Torres del Paine National Park has 2 different treks that are very popular. The first is called "The W" which is a trek across the front of some mountains with 2 valleys and the mountains are shaped like a "W" if looking down from above and it takes 4 to 5 days. The 2nd trek is called "The Circuit" and includes "The W" but you would also trek around the entire "W" mountain range and it takes about 7 to 10 days. I'm only interested in "The W" trek because there are 5 Refugios strategically located throughout this part of the park. A Refugio is basically a hostel where you can get dorm type accommodations and buy breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. That way, a tent,

View from the Circuit Trail

matt, camp stove and large trekking backpack is not required which is good because I don't have any of these things. But, the offices for the companies that have the Refugios are already closed and won't reopen until December 26th so I can't book anything until then.

I head back to my hostel and hang out in the common area to try and meet whom ever else is staying here. I quickly find out that I'm in an Israeli hostel which I did not realize when I booked my room. There is a huge contingent of Israeli travellers in Patagonia, there are probably more Israeli travellers here in

View of Los Torres Peaks from Torres Central

Patagonia than from any other country. I've met many Israeli travelling already but there are usually more travellers from countries like Germany, France, England and Australia. I'm not sure why there are so many down here, it makes me wonder if there are any 20 something people in Israel. Some of the nicest people I have met on this trip are Israeli, but when travellers from 1 country get into a large group (6 or more people), they are often not that much fun to be around. And the young Israelis who have just finished their military service really seem to like to travel in large groups. They network with other Israelis that are travelling and they often seem to stay in the

Start of The W Trek Trail

same hostels in a particular town. At the hostel I'm in, almost everyone staying there is an under 25 Israeli and there is probably at least 20 of them and they have no interest in meeting an older traveller from Canada. I soon find it more enjoyable to be alone in my room where I read and watch some movies on my tablet.

The next morning I sleep in to almost 10AM which is the latest I've slept this whole trip. It's a nice sunny day so I decide to go far a walk around town. The town is almost deserted but the weather is beautiful and I take some nice pictures of the town and the waterfront. When I

get back to my hostel, I'm dismayed to find that someone stole by buns from the kitchen. Now what am I going to do for lunch and dinner? I noticed a small convenience store that was open on my walk so I decide to go check and see what they have. They don't have much but I'm very happy to find that they are selling bags of 8 buns so I buy a bag. When I get back, I decide to keep my food in my room instead of risking it in the common kitchen.

The highlight of my day is calling my sister. I'm 5 hours ahead of Vancouver time and I give them

a call around 10AM their time. They have just finished opening their presents and I talk with Kelly and both my nieces, Emma and Marley. They are having a quiet Christmas too as my mom is no longer able to do an outing to my sister's because of her Alzheimer's and my brother-in-law's parentsare getting older and just wanted to stay at their home for Christmas so I think they are missing me today as much as I'm missing them.

The next morning I head to the Refugios company offices to book my accommodations in Torres del Paine. To do "The W" trek, I need to

book nights with both companies and they are busy and I'm running back and forth between the 2 office which are 7 blocks apart. After going back and forth several times, I finally determine that there is no combination of available dates that will work until the 28th and even then I will spend an extra night that isn't really required but I don't really have any other choice. So I book 5 nights in total including dinner and breakfast at each Refugio, I've decided to bring my own lunch to save a bit of money. The Refugios don't provide bedding, so the sleeping bag I bought will finally come in handy.

Afterwards, I head to a better supermarket that I came across while walking yesterday. It has a nice selection of meats, vegetables and fruit and I buy the fixings for a nice steak dinner. I also get my maximum allowable money out of the ATMs in town and buy some US cash so that I can take advantage of the grey market exchange rate when I get back

Almost at the Top of the Climb to the Mirador Los Torres

to Argentina. That evening, I cook the half kilogram steak that I bought, its was only $6US and is awesome.

I have one more day before I'm heading to Torres del Paine. I work on some blogs and uploading photos. Then I go get some more money out of the ATM, then buy $400US worth of Argentinian Pesos at a really good exchange rate and then buy some supplies for the trek. I buy lunch for 5 days, snacks, water and a bottle of rum for New Year's. I pour the 750mls of rum into a 650ml plastic water bottle to reduce the weight and save the remaining rum to have with dinner. I pack all the stuff I'm bringing and I'm able to fit it into my

pack and my fanny pack. I then get an email from Rachel and Itamar. They have just finished doing "The W" trek and we pick a time to meet for drinks to catch up on what we have been doing since I last saw them in La Paz.

