I think I may up sticks and move here......

On the 26th, after a stop over in Puerto Natales, we did our final border crossing from Chile to El Calafate in Argentina to take a flight to Buenos Aires (thanks to Marc & John - without your very generous birthday present we would have been doing a 36 hour bus journey, with it we were able to fly to BA in just three - thank you x).

I had read a lot about Buenos Aires (BA), I am after all a city chick and from what I'd read I suspected that I might like it, but I was wrong - I LOVE it!

We have rented an apartment in the coolest part of the city, Palermo Soho. For anyone who's been to New York it feels a lot like the Meat Packing district, full of fabulous restaurants, cafes, bars and chic boutiques.

Our first couple of days in the city were spent finding our feet and having some down time, just pottering (I love that term). 

Yesterday we visited Recoletta, famous for being the home of the cemetery where Eva Peron (Evita) is buried. Whilst it's a complete contrast to the natural beauty we have experienced in both Chile and Argentina over the past three weeks I have to say that I thought the cemetery was strangely beautiful.

Throughout Latin America they celebrate All Souls Day (aka The day of the dead) taking gifts and flowers to the graves of their loved ones, the indigenous communities take a feast to the grave side and family members take time to honour their dead. We were in Ecuador for All Souls Day and I remember seeing the gifts and flowers on the graves in all of the cemeteries that we passed.

I don't get the impression that All Souls Day was much of an event at Recoletta cemetery. 

A high wall protects the city of the dead that is Recoletta cemetery but despite it's height you can see an assortment of aged stone cherubs, angels and weeping widows peering over the top.

What were, I imagine, once fabulously ornate mausoleums marking what must have been a golden age in Argentinas history are now in varying states of decay, many of them with broken windows, exposed coffins and cobweb covered doors, it's like a silent theatre. 

The state of the tombs adds to the 'romance' of the place but left me feeling sad that they lie apparently forgotten by all but those tourists keen to see the final resting place of Evita who lies embalmed beneath tonnes of reinforced concrete to protect her from body snatchers and desecraters.

One of many plaques on Evita's tomb

Raine x

Silly silly people

Torres del Paine has very strict rules about the use of camping stoves and fires in the park and here's why......

In the past seven years two individual tourists have been responsible for destroying 285km2 of the beautiful forestland that makes up the Torres del Paine National Park.

It was incredibly sad to walk through the parts of of the park that had been so badly damaged by the stupidity of man!

Raine x

Grey Glaciar

The walk to the Grey Glaciar was an additional walk that we decided to do once we'd completed the W Trek. It was an extra 11km and it was my favourite walk of the five days, very few people walk all the way to the Glaciar, opting to view it from the mirador (view point) which is quite some distance away and which means that they only need to walk for four days.

It was quite a tough walk, we had to go up and down two 'ladders' made of scaffolding and cross one very wobbly bridge but it was so worth it. We only saw a handful of people the whole day and the views of the Glaciar were incredible.

It's a long way up or down which ever way you look at it.

Icebergs ahead....

The colours were ever changing

We walked along side the Glaciar through the glaciated valley which was stunning. The light kept changing through the day which made the Glaciar appear white initially and then all different shades of blue until looking back on it on our return journey it appeared to be electric blue.

Awe inspiring!

Raine x 

I am sooo glad we're not camping....

I woke up at about 3am to the sound of a gale force wind and looked out of the window at the campsite to see several people trying to secure their tents.....

After breakfast we set off for Refugio Grey, the final stop of our trek. The weather was amazing, we had the strongest winds that I've ever experienced (if you want to see what I mean by strong let me know and I'll send you the video).

Abs successfully staying on her feet!

The sun doesn't always shine on us.....

The wind made the walk harder than it should be but it also made it the funniest day, Abs and I laughed like children the whole way to Refugio Grey - recording weather forecasts, pretending we were skydiving and generally just trying to stay standing up.


They were right about the four seasons, all we're waiting on now is snow!

Raine x

Valle del Frances

After two incredibly hot days the weather broke over night and from about 3am it was absolutely teaming down with rain and that was to be the shape of the day- rain and lots of it.

We set off at 8:30 with the best waterproofs we could manage which for me was my fluorescent pink 'mac in a sac', a pair of shorts and a black bin liner tied round my rucksack - it's the same as not wearing Lycra when you ride a bike - it keeps people's expectations low if you don't look like a pro.....

Today was to be our longest walk through the Valle del Frances which on a sunny day would have offered up the most incredible views and whilst we've been lucky on pretty much every other day of our trip today was not our day.

After a night of torrential rain our first challenge was to cross a river that was flowing down hill, fast. There was a group trying to cross at the bottom close to the path but we decided we would have a better chance further up stream and, with the help of a lovely Belgian couple we'd met, successfully navigated the crossing with only wet toes to show for it - being that much further up stream meant we went 'off piste' for about 20 minutes but it did mean that we didn't fall into the river, unlike the group further down who all fell in waist deep......

With the weather as it was we knew that we wouldn't get to see any of the Valle del Frances but with so much time on our hands we continued with the walk, for the exercise if nothing else.

We got to the Refugio Paine Grande much earlier than expected and were able to shower and dry off in front of a wood burning stove with a glass of red wine.....

Dinner was a variation on the same theme, soup followed by turkey followed by a very sweet pudding followed by bed!

Raine x

The walk to Refugio Los Cuernos

After an early breakfast at 7:30 (ok, an earlyish breakfast, I am on holiday remember) we set off on our second day, headed to Refugio Los Cuernos. 

