We got up and out at 5:15 to meet Steph and Carrie at the Turbus station in Viña to catch our bus to Santiago and then to the airport. We had an expensive and disappointing breakfast in the airport (though the fresh raspberry juice was amazing) and set off to Punta Arenas. The views from the plane were lovely and Steph and Carrie made friends with Yen, a Chinese girl sitting in their row who was also heading to Torres del Paine. The plane stopped down in 2 places before getting into Punta Arenas (yeah...we took the budget flight), so the flight felt pretty long and poor Jay accidentally left his journal on the plane, but didn't realize it until we'd left the airport.
After the plane, we caught a taxi to the bus station, got a bus to Puerto Natales, and found a hostel - 2 twin bed rooms with breakfast and a nice big common table next to a fire. We went out to dinner (Stephanie navigated us to pizza) and came back to the hostel to play Glory to Rome. Our original plan had been to go to the park the next morning, but since we got in late (and were misled by the very late sunset), we didn't manage to get groceries. So we changed our bus tickets to 2:30 instead of 7:30 and spent the next morning shopping and packing before locking up our unnecessary stuff in lockers and leaving.
We stopped just once on the 3+ hour trip to buy lunch (sandwiches) and then arrived at Torres del Paine National Park. The bus dropped us off at the entrance, where we bought tickets and then took a shuttle to the trailhead and started walking. The part from Hosteria Los Torres to Campamento Chileno was steep and rocky, and we were pretty miserable at the end. We considered staying (Ch 4,000, or about $6-7, per tent), but figured we could make it to Campamento Torres by nightfall. Just as we set off, Carrie had Jay tighten her bag and the waist clasp snapped off. Well, that did it. Jay and I started to set up the tent while Carrie and Steph went to pay, but they soon came out waving at us to stop. The price was CH $4,000 per PERSON, not per tent. To camp. About 12 inches from the next tent. No way. Carrie tied on her bag as best she could and she and I bolted forward with the tent to the next campsite (about 1.5-2 hrs away) to set up. Jay and Steph arrived (just as we were finishing and the last bit of light was disappearing), bearing the stove and cooking gear, so we cooked dinner and went to bed.
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| Torres del Paine, Chile |
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