Torres del Paine
Trip Start
Jan 17, 2006
1
12
32
Trip End
Ongoing
Puerto Natales, Chile
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Highlights of the Torres del Paine Trek:
1. Getting off the bus and realizing that we had to wade through ice cold, knee deep water to begin the trek.
2. Breaking a tent pole the first night camping because of a huge wind gust.
3. Getting to the free campground the first night and no one else was there. We had the whole place to ourselves! Later realized that the ¨free¨ camp site we stayed at was closed and we could have been fined if we got caught.
4. Listening to some annoying, know-it-all American tell us how you could ¨cheat the system¨ and not pay for any campgrounds because the workers were ¨lazy¨ and ¨didn´t care.¨ It´s amazing how people can justify anything.
5. Struggling to fix the tent pole while it was pouring rain. No one offered us help until a 60 old Spanish man walked up to us with a huge, 5 pound roll of duct tape. Pete fixed it up Matt Taintor style. Thank goodness for duct tape!
6. Crossing the pass in heavy snow fall and continuously reminding Pete that the book said ¨not to cross in bad weather.¨
7. Pete breaking his trekking pole in a knee deep mud field.
8. Jumping out of the way of oncoming horses and playing hopscotch over their turd piles for over 120 kilometers.
9. Ashley vowing not to move out of the way for another day hiker that refuses to yield on the trail for those (like us) carrying large packs. Pete containing his laughter while watching Ashley ¨make her first contact with her first victim.¨
10. Campground Italiano: no pasta, no wine, no cheese, just piles of human feces everywhere...
11. Justifying hiking 30 kilometers in a day to a free campground just so we could gorge our faces with chocolate, salami and bread purchased at an expensive camp store along the way.
12. Ashley waking up like the Nutty Professor and not being able to feel her face.
13. Bushwhacking through the brush ¨rambo style¨ and making it to the top of the mountain to see the sun rise on the Torres del Paine.
14. Meeting trekkers from around the world.
15. Rewarding ourselves with an amazing lamb and red wine dinner after the trek.
