We arrived in Puerto Natales at about 11:30pm on a Saturday night and made our way to Nikos II, our hostel for the next couple of nights. This was a good hostel, great information, good rooms and an egg and freshly squeezed juice for breakfast every day!

Day 1 in Puerto Natales was spent booking tickets for Torres del Paine and shopping for the necessary supplies for our four day walk / camping expedition. We were then able to join the landlady for a trip out to a local rodeo where we got to watch children riding sheep and chasing pigs (hearing the pig squeal was a bit disconcerting but the kids seemed to enjoy it) and the finals of the saddle bronc (for those of you who aren´t familiar with this kind of activity it involves grown men sitting on madly bucking horses for as long as possible - although no longer than 8 seconds). Only one person got taken off in the ambulance but there were quite a few who probably would have rathered a ride in the ambulance to the grimace of pride they displayed as their friends helped them to a safer place!

Day 1 in the park began with an early morning bus ride into the parque to start the ´W´trail, which is a 4 / 5 day trek that takes in the most striking aspects of the park. There are two longer circuits - the circuit which is about 9 / 10 days and the ´Q´which is 11 / 12 days. Having arrived at the park we pitched the tent and, inspired by the lack of rain and wind and presence of blue skies we headed straight up to the ´Towers´ which took three hours up and three hours back. To put that in some kind of perspective, the first hour is a long uphill walk with the second hour lulling you into a false sense of security, taking you through forest and along mostly flat paths. The final hour is simply a mad scramble over granite boulders to the mirador. The view however, makes it all worthwhile. It really was incredible, towering spires of bare rock reaching up into the clouds. (Yes, I know photo´s would give a better picture and we really are trying!). Having spent an hour at the top we scrambled down and set off back to camp, stopping briefly for a celebratory wine and beer at the lower refugio.

Day 2 we were up early for the next leg of the journey. The day´s walk started out quite easily, along a flat path with some of the most amazing lake and mountain views. We arrived at the campsite at about 3:00pm, set up camp and again, owing to the fabulous weather we were having we decided to head straight up the mountain, through the ´Valle de Francis´. This part of the walk started off by following the river and so again we were climbing and scrambling over rocks and boulders before heading into the trees and then across bare landscape that offered no protection from the wind. We stopped at the first mirador and were greeted by the most amazing views of snow and rock and the cracking sounds of avalanches. We continued on with climb and finally reached the end of the trail which was more of the same views except even more awe inspiring. It´s difficult to put into words just how breathtaking the views of mountains can be but all around us we were surrounded by towering peaks, snow covered mountains and below was forest. As we got there quite late in the day there weren´t many people there so it was quite peaceful as well. Anyway, as the wind picked up we decided it was time to head down and so we returned to camp and collapsed for the evening.

Day 3 had us again heading off early for the final part of the trek. It was a relatively short and not to difficult walk to the final campsite, Pehoe. We filled ourselves with a huge but not very tasty breakfast at the hotel there (the thought of more than a muesli bar for breakfast was just to tempting), set up camp and headed up Glacier Grey. This was perhaps the most spectacular of the views for us. As you followed the path you eventually reached a huge rock that was the first mirador and it simply took our breath away. Clear lakes stretching for miles, small ice bergs dotting the lake and in the distance the snow covered peaks and our first view of the Glacier. We continued on and were constantly surprised by the beauty of what we were seeing. We finally reached the Glacier and just sat and stared for about 45 minutes before it got to cold to sit any longer! We then headed back to camp for our last night in Torres del Paine.

All in all we both concluded that this was an amazing part of the world and we were certainly glad that we had made the effort to spend the time there.

In addition to Torres del Paine, Puerto Natales offered us one of our best meals yet (2 really because we went back twice). It was an Afro-Patagonian restaurant with a Kenyan chef and the food was absolutely incredible. The prawns were fresh and garlicky, the king crab salad had lots of fresh, tasty crab, the steak was cooked to perfection and simply melted in your mouth ... You get the picture!

Anyway, now it´s time to continue our journey north and see what else Chile has to offer.

Bye for now, take care

Tim and Tracey