Rachel and Itamar tell me about the highlights of Torres del Paine and a bit about their travels in Argentina. It's nice seeing them again and they also tell me more about the jungle trek they did in Bolivia with Shane and Seleka. Like Shane, Rachel was unlucky and got bit by mosquitos infected with Botfly larvae. When she read about

Shane's problems with these larvae on Facebook, she realized what was causing her right hand so much pain. She had been bitten twice on the back of her hand and a Botfly larvae was transferred to her hand at both bites. It took a couple of weeks before she noticed anything was wrong and once she realized what it was after reading about Shane, she did a little self surgery and cut a small opening above each swollen bite mark. She then put some heavy cream over the bite to stop the larvae from getting any oxygen. When it finally popped its head up for some air, she pulled it out with some tweezers. I'm sure

glad I missed this jungle trek. After a couple of drinks, it time to head back to the hostel for dinner and bed as my bus leaves at 7AM tomorrow. I won't be seeing Rachel and Itamar again on this trip as they are heading north and then flying home in early February. Hopefully I will see them again someday, maybe in Israel or perhaps they might visit Vancouver.

It's a pretty nice morning as we drive to Torres del Paine. It takes about 1.5 hours to get to the park entrance where I have to pay a $32US entry fee. I then catch a small shuttle bus another 8kms

Forested Valley Past Campamento Los Torres 

to Los Torres which is the starting point for "The W" trek when doing it east to west. The extra night that I booked is at Refugio Los Torres Central so I check in and drop of my day pack and sleeping bag. I've decided to hike east along the trail that is part of "The Circuit" trek and won't actually start "The W" trek until tomorrow. I hike for about 2 hours until I clear a small ridge and get a bit of a view of the terrain to the east of where I will be trekking and then I head back to the refugio. There is a view of the tops of the peaks of Los Torres from the refugio and it's quite stunning. I sure hope the weather is good tomorrow when I hike to the Mirador (viewpoint) Los Torres.

I was expecting the refugio to be very simple and sparse but I'm surprised to find how nice the refugio is. It is made out of wood with wood finishing throughout the interior. It looks like a large ski chalet. There is a huge common area with a large dining room and bar. The accommodations are 8 person dorms and there are nice bathrooms and showers with hot water. I get back to the refugio at about 3:00PM and have 4 hours until dinner. I'm wishing that I brought a book but I do have a deck of cards and I meet some people and we play a variety of games over the next few hours.

Dinner is soup followed by the main course and then desert. The soup is served in the smallest cup I have ever seen but it's good, the main course is a tiny portion of meet and rice and desert is a tiny cup of some kind of custard. Overall it was tastey but not large enough portions. After dinner, I spend the next couple hours chatting with a family of 4 from Ottawa. They own and run a rafting company near Ottawa and were just in Futaleufu where a World Freestyle Kayaking competition was held just before I was there. The oldest daughter was one of the participants and came 3rd in the women's overall.

Lago Nordenskjold On Descent from Refugio Chilento

The next morning I'm up early and I'm greeted by sunshine with mostly blue skies. I have breakfast at 7AM and it's good but again very small. By 8AM, I'm on the trail heading for the Mirador Los Torres and the Refugio Chilento. The mirador and the refugio are up one of the valleys inside "The W." The first part of this hike is in pampas type terrain with no trees and the wind is blowing about 60km/hour. After hiking uphill 6km for 2 hours and a couple hundred metres in altitude, I reach the Chilento Refugio. The refugio is located at the start of a forested valley between the mountains and it's sheltered from the wind. I drop off my day pack and sleeping bag at the refugio before

continuing up the path through the forest 5 kms which takes almost 1.5 hours. I've now reached the Campamento (campsite) Torres and this is where the final trail to the mirador starts.

This trail is only 1km long but takes almost an hour to climb as it goes almost straight up about 450 metres in altitude and the top is about 800m above where I started this morning. It's a pretty steep climb so it's great to be rewarded by the incredible view of the peaks of Los Torres and a beautiful lake below. I sit down and enjoy the view while eating my lunch and I snap off a

bunch of photos. The weather is almost perfect with only a couple small puffy clouds. After about 40 minutes, I decide to hike back down and continue up the valley.

Going down is so much faster and I'm soon hiking through the forest up the valley. The trail is much harder to follow and there are many trees down that I have to climb over or go around. After about an hour, I reach the end of the trail at Campamento Japone which is a campsite only for climbers as there are several nearby popular climbs. I kept expecting the trail

to open up to a beautiful mountain view or to come across a nice lake or waterfall but there is only the forest and a fast flowing river. On my way back down the valley, a small Fox kit comes bounding down the path. It doesn't see me and is nice enough to stop long enough for me to get my camera out and get a decent photo before he goes bounding off. A few minutes later, I see an adult Fox, maybe he or she is looking for the kit.

I arrive back to the refugio a little before 5PM and have a nice shower before dinner. I'm a little sore as I hiked about 25kms today and I'm

hungry. Unfortunately dinner is no bigger today than it was yesterday. So I decide to spoil myself and buy a couple of beers to go with dinner. I'm up early again for the 7AM breakfast and I'm disappointed to find that it is raining. After a small breakfast, I hang around hoping the rain will stop. Today is quite a short hike so I'm in no hurry to get going. While waiting, I meet David who is a doctor from Australia. He's hiking on his own so we decide to hike together. At about 10AM, the staff basically ask us to leave the refugio so they can clean it. They have a very small staff in the refugios and it will close for a few hours after breakfast so they can all concentrate and cleaning.

Mountains in Valle del Frances

It's not raining hard as we leave and I have put some plastic bags over my day pack, fannie pack and sleeping bag. The hike to the Refugio Los Cuernos is only about 14 kms with the first 3 kms being downhill. The next 11 kms is along the Lago Nordenskjold, the views are beautiful even with the rain. It only takes about 4 hours to get to the refugio and as we approach it the rains stops. It never really rained that hard so we don't get very wet.

Once at the refugio, we sit down and eat our lunch. When we head outside 20 minutes later, the sun is out and the clouds are parting and it looks like it's going to be a nice afternoon. David

and I buy a couple beers each and head down to the beach below the refugio and hang out for a couple of hours in the sun. We then head back to the refugio and sit out on the patio with a bunch of other people drinking more beers. It's a nice relaxing day after the big hike yesterday and tomorrow will be a big day too.

Dinner tonight is once again a tiny cup of soup and some meat and potato pie followed by a small cup of chocolate mousse. My portion of meat and potato pie is boarding on the ridiculous it is probably about 8cm x 8cm and maybe 2cm thick. I almost say something when I see the

kitchen staff eating an hour later and their portion is almost triple compared to what was served to me.

The next morning I'm up early again and have breakfast at 7AM with David. We both packed the night before to get an early start as we have to hike 26kms today and it is New Year's Eve so we want to finish at a decent time. Leaving early was a good idea as the trail is almost deserted for the first 5.5 kms to the Campamento Italiano which takes us just over an hour. David is very fit and fast, I don't normally have problems keeping up on a hike but I have to push hard to stay with David.

The next part of the hike is steadily uphill into the Valle del Frances for another 5.5kms. About halfway along this hike we come to a nice mirador of a mountain glacier. We site and watch it while we eat a sandwich and see a couple of small avalanches, they seem to happen every 10 to 15 minutes or so. We then continue up the trail to Campamento Britanico where the last half a kilometer of trail leads to the last mirador and it is so worth the hike. It's quite a steep trail, but there is a 270 degree panoramic view of some incredible mountain peaks. We stay for about 20 minutes taking many pictures before starting back down the valley.

The trail is packed with people coming up as we go down but we make good time and it is only about 2PM when we get back to Campamento Italiano but somehow we miss seeing the turnoff for a bridge and walk 30 minutes too far down the trail before realizing our mistake. By the time we find the bridge it is now 3PM and we are now on the last part of the trail which is 7.5kms of flat terrain along Lago Skottsberg.

David sets a fast pace and we do this last section in 1.75 hours. Just after crossing the bridge, we come across the devastation left by a fire that swept through a large portion of the park last year and all the trees along the lake are blackened and dead. As there are no electrical storms ever down here, the fire was caused by a careless visitor to the park.

We get to the Refugio Paine Grande located on Lago Pehoe just before 5PM and we feel pretty good considering we just trekked 26kms so we celebrate with a couple of beers. Before dinner I

have a nice shower and change into some clean clothes that I have saved for New Year's. David has also brought a bottle of Pisco which is a Peruvian drink so we share most of my rum before it is time for dinner at 7:30PM. It's a special New Year's dinner and it is a buffet, you can take as much as one plate will hold and you get a small bottle of wine and desert as well. It's a nice dinner after a long day. We sit with a bunch of people that have been in the last 2 refugios with us and everyone seems to be having a good time.

