day 7 - pooped pups

the alarm went off at 5:50... I slept right through it.
      luckily it woke pete up and he in turn woke me up. we dressed
      quickly, packed extra layers, and took off with our small
      packs, trekking poles and headlamps. there was no hint of
      morning light, just the moon glowing faintly behind a few
      wispy clouds. we followed the reflection of trail markers,
      scanning above with our headlamps when the path was not
      obvious. we were in the center of a sparse trail of fellow
      headlamps, all headed for the same destination. it was a
      steep climb and the lights ahead looked far too high for the
      short distance away that they appeared. we scrambled clumsily
      over boulders and up a scree field, our depth perception
      thrown off by the dark. an hour later the trail ended. the
      hint of light from the sky, ever-warming behind us, was
      revealing the towers ahead, just barely visible at first
      approach, in the dim morning.
    

      we found a boulder where we could watch both the sunrise in
      one direction and the brightening towers in the other. our
      sweaty bodies were instantly chilled and we began piling on
      the layers we had lugged with us until we were comfortably
      indifferent to the cold.
    

      as the towers got brighter we moved to get a better view.
      before long they were glowing pink over the magical blue lake
      below. the fluffy clouds behind them brightened to an even
      more intense pink. we didn't want to leave but were forced to
      by the day's schedule - critically, making the 2pm bus back
      to puerto natales. yes, it is our final day in the park...
      sigh...
    

      we finally dragged ourselves away from the glowing rock
      spires and started our hike back to camp. we would have been
      faster going down and aided by daylight had we not been
      repeatedly looking back longingly at the ever brightening
      towers, reflecting the neon pink of the sunrise in the other
      direction. a condor flew low overhead and we felt like the
      park was bidding us farewell...
    

      back in camp we had a PR for packup + breakfast time and we
      were out of camp at 10am sharp as planned. figures the last
      day we finally get our routine sorted out. the hike to the
      hotel torres (where the shuttle leaves to the bus back to
      PN), was faster than expected thanks to mucho downhill
      trails. we passed tourists on horseback and friends from
      campgrounds past and day hikers from the fancy hotel who I
      think held their breath as they passed our
      7-days-without-a-shower bodies...
    

      as we had consumed literally our last crumb of food with
      breakfast (the only edible thing that made it back to the
      hostel with us was one pack of emergen-C and arguably our
      half used tube of travel toothpaste), we were hungry by the
      noon hour when we reached the bottom and we weren't the only
      ones. thankfully the park takes advantage of this and had a
      gazebo of food for sale set up next to the shuttle stop where
      the post-Patagonia trekkers hang out.
    

      2 packs of chocolate filled cream chocolate cookies and the
      very last two hotdogs (possibly the best of my life) later we
      were happy campers, literally. as we sat digesting and
      commenting on what we would do for the final 1h40min until
      the shuttle arrived, we made a split second decision to hike
      the remaining 7.5km road to the bus station. of the large
      group of fellow trekkers we found only one other foolish... I
      mean energetic enough, to hike with us. 
    

      the view looking back on the park was amazing and I regretted
      our decision to hike that last bit probably only during 5 of
      the 7.5km... honestly, I think the hot dog cookie combo
      fooled me into thinking I had more energy than I actually did
      and about 3 minutes into the hike I had burned through it all
      and was wanting to be back sitting in the grass waiting for
      the shuttle. too late, my pride was on the line now. we had
      to hustle, and thanks to a shortcut, just barely beat the
      shuttle to the buses. right before getting there, with an
      epic view of many snow-covered peaks ahead, we spotted a bunch
      of guanacos, including babies!! it was amazing! this was the
      closest we had seen them...
    

      with our bags safely under the bus we said goodbye to
      beautiful torres del paine as the bus sped toward puerto
      natales. out the window were more herds of guanacos, and
      oddly enough, a few flamingos in a lake we drove past... this
      place is so awesome. 
    

      our gear exploded in our room when we unpacked and we've got
      to admit, the smell isn't exactly what you would describe as
      pleasant. we fit right in until our showers. 10 layers of
      brown skin later and I am finally feeling back to my normal
      self. took more of the dirt from the park back with me than
      I'm thinkin is legal...
    

      dinner was pizza and beer at base camp pub - the last 2 he
      had ingredients for this night... how lucky are we?! we maued
      every last bite washed down by the local brew that was a
      fraction better than I remember chilean beer to be.
    

      our evening was perfect, spent by the bonfire out back with
      long lost friends and new ones... trisha played guitar,
      others took turns with the drum, we all sang along when we
      knew the words. I wish we didn't had to leave this fairy world
      so soon; it really is a little piece of neverland...

day 6 - bad hair day

we were thinking since the night before we fell asleep to clear skies and woke up to rain, that it would only make sense falling to sleep to rain last night would mean waking up to clear skies. no such luck... in fact, the rain had somehow managed to pick up overnight and the wind was unbelievable. neither of us slept well, the gusts kept waking us and I was sure the tent would be torn to shreds around us by morning. but somehow, when we woke in the morning, not only was the tent on one piece, but we were almost completely dry inside (to both our amazement and that of fellow campers - we keep seeing this couple with heavy accents on the trail and at campsites and they remarked when we saw them later that day that couldn't believe a tent that appears so thin could withstand those weather conditions - oh but it did! like a pro!)...

