From El Calafate we caught a bus for 40 pesos to Puerto Natales. It is direct and takes about 5-6 hours. Puerto Natalas is cute town built for tourists who do the treks, and not so much more than this. Sunday everything is closed until late afternoon though.
We caught a bus from here to Torres Del Paine national park (8000 Chiliean pesos return - about 12 euros). Many tickets though can cost up to 12000, it depends if you have time to look around.
Hostels here you can book ahead in high season or just turn up. THis seems to be the best in low season as you can get prices of about 4000 pesos per person for a double provate room. Try Ganesha Hostel - they are fantastic, breakfast included and they are so helpful - plus free internet.
THe entrance to the park is 15000 pesos each. You can then catch a mini bus for 1000 pesos to the start of the trek. We walked the 7km took us 2 hours but it was great fun.
The trek is a ´W´ trek as the hiking is shaped in a big W. So there are parts you trek again.
We then spent the day hiking uphill to the free campsite on the first part of the W trek. Campsite was Torres del Paine. We set of at 5.45am the next morning to climb the mountain in the dark. It was a hard windy climb on the steep rocks. It was worth it though as the sun rose, the famous Torres peaks glowed a stunning orange which lasts about 20 minutes before disappearing. So the sight is REALLY AMAZING at the sunrise. The climb is about 1 hour long.
The rest of the day was long as we treked to the next campsite at the bottom of the middle W. We had to climb steep rocks, and do a river crossing which was quite difficult as it was strong currents and the water FREEZING.
The 3rd day we stopped at another free camp - Italiano to set up tents and leave our bags for the day. So we could trek the middle W there and back without our packs. This was very pretty and made for a easier day. However we still trekked for a good 6 hours!
The 4 day we headed early for the next camp site. Where again we setup so we could leave our bags and trek without bags. This camp was great with loads of facilities for cooking and showers. But paid 3500 pesos each.
The last trek was Glacier Grey views. The trek was not as steep in all places, but still not easy. Especially as we were going up the last W and back down so we can camp right where the ferry takes off from. So the pace was much faster.
The last morning (Day 5) we woke to rain, so we decided to take the ferry to the bus stop pickup location (11000 pesos each). Otherwise we would have walked the 18KM to the bus stop tp save cash.
In the end we trekked 75KM at least. WOW.
The views where stunning, glaciers, lakes, mountains, snow, waterfalls, rivers. The scent of freshness and crispness was relaxing and glorious.
Definately worth the money and the fact that we lived on canned tuna, boiled eggs and bread everyday. Although we did have a gas burner so we had warm rice or pasta at nice. Briel even got coffee in the mornings. Note we paid 4000 pesos a night for the tent we rented. We bought sleeping mats for 3900 each.
Had a gret time sharing a tent with Inbal and Yuval.
Ciao for now.