After dinner, we head upstairs to a bar and drink most of David's pisco with lemon juice. By midnight the party is going strong and both David and I are feeling no pain. I make the mistake of bringing my camera out and I have it on the table next to me when an English girl we met spills a drink on it. I didn't think she got much on it and wiped it off right away so I wasn't too concerned. It's sometime after 2AM before I finally stumble to bed after really having a good time.

The next morning I'm up at 8AM and head for breakfast. I'm hurting pretty bad after the beer, rum, wine and pisco but manage to have a full breakfast. This refugio is run by a different company than the first 3 and it seems the food portions are larger. David finally makes his appearance around 8:30AM and he looks like how I feel. By 9:30AM we are on the trail heading for the Grey Glacier, thankfully it is only a 11km hike. David is finishing his trek today and needs to be at the glacier by 1PM to catch a boat to where he gets his bus. At a walking pace, he is not going to make it, so he

decides to run. I can't believe that he is able to by the way he looks but there is not way I'm running so we say good-bye and he is on his way.

I end up walking this 11kms at a snail pace and it takes me over 3 hours to get the Refugio Grey and I drink 3 litres of water along the way, I'm so grateful for all the glacier streams where I got water refills. Just after David leaves, I go to use my camera to take some photos of Lago Grey and much to my dismay, I find that the LCD screen is dead and I can see that some moisture has got inside of it. However, the camera seems to work so I continue to take pictures even though I can't really see exactly what's in the frame. I'm praying that the LCD screen will come back to life but know it is very unlikely.

When I get to the Refugio Grey, I take about a 3 hour nap and awake feeling half human again. I have dinner with a couple from England, another from France and some Americans that have all been at the last 3 refugios with me. I'm the only one avoiding the beer and wine this night but dinner is good and is a decent sized portion.

The next morning I have breakfast at 7:30AM and leave the refugio a little after 8AM. I walk 10 minuets down to the mirador for the Grey Glacier and snap off some photos hoping that my camera is still working. By the time I get back to the Refugio Grey, it is 8:30AM. I need to hike back to the Refugio Paine Grande where I will catch a 1:00PM ferry. This time, I feel like myself again on the 11km hike and I get to the refugio in 2.25 hours. After a couple hours wait,

I catch the ferry for $22US back along the Lago Pehoe to the Guarderia Pudeto where I will catch my bus. The bus is there waiting and we get back to Puerto Natales around 4:30PM.

Other than my camera, "The W" trek has been awesome and the New Year's party wasn't too shabby either. This has definitely been one of the highlights of my trip so far. When I get back to my hostel, I go buy a small bag of rice and place my camera in the rice bag. Hopefully the rice will draw the moisture out of my camera and the LCD screen will come back to life. I then buy a bus ticket for tomorrow morning to Punta Arenas right at the hostel and get the hostel to do a load of laundry for me. My relatively new hiking boots need some repairs, so I'm able to track down a shoe repair place and they promise they

can fix my boots by 8:30PM. I then head to a nice restaurant and have a fantastic lamb dinner and then go pick up my repaired boots. The 99kms I've trekked in the last 6 days has tired me out and I'm in bed before 10PM.

The next morning I'm up at 7:30AM. I have breakfast and get all my stuff packed and I'm on the bus heading for Puntas Arenas by 9AM. My plan is to stay a couple days in Punta Arenas before heading to Ushuaia at the tip of Tierra del Fuego. I will then start my journey north up through Argentina where I will catch a plane from Buenos Aires to Rio on February 5th so I can be there for Carnival which starts on the 8th. I've been looking forward to Carnival since before I left Vancouver so I can't wait. After Carnival, I'll loop down south along the Brazilian

coast before crossing the boarder into Uruguay. I will then loop back up and do my first jungle trek near the Bolivian boarder in Brazil. I will then travel the Brazilian coast north of Rio until reaching the Amazon River delta where I'll do another jungle trek. I then plan to head up to Guyana before heading to Venezuela and then I'll catch a boat to one of the nearby Caribbean islands where I'll fly home.

More on Punta Arenas and Ushuaia next time.