tired of the rain we sought shelter in the cooking shack and made breakfast, hoping the wet and wind would pass. nope. 

so we packed up the tent, our clothes we had left out in hopes of drying them, and the nearly-empty food bags along with everything else - all quite damp, which really adds to the weight. but as we started our long day to campamento torres the skies cleared and aside from the occasional light sprinkle we had a sunshiny day, that dried everything out far more than we had expected base on our rainy morning. 

we left the mountains behind for a while as we hiked along grey green lakes backed by grassy rolling hills. and maybe you've pieced together from the sprinkly sunny day I just described, but boy were we entertained by vivid rainbows all day!! we were also... I don't know if entertained is the correct word... kept on our toes? by the wind. 

the wind here is everything we expected based on the stories and then some. we had a tailwind for most of the morning, which literally feels like Patagonia is giving you a boost, especially up hills. but it can change direction in a second and it is hard to compensate with such weight on your back, so there was a time or two I was pushed right off the trail. I did have one incident where a particularly strong gust shoved me toward the steep downhill to the right of the trail. my foot stepped instinctively to the right to stop me from tipping over but there was no ground there and a second later I was seated, poles strewn about and one leg dangling over the edge with Pete holding to my pack for dear life. 

the reason the wind is extra peculiar here is partially because of the directions it blows. one moment you are being thrashed from the left and the next it is slamming into you from the right. the other odd thing is that it comes in these wildly powerful gusts that sneak up on you. it may be totally calm when you hear the trees rustling in the distance and as that noise gets closer and louder you brace and it overtakes you, forcing your steps and swirling your hair and beating cold against exploded skin and deafening to your ears until 36 seconds later the gust passes and it is quiet and calm and peaceful and you almost wonder if you just hallucinated the whole event. but then it happens again and you realize, it's just Patagonia. 

the wind was pretty much with us all day: when we stopped to rest on a beach all colors of tropical but far too cold to pass for hawaii. during a break we took for a photo op of the two of us, where the wind thought it funny to gust so hard we dominoed over, powerless against the weight of our packs (and right onto a thorny bush I might add - that was fun). and as we made our way up the valley to the campsite, where steep rock cliffs without railings (sorry mom) made it particularly interesting when the wind would blow so hard I was certain Patagonia was trying to do away with us. but turns out we've picked up enough trash that isn't ours here, and so Patagonia decided we were worth sparing. 

we made it to our destination 9 hours later (who knows how many km/miles - turns out the map can be unreliable as distances go and we did take a shortcut that I believe saved us a considerable amount of time).

it is crazy the different environments we passed through. we started at the base of mountains in the forest then moved to rolling rocky hills then to grassy fields and up steep cliffs back into a forest. felt like 5 different worlds in one day. 

we were short on snacks having only a few almonds and some dehydrated bananas for the day. fortunately that morning we had been gifted 4 bread rolls that made for quick carbs to get us through til our later dinner. Patagonia really pulls through when we're in need. 

dinner was our only dehydrated camping meal we had purchased from rei for this trip - mexican rice beans and chicken, which was soooo good!! for an appetizer. too bad that is all the food we had, so we proceeded to drink cups of tea until we felt full, which isn't necessarily the best idea right before bed when you barricade yourself in a tent at night...

our campsite was arguably our favorite of the trip (except on each given night we might say that about each campsite :) ...in was in this incredible forest right below the towers on the wall of this valley and just gorgeous. our tent was set between the gnarled trees in the soft dirt. and thank goodness after last night it was dry and breezy, meaning that everything dried out quickly as we set up camp for the night. we asleep as the moonlight danced between the branches and lit up our tent, so bright it almost seemed like daylight. an almost full moon on a clear night! we prayed for good weather the next morning, when we would hike up to the towers in the dark to watch the sun rise. :) sleep time!!

day 5 - off the radar

quick correction before I begin today's blog... yesterday we wished you happy easter, today we were informed easter is next sunday. awkward... just didn't want all y'all back home worried that we were going crazy in the forest. no jungle fever here, knock on wood, just the two of us way out of touch with the world, which we think is a good thing every now and again. and hey, we get two easter sundays this year! honestly, who doesn't love to double up the holiday celebrations? :) 

today is monday and we are oriented to person, place, time, and event... unlike yesterday. and guess what? we slept in, surprise surprise. kind of a trend of this trip, I think we are still on us time 4 hours earlier than here. 

we may have fallen asleep under clear skies but this is Patagonia and we awoke to a downpour. from the inside we could see mud splatter up the sides of the tent, but we were somehow still pretty dry - love this tent. 

breakfast was mochas and steal cut oats with seasonal fruit and granola oooorrr rather instant coffee & hot cocoa mix, a little on the watery side and oatmeal pancake batter slash trader joes granola with dried fruit all stirred into a bowl with hot agua. mmm good when you wake up starving, which we did. 

originally we thought we had overpacked food like we overpacked everything else for this trip, but now that we're just past the halfway point we are a little worried we might run out before the evening of the 27th - turns out Pete and I eat quite a bit. so we rationed our remaining meals and we should just get by, maybe a little more cranky than usual given that is often the consequence when we are inadequately fed. 

but when we are severely hypoglycemic, like we were last night when we stumbled into camp, our brains turn off entirely, which explains why Pete and I realized, soon after exiting our tent this morning, that we were in... how do you call it? a marsh. in last night's stupor we had picked the campsite the furthest downhill of all of the others, it was wide open! we should have questioned why, and maybe thought about what that would look like in the rain, because though we have been very fortunate with the weather thus far, it often rains at night here. it poured last night and our tent was floating, or sinking, in the swamp to prove it. so after breakfast we sought dryer ground and moved our entire camp in the midst of the persistent downpour that was this morning. 

it's cool though, don't feel bad for us, we are Oregonians and this is our natural habitat. right at home in the rain, we didn't think twice about donning our raincoats and heading for the mountain mirador 7.5km up from here. 

