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!
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