Torres Del Paine National Park

DAY 1:

After two bus rides totalling 4 hours we arrived at the gate of the park. Like morons we started walking down the road only to have everyone else jump in a van that took them to the trail head. Amie was fighting a terrible cold. We made it to our first lodge and then Amie slept while I went on to hike the peak. That night we eneded up having Christmas Eve dinner with about 45 other people in the lodge including a fellow co-worker I ran into and a couple from Redwood city. Lots of Germans and French here.

DAY 2:

Hiked down the mountain and checked into the nice hotel at the park, thank god because Amie was sick and we did not have a reservation yet. We were going to have to camp in the rain with no tent so we jumped on the available hotel room. We did a day hike or two and then just relaxed. Had a wonderfull Christmas dinner while it rained outside. Amie started to recover from her cold but staying in the nice lodge that night came with a price to pay the next day......

DAY 3:

In order to make it to the next lodge and get back on track we needed to hike the entire length of the park. After 8.5 hours and 15.5 miles with full packs we made it to the next lodge. The weather was perfect for the hike (actually really mild) and we had views of the most amazing mountain lakes all day, some were the color of milk-of-magnesia from the glacial run off. You can drink from all the streams and rivers they are so clean and cold, some tools (mostly paranoid americans were filtering their water. Hello - what are you filtering out of the mointain stream) Dave says the park looks similar to the Tetons. Pictures to follow.......at some point.

DAY 4:

The next morning we hiked to the glacier. Amie didn´t bring her hat, gloves or extra sweater so she had to borrow mine (I got blamed for this, I didn´t realize I had to tell her to take such things to a glacier!) We had lunch on a beach at a lake with icebergs floating by, it was really other worldly. The weather was crazy this day, so windy I thought I was going to get blown over. Ah summer in Patagonia.

DAY 5:

We kind of wussed out and decided to take the catamaran to the park exit rather than hike 5 hours to get there. Good thing too, since it was windy, raining and really cold, the mountains even got a new dusting of snow. The boat ride out was really cool we saw pink flamingos, swans and condors! It also came with the standard llama looking things all over the place. Dave really wanted to see the mighty Puma - no such luck.

We made it back to Punta Arenas for a nice dinner. Dave had beaver, no joking, Im serious...... I had a lovely grass-fed fillet of beef. Read Omnivores Dillema, my new favorite book, and you can read why that is significant.

DAY 6:

Off to Buenos Aires today to meet Dave´s dad and his wife Linda. We are going to also hook up with a guy I went to High School with while we are there, such a small world.