I don't know if this is possible but I felt like our hike was more beautiful than anything we've seen thus far... actually that is a silly statement, you can't compare the landscapes here, but all i know is, you just look up and the impact of the mountains practically knocks you over! (and if you're on the loose rocks we hiked on today, you actually will fall over)... 

today we had the insane snow covered peaks from last night to our left, too big and close to capture on your camera. every so often we would hear the crack of ice breaking loose and see the crash as it came cascading down the steep slopes. this seemed to happen often and we wondered if it was the unexpected warmth - there were these most bizarre breezes that would hit us as we hiked, best described as toasty, which meant total sensory conflict when we were surrounded by scenery that appeared arctic. but there are apparently 17 unique ecosystems in Patagonia and I feel like we've hiked through at least a dozen of them. waterfalls drained the glaciers above and there were so many I wondered how the ice didn't run out or the falls go dry - the water cycle in action!! 

to our right were our beacon twin peaks that had lured us to camp last evening. they are the oddest shades of dark red on top with a distinct line where the white/orange rock begins and lower still another line dividing the softer red of the base. cool. 

Justin, Jeff, and their crew (two girls from Germany with names I can't pronounce but they are very nice, and Marcus a guy from Germany, who have joined up to conquer the circuit together), caught up to us on our lunch break and the 7 of us set off together. 

it was glorious to hike without our big packs, especially after yesterday. I almost feel as though I was floating. we sped along the 7.5km of uphill on rocky, muddy poorly marked trails like it was a walk in the park - and by the way, if it were, best. park. ever. 

we went through forests with mangled trees and leaves just beginning to change to vibrant colors of orange and red. the trail followed the meandering river made from the confluence of the many waterfalls previously mentioned. it is this pale icy turquoise color that is difficult to describe but it makes the red in the trees seem even more dramatic. 

the view the other direction, to our backs as we hiked, was not to be outdone by everything to the left, right, and directly before us. the sky was clear out that way, making the lakes, which were various shades of blue, pop even more. and in the far distance there was a row of yet more snow covered peaks- is there no end to the beauty here?! 

at the top we were surrounded by mountains in every direction, the steep cliff faces jutting straight out of the ground before us. this was literally jaw dropping beauty and I kept catching little raindrops on my tongue, with my mouth hanging open in awe. we drank directly from the glacial stream, we took a group photo... or 7... we contemplated which of the peaks we could climb, but decided against it in the interest of making it back to camp for dinner, and finally, with much difficulty, we managed we drag ourselves away from this remote mountain paradise to hike back to the campground...

on our way back we got one more treat. Patagonia gifted us not one, but three! Magdalena's woodpeckers !! apparently rare in the area, and very elusive  we have read that few close-up photos exist of them. and somehow we stumbled upon practically a flock of these red-headed beauties just pecking away at the trees. they were right there!! we captured the best photos we could with our less-than-professional cameras and continued on our way.

finally back in camp we were 15km worth of hungry and as I mentioned before, a little scarce on food. but we had rationed our last two bags of ramen and our final tuna packet for tonight; carbo loading for tomo's big day.

when the ramen was almost ready I added in a few last minute spices as I usually do. we had cleverly packed some of the essentials in tic tac boxes to make them backpacking compatible: salt, chile (how appropriate), garlic pepper (invented for this trip... and maybe because we didn't have more tic tac boxes), and cinnamon. maybe you see where this is going but we did not end up labeling these containers, figuring smell would be adequate to differentiate them. well in the dark of the cooking shack, and the haste of getting dinner prepped, I somehow dumped a lot of what I thought was chile powder into our tuna noodle special. turned out it was cinnamon, which consequently made the meal extra special... all we could do was laugh.

clearly we had to eat it, we were almost out of food! but heavily cinnamoned chicken ramen with garlic pepper doesn't exactly sound appetizing. the lady cooking near us clearly overheard our mishap and was trying not to laugh into her own dinner as she eavesdropped while we sorted it out. knowing that we had been found out made me laugh even harder... ultimately we decided to go with it, and rather than stop with the cinnamon we proceeded to squirt packets of mayo and mustard into the concoction (what? we had carried it this far, and those were calories we weren't going to waste!)... I felt like I was 5 and making a potion or mud pie or something. and then came the taste test. turns out when you're pushing a dozen miles a day with 1/3 of your body weight on your back, bark tastes good- so cinnamon tuna ramen super special tastes frickin' delicious!! and we scarfed that dinner as though we had intentionally made it that way- which we might again in the future sometime :) 

too bad two packets of ramen was probably enough for Pete alone, but not for both of us, so we caved and ate the last day's lunch - pb&j tortilla, and it was oh so good!! not really feeling full, but finally noting the absence of hunger, we headed to bed- already excited for breakfast the next morning. really makes you appreciate always having plenty of food around, we are far more fortunate than we ever recognize. 