It was a scorching hot day and we had just short of 20km to cover but we had plenty of time, there was less elevation on the second day and so the walking was relatively easy and we took it slowly really taking time to appreciate the beautiful scenery that we were walking through, hills, valleys and lakes. The weather in Torres del Paine is incredibly unpredictable and we'd been warned, in spite of the exceptionally hot weather in Puerto Natales, to expect to see all four seasons on our trek, so far so good, we've only experienced summer.

Beautiful views all around

Mum, do you know what these are?

Some of the cloud formations are incredible

The walk is estimated to take about 10 hours but we made it to Cuernos for a late afternoon beer which was followed by a dinner not dissimilar to the night before, chicken and turkey seem to be the staples here.

Raine x

The Torres

The drive to the start point of our trek took us some way in to the park past herds of guanaco's (a type of llama), sheep, flamingos, Darwin's Rhea (look a bit like an ostrich) and numerous birds of prey.

From the point where we were dropped off we had a two hour walk to Refugio Chileno, there are a couple of accomodation options when you are hiking in Torres del Paine, camping or staying in a refugio, the definition of a refugio is a 'hut' and so I was expecting very basic accommodation but that wasn't the case, we had showers, bunk beds with sleeping bags and very good breakfasts, lunches and dinners provided.

It was a really hot day but the walk to the refugio was fairly straightforward, once we'd dropped our rucksacks off at Chileno we had a 5km walk to the Torres (Towers) they were really amazing and it was a great walk to them but for me but for me not as impressive as seeing Fitzroy.

Happy Hiker

As you know I forgot my camera and so the following photo's are courtesy of Abby.....

Base de las Torres

Me and the towers

Our first experience of a refugio dinner was a good one, chicken soup followed by turkey with maize and bulgar wheat and then a particularly sweet mousse for pudding. 

Our dorm room was fine, I had the top bunk three up from the floor which made for some pretty unladylike mounts and dismounts but in a dorm is highly recommended - it's way quieter up there.

Raine x

The bus will collect you at 7:30am.... Or will it?

Friday

As is thankfully so often the case our bus journey was short and uneventful, just 5 hours and 1 border crossing out of Argentina and in to Chile. We arrived at our B&B  mid afternoon and were welcomed by an incredibly enthusiastic Chilean lady called Fabby and her very dour English husband Brendan.

Saturday

We both slept like logs, waking up just in time for our 9:30am breakfast on Saturday morning. In the afternoon we went to a free talk about the 'W' Trek run by the Erratic Rock hostel, it gave us good advice on what we should take (half of what we'd planned) and some basic info about the hike. We bumped in to a few people at the talk that we'd met at various points on our trip - one of them was the guy who had his bag stolen when we were on the bus from La Serena a couple of months ago, I'm amazed he recognised us! 

Unlike the majority we planned to complete the trek from east to west, no particular reason but Abs who had done all of the preparation for this part of the trip had taken some good advice from some people she'd met at our hostel in Mendoza.

After dinner at El Living, a veggie restaurant run by a guy from Croydon who was travelling around the world 15 years ago, arrived in Puerto Natales and liked it so stayed, it was back to the B&B for an early night.

Sunday

The bus was due to collect us between 7:30 and 8:30 and so we were up at 6:30 for breakfast and ready to go at 7:30, and we were still ready to go at 8:30 when Abby asked if we should be worried that the bus hadn't arrived, Fabby laughed and assured us that Chilean time is different to UK time and that the bus would arrive. 15 minutes later Abs checked again and Fabby said we had nothing to worry about but phoned the bus company who told her the bus was on it's way. At 9:30 a second call to the bus company revealed that the bus had forgotten us...... 

Fabby who had organised the bus for us was doing what she could to get the bus company to sort out a private vehicle to take us to Torres del Paine and that's just what they did unfortunately it was someone else's private vehicle.... They had rather cheekily tried to sneak us in to a people carrier that had been booked by 6 other people for a private tour! 

So at 10:30 we were back exactly where we'd started, not for long though as after another call from Fabby a cab arrived to take us to the start point of our trek, or so we thought..... as we tried to establish why it felt as though we were driving in the wrong direction and Abs was trying to clarify that the taxi driver was taking us to Torres del Paine which he assured us he was he pulled on to a driveway and tooted.... he'd driven to his house to pick up his wife who got in to the car clutching what were clearly some hastily made sandwiches .... well how often does a metered taxi get asked to take a fare more than two hours away to one of the most beautiful places in the world....

So there you have it, I've told you the punch line, in my opinion Torres del Paine is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Aside from forgetting to take my camera on the first walk there were no more mishaps, just five amazing days of walking in an incredible Biosphere Reserve, drinking water straight from the streams and having a wonderful time.

So as I said, brace yourselves....

Raine x

Five days of Awesome

Brace yourselves..... 

It's been 12 days since my last update and in that time we've crossed the Chile/Argentina border four times, walked 100km (62 miles) and arrived in a city that I could happily call home so as you can imagine I have lots to tell you.

I need to start back on the 18th January, my friend Janes birthday and the day that Abby and I took the bus, from El Calafate in Argentina which is where we visited the Perito Moreno Glaciar, to Puerto Natales in Chile which is where we were going to start the W Trek.

Torres del Paine (pronounced Pine-yah) most definitely inspired my awe, it beats an average cup of coffee, an ok meal and distinctly average service hands down!

Raine x