Chilean Patagonia

In early January I arrived in Puerto Natales on the Navimag Ferry and spent a full week (not by choice) in what’s typically a one-day stopover town.

It certainly wasn’t the best week, but I would imagine there will be worse. I had a nice room in a nice hostel:

Puerto Natales is the gateway to the Torres del Paine park, so nearly all visitors are either about to enter, or have just emerged from, the park. As my friends from the Navimag emerged, I practically ran my own hostel with the spare bed in my room, hosting three of them as they transited through town. I got in some trouble for allegedly violating the hostel’s guest policy, but as their longest tenured guest myself, got away with it.

At long last, I set off last Monday into Torres del Paine for the O Circuit, an 8-day loop of the park that is hiked by a very small percentage of visitors and may now top the list of my all-time favorite travel experiences. I can’t actually find a consensus on the distance of the trek, but triangulating various sources indicates that I hiked about 80 miles. The scenery was spectacular, but the camaraderie amongst my trekking cohort was the real magic of the trip. O Circuit trekkers participate independently, but have identical campsite itineraries. So each day a new cohort sets off for the first campsite, and by the second campsite, the group is well acquainted. There’s a group mentality to the overall experience, which is immensely helpful for an 80 mile hike, but also the flexibility to hike at whatever time and pace you please. By late afternoon, nearly everyone is in camp and passing the time together in various ways.

The campsites themselves are about as comfortable as a campsite can get. They serve food and many have bunk rooms with proper beds. Here's the view from the trail pulling up to the campsite pictured above:

For the actual hiking, I did some of it alone but most with two Austrian guys who I met early on. The Austrians have been best friends for a long while and are both in their final year of med school. They’re interning abroad in Buenos Aires, but appear to be doing a bit more traveling than working (quite a bit more traveling). Here we are amidst a grueling 10 hour day. Note that we look much happier than we were.

On day seven, the route arrives back at the park’s entry point for one night, and then finishes on day eight with the Mirador Las Torres day hike, which is one of the world’s most famous hikes and includes the three towers that have become symbolic of Patagonia. By the time the seventh day rolled around though, the Austrians decided that they had had enough and wanted no part of the iconic towers, so they formally declared themselves done and started drinking instead. I joined them in the drinking and started to wonder if perhaps they were onto something: the towers are notoriously crowded with day hikers, and we had already circumnavigated the park and had infinite stunning landscapes to ourselves. I went to bed much later than a towers hiker should have and chose not to set an alarm.

At some point in the night I awoke and realized three things: that the time was 5:30AM, that I could make my bus out of the park if I started by 6:00AM, and that I felt sort of okay despite just a few hours sleep. So I got up, gathered my things, and hit the trail alone.

Despite the various circumstances that would indicate otherwise, as soon as I got moving I felt quite strong. I had planned a four hour ascent but jogged up in two and a half. Here I am with the towers:

After the hike I stayed one night in Puerto Natales, most of which was spent at a bar with a friend group that had formed on the trek. The Austrians and I then reconvened at the bus station the following day, and crossed the Argentinian border to El Calafete where we stayed last night.

Today is a day of administrative tasks. A few examples so you get the sense of how I keep busy these days:

• Planning a route along the coast of Uruguay for late February, which is peak season for Uruguay so I need to book the hostels soon

• Researching Paraguay because a Navimag Ferry friend wants to meet there in early March. Practically no one goes to Paraguay so the crux of my research is sorting out why

• A trip to Western Union for their absurd Argentine Peso exchange rates (Google the Blue Dollar rate if you feel so inclined)

• Writing and posting this blog

Once these are squared away I’ll wander to the bus station and head to El Chalten, which is a few hours North and the epicenter of Argentine Patagonia. I should be there for nearly a week, which is nice as it’s been 10 days since I’ve slept in the same bed twice in a row. El Chalten is a hiking mecca, which is just what the Austrians and I need right now. More hiking!