as i write this it is still raining, we would complain but the weather has been so perfect up until today, and we didn't mind the rain when we had only the day hike without packs planned for today. lets just hope we stay semi dry tonight. the tent has been sopping wet since last night and we aren't sure just how waterproof something so light and thin can actually be.

day 4 - I saw a rainbow

or a dozen. today (happy easter by the way), went exactly according to plan... just not our plan - Patagonia's plan. 

our day was supposed to start at 4:50 am to give us time to get back to campamento grey, where the iceberg kayak tours leave from - no chance. it was pitched black, pouring rain, and oh so Patagonia perfectly windy... you couldn't pay me to get out of my warm sleeping bag. and more importantly, by headlamp the hike promised to be more than difficult, it would be dangerous - which it was even in daylight and dry conditions... 

we forfeited our kayak plans and slept in - yet again, too late. up at 8 we headed to the cook shack to make breakfast with the gang. Justin & Jeff and their motley crew were happy to have more along for today's hike. after a comical attempt at pancakes (they weren't much to look at but they sure were delish!!), which got much attention from our fellow backpackers, we set off. 

quick side-ish note, I just have to mention the most disgusting toilet I have ever used - if you've read my past blogs you know I'm all about the potty humor, what good general surgeon isn't?! - so there is one designate "toilet" for this entire campsite, (which is free to stay at, if that is any indication about the quality of the facilities). it is called campamento paso because when you make it through the pass on the circuit this is where you stay that night. so first of all, considering we are in the middle of nowhere and it is nearing the off season for Patagonia trekking, there were way too many people at this campsite in general and definitely too many for one toilet. but they insist to keep the area clean you must use it and so I passed up a beautiful nature potty with a glacier view for a windowless shack and a cement squatty potty - the worst!! especially when your legs are too sore to squatty properly thus making the potty part that much more difficult. anyway I will spare you more details than I already failed to spare you and continue with the good stuff...

the weather was much more agreeable by the time we left camp and between sun breaks and light sprinkles we saw our first... you guessed it... rainbow!! just a small piece but it stood out against the white blue glacier and we loved it!! not long after there was a half rainbow that decorated our view for some time. in the afternoon we came over a rise and got the full deal - a complete rainbow!! and you may see where I'm going with this but yes, next was the double rainbow and Pete and I were definitely like "what does it all mean?!" ;) incredible. 

so the weather was doing awesome things and we didn't even mind the morning showers because they were light if noticeable at all under the tree cover and we all know, no rain, no rainbows :) we welcomed the sun breaks, which became more frequent as we chased a blue spot in the sky back toward lago pehoe where we would turn off to campamento Italiano; our ultimate destination.

the ladders and suspension bridge we had climbed up and down yesterday were, surprise, still part of the trail out of there and we had a lot of fun navigating them with sore bodies from the past 3 days' long hikes. but we survived to tell the tail and when you see pics you'll definitely agree we're more badass because of it. 

the wind picked up in the afternoon and we got a sense of the gusts' ability to throw you around. I got knocked off a walkway- fortunately to no consequence. and were it not for our trekking poles there would have been a number of crash and burn moments - and believe me, you hit with a whole different kind of thud when you're carrying 1/3 of your body weight on your back. 

fortunately for us Patagonia was once again on our side and offered a rowdy tailwind that hurried us along whether we wanted to or not... which we wanted to, because we had 19 miles to cover today and after our sleep-in and gourmet breakfast we hadn't started hiking until near 11 - brilliant, we know. 

the glacier was to our right as we hiked to grey. we stopped just long enough to eat a snack and readjust packs. the 11km from grey to paine grande was easier than the first 10km of our day - which were up and down along cliff edges and with stairs so big I never would have made it without the assistance the trekking poles - have we mentioned enough how much we love these things? the 11km stretch after lunch was a sprint on easier trails with the wind at our backs. the endless grey lake to the right was specked with bright blue icebergs. we were hunting groups of trekkers ahead of us and trying to keep ahead of those behind. we ate and drank as much as possible while stopping for only very short breaks. it is amazing how many calories you can burn when you're backpacking. 

we were in quite a bit if pain by the time we reached paine grande (ironic?) - hungry, thirty, and trying not to limp, we refueled with nuts and chocolate and then continued right along for our last 8km stretch. we had been told they close the trail to Italiano after a certain hour and we wanted to sneak through in time so that we weren't forced to camp where we were, at the most expensive campsite in the park ($16 per person per night for camping with your own gear)...

the next 2.5 hours reminded me of a prolonged last 2.5 miles of a marathon. everything hurt. in particular Pete's shoulders were killing him from 8 hours with near-60lbs on his back and my feet were aching terribly. to add to the abuse of our bodies we were not well fed or watered during this final push and as a result we totally hit a wall. but then we would look up at the insane view and we would bounce off the wall and be ok for a bit, before gnawing hunger or grinding bones or raw skin drew our attention away from the view for a while longer. our focus jumped back and fourth, as did our determination and our pace varied accordingly. but overall we were tremendously slower than the first two legs of our trek. 

