Argentina (VI.) ... actually, Chile - Torres del Paine

After successfully crossing the border from Argentina, the bus spit us out in Puerto Natales, another in the row of strange towns.

Welcome to Puerto Natales

It was nothing like I had expected. From photos and travel guides I had the impression it would be like a southern hemisphere equivalent of the Nordic fjord towns. In reality, it seemed much more of an abandoned ghost-place, with no people, only (again) big hairy dogs on the streets. 

Maybe it was the proliferation of absolutely enormous cars or the wide empty streets, but - without actually having been to the US - Puerto Natales seemed to me much more American than any town in Argentina. Or maybe it was the houses, which had the aspect of temporary sheds - even if clearly they were not. Though even in the summer the temperatures in Puerto Natales hover only little above 15°C, most of the houses were made of some sorts of metallic or wooden sheets, with single-glazed windows and electrical cables all on the outside, and in general looked to me very unfinished.

Having stocked up on food for the coming five days, the following morning we headed towards the Torres del Paine national park.

Torres del Paine is famous for its unpredictable and nasty weather, strong winds, snowfalls in the summer and generally harsh weather conditions - and after the two cold days in El Chaltén I was correspondingly worried about being converted into an ice-cube and blown away in a tempest (and panic-packed extra supplies of chocolate for survival). Well. I'm aware that nobody is going to believe this, but during the five days our weather in Torres del Paine looked at worst something like this:

Cloudy day

Which was also tricky though! With the ozone hole right above Torres del Paine and the corresponding UV index of 10, the official recommendation was to avoid going out at all, and if inevitable, only in long pants, long sleeves, hats and scarves. Which makes sense - only try walking like that for a few hours with a loaded backpack under the scorching sun. Thus, SPF50+ suncream became my best friend.

With the time we had, we decided to hike the most common "W" trail. After contemplating all the possible combinations (from the west, from the east, with glacier Grey, without Grey, starting in the morning, starting in the afternoon, staying for a night in Puerto Natales, going straight from Calafate etc etc), in the end we started from the east, and left the rest open, depending on how we'd feel.

Taking the morning bus from Puerto Natales, we jumped off at Laguna Amarga, and took another bus to Camping Torres (don't walk that stretch - with everything that Torres del Paine offers it's completely useless to waste your time on that dusty uneventful road). In the camping we pitched our tents, left our stuff and continued up towards Las Torres.

Glamorous as it looks, those horses are taking down the rubbish from the refugios

If you read about the path going up to Torres, you'll normally come across the words "very steep" and "exhausting". Maybe it was all the expectations, or because we were going only with the light packs, but in reality it turned out to be a very reasonable and not particularly difficult hike.

Campamento Chileno, on the way up to Torres. Avoid staying there, unless you like to camp on the footpath, or hanging on a slope

Whoever you talk to and whatever you read, Las Torres del Paine seem to represent this nirvana, the ultimate thing to see and afterwards forever rest in peace. And fine, they are quite an impressive sight.

The amazing weather made it a highly photogenic place, and so with the help of extra layers of suncream we stayed quite a while (and took the required dozens of photos), before going back down to the camp.

The next morning we continued west, towards Campamento Los Cuernos...

... around the Lago Nordenskjöld (an excellent name for a lake in Chile)...

... and up to the Campamento Italiano. Which, among the campsites we stayed at, was probably the most pleasant one.

Campamento Italiano

Then on the third day in the morning we headed up the Valle del Francés...

... through campamento Británico (which we had been told was closed; even so, had we known how nice it is, we would have stayed there) up to the mirador.

And after coming down from the valley we continued towards Lago Pehoé. The path takes you through a section of the park that had been burnt down a few years ago, and you kind of start to understand their obsession with people accidentally setting up fires.

In the afternoon we reached camping Paine Grande. Although it's in a pretty location next to the lake, it singularly manages to be uncomfortable both when it's sunny (not a single shade to hide in) and in bad weather (with wind and rain the completely open space must be the real fun).

Admittedly though, it has a really nice view of the Cuernos del Paine and Paine Grande.

Los Cuernos del Paine

On the fourth day we left our things in the camping and went up to Glacier Grey, around Laguna Los Patos.

Though the trail takes you towards the Glacier Grey, possibly the prettiest place isn't at the end but somewhere in the middle, where a view of the Lago Grey and the glacier opens in front of you.

Though at the end it looks fine too.

Glaciar Grey

On the way back we stopped again at the viewpoint to admire.

Lago Pehoé

In one of those strange coincidences, it was in Patagonia that I discovered the (Czech) weather website windguru.cz, which seemed to be used by practically everyone in that region (?!?!). It flawlessly predicted the four days of bright sunshine in the park, and forecasted full cloud cover by noon of the fifth day. After four days of roasting under the sun, the idea of clouds was quite attractive, really.

But when I got out of the tent on the fifth morning, the sky was again spotlessly blue. Taking advantage of the time we had before the midday boat back, we ventured for a walk along the Lago Pehoé - disappointingly, again under the sun.

Paine Grande and Cuernos del Paine

And it turned out that windguru was spot-on right! By the time we were back in the camping packing our things, the sky was really covered (and the wind almost took us away as we were removing the tent). Finally, I could see the standard Torres del Paine weather - and in spite of the ozone hole, I guess the sun was better after all.

We took the boat to Pudeto, and there the bus back to Puerto Natales for a well-deserved dinner and Torres-labelled beer...

... and the following morning we continued direction the end of the world.

The practical side, or good to know before

Torres del Paine is supposed to be one of the most beautiful parks in Latin America. It certainly is beautiful - but be assured that everyone travelling to Patagonia has read exactly that same information too. The park apparently receives some 150,000 visitors every year - and only there I realised what that means. Especially on the trail towards the Torres, expect to meet a lot of people. 

In the last decades, backpackers managed to start major fires on a few occasions, burning down a good part of the park. Understandably, the park management is somewhat obsessed about fires. Together with the quantity of visitors, it means that the park is very regulated: before entering you (and all the other people from the bus that took you in) are channelled through a visitors' centre where you have to fill in a form with your details and hiking route, sign a declaration that you understand all the (many) rules and regulations of the park and pay the entrance fee. 

Then you're shown a video about those rules and regulations: where to camp (only campgrounds), where to cook (only in designated places within the camps and absolutely nowhere else), where to pee and poo (only in designated toilets, or else digging a hole of 15x20 cm well away from the path), when to walk (only before designated path closure times)... and they also tell you how much of a fine and how many years in prison you'll get for having anything to do with fire in the park. You'll walk away thinking you'll be lucky if you get through Torres del Paine without accidentally doing something that will land you in prison for a decade.

To round off the negative impressions, the park and its communication don't always come across as exactly friendly.

On the up side, it's very easy to get to or around Torres del Paine. Paths are very well marked, campgrounds are abundant (or refugios, if you want to spend the money), you get a good map of the park at the entrance, all the transports (buses/boats/minibuses) connect nicely with each other, so practically no previous organisation of a trip in the park is necessary, unless you want to stay in a refugio. For sure, don't go with an agency - here out of all places it makes no sense at all. Plus, the estimated trail times which are listed in the map are on the whole very conservative and you're likely to reach faster - which at the end always makes you feel better :-)

More on Argentina here.