november 26 - december 4

torres del paine national park is the no.1 attraction in chilean patagonia and we were afraid, that it could be too touristy there. but for me, it was an absolute must to see the park.

the bus took us and our brimful new backpacks directly to the main entrance of the park on november 28th. we got a nice, colorful map for 10000 pesos each, including park entrance fee and taxes.the weather was not too bad, just a little chilly and stormy (remember: patagonia!) and the cloudy sky was promising some showers. but we were warm and dry in our four-layer-all-purpose-outdoor-clothing and did our first flimsy steps with about 15 kilograms on our back. we were heading to the "serron-campground" and arrived, after barefood rivercrossings, 6 hours later. we had an expensive beer and i needed a powernap. the girls got free postres from a nice cook, and after supper we felt asleep in our sleepingbacks. the night was freezing cold!!!

next day we hiked to refugio dickson, with more barefootin through swampland. the refugio was run by real pampas-cowboys, called gouchos. these wild men were a little bit tame nowadays and one of them had a crush on andrea. we put our tent on in mosquitoarea, and cos it was chilly again, we spent our time in the refugio, playing cards. the landscape was breathtaking and we saw our first glaciar. the next day was an up and down hiking through tropical woods, passing glaciar "los perros". at camp los perros, we met daniel and urs from switzerland, too nice climbers. we expected snow for the night, but it was kind of warm and dry.

next day was mountaineering over paso john gardner, first a 1200 meter swampcrossing, than a steep ascend over rocks and snowfields. heavy windgusts threw us left and right, but we did the pass and had the first glimpse of the amazing glaciar grey.the descend was pretty steep as well, and it was more like sliding than walking. at camp los guardes, after crossing two landslides, we met daniel and urs again and had a nice campfire.


next morning wakeup was horrible, cos our legs were hurting like hell and the mood for more hiking was low. a couple from wales had a little emergancy, a fox had stolen one of the womans boots. no searching helped, but i found a lost sandal that fits, so she could walk back to the last campground.now the path was a little bit more frequented, cos most of the tourists started their hike here, not like us, doing the whole circuit. kind of limb we reached camp paine grande, were we had a rest day on december 3rd, because eva could not walk anymore. we decided to break up the hiking and took the catamaran ferry over lago pehoe next morning, catched the bus and arrived late at puerto natales, were we had a real meal after one week of pasta, polenta and muesli.