in true small world Patagonia fashion some of our buddies from erratic rock, employees like trisha, came up on us on the trail. we let them pass. we were comically slow by that point, creeping along with interesting gaits & arched back to take weight off of our tender shoulders and all-too reliant on our trekking poles... pain, lots of pain (for those of you who haven't seen it, that is a quote from a knight's tale - great movie!)... we had a perfect view of the towers, backlit by high clouds glowing pink, but not obscuring our view even an inch. my whining was interspersed with remarks about the beauty of where we were. the sky was clear and bright blue, lakes to our right were dark and wild with the squirly wind blowing in every direction and massive waves making them look more like an ocean. the setting sun was turning the sparse fluffy clouds pink and we race (ha, kind of), the last bit of sunlight up the face of the towers before it slipped off the very tops and patagonia said goodbye to another day. 

a few more trekkers passed us. a lot more whining may or may not have come out of my mouth. and eventually the rush of the glacial river told us we were close. we came to a bridge... on a scale of suspension bridge with vertical ladder to broken collapsed bridge over canyon with plank repair, this was probably a 7. it was a suspension bridge in that it was suspended between the banks of the river by tiny cables that looked way too small to support the weight of overloaded backpackers, ergo the two person max on the sign. the two by four cross boards were mostly intact, aside from a sagging section toward the end and some small breaks throughout. thin rope of all faded colors anchored the bridge on either side, giving a spider web appearance that would be more pronounced from above. everything looked too weathered to trust. this, however, was what stood between us and food/water and setting our packs down and sitting (not sure what we wanted most at that moment) so we crossed it with more speed than I thought possible given our last 8k slug pace.

 

packs off - beautiful. tent set up in the twilight - piece of cake (mmm cake sounds good). Easter dinner - more amazing than any of yours ;) couscous with pesto sauce and salmon - we keep it real out here in the wilderness!! finally laying down in the tent once everything was put away for the night? - priceless. 

but before the bed part we did have one more epic Patagonia experience slash gift to reward us for our challenging day. we knew it was clear because of the hike in (how lucky are we?!), and the moon is getting full and was shining brightly through the trees, so we walked back to the death bridge to get ourselves into a clearing so that we could see the stars! which there were many, especially considering just how bright the moon was. we could make out the subtle milky way and just over the trees was the southern cross - always a treat to see knowing it isn't visible from our home hemisphere. but the real take your breath away view were the massive snowy peaks that had come into sight just as we stumbled around the last ridge before the campsite. they looked unreal lit up by la luna and they were glowing so bright you could see every detail of the glaciers and rock and snow. it looked like something out of a fairy tale and we stood there in awe, with the glacier water rushing below, straight from the glacier staring us in the face just above. if I didn't feel like my legs were going to give out below me I would have stood there all night. it was beauty of a magnitude we rarely get to experience. so gargantuan, so in your face close, and so perfectly on display in the dark of night but exposed by the eerie grey light of the sun reflecting from just another couple bazillion miles away... 

on that note, goodnight... I cannot keep my eyes open another second. 

day 3 - ex-stream!!

sorry for the strange formatting, i am copying and pasting these from gmail and yeah...

first of all, happy birthday dad!! sad i cant be home to celebrate with you...
or actually sad you cant be here to celebrate in patagonia :)
i owe you 1 best-frickin-carrot-cake-ever once i´m home!!
xo

we didn't set an alarm - mistake. our bodies were exhausted
      after yesterday and we didn't get to bed until midnight... 10
      hours later we woke up. good news, we clearly needed the
      sleep and we slept like rocks... bad news, we had stuff to do
      today and by the time we were changed and in the cooking
      shack with all of our meal stuffs it was 11. our plan was to
      kayak this morn - this is one of the few places in the world
      where you can kayak by a glacier and around icebergs! we were
      told there was a tour at noon so we ate speed breakfast and
      literally ran to the edge of lago grey. the 9 am tour was
      just returning and the guide told us he was the only one for
      the day so the next tour wouldn't be until 3 - too late for
      us. we had a 5 hour hike ahead to the next campsite, part way
      up the circuit. we made plans to go with the 10am tour the
      next day, packed up camp and headed out for campamento
      paso.
    

      our goal was to do it as fast as possible. the map says it is
      10km but because of the difficulty of the trail, estimates 5
      hours (we did 11km in 3.5 hours yesterday). the trail was
      steep and rocky and our pace was admittedly slower. plus we
      kept coming to these extreme stream crossings (hence our
      ex-stream day).
    

      the first was a suspension bridge you had to climb a wooden
      ladder up to. not terrible but definitely interesting with so
      much weight on our backs. and the suspension bridge was huge!
      with a sign that said 4 personas max (which is actually
      pretty good considering we crossed a bridge the day before
      that was broken in the middle with a plank crossing the caved
      in part and it was 1 persona max - oy vey!)...
    

      not long after we came to another stream, this was easy
      enough to cross on foot but on the other side we faced a
      steep cliff at least 40 feet high. luckily there was a
      ladder. unluckily it look so shady I might not have climbed
      it had there not been some fellow hikers at the bottom (from
      cali actually), who had just survived it. as I started up I
      noticed the twine and how the thing was practically held
      together by zip ties (my mom must be dying reading this right
      now), and I said "are you serious?" and I hear one of the
      other hikers at the bottom say "wait til you get to the next
      one". awesome. and totally ex-stream!!

