I am just going to
begin this post by telling you that by posting pictures I am in fact not trying to make you jealous, I just want to show you how great God's creation really is!!It all began on Thursday night when we went to the Santiago airport to await our 12:05 am flight. The terminals are still damaged due to the earthquake so we sat in a tent and laughed until the time finally came to board. We even got to walk on Air Force One style so that was pretty neat. The flight went well and we got into Punta Arenas right on time--3:30 a.m. While the majority of us slept comfortably on the airport floor, I stayed up to do a little reading for the quiz that awaited me when we got back on Tuesday.
After a little work we found a number for a cab driver, Angel Gabriel, who picked us up and took us to the bus terminal in Punta Arenas in two groups. We made it to Puerto Natales within a few hours and by noon we had tickets to Torres del Paine for 2:30 and three tents. We were so excited. In fact, I was so excited that I tuckered myself out and on the bus on the way from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales I fell asleep on the not-so-well-groomed man next to me. Even thinking about it will bring me a smile and a little chuckle. After getting our bus situation worked out we treated ourselves to one last good meal before the camping began, and had lunch at a little pizzeria downtown.Upon being dropped off at the park we (as in John and myself, everyone else fell asleep on the van ride!) were greeted by amazing views, flamingos, sheep, llamas, foxes, you name it! This park actually has WILD animals! It's pretty great. But anyway, after getting our gear on and setting out we soon realized we forