The "W" II

Torre Del Paine is crowded and touristy for a reason. Its beacause its frikin beautiful! As we walked on from the main refugios we saw less people and more beauty. For instance our first day we hiked for about 4 hours with a perfect view of a glacier and at our camping site we were only a 3 minute walk to a stunning look out point. We used a variety of exclamations to express our enthusiasm as the scenery improved around every corner. Wow! Cool! and Ya! became regular vocabulary. Sometimes it was necessary to just stand in silence and attempt to take it all in. And you knew there had to be something cool around the corner when you heard the classic oh s***! phrase. But let me be honest, this wasnt four days of just staring at the flowers. No way, we worked for those views. Hiking 6-8 hours a day with heavy packs on through ever changing weather and terrain. Paul and I forgot about playing "The Game" as those packs were just too ridiculous to do pushups with. So on we went, 3 of us, Paul, Kate, and I ahead of the others to set a pace. Sometimes we said nothing and concentrated on one step of a time, sometimes we stopped to scamper up a big rock and to take photos. The downhills were welcomed like old friends and at times we would run down them shouting "Parkcore! Parkcore!" mimicking Dwight from the Office. Uphills were greeted with gritted teeth and were what I would call "character builders". At the beginning of a hill a battle would rage on in my mind between two voices. We will call them the Stop voice and the Get on it voice.
Stop:Oh man here we go again, this sucks I just want to stop and lay down.
Getonit: Nope. Get on it.
Stop: Think my hammy is about to tear I better stop.
Getonit: Get on it.
Stop: I think I have to poop.
Getonit: Dont worry, Bear Grylls poops his pants too....
But in reality I learned to love the challenge of those hills and in general my South American trip as a whole has confirmed that I constantly need to be challenging myself or I get bored. Everyday whether traveling or not presents its own challenges. There are the obvious ones like waking up and exercising, but then there are the more subtle ones like the challenge to be 100% present wherever you are, to love your neighbor as yourself,or to not care what people think about you. I call them more subtle ones because sometimes they are easier to bury them behind the list of things you need to do and so on and so forth. We are created to face challenges. We are not stagnant beings we are dynamic, always changing. If you dont beleive me look in the mirror, or look back at a picture from the 6th grade. We grow and change physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I guess our job would be to choose the way we want to grow and following through with that. For instance you can go to the gym and get fit, or you can sit on the couch and get big, either way your going to be changing. I feel I can talk for a long time on this topic but I wont because I am paying for internet right now. Maybe we can go for coffee sometime? Ok great!
But all and all the trail was great and has been one of my highlights so far. The views were amazing and the physical challenge was fun. The comradery you develop with people you hike with is the kind that is second to none because daily you are pushing yourselves to a certain destination and you wont let the other person quit. But enough of that. Just enjoy the photos....

Grey Glacer and a Wow view.





A mountain that looked like choclate and dulce de leche ice cream.


The famous Torres





The end of the trail!

Puerto Natales, Turkey, and the "W" Trail I

Puerto Natales
After hanging out with Glaciers all day you can imagine we were tired, so a 6 hour bus trip to Puerto Natales was more than welcomed. We crossed the border from Argentina to Chile, there was no doubt about it, we were in Patagonia.(of course we were there already but this was as far south as I would be going) Look up Puerto Natales on Wikipedia and you wont be too impressed but I can tell you that Puerto Natales became one of my favorite cities quickly. Its a small port town with a cool atmosphere. It was no Valpairiso or Puerto Montt in terms of energy but if your looking for a good place to stay before or after a hike this is it. We stayed at a "Grade A" hostel called Eratic Rock Hostel. Its owned by an American guy who happend to be from Oregon. It was so refreshing to be able to talk a fellow West Coast guy and most of our conversations always led to the Oregon Ducks, the NFL, Hippies, and the State of Jefferson. On top of that it was just a great hostel with a hospitable staff who remembered my name all the time. We were lucky to find it when we did because they were probably the only place in town that celebrated Thanksgiving. Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pumpkin pie and an actual NFL game. Words cannot describe how happy I was on that night. Thanks E.R.! It was also Pauls first T-day and he says he approves of the holiday but thinks that American Football is for pansys.








