Getting ready for Torres del Paine.

Pictures:

Puerto Natales is decidedly smaller than Punta Arenas, but one thing they're not lacking in is tourist agencies and camping supply stores. You can even buy compressed gas (but not any mountain house backpacking food or anything else like it)!!

a big fat juicy hunk of fillet mignon and a bottle of vodka

There's a hostel called the Erratic Rock where Bill, an expat from Oregon gives a free information talk on Torres del Paine every afternoon at 3pm. We got tons of good beta on the park, including that the big circuit that we had planned to hike was officially closed. Officially closed, but according to Bill, nobody could tell you that you couldn't walk the circuit, and if a hiker was accustomed to spring hiking conditions and river crossing, there would be no problem doing the full circuit without a guide. Fabulous, now all we had to do was book our kayak trip, buy provisions for 10-12 days in the park (the longest Brian or I had ever been out backpacking for), and hit the road.

Much to our surprise and delight, all of the kayaking companies were open on Sunday, and until 10pm even!! We made the rounds, and settled on a company called Aqua Nativa. Pilar, the guide's wife was fantastic, let us know how great a cook her husband was, and we got 10% off the trip with a coupon we found in the paper to boot. What really sold us, though was the fact that if the weather was too bad, we would have enough provisions along to wait for better weather for no extra charge, and they weren't called Ronco.

Now, anyone who has ever done any serious backpacking knows that while on the trail, there is a lot of one-pot, just add water gourmet cooking going on. Especially when carrying food and fuel for 12 days. With our discerning palates, however, we just had to be different. We stocked up on the basics, pasta and fast-cook rice, salami, oats, peanut butter (not easy to find in Chile!!!), hot cocoa, powdered milk, $28 (yes, dollars) worth of dried fruits and nuts, tuna, and tons and tons of chocolate. Brian argued that he hated powdered soups and instant potato flakes, so we threw in some real potatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, mushrooms, a half dozen eggs, and because we would be starting on Brian's birthday, a big fat juicy hunk of fillet mignon and a bottle of vodka (which we poured into a much lighter plastic bottle). If it sounds like we were still in car camping mode, it is because we were.

Our bags were heavy to say the least, but we figured that since we wouldn't really be doing any hiking the first day, just arriving, setting up camp, having dinner and sleeping, we'd eat a lot of that heavy food and be all set. I couldn't lift mine without help.

The drive into the park was scenic, but the sky was overcast, obscuring many of the views as we approached. After each paying our 15,000 peso park entrance fee, we hopped back on the bus and paid another 17,000 pesos for a catamaran ride across lake Pehoe to arrive at our destination, Pehoe campground, the starting point for our hike. This is where most people end the trail, but Bill advised us that starting here avoided climbing up to the torres with a really heavy pack. We were also starting at Pehoe because we heard stories about how very steep and difficult coming down John Gardner Pass was if you came from the other direction. It would mean some major ups for us, but we hoped that it would save my knees, and since the fickle Patagonian weather had been good for the week prior, we would try to tackle the Pass during this window of decent weather.

Good weather, hmmm. On the bus ride from the park entrance to the catamaran, it started raining, and there were sporadic gusts of that famous Patagonian wind. It made our huge bus swerve when it came at us from the side. Lago Pehoe was whipped up with whitecaps, and the occasional water tornado spiraled up from the surface. We were joined on the boat by a huge group of soaking wet French tourists who had the bad luck of visiting the park for only three days, and getting rained on all morning during their hike. The rain had let up a bit by the time we arrived at the other shore, and we took this opportunity to set up our tent amongst the sea of other tents, then headed inside the cooking shelter to socialize and make a birthday feast.

We met a locum ER doctor from Seattle who had a lot of the same gear that we did, and ran into a German guy, Jorgen, who had been at the Erratic Rock talk with us. If you remember, I mentioned earlier that this campground was where most people ended their days of trekking in the park. The masses of campers were fixing fabulous feasts of cup'o noodles, spaghetti, Ramen, oats, and the like. Enter Kim and Brian. It started out innocently enough with us boiling water and making mashed potatoes; then we threw the steak on the frying pan. The smell of garlic and onions sizzling in butter had turned a few heads when we started, but when we added the steak, there were some mouths agape, and some jealous jeers. We're lucky that there wasn't a riot since we didn't bring enough for everyone. I think that the only thing that saved our steak was our quick explanation of the birthday dinner. Brian tried to redeem us a little bit by hanging his bear rope up in the shelter for everyone to hang their soaking wet clothes on. Thinking back, it was really cruel and unusual to cook a steak in front of the masses, but damn! that steak was good. I wasn't quite crafty enough to bake a cake on the camp stove, but I did manage to make some no bake cookies for dessert. . .

With full bellies, we headed over to check out the lodge with Jorgen where there was a cafeteria (breakfast, $10, lunch $14, and dinner $20 US dollars), dorm beds for the special price of $35 USD each, and a bar. This place was a bit outrageous, and we felt like we were sitting in a ski lodge (and paying ski lodge prices for beers). Mother nature was very obliging though, the sun poked out and we saw some peaks in the distance and a rainbow. We also had a great view of the sunset over Lake Pehoe as we played Indian poker and sipped our cervezas. In the morning, we would start the big walk!