Days 3-4 Torres del Paine: A walk in the park...

Day 3 was probably the easiest of the hike, and was the only day where I experienced any rain while I’ve been here, so I’ve been rather fortunate. Again, the guide times were pretty off. Some of the routes have clearly been measured by midgets and others by giants as sometimes it’s longer than it says and other times shorter!

Today’s walk was along the river against a nice backdrop of the snow covered mountains, which you get a great view of at the first lookout point, Mirador Frances. Every now and again you hear what sounds like loud thunder, which is the ice ridges melting and cracking resulting in mini avalanches. Continuing on to the top is the second lookout, Mirador Británico, which is even more impressive (unsurprising given the British are far superior to the French). It was at the top where I bumped into my American friends and we walked back down together and had lunch before heading onto our separate camps. 

The last day was an absolute beaut! I mean from a weather and scenery perspective. In every other aspect it was torture! Due to where I was staying the night before, I had to walk 6.5 miles just to reach the starting point for my hike to Glacier Gray. My itinerary actually only included a walk to the half way point and first lookout area, but I didn’t come all this way to do a half ass job so I carried on until the end and the second lookout which is pretty incredible. But this added an extra 7.5 miles to my hike which meant I ended up doing just under 24 miles that day. Practically a marathon, but up a mountain. 

At the first lookout point guess who I bump into yet again? My new best friends from the U.S of A! While it would have been nice to hang out and walk with them, I was on a schedule as I needed to get back in time for my boat back to the mainland, so I soldiered on alone to the second lookout. As you can see from the photos, it wasn’t a sight to be missed and I’m glad I did it despite the pain it caused me. 

While I was enjoying a pisco sour at Grey Lodge (apparently the best piscos in the park as they use ice from the glacier), the Americans arrived. We had time for one last drink together (because I needed it for my blood sugar levels) before I had to shoot off. They’ve been an absolutely riot to hang out with and so funny to be around. They’ve been constantly playing practical jokes on each other during the trip, for example on the hike today one of them put rocks in another’s backpack when he wasn’t looking and he discovered a few miles later. I found it hilarious, although he was pretty mad understandably. My kind of people, and I’m sure people I’ll stay in touch with!

I was sad to leave my buddies, and would have loved to have stayed and carried on drinking the day away with them, but I needed to walk the 7 miles back to the lake to catch my ride. At this point I’m sorely tempted to break one of my legs (as this is the only way they will chopper you outta there)! Every day of my trek a new body part has hurt. Today it was my knees and my shins. By the last 3 miles I’m tripping over every stone, rock, branch and twig because I literally don’t have the energy to pick up my feet. Knowing I had a 3 hour journey back to Puerto Natales did little to help my mood. I needed a shower and a steak because I was stinking and starving! 

I’m glad I left Patagonia to the end of my trip because quite honestly it’s left me incapable of walking without looking like I’ve soiled myself. Plus it was a great way to end a wonderful 2 weeks in Chile. Now it’s back home to real life and planning my next trip!

If you’ve enjoyed reading my blog, then please give me money so I can quit my job and travel full time! Muchas gracias 🙏🏼 

Until the next adventure! 

Days 1-2: Torres del Paine (more like Torres del Pain)

Today was a long, hard day of walking. The guidebook said that it takes about 4 hours to climb to the top. Usually I take an hour off these estimates as I walk very quickly (as those who know me are well aware), and so I made it to the towers in about 3 hours. The hike was actually a lot tougher than I expected, especially the last 45 mins - 1 hour where you are just scrambling over steep rock faces. I’m not used to carrying so much weight on my back, which only added to the difficulty, especially with a bad shoulder. However, as you can see from the photos, it’s worth all of the pain as it’s a little piece of paradise up there! I was lucky with the weather as there was no wind or rain and it was relatively sunny.

I stuck around for an hour to eat my lunch and admire the view. I was shortly joined by some guy who came and sat next to me, despite the thousands of other rocks he could have sat on. Here we go, I thought. His name was Mauricio and he was a policeman working and living in Santiago (tough gig right now!) Here is a sample of some of his cliched lines:

“Where’s your husband? Are you travelling alone?”

“Are all Scottish women as beautiful as you?”

“You’re really in shape, you must do a lot of exercise.”

“I really love Braveheart and bagpipe music”

For those of you who like to climb mountains, you’ll know the most soul destroying part is knowing you have to go back down! The descent is often much harder than the climb, and this was definitely the case here! Everything hurt at this point. What got me through it was the knowledge that there was a free welcome pisco sour waiting for me in my hostel! I’m glad I’ll be having an easier day. Only 13.6km and a more or less flat route (or so I’m told). 

Back at my hostel I claimed my free pisco sour and sat outside to admire the view of Las Torres. They look deceptively close, within touching distance. Dinner is a 3 course meal. 3 courses of absolute shite that is. The soup starter was insipid and tasted like slightly salted water. The creamy chicken with rice main was marginally better and the cheesecake dessert was minuscule. It’s all part of my package, and there’s no other option but to eat in the hostels, so you eat what you’re given. Bit of a cheek to charge £22 for it though. 

Over dinner I met a nice bunch of folk from the Netherlands. They didn’t have to tell me they were Dutch, I knew from looking at them! We had a drink and a couple of games of jenga before turning in for the night. When I travel these days I avoid shared dorms in hostels at all costs. I see the value for meeting people, but I’m at a certain age where I like my privacy, and my sleep! I was reminded of just how awful it was after a 230 alarm goes off and some guy puts his light on and starts packing up his things to set off for a sunrise hike. I don’t know how many pockets his backpack had but all I heard for about 20 minutes was bloody zips! If he had any decency he’d have sorted his stuff out the night before! Raging. Not only that he did nothing but snore up until that point!

Day 2 (the easiest day of all) was not so easy and it certainly wasn’t flat! I guess they probably think the earth is flat too. The walk is entirely along the lake, so it’s very scenic, but it is rather up and down. It probably would have been a piece of cake on the first day, but I was still tired from yesterday and so it wasn’t plain sailing.  This was probably more to do with the blisters on my feet than it was the route.

I arrived at my next hostel, Domo Frances, at around 2pm, so it was a much shorter day. Although this meant that there was little to do in the afternoon, I was glad of the opportunity to have more time to rest my legs. This camp is a lot smaller than the other one, then again it’s pretty much in the middle of the forest. The staff live on site and work 11 days on and 4 off (because clearly it isn’t possible to commute). They have staff quarters located down a forest path with a sign that reads “staff only”. I’m picturing a scene out of dirty dancing where I sneak in and find them all dancing raunchy, but I couldn’t find any watermelons to carry. 

The camp itself is pretty cool though, and the dorms are basically huge green pods, so it’s kind of like glamping. I’m sharing mine with a father and son french duo and 4 American OAPs who very loudly and brashly proclaimed their discomfort about sharing a dorm with strangers. Feel free to sleep on the floor outside guys! 

I wasn’t particularly looking forward to dinner, so I made sure to save most of my snacks for that day just in case! However, it was slightly better than the other hostel. The soup was different and had more flavour and the main was meat and pasta which was edible. 

Unfortunately they placed me next to a french group on one side and a loud bunch of Americans on the other. I chose the lesser of two evils and started chatting to the Americans (one woman and 4 gay guys from Alaska) who turned out to be a barrel of laughs. It was a mutual instant connection. They asked me if I was with the group to my left (the french) to which I responded, with I’m told a rather disgusted look on my face, “I’m not french!”. From that point onwards we hit it off and I ended up spending the night drinking wine with them and walking with them the next day. 

Punta Arenas & Puerto Natales (aka Basecamp)

Chile is as long as America is wide, which means very diverse climates from north to south. Arriving in Punta Arenas (where I stopped for the night after a long day travelling) it was 16 degrees. I’m glad I decided to do the trip this way around so that I can slowly start to re-acclimatise to good old Scottish weather. 

My hostel (or the haunted house as I like to refer to it) was basic with my room pretty much a cupboard under the stairs and the squeakiest floorboards I’ve ever heard. Still a bed is a bed and after a late dinner of scallops a la Parmesan I at La Luna restaurant, I passed out fairly quickly. I had some time in the morning to explore the town before my bus to Puerto Natales. Punta Arenas itself is quite a nice little town, with lots of beautiful old buildings.

After a 3 hour bus journey I arrived at my hostel, The Singing Lamb, in Puerto Natales. After checking in I made my way to the tour office (I chose Fantástico Sur) where I had my pre-trek talk and received all entrance tickets, maps, lodging vouchers for my 4 day excursion. There are a few trails you can do, O being the longest, with the most popular being W. I chose to do W express (same route as W but over 4 days as opposed to 5) because I’m an athlete 💪🏼....and because 4 days was all I had!

I was quite surprised to find the town more or less deserted. Although it was Sunday, I expected a bit more of a buzz about the place, with lots of other tourists either returning from treks or about to start. Although I’m only doing a 4 day hike in the mountains, in my head I’m about to scale Everest and thought the town would have more of a basecamp feel! Even at my pre-trek talk I expected there to be a group of us, and yet I was the only one, which was a little disappointing as it would have been nice to meet some fellow travellers. 

After collecting all my tickets I set out in search of a bar. Bizarrely there didn’t seem to be too many open, bearing in mind it’s after 5 at this point. Many of the ones I found had a schedule of 10pm -4am. Given most people are up at the crack of dawn to set off on hikes I found that rather bizarre. I therefore had to settle for a hot chocolate at Patagonia Dulce. They have an extensive list of hot chocolate and amazing looking cakes. I opted for hot chocolate with rum so as to get my alcohol fix! 

For dinner I headed to Lenga, one of the most highly rated restaurants in the town. I was lucky to get the last available table, as the restaurant was fully booked and they turned many people away while I was there. Everything on the menu looked delicious and I struggled to decide what I wanted. After some recommendations I settled on the lamb and a glass of Syrah (both of which were absolutely delicious)! I like the wine so much I ended up buying a bottle at the wine shop (only £7 as opposed to £16 retail price in the UK). it was probably one of the best meals I’ve had so far, and only slightly ruined by the loud obnoxious Americans sat next to me. There are a LOT of Americans here. I’ve yet to hear another Scottish accent. It was a lovely meal to finish on, as I imagine the hostel food for the next 4 days isn’t going to be to the same standard! 