The "W" Trail
The next day at 7 in the morning we set off on the trail. There was 7 of us in total, spanning from the countries of the U.S., New Zeland, Poland, and Denmark. 7 people...4 days...with nothing but tuna,rice, pasta, and tons of candy.(and Pauls Black Label that he had bought) We were young and full of anticipation, I thought that we might even get a medal after the whole hike. Our flames were quickly doused as soon as we stepped on the ferry that would take us across the lake. The wind was howling, raindrops pelted our faces and the cold cut to the bone. It looked like it would be a long 4 days. It was a quiet boat ride for me. I quickly ran through a variety of excuses I could make in order to get the heck out of there. My friend Dan(from Poland) smoked another cigarette. I had to poop. We finally docked and there was a huge line of people waiting to leave the park on the ferry. As we walked past them they stared at us without an ounce of envy and I swear a woman did the cross thing across her chest. (Note the reaction also could have to Pauls really short Rugby shorts he was wearing) The weather wasnt letting up we knew we just had to do it. I had been waiting a long time to do this trail and like in any good story the bigger the conflict, the better the story. So we put our heads down and went for it.......
Next up the "W" part II

Patagonia

Ok once I again I left a long break in between blog posts but Patagonia is the type of place you could go weeks without internet because there is just so much to do. Its been an amazing 2 or so weeks in one of the most southern places in the world. Ive seen the magestic lakes of Bariloche, hiked the worn trails of El Chalten, witnessed a piece of ice breaking off the famous Perrito Moreno Glacier, backpacked through popular "W" trail in Torres Del Paine, sailed through the Patagonia fjords on the Navimag ship, and ended at Puerto Montt in the middle of a busy fish market.

El Chalten
Known as the trekking capital of Argentina, this place was a small little village tucked in between the mountains in the shadow of the famous Fitz Roy Peak. It was Paul, an Aussie named Cain, an English couple and I that had the chance to hang out together in this town. Among our favorite places was the local microbrewery and an all you can eat pizza place. But ultimately we didnt go there for beer and pizza, no, we went there to hike. And hike we did. We stayed in a hostel for a couple of first, where the receptionist at the hostel just couldnt get over the fact that the name of our Aussie friend was Cain Sparrow. He was so enthused that evertime Cain walked into the main living room he would play the theme song for Pirates of the Carribean over the loud speakers. Paul, Cain, and I rented camping equipment, stuffed food in our packs and started walking. This place had a plethera of trails that could take you days to hike, but we only stayed for one night and just picked a trail and went. The biggest thing we noticed was the wind, it was strong and cold but as long as you kept moving you stayed warm. We hiked all day, got to the campsite and pitched our tents and then hiked some more. The cool thing that happens as you move further south is that it doesnt get dark until about 10 or 11 at night so you can pretty much hike all day. We wolfed down food and then piled into a very small 3 person tent for the night. Unfortunately for us the weather was pretty white out so we didnt get the views of Fitz Roy that we longed for, but on the positive side Cain had never really been in snow so you can imagine how stoked he was when it started snowing...










El Calafate
We were sad to leave El Chalten but a huge epic glacier awaited us so we couldnt be too sad. And of course the day we left El Chalten it was a picture perfect day. Go figure. The only thing to see in El Calafate is the famous Glacier so right when we got off our 6 hour bus ride we hopped on another bus to the Glacier. It was this Glaciers fault that I was even in Patagonia in the first place. I had first seen a picture of it about 5 years ago on the internet and it rendered me speechless the first time I saw it and I told myself that I had to be there. It definitely didnt let me down. Its about 19 miles long and 3 miles wide, and it just sits there looking all blue and stuff and reflecting the sun. There is not much to do but to gawk over it and to wait in anticipation for a piece of ice to fall off. It was crazy because you can hear the cracking and falling of ice but its ridiculously loud. We were lucky enough to witness a huge piece falling off. It was so cool and got your adrenaline pumping. Everyone started cheering, hugging, and high fiving each other as if we were at some sort of a sports event and someone had just shot a touchdown or something.
Next up Puerto Natales and the W trail....