Rolo on Tour

The next day after arriving in Puerto Natales everything was prepared to go hiking in the national park Torres del Paine: I got a tent, a sleeping bag, an insulating underlay, some simple food consisting of mainly instant noodles and most importantly my hiking companion Maik who also provided a stove for cooking. The plan was to do a series of trails called the „W“, which is named like that as it looks like a W on the map.

Departure from Puerto Natales

Naturally the first day our bags were heaviest as there was still all the food in there. So we were glad reaching our first destination for the night, which happened to be the only refuge open in the whole park at that time. Already on this day we got good glances of what landscape to expect the next days:

Day 1: If you guess what I am saying here, you win a price

Another picture of Day 1 with an added component: Can you find it?

The second day was a relief, as we could leave our bags at the refuge. The destination of the day was the Grey Glaciar and the weather was awesome permitting to get some really, really nice photos:

I discovered I like taking pictures of clouds 🙂

So beautiful, I wanted to be in that picture too:

Maik as well:

Arriving nearby the glaciar we took a lunch break. Having nearly finished I saw a fox approaching us. Appears he was just hungry and wanted some of our delicious rice and hospitable as we are we invited him for lunch. Maybe one day he will redo the favor?

Yes, he was that close!

Foxy likes my rice

„Nice glaciar you have there“, he said

Time to pick up our bags again the next day: But soon we got a problem as the stove was not working and the only food we had left, which did not need to be cooked, was 2 portions of oatmeal.
What were our options? „Maybe we can get a bonfire to work and cook on it. I was a scout, maybe I will be able to do that. Or we just make a diet for the last 2-3 days.“ The thing is we could not rely on meeting somebody and use their stove as the park was basically empty.
But then we met our saviour. It was a mexican coming the other way. He told us that in the next refuge on our way there was a window broken and maybe we will find something there which may help us.

It´s not breaking in, when the window is open!

The house was empty and a bit dirty, but it offered some nice features: There was lots of food left, there were mattresses and so we could comfortably sleep inside. Only problem was that water, electricity, heating and gas were disconnected. Having tried without success to fix his cooking device Maik surprisingly found a way to connect the gas and so we could cook something inside the house. Unexpected and certainly Awesome! Later we made a fire in the wood stove and drank Piscolas. We thought: What a nice life we have in this place, let’s stay another day here 🙂

So the next day we relaxed, had breakfast with a brazilian guy walking by and I did the usual stuff to keep the house running: cleaning the house, removing some of the dead rats, collecting and chopping some wood and placing signs for our fellow hikers:

Rendezvous at my place?

The rest of the time we could just enjoy the setting. Why not just stay here for a month?

I don´t know, where I was, when Maik was taking these impressive pictures…

But still the next day it was departure time and we were to get to the Torres del Paine, which give the park its name. And some wearisome hours later there they were:

Finally arriving at those towers

A freezing night (It is probably not a good idea to be too lazy to set up a tent.) , some other hours of walking to the pickup point and a broken wheel later we were back in civilization. I probably had one of the longest showers in my life and besides some marks on my shoulders caused by the bagpack and a right foot which hurted me on every step the effects of those last days were forgotten.

Well, not exactly. I for sure had an amazing week and I will always be glad to remember it. I can only recommend going there in low season as it’s certainly nicer to be there meeting maybe 3 persons per day than 500 (It’s said to be like that in summer.).
To wrap it up, I will leave you with a picture of

one of many birds you could observe in the park.

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