Chile - Day 3 - Torres del Paine

Every evening you meet with an expedition leader and he/she helps you plan your activities for the next day, depending on your abilities. We decided to do a full day outing today, and so we were up early in order to have breakfast before our appointed departure time of 7.00am. I wanted to get up early in any case to photograph the sunrise, but there wasn’t one although I got some shots of the moon shining over the lake.

The hotel provides a packed lunch if you are out for the day, and there is a selection of snack bars, nuts and dried fruit, fresh fruit and dark chocolate which you can help yourself to to keep your energy reserves going. The food here is excellent. 

One of the most popular hikes in Torres del Paine is the W hike - so called as the hike traverses the mountain in the shape of a W, and usually the quickest time this hike can be done is in 4 days, with one section of the W being done each day and then the hiker sleeps overnight in the refugio (camp site) before doing the next section the following day. Today we did one section of the W, the one that goes to Grey Glacier. It was so hot yesterday and the forecast for today was similar - I almost did not pack my insulated jacket or my raincoat, although at the last minute I did as I heard that this area often experiences 4 different weather patterns in one day - and thank goodness I did! 

We set off from our hotel by boat across Lake Pehoe, about a 30 minute journey. Then we started the hike - 12 km long and an ascent of 350m (1148 ft). It was very scenic along the way and we did not find it too challenging. However, it started raining about 2 hours into our hike and so for the rest of the hike it rained softly, making the descent sections very slippery and a bit difficult. Our guide was excellent, and there were only 5 people in our group all of the same ability, so it was a very manageable size. Most guests at the hotel are American, but today we met a mum and daughter from Australia. We have not yet come across anyone from the UK, there probably are a few British guests but all we seem to meet are Americans who have been lovely.

The total hike took 4 hours, and then we caught a large catamaran ferry across Lago Grey to look at the Grey Glacier up close. The glacier is impressive - there was a camera crew there filming an episode of Ocean Trek with Jeff Corwin which is a TV series in the USA - it meant nothing to me but the Americans were pleased to meet him. The boat trip was an hour and a half, and we were taken to view three different faces of the glacier. There were also many ice bergs floating in the water too, some of them enormous. Apparently last year an iceberg of 500m long broke off the glacier, so it is decreasing steadily each year. 

After the ferry ride we caught another small boat to take us to a landing point at the hotel on Lago Grey and then we were collected by a driver from our hotel. It was a full day out and a wonderful day, we feel well exercised and are ready for a relaxing evening. We also met such interesting like minded people today, it has been a very good experience so far.

Today’s image is the view of the lake and Paine Massif from our hotel with some extras from our hike today.

Tomorrow? We will see what tonight’s expedition leader recommends but we may go on a horse back trail! You cannot come to Patagonia and not ride a horse led by some gauchos!

Feeling a bit cut off as no mobile phone coverage and only have wifi when I am standing near the reception desk. Funny how dependant we become on always being in contact with everyone.