Beautiful Torres Walk

Seriously, the buses weren´t that bad! I slept through the music, the crying baby and the 7am breakfast - but admittedly it still wasn´t ideal. However it was more than worth that and the extra 7 hours to arrive in Puerto Natales. Even this simple little port is lovely, but the park for which it is an access point is unbelievably beautiful, even in abysmal weather!

We´re very conscious that it is an enormous priviledge to be in a position to be able to see the places we have seen and still plan to see, but there are still occasions where you have to actively avoid an "is that it?" reaction that comes from amazing past experiences - this may sound churlish, but when you have seen the Nepalese Himalayas, other mountains can´t compete, when you have experienced India, it will be hard to find a culture so vibrant and diverse, ...

So having studied THAT picture (as in from the most used viewpoint) of Los Cuernos in the Torres del Paine national park hundreds of times for I can´t remember how many years, and having longed to see it "in the flesh" ever since first laying eyes on that photo, it was hard to believe it could live up to expectations. It even had the added pressure of our version of the "W" trek being planned around the opportunity to stand in the spot from where THAT photo was taken by studying maps and other people´s blogs on the internet to figure out where it was taken from and then booking our last night in the hosteria nearest to that point. Having now experienced Torres, we also realise what a gamble this was considering the weather - it changes faster than anything we`ve experienced anywhere in the world, including Scottish winters!

But without a doubt Los Cuernos surpassed every expectation. Obviously it is nowhere near the size of a Himalayan mountain (every time we´ve been to the Himalayas I have to try and convince my Dad that a mountain is not just a mountain and you have to stand in the Himalayas to appreciate the scale because no photo can capture it - even the IMAX film can´t!) but this is the most dramatic and unusual piece of landscape I have ever seen and probably will ever see. Definitely my favourite mountain. The trek was fantastic and incredibly varied within such a small area, with glaciar grey, the Valle de Frances, the Torres, huge lakes that are a gorgeous blue whatever the weather, and we certainly did get every kind of weather too! We hardly saw the Valle de Frances because it was a really cloudy/rainy/windy/snowy day, which was our only real disappointment as from the glimpses we had through the cloud it is obviously very beautiful. But all the time our eyes were focused on Los Cuernos (the horns) - this is what we had come to the other end of the world to see.

To demonstrate our devotion (and good luck!): when we arrived at Refugio Chileno on the penultimate day (fantastic salmon fillet for dinner there - much appreciated after eggs, eggs and more eggs!) we could see the Torres (towers, from which the park gets its name, and for many people the highlight of the park) were completely clear from the clouds. But it was a bit late in the day to head up there, and the wind was living up to its reputation in this area so we decided to stick to our original plan and aim to leave it until the next day and try and see the sunrise. So the alarm was set for 3am, but when it went off we could hear the wind and rain pelting the refugio and decided there was no way it would clear by 5am.

We had breakfast at 7.30am and as anticipated the Torres were still in cloud, but it did look like they would be clear within a couple of hours. So now a dilemma - do we risk the 4 hour return walk up to the Torres viewpoint assuming it will clear or head down to get to the hosteria where we hope to see THAT view, sooner? Of course we headed for the hosteria, and as we got to the end of the W, the Torres were completely clear in glorious sunshine! But we had a great drive through the park to the hosteria and arrived to THAT view with 45 minutes of really good weather left! Needless to say we ran around taking photos and then when the final bit of blue sky disappeared, just sat looking at the view with our jaws still on the floor! The worst weather we had experienced came in at around 8pm and was still in full swing as we left the park. Had we decided to go up to the Towers we would have missed those precious minutes. Now we´re praying that one of the photos comes out well! We didn´t get our sunrise, but to expect that as well would just be greedy!

To add to the whole amazing experience, the people we met throughout the trek were all lovely, especially Evelyn and Jeremy who also gave us the gift of the 500 game - thanks guys! I might actually remember the Jack rule in a year or so.

Mandi