Puerto Natales and the Torres del Paine

Hola!
It means hello in spanish, it also means that you are in South America. Even if you are Chinese meeting another Chinese from your home town you will ¨hola¨ each other when passing.
But lets start at the beginning. Our trek to Torres del Paine was supposed to start with a bus picking us up from the hostel at 7:30 a.m on Sunday, but it didn´t. Apparantly, our Seniora (the landlady) was supposed to remind the bus, but she woke up to late...¨La falta¨ as she described it. So our departure was delayed until 14:30. We used this time to sleep a bit more and to visit the church, of course (since it was Sunday).
After few hours drive we arrived to the Torres del Paine. There we had to take a catamaran to the beginning of the trek. The main trail of the park looks like a W. We planned to finish the left (west) wing of the W on the first day. Because of the delay we had little time to do so. On the catamaran we met a group of people who intended to complete this part even thought it was quite late. So we decided to join them. We´ve had to do it in about 3 hours with all the equipment on our back (because it was already getting a bit dark). During the walk, it turned out that this group was part of a science expedition that has just returned from a month and a half in Antartica. Most of them were Geology and Paleontology (just like Ross!) students from USA and Sweeden, who were sent there as part of their studies. It seems that we have picked the wrong profession...
The next day we went north to see Glasier Grey. There was nothing Grey about it, it was very blue. The path to it goes through a beautiful forest near an amazing lake with small icy islands in it.
In general, the park is very well addapted for hiking. The trails are very well marked most of the time. There are lots of people of different ages and nationalities hiking around. But it was never too crowded. The park is also very clean, we haven´t seen even one piece of junk for five days.
Every now and then there is a campsite and ¨Refujios¨ which are a sort of a mountain cabins, which included 4 walls and a place to put your sleeping bag and cost about 50$ per person. It is also possible to purchase some food there, but the prices are high (6$ for a pack of pasta). We preffered to stay in our tent. We and all the mice around us enjoyed our pasta and monosodiun glotomat very much.
On the third day we left most of our equipment in the campsite and went to see the French valley. On the way we passed near a stormy lake. The strong wind raised a lot of water drops that turned into a rainbow in the morning sun and it was trully beautiful. The valley itself is a narrow valley surounded by sharp peaks covered with snow. There is a difficult climb up to the top of the valley where we passed by the narrowest part, where the river, that has created this valley flows down furiously, very close to the path. The climb continued until we arrived at the point where the 3 marble peaks that are the Torres del Paina can be seen from the rear side. The sun was perfect and view was amazing.
On our way back we met a very nice Corean girl who was travelling alone. As we walked together, it seemed as if she knew every second person we met.
The next day we took the catamaran back in the dirrectione of the Torres. Because of lack of time or energy we couldn´t do anything else that day.
At night we set up a campfire, and invited few other Israelis we met to join us for coffee and wine. The sky there was absolutely amazing, and of course very different from the northern sky we are used to. Oren desided to take a picture with a long exposure time. That picture finished his battery...He spent the next day looking for people that also had a Nikon in order to borrow their battery, so he can picture the Torres. Fortunately enougth, he found few. The climb to the Torres was quite steep, but the classic view of the Torres and the lake in front of them was worth the muscle ache.
Now we have a day in Puerto Natales before leaveing to El Calafate in Argentina.
Chao!
(Thats another word in spanish that you have to use in posts when you're in South America)



Tip 1: You can find very cheap accommodation in Puerto Natales. We had a twin bedroom in only 10$ per person, including breakfast, in Josmar hostel in Esmeralda and Prat.
Tip 2: The Israeli secret: all you can eat meats on the grill for 10$ in Juan hostel in Magallanes street. Look for the big Israeli flag in the window. Juan also has lectures about the Torres del Paine in Hebrew every day at 16:00.
Tip 3: Take the time to see some guanacos near the park enterance. Take few hours to move away from the enterance on the road to the catamaran and you´ll see them everywere.
Tip 4: In some of the campsites in the trek there are showers and electricity. Also, you don´t have to carry water with you - fill a small bottle with water from the small waterfalls on the way.