"Born to Wander": "The Hills are Alive With the Sound of Music"

Billy, Laura, Tatiana, Kelsey and I living it up in the French Valley

So in trying to catch up with my blog I am going to brush over our wonderful trek of the W in Torres del Paine. Its almost dinner and i still have to skype my worrisome parents. Torres del Paine was a wonderful adventure. We had so much fun and there are so many photos I just picked a random group of them. We got into Puerto Natales at 2:30 checked into our hostel, the wonderful Erratic Rock and my new favorite hostel, and went to the 3:00 talks they have everyday. It basically filled us in on everything we should do from food to take and campsites to stay at. While at the talk, our friend, Tatiana from El Calafate walks in! We were so excited to see her again and talked her into starting her trek of the full circuit (8 days) with us doing the W. Mainly bc she seemed to have the trekking thing down but more importantly, she had a stove! So off we went to grocery shop and rent all our gear. We were so excited, and not just about the dried fruits and nuts guy where we blew 40 bucks on dried pineapple and candied peanuts.

Starting the trek, note Ben´s apparel

The next morning we were off early to the park to start our trek. After a beautiful ferry ride we started our trek a little over-zellus but ready. We hiked about four hours to glacier grey in off and on rain set up tent then walked out a little path to see the glacier. Some guys from our hostel came with. Camping out that night we made delicious pasta and I learned how long camp stoves take to boil...

Kelsey and her lopsided pack...

Day two was our hike back down to where we started, lunch then over to Campamento Italiano which was "closed" bc the bathrooms were broken, but if you came late in the day you could stay the night. So we had a long lunch and hiked over with some friends we had met from Notre Dame, Noah, Laura, and Elaine (from Ireland, loved to meet an Irish in school at ND). We set up camp at the base of the French Valley and had dinner with a couple we had met, Laura and Billy.

The next day we headed up the french valley and it was AMAZING with Laura and Billy. We had fantastic weather got to hike and take it slow bc we didnt have to carry our packs. Made it to the top of the valley surrounded by walls of granite and had a delicious and long lunch. We got to know Laura from california and Billy from Alaska really well. They also enjoyed partaking in my bursting into random song (sound of music being a favorite) and even led in some sweet camp songs. Then back down the valley to pick up our stuff and on to Los Cuernos. We got to los cuernos late, it was packed, we didnt like it, lets leave it at that.

Day four was to be our longest and hardest trek so we spent the morning in the rain packing up gear mentally preparing for 10 hours of hiking. We got a good groove going and yes there was loads of up hill and yes it rained on us but we made good time and got to the first refugie by lunchtime. After lunch a short but all uphill hike lead us to Los Torres in an hour. We claimed a good campsite for us, Tatiana, and Laura and Billy. Dryed our tents and got in naps before having a feast of all our extra food, it was great. Then off to an early nights sleep to wake up early to catch the sunrise at the torres.

We got so very lucky. We had a super clear night when we woke up and could see all the stars including the southern cross as we did our hour scramble up the mountain to beat the sun. It was exhausting and cold but awesome. The sun rose and we waited and it came over the mountian and lit up the rocks bright orange. It was so amazing and beautiful and the cookies for breakfast - delicious. Then we hiked back down the mountain packed up our gear and headed farther down the mountain. We made good time getting back down to the hotel where the bus picks us up. The five days flew by and Kelsey and I couldnt have enjoyed them more. We were sad to say goodbye to Tatiana as she continued on the circuit. We made plans to meet up with Laura and Billy and a few others we had met on the trail at base camp - the bar by erratic rock- later that night. Tacos,Calefate pisko sours, beers, good friends and open mic night followed us and it was a great night. John, a guy from cali got up and sang "sitting on the dock of the bay" and I was so excited I couldnt believe that he busted that out. Another friend of ours, Mess from Denmark got up and sang "wonderwall" and "chasing cars". It was an awesome night.