ok folks, finally, here is the rest of the post... and i am not sure why the font looks like this, sorry!

at the top of the ladder we paused for lunch, feeling we deserved some cheese and salami topped crackers given the feat we had just accomplished. a moment of sitting quietly and it was like snow white's forest came to life; suddenly we were surrounded by chirping birds that kept flitting around, hanging on tree branches and singing their unfamiliar songs. we enjoyed the company as we ate, something we hadn't been appreciating during our fast paced hiking on days past. (ready for this alliteration?): finally full and fighting feelings of fatigue we bid farewell to our feathered friends. on to the ominous "next" ladder. 

turns out it wasn't as bad as my mind had imagined it to be. it was shorter than the last by maybe 10 feet but this time it was down instead of up and just like a cat in a tree, I found it much easier to ascend the first ladder than descend this one... plus there was this step off in the middle where a rope wrapped many times was holding the two pieces together. I wouldn't exactly call the macgyver repair reassuring. and at the bottom was the added bonus of a stream crossing aided by a rope tied to rocks at either side: not exactly helpful. 

but it was not the many ex-stream!! crossings that made our day (though they did add to the excitement); the glacier to our left is what kept us going. it started distant, intangible, almost like a painting placed on the horizon rather than a true part of the wilderness where we hiked. we heard pieces break off on occasion and crash into the water below - the glacier to iceberg transformation, it was incredible!! as we got closer our view through the trees transformed to a full blown panorama of the glacier, so in your face it felt like we could leap down onto it and run around.

between miradors (lookouts) there were wild forests with leafy foliage just on the brink of changing for the fall. the trees are gnarled from the winds and downed branches litter the ground, overgrown by the many types of scrubs and smaller plant life. when we would get a stretch of trail along the cliffs overlooking the glacier it was difficult not to walk yourself right off the edge. I would get so caught up in the interesting contours of the glacial ice and the bright blue pools that speckled the top that I would lose track of the trail. the distant mountains peeked through the clouds and every so often we could see all the way up the glacier to where it seemed to end... or begin? I realize i have a lot to learn about glaciers. a condor flew over and we paused to watch it circle: wingspan easily 8 feet across, feathers extended at the tips, peacefully riding the winds without so much as one flap of his wings. it was a good excuse to rest between stairs. there was so much up and down today and I cannot decide which I dislike more. my legs won't take me and my pack up the big stairs without the assistance of my trekking poles to distribute some of the weight. I am constantly searching for a rock or root or anything I can use to get me up even an inch closer to the next stair. and going down is not so fun on the knees but the trekking poles help tremendously with that as well. I didn't think I'd ever be a trekking pole convert but clearly you must have gathered by now that Pete and I consider the snowshoes we purchased as a package deal with these poles to be a free bonus as we easily would have paid the price of the set for the poles alone. 

we made it to the campsite, easily one of my favorites thus far, with enough daylight to setup camp unrushed. the camping spots are set between trees on a hillside over the glacier. as we put up the tent I kept hearing a familiar voice from across the stream near the cooking shack. Justin? (a friend from school who I knew was traveling in chile during this time... but at campamento paso the same day as Pete and I? impossible). nothing is impossible in small town Patagonia. I walked over and sure enough, there were Justin and Jeff eating dinner with some other Trekkers. mind. blown. of all the places in the world to run into each other...

we made dinner with their company, swapped stories and discussed plans for the rest of the trek. it was fun to have some old friends around and to meet some new ones - Justin and Jeff had collected two girls from Germany and a guy from there as well and the 5 of them has been sticking together since meeting back in punta arenas. the 7 of us made quite the crew and we ate and drank and did the whole merry thing on the edge of a glacier in the middle of nowhere Patagonia before retiring for the night. once in the tent the rain started and we drifted off to the soft sprinkles against the rainfly. life is good. 

day 2 - in your face

 pete woke me asking what time it was. it sounded too silent
      with only the occasional light gusts of wind. I felt
      post-concert deaf... like that decreased hearing after you've
      been listening to something too loud (being super cool and
      wearing earplugs at concerts is the solution to this by the
      way). 8:18am... hmm... a little later than we were expecting
      to get started - guess we tossed and turned so much in the
      early night that we slept hard into the morning. we emerged
      from the tent and made for a speedy packup, but there were
      those pink clouds again, this time glowing with the rising
      sun and sooo many mountains - maybe we could just sit here
      all day and look around. no, we have 15 miles to hike with
      overloaded packs and oh dear... no time for breakfast. we
      packed it all up (unfortunately discovering that a rodent had
      found our food - which was hung in a tree - and had proceeded
      to nibble a hole in nearly every item, clearly he was
      interested in the sampler platter, what a smorgasbord he
      enjoyed, so before we left we had to patch up all of our
      leaking food bags with tape, that was a fun way to delay our
      already late morning), then stuffed some graham crackers in
      our faces and hit the trail!!
    

