Torres del Paine

Hola Everybody.... we just got back from a trek at the "Torres del Paine" reservation.
It is called that way because of it´s famous 3 tower like cliffs. Like a gun presented at the first act of a play, if there are cliffs or mountains, in some point somebody will have to climb them.
unfortunately that someone was us...
The reservation is really amazing - there are rocky cliffs, snowy mountains, green forests, glaciers, waterfalls, rivers, lakes, lagoons & even desert areas, and the view changes very fast.
REALLY REALLY BEAUTIFUL TREK!!!
We´ve done a 5 days trek called here the "W" route.


DAY ONE
We started our first day climbing to the "Torres". It took us longer than we anticipated so we stopped to camp at "Chileno" camping and paid to use their baths. We could also choose to sleep at shelters instead of a camping, but it was very expensive(about 150 shekels per person for a bunk bed in a room of eight people). This time we rented a good tent and the only problem was that the place was full of bugs (very cheeky ones that fly directly to your eye or mouth).

DAY TWO
At our second day we actually got to the base of the "Torres". It reminds a lot of mount Fitz Roy but somehow it was very different to be there... can´t explain. It was a very difficult climb but it was totally worth it!!!

We spent the night at another camping. A very lovely spot with grass where we had a view of the "Torres". We decide to wake up early to see the famous red "Torres" sunrise. It didn´t quite work out as we planned because the alarm clock "froze" in the cold. Luckily Alon woke up, ran out of the tent in his "gutkes" barefoot on the freezing grass took a picture and jumped back into the sleeping bag screaming something about his balls.... i was still sleeping.... but the picture turned out beautiful...


DAY THREE
The third day was "The lagoons day". It also was the most difficult day for me...
The problem with the route, is that instead of finding a normal way to go, it takes you up & down like a "yoyo"... you climb up(about 200m each time) only to go down over and over again... so by the fourth steep climb you are starting to get pretty tiered & aggravated... or have a nervous breakdown, sit on the ground and scream " I am not getting down until they built a bridge here!!! I have my sleeping bag and I am camping here...You can go to your stupid camping alone and tell the idiot that designed this route to come and get me down on his shoulders..." that´s what I did. didn´t help.... so as you can see there are very pretty pictures of happy Loni here... I was busy gasping for air and moaning....


DAY FOUR
At the fourth day we woke up inside a cloud near a beautiful lagoon. It was raining all night and our tent was disgusting.

We climbed to an amazing view point of rocks and glaciers. All the way we could hear and see glaciers collapsing and waterfalls created and disappearing... incredible...
At the end my dear husband decided that a huge rock with the words "MIRADOR"(view point in Spanish) couldn´t possibly be the view point and therefore we had to keep climbing on another forsaken mountain. After we climbed another 350m(by that point I was hyperventilating and talking to God) he decided that maybe it was time to reflect upon his genius decision and got to the conclusion that maybe he miscalculated... he survived only because I was to tired to move and just dragged myself of the mountain...


DAY FIVE
I never thought that I would be so happy to go back to a lousy hostel... We walked three hours to the boat that will take us to civilization... Actually it took us to a bus and only after a 2.5 hours ride we got back to "Puerto Natales".

After being in the middle of nowhere this place feels like a metropolis!!! We have a very friendly & nice hostel owner(he is even shorter than me, has long hair a huge moustache a hunchback and wears cowboy boots) and he makes us a tasty breakfast each morning.
Tomorrow we are taking the bus to "Ushuaia". It´s a 12 hours ride, but we´ve been threw worse...

miss you all
Dina & Loni