A Nomad I Will Remain for Life: Ooo the Paine! Sore Feet, Knees, Toes, & Backs (Part 2)

Ooo the Paine! Sore Feet, Knees, Toes, & Backs (Part 2)

20 December 2010 17:52 Rambling by: Shae

So I've left you hanging for a while about our intense backpacking trip. It's so long that I am going to have to post in phases. Probably just part one and 2 because it's going to include tons of pictures! And they don't even do what we saw justice. Here it goes:

(The incredibly blue water)

I believe I stopped when we were about to board the boat over to Torres del Paine (Pronounce: Pin-ay). Torres del Paine actually means "The Towers of Blue" or "The Blue Towers." The boat ride was long, but the views were amazing. We sat on the upper deck of the ferry, outside in the chilling weather. It was so worth getting hit by the cold Patagonian winds, because we were able to look around at the snowy mountains that surrounded us on all sides along with the icy blue water. There was no escape from the wind, nor the many bodies that crowded the upper deck of the boat also enjoying the beautiful sites that wild Patagonia has to offer.

(A view from the upper deck)

(It was super windy!)

(Leticia, me, & Jenny)

(Parque Nacional Torres del Paine)

When we arrived in the Paine National Park, we were full of energy and excited to begin our adventure. The Patagonian winds were still blowing hard and mountains surrounded us. We first hiked to Glacier Grey viewpoint, but left our heavy 10-15 kilo packs back at one of the refugios, making our hike go a lot faster (and easier). It was about a 3.5 hour hike to Glacier Grey and then another 3.5 hour hike back to the refugio to get our packs. While hiking to Glacier Grey viewpoint, we met a group of guys: an American, Israeli, and a German. We ended up hiking with them on and off and actually camped next to them at Chileno. The trail was pretty crowded for being out in the middle of no where, full of backpackers from all over the world. There were even people in their 50's or 60's hiking, but they were staying in the refugios along the trails. Refugios are basically hotels or hostals and are actually really nice for being in the middle of Patagonia. We didn't stay in any of the refugios because we were going to get the full on experience of backpacking. (It was soo worth it).

Every time we would pass someone on the trail, no matter where they were from, we would always say, "Hola!" Funny how everyone basically spoke the Spanish language. When we finally got to Glacier Grey, it was beautiful. The weather was in our favor and you could see the entire glacier. I wish we would have had time to go walk on it. That would have been awesome, but we were pressed for time and only had 3 days to hike half of the W. We took some pretty good pictures of Glacier Grey. Here are a few of my favorites:

(So Pretty!)

(Me looking out at Glacier Grey)

(On our way to the edge of the mountain in the background.)

It was supposed to be a 2.5 hour hike from our start point to Camp Italiano, but of course we would stop and take pictures of all the beauty that surrounded us. This probably added a little over an hour to our hike to Italiano. Hiking with our packs also made it take a little longer and required a lot more strength to keep going. At one point along the trail we thought we had gotten lost, by this time we were pretty tired (we had no idea what we were in for the next day of hiking). We were by the edge of a raging creek. I have to admit, I was getting a bit agitated because I was ready to get my massive pack off, sit down, and finally relax for an hour or 4. We then realized we were on the right trail after about 3 minutes more of walking. We found the bridge at the end of the mountain where Camp Italiano would be on the other side. It was such a relief!

(The Bridge and mountain at Camp Italiano)

(There was a sign on the bridge that said "Only 2 people at a time on bridge")

We had finally made it to camp, where we met our American, German, and Israeli friends again. They had hiked way ahead of us because we kept stopping to take pictures. So we decided to set camp up next to them and cook dinner with them too. We had our cup o' noodles, some bread and salami, and hot chocolate. The guys packed tons of noodles and they cooked spaghetti (had to be so heavy in their packs!). It was such a funny site to watch them cook, because it was so cold, and they were cooking with gloves and not doing such a great job at it either. The best thing about hiking in Torres del Paine was that you could just go down to a stream or creek and dunk your water bottle in and drink straight from it without having to filter the water. It was so good! The water came straight from the mountains and glaciers. Another intense thing about Italiano is that there were so many avalanches. I lost count after 10. They were so loud that we thought it was thunder. We could also see it when it would avalanche. It was pretty cool, we were safe from it of course.

(Camp Italiano)

(Our tent that we set up without any help)

(Jenny, the German, Israeli (Dan), and me eating Dinner)

(Getting water out of the river)

It was day 2 of our trip and believe it or not, I wasn't as sore as I thought I would be. Although my ear was starting to hurt me so bad! I had lost a good 50% of my hearing in my ear by this day. It was funny when we were hiking because I couldn't understand most of the conversation that was being held, and having a beanie covering my ears didn't help the hearing loss. So I just enjoyed all the beautiful scenery that Patagonia had to offer most of the time. We began our journey from Italiano to Chileano. This was the longest hike of the trip! And the hardest. At first it was great and all went smoothly, the trek wasn't too difficult and we were well rested. We hiked mostly by the water for the first portion of the day and after two hours we got to a refugio, where we stopped to have lunch. When we took our packs off it felt like I still had mine on and almost fell over because I wasn't used to being as light. Needless to say we laughed about it for a few minutes. The landscape that surrounded us was absolutely beautiful. Pictures don't do it justice, I would suggest it to everyone to go explore Patagonia if they ever had the chance to. It's something to check off of the bucket list for sure. I can't even begin to thank my parents for supporting me every step of the way and allowing me to come down here. As well as being so positive about this entire trip in the first place. I couldn't have done it without such a supportive and wonderful family! Okay, enough of that, here's some photos of the hike up to this point: