Torres Del Paine

...and painful it was.

Torres Del Paine is a beautiful park in the Chilean patagonia region made popular by its hike of the same name. The hike consists of either a complete circuit around a series of stunning glacial blanketed and snow-capped peaks and along the side of the huge Glaciar Grey, or a more popular and well tromped section called the ´W´ which covers only the most breath-taking sections of the circuit.

Lori and I loaded our packs full of food and gear and set out to do the whole circuit a little over a week ago. Yesterday we returned triumphant with empty packs, blistered feet, breath-taking views, and memories we will never forget.

Our first day on the trail dawned bright and clear but very windy. We set off down the road to the trail proper and had our first mishap of misdirection adding an extra two hours and many curses to our day. The day was quite beautiful as it took us over undulating hills and through daisy-filled fields as it wound around the back of the amazing towers of the Torres circuit.

Our second day ended up being a really long one as we realized we would have to cram a little bit more into our tight schedule than we had figured. We continued around behind the major peaks through fields that caused Lori to remark, "add some buffalo and this could be Alberta!" We got our first views of some of the glacial beauty of the region as well.

Day 3 was probably one of the toughest experiences of our life. Paso John Garner consists of 600m of ascent followed by 800m of sharp descent, but takes you into really exposed terrain. Gale-force winds buffet you at the highest point on the trail and unprepared trekkers have come to grief on this pass. It would have been a tough day anyhow, but it rained all day, and that made things all the more interesting. We made our first mistake in crossing a log bridge and going up, as it turned out, the wrong side of the river. (even though the trail was marked) After we emerged soggy from our mud slug through the tree line we found the necessary crossing back to the other side of the river was washed out. Luckily we weren´t the only ones who had made the mistake and we met up with some other folks who had also managed to flag down some trekkers on the correct side. Between the six of us we managed to secure the logs and toss our rope across the raging river (swollen from extra rain) and make it across. At this point we emerged into the exposed portion of the pass. As we went up, the rain soaked us to the bone and eventually turned into pelting sleet. The wind picked up into gale forces that actually prevented forward movement at times. Water was running down the mountain freely and patches of snow started to appear. It was unbelievably hard and I think we nearly lost our mental sanity. Achieving the top and getting out of the wind however didn´t turn out to be much better as the mud-soaked descent caused us to slip and slide and add mud to our already sopping selves. Lori lost her footing and slid close to 10 meters at one point. Arriving at our campsite still brought no relief as we had to set up in the rain which, as any camper knows, just isn´t fun.

Our next day was sunny and dry, and being scheduled to hike a vastly shorter distance in recovery we had a pleasant descent along a glaciar down to a refuge site on a beautiful glacial lake. We managed to get in early enough to drop our packs and spread everything to dry. We spent our afternoon just lounging in the sun watching icebergs from the glaciar float by. It was amazing.

At this point we were into the most beautiful sections of the trail and we lucked out and got some excellent weather. Our next day took us around the front of the central peak section of the hike along the more popular ´W´section of the trail. Massive panoramas of glacial lakes took us across ridges and up into the beautiful Valley Del Frances where we camped that night.

The next morning arrived sunny and windless which was perfect as we hiked up the Valley to a high point that gives you a breath-taking 360 sweep of glacial peaks, and out into the glacial lake-covered Chilean Patagonia. Coming down the Valley we then set out to complete the circuit that day which would leave us with a one day out and back to the Torres viewpoint, the culmination of our entire trek.

Our seventh day dawned overcast, breezy, and clear, the perfect day for the last major section of our hike. A relentless up brought us to a lush alpine valley which then took us to a 45-minute 400-500 meter rock scramble straight up to the viewpoint of the three towers. We sat on the rocks and just took in the beauty of our surroundings, it was an amazing finish to an amazing trek. Our efforts were well rewarded!

Enough said. Tomorrow we depart for Argentina, keep dry!

Have you driven (by) a fjord, lately?

Dan seems to think my title isn´t QUITE as clever as I think it is. He is, of course, wrong.

Our time in Chile began with a 3am arrival in Santiago and the unexpected $135 US reciprocity fee that Canadians are charged. Sucks to be Canadian. After a long bus-ride (made infinitely longer by the location of our seats - directly beside the operational and extremely popular bathroom) we arrived in Valdivia, situated in the Lake District. An extremely pretty city, we enjoyed a wander through the fish market and a boat tour to visit the many forts in the area. On board this "luxury" catamaran, we were treated to the strains of 60s elevator music as well as classic Chilean cuisine. As usual, I demanded that we capture this exquisite cut of meat and creative presentation of spam-infused rice on film. Enjoy!

A few days later we were off to Puerto Montt, home to this unforgettable statue on the harbour front (but what does it MEAN??) and water-main breaks. This meant that our hotel was really great, if you could get past the part about the toilet not working. Ah well, we were only in town for the purpose of hopping aboard our Navimag ferry to Puerto Natales. A four-day saga of Chilean fjords, glaciers, rolling seas, vomiting, narrow passes, feeling ill and Patagonian bingo!

That´s it for now - we head for Torres del Paine in a few days to do some hiking. If all goes well, we´ll be back in 10 days with sunburnt faces and some fabulous pix. ¡Hasta luego!

Colca Schmolka

Happy New Year from Arequipa, Peru! According to ¨the grand master plan¨, we should really be on a bus somewhere near Cuzco. Unfortunately, although we had the tickets, the bus was missing, so we´re killing time before theoretically hopping a bus this eve. Cross your fingers!

Arequipa is a pretty city a few hours east of the Pacific Ocean. Too hot for the likes of me, but nice and close to the Colca Canyon, known for its tremendous size and for the condors that swoop through it. We spent a day in Arequipa checking out mummies and convents before heading to the canyon. On our way we topped out at just under 5000m, felt a little woozy, saw a whole bunch of llamas, alpacas and vicunas and honoured the El Misti god (that´s a nasty-looking volcano, FYI) with hand-made inukshuks. I don´t think they call them inukshuks here. I could be wrong. We also saw a motorcyle whiz by with a coffin on the back. Zany.

We hung out in the town of Chivay overnight, sampling alpaca and soaking in the local hot springs. Our guide also took us on a hike through the countryside, regaling us with llama sacrifice yarns and showing us some graves. I wasn´t sure what kind of face I should make in the skull photo. It´s hard to tell but the skulls are deformed - splinted at birth to form the shapes of the local volcanos. They´re very into mountain gods down here.

The next day we headed to the Colca Canyon to watch the condors. These birds have a huge wingspan (3.2m) and look kind of like a vulture. They seemed very interested in the hordes of people watching and seemed keen on buzzing the crowd. This made for much screaming and hysteria. Good times.

Our New Year´s Eve was spent in the main square of Arequipa, eating yet more llama and watching everyone and anyone setting off firecrackers and burning things in effigy. I spent most of the time hiding behind a pillar to avoid losing an eyeball and listening to firecrackers plink off of passing taxis. Also, I ate chocolate cake. Very tasty.

Onwards to Chile!