By the time I finished dinner the bars are open, woohoo! Due to my 6am start tomorrow (and with the longest walk of 21km being on the first day) I knew I had to be sensible and show restraint, which isn’t something that comes naturally to me when it comes to drinking! I’m proud to say that I only had one beer after dinner in a bar called Basecamp. When I arrived there were only a handful of people, despite it being the most popular bar in town. It’s still high season for hiking here, so I’m wondering where the hell everyone is! I might be the only one on the trek at this rate! 

I headed back to my hotel to prepare my backpack for the morning, although I think I’ll be too excited to sleep!

San Pedro de Atacama 2: Desert done and dusted!

Day 3 in Atacama involved a 6am start for a full day tour to Las Piedras Rojas, which includes Lake Miscanti and Miniques and Salar de Talar/Aguas Calientes (Salt flats). Again, being the only english speaker on the bus, the tour was in Spanish. There really aren’t many english tourists that come here, which is actually quite nice! The landscape from start to finish was stunning, and the altitude didn’t seem to affect me much despite being over 4000m above sea level. At times I felt a little bit more out of breath than i normally would doing anything remotely strenuous (so probably what fat bastards experience on a day to day basis). The salt flats in particular for me were the most breathtaking. 

On my return I was in desperate need of a nice cold beer and so headed to Cervecería St Peters, where they brew their own. I ordered their speciality, rica rica pale ale (a herb grown in Chile) and paid £5 for the privilege, although the owner did give me a personal tour. Normally a beer in Chile costs around £3. I expected the country as a whole to be a lot cheaper than it is. For food and drink it’s more or less on a par with back home. Except for the Pisco Sours, which are only about £3-4 as opposed to £8-9. Which is why I find myself drinking so many of them. And also because they’re bloody delicious! 

On my tour that day I made friends with a Spanish (well, Catalan) girl called Clara who turned out to be on the same tour group as me every day. That night we met up with Alejandro (the tour rep who I instantly liked). On his recommendation we went to a bar called Barros where they had some really good live music. We ordered Pastel de Choclo to share, which is a typical Chilean pie filled with chicken, beef, onion, egg and covered with a dough made of soft corn. Words cannot describe how delicious it was, I could’ve demolished the whole thing myself! This is also where I made the mistake of drinking two pints (yes pints) of Piscola. Not the best idea when I had to get up at 4am the next day for another tour, but I stand by my choices. #YOLO. 

The bars in town close at 1am, with most people ending up in Lola (the karaoke bar I went to on my first night). It is actually illegal to dance in San Pedro de Atacama, I shit you not. This is because the town is said to be built on an ancient indigenous cemetery. My parents would have been arrested after 5 minutes in the town I know that for sure. They can’t be stopped. In Lola, the shutters are closed after a certain time at night so the police can’t see in. There’s your cultural snippet for the day!

Falling out of bed the next morning, I threw on the warmest clothes I had and set off on my first tour of the day, El Geyser de Tatio, where the temperature plummets. I love how you can be in various places, some only 10 minutes or so apart, and both the landscape and the temperature are completely different! We arrived in time for the sunrise, which made for some lovely photos. There was also the opportunity to bathe in the hot springs but I didn’t bother (it wasn’t a patch on the Blue Lagoon in Iceland!)

On the route back we stopped at some lovely spots, including Rio Putana, where they harvest cacti, and a small village called Machuche (where I purchased a goats cheese empanada). The photos really don’t to the landscape justice. It’s such a beautiful part of the country. 

For lunch I went to Ckunna, recommended to me by a few people for their Quinotto (risotto made with quinoa funnily enough). It was really tasty, as were there pisco sours. I’ve literally lost count of how many I’ve had since I’ve been here. I’ll need to seek out a decent one when I get home to Edinburgh otherwise I’ll get withdrawal symptoms. 

My next tour was at 4pm to visit Laguna Cejar. I’ve got tour fatigue at this point and I’m shattered. I’m going to need another holiday when this one is over in order to recover. I have to say this tour was probably the most disappointing. We visited a few of the lakes within a short distance of Atacama, one of which you can bathe in. The lake is heavily salted so you find yourself incredibly buoyant in the water and it’s difficult to keep yourself upright. When you emerge from the water you’re pretty much covered in salt. I wouldn’t recommend going in there if you have any cuts or scrapes!

I arrived back to town at 9pm to discover that the star gazing tour was on that night. I’ve been trying to go every night since I arrived but it’s been cancelled as the sky hasn’t been clear enough, so I was really lucky to be able to go on my last evening. It did mean yet another tour (15 hours worth in total to be exact that day). However, it was completely worth it as the stars here are incredible and I’ve never seen anything like it. The guide was really knowledgable and pointed out a lot of constellations, which personally I didn’t see. I think the Greeks were drinking too much ouzo at the time they named them. Anyway, it was the most amazing way to end my time in the desert! Now time for a 50 mile trek in Patagonia!