      I really cannot describe what we saw during our next 15
      miles, all I know is that the approach we took from the tail
      of the Q really meant that as we hiked the park was totally
      in your face - prehistoric looking scenery so unique and
      beyond massive. jagged mountains and ice fields above, golden
      grains blowing in waves with the wind below and charred trees
      with mangled branches arising from the summer growth enduring
      despite last year's burn - uniquely beautiful in the most
      unexpected way.
    

      we stopped too frequently to take photos... or not frequently
      enough if you ask us once we're home. watched in amazement as
      a dark stallion trotted by, mane blowing in the wind,
      followed by a chestnut female and two gorgeous foals
      frolicing playfully behind. chased a guanaco through a field
      to get a closer look and try to make a friend (without much
      luck). sat on the edge of lago pehoe and took in the
      turquoise, wondering how it can be that blue before photo
      enhancement. ate a lot of snacks in the hopes of lightening
      our packs. and appreciated how lucky we are to be in this
      particular place in the world at this particular time.
    

      lunch was at one of the campsites/hostels (since we are only
      allowed fire there and we missed our morning coffee). we
      aired out our shoes and dried off in the sun. oh yeah, the
      sun!! today was the gift of all gifts from lovely patagonia,
      we got blue skies and sunshine all day!!  it felt like
      summer! more than we could have ever hoped for. made the 15
      miles (did I mention we hiked 15 miles?! ;) ), much more
      bearable. we thought about taking a dip in the lake midway
      through our hike but had enough left to go that we decided
      against it and settled with a little slacklining instead (set
      up by some other foreigners).
    

      we hiked on... I need to preface this next part, it is a
      little random but you'll see where I'm going soon enough...
      you know how in movies the local tribe will see a boat and
      think it is an odd iceberg or something else familiar to
      them? well today when we came to this viewpoint of a massive
      blue grey lake I spotted white things floating on it and
      said, look at those strange boats! before I realized they
      were actually icebergs - it was totally the mind jumping to
      what is familiar - something large and white floating on the
      water is a boat where I come from. a chunk of ice is not
      exactly what jumps to mind... but yes, on this perfectly
      sunny and warm day, there in the lake below were blue white
      icebergs!! incredible!!
    

      it was a long day and near the end we were exhausted. my pack
      felt at least twice as heavy as when we started and we kept
      needing more and more frequent breaks to pound goo and other
      gatorade energy products promising easily accessible glucose.
      I could no longer feel my hips which was good because I knew
      they were bruised from the pack, but also worried me a little
      because it meant my waist band was pinching my cutaneous
      nerves so hard it was literally cutting off feeling. pete had
      resorted to tying a fleece around his waist to pad the bones
      of his back, which were rubbing and bruised from the enormous
      pack... but our feet were faring alright thus far, which kept
      the hiking bearable.
    

      fortunately for us, despite our aches and pains, we pressed
      on, and Patagonia helped. 1) because the views are so amazing
      you want to see more, which means hiking onward, and 2)
      because Patagonia provided for us when we asked. when our
      water ran out and we were thirsty, Patagonia offered us an
      incredible waterfall, cascading down through trees just
      beginning to change for fall. the stream rushed past the
      trail and we filled our bottles from the mini waterfalls,
      drinking straight from the glacier - best water on earth :)
      ...when we were tired Patagonia provided a bench for us to
      sit, scarce this far out on the trail, but exactly when we
      needed to rest and right below an impressive tree. and after
      dinner, when we were maybe still a bit hungry, Patagonia
      said, here's a fellow camper looking to get rid of crackers
      and dulce de leche - hey, do you two want this? do we?!
      thanks! :) and that is how our day went, ask and receive. and
      to say thank you we picked up trash that wasn't ours, even
      though it meant packing it out with us. we are believers in
      karma.
    

      on the map we had seen a bridge just before the campamento
      grey site we were going to. when we came to a bridge we got
      very excited, but shortly after we came to another bridge,
      which confused us a little, until about 17 bridges later,
      when we had stopped hoping for the campsite soon after "the
      bridge". we finally made it with just enough daylight to set
      up the tent and get to the dinner shack before it closed at
      22:30 (walking back from dinner we saw the cutest little fox
      with a big bushy tail as big as his body who stopped and
      regarded us with as much interest as we had about him).
    

      campamento grey is one of the refugio sites meaning that it
      has commodities like electricity, bathrooms with running
      water, and believe it or not hot showers - which I took
      advantage of because why not camp in style if you can? (and
      also we had to pay 4,000/person - total $16 us, to stay there
      and we were going to get our money's worth!). our campsite
      was perfect, under big trees which was nice when the rains
      started. we are so thankful for Pete's amazing and very
      waterproof tent and we fell asleep almost instantly to the
      sound of raindrops on the rainfly - hard to dislike the rain
      when it sings you to sleep inside of your dry tent.

day 1 - into the wild

so we decided to chronicle our journey after all... 

blogged each night in the tent as we fell asleep.

here it is... day by day. our torres del paine adventure!!

weighed down by our gear, we caught a bus from our hostel to
      the park - torres del paine (meaning blue towers... I guess
      paine is the name of a tribe that once lived in this area...
      tho pete also read it means towers of pain, suppose we'll
      decide after this week). our bus driver, like all the best
      drivers here, drove like such a maniac I was certain this
      would be the most dangerous part of our trip. we would
      literally skid out on the gravel in the corners and fish tail
      in the straight aways and he was going so fast I got that
      roller coaster feeling every time there was a small
      downhill... just to get the adrenaline flowing before we
      start hiking I guess.
    

