An overall look at Torres del Paine, Patagonia

Not trying to sound cliché, but there's just no other way to put it: Patagonia is a land of extremes. Our first day started with a ridiculously long and steep trek over boulders and loose rocks that left us panting and agonizing over every step (and boy did we ever feel our packs), but every time we paused to look around us, huge expanses of land stretched out in every direction and, despite the summer crowds, we felt isolated whenever we looked at anything but our own 2 feet.

After passing Campamento Chilenno, the path changed from steep, arid and rocky to relatively flat and rather muddy, with lush trees on every side and makeshift bridges formed by roots. This continued to Campamento Torres, but the "45-minute" hike to the Torres themselves brought us back scrambling over loose rocks and boulders to see the towers, huge slabs of rock, shooting up from a bright teal pool of water below.

When we moved to our next campsite, our hike was challenged by winds strong enough to knock us over --even when we braced ourselves against it. The wind came in gusts; one minute you can literally lean 45-60 degrees into the wind and have it support you, the next you're caught without so much as a breeze (so I wouldn't suggest much of that leaning). One gust nearly took Steph off a cliff, another pushed her into thistles and Carrie into a rock, (a more favorable) one lifted Jay in partial flight as he ran (packless) to check our location, and another knocked both Carrie and me into each other and to the ground. After falling, I just started laughing. It's so ridiculous, it's unreal...I can understand why some people go crazy here.

We crossed streams and rivers - some little more than marshy puddles, others strong enough to take you away with them if you lose your footing. But no matter how windy, drizzly, rocky, steep, muddy, hot, or dry it was at any given time, one thing remained constant: You could not look around without being awed by the beauty of this place. In looking over the photos I took, I wonder why I took so few, relative to the amount I take in most places. My only explanation is that it was futile to keep taking photos - they just didn't do justice to the beauty and the majesty of Patagonia...That, and if I took a photo of every breathtakingly beautiful view, we'd never make it to camp.

Torres del Paine, Chile