      we stopped to pay the park fee, 18.000 Chilean pesos (double
      that -ish to get the us conversion - they say this is the
      second most expensive national park in s. america, some say
      in the world) and get instruction on all of the things we
      can't do, in particular build fires (after a huge fire last
      year, started by careless - idiot - campers at a
      non-designated sight, threatened to burn the entire park to
      the ground... sad for everyone since then who comes here, we
      got a taste of the charred earth on our drive in)... next a
      video in spanish about the park and safety, with the funniest
      english translation interpretation - I think some meaning
      might have been lost but we got the gist.
    

      another bus ride and we were almost there! turquoise lagoons
      came in and out of view and we would get glimpses of the
      towering peaks disappearing into the clouds. the weather was
      borderline. we had been warned this place will throw all 4
      seasons at you in 1 day... try in 1 hour. it is fall here and
      the leaves give it away, just starting to change to brilliant
      yellows and deep reds. and the weather is also becoming
      season appropriate - at a stop today the wind that blew
      across the lake would hit the van with such force it would
      rock violently, pelted by rain and lake water. I wouldn't
      think so much about it except that we heard the wind gusts
      here can easily lift a hiker and consequently sprained wrists
      are more common than twisted ankles because hikers are caught
      off guard and get slammed to the ground by this invisible
      force so easy to underestimate.
    

      guanacos littered the hillside as we headed deeper into the
      park. they are like llamas/alpacas only cuter :) and we also
      ooed and awed as a massive eagle took flight directly next to
      the bus and pumped his wings, keeping up with us, or the
      other way around, just for a few beautiful seconds before he
      took off to higher altitudes and more impressive views.
    

      4.5 hours later (we were told 2.5 to get into the park but
      nothing goes quite according to plan here - keeps it
      interesting), we were finally dropped at the adminastracion
      entrance to the park, which creates "the q"... a little
      confusing but "the w" is the most popular hike here and the
      one we intend to do, with a few offshoots. the q is the hike
      in we did today plus the circuit, which is the W and then
      some. anyway, we had to hike a road to get to the trailhead
      and one guy told us go to this point then left and the other
      guy we talked to said said go to that point and take a right
      and what we eventually figured out was that you must go left
      then right and then the road leads to the trail.
    

      once on the trail we booked it because we were running out of
      daylight. the hike was less than 5 miles so we figured best
      to just get to camp with some dusky light remaining... but it
      was challenging not to be distracted by the 360 views of
      snowy mountain ranges, just like all the photos I have seen
      from Patagonia only more amazing because it was in real life,
      except that it was so incredible I kept wondering 'is this
      real life?!' and I couldnt stop taking photos of the clouds
      doing crazy things on the tips of the mountain tops and as
      the moon got brighter the clouds got pinker and it was nearly
      impossible to tear my eyes away from, which complicated
      hiking - thank goodness for trekking poles, they were
      definitely to credit for me not having taken a tumble or two
      today already...
    

      the wind was wild and everything we expected it to be from
      the stories. I guess it is the worst in the summer and dies
      down in the winter but if today was a transition to milder
      winds then I cannot imagine how people tolerate summers here.
      it is the kind of wind that peels your eyelashes back - yes,
      it was a direct headwind our entire hike. we leaned hard into
      it and I reminisced on visits to crown point in the gorge
      where my dad used to take the hands of me and my sister and
      tell us to jump and we would linger in the air, flying by the
      pure force of the relentless gusts of wind the columbia river
      gorge is so famous for. and if the wind here decides to
      snatch up your hat, you'd better be ready to sprint (thank
      goodness for pete's long legs), because that thing will be a
      mile away in a minute! this wind would slap you in the face
      so hard I could feel it go in my nose, slam into my
      oropharynx, and come right back out my mouth. it made it
      nearly impossible to talk, unless we yelled, and even then it
      would jumble our words and lead to a conversation of
      'huh?'s...
    

      we didn't see a soul on the trail our whole hike... camp was
      closer than I was expecting, or at least I can say that now
      that I am here, which was nice because our bags are a little
      large and I'm more than a little worried about our long day
      tomo. It is just us and one other couple in camp (funny
      story, when we used pete's uv steripen they asked us if they
      could use it. we were puzzled, what had they been using to
      sterilize the water during their trek? apparently nothing;
      they said the water is clean enough from the glaciers to
      drink straight from the streams... we lent them the pen). we
      set our tent near the cooking shelter, right along a big
      river with a stream nearby for water... dinner was couscous
      and tuna and spices, pretty darn good and for fear that we
      wouldn't have enough to fill us we overcompensated and made
      wayyy more than what would have easily filled us - first day
      is trial and error I guess.
    

      the stars were insane and we felt so fortunate to have a
      clearing in the sky to make out the milky way and orion's
      belt and hunt for the southern cross while sipping fireball
      :) incredible. it is so clear here!! no light pollution until
      the other side of the world! but yes, it is windy even at
      night. and between the wind and clear skies it is chilly,
      even for the fall, so we are bundled and thankful for all of
      our fancy gear. we'll see if we can sleep through the gusts
      so violent it sounds as though our poor tent will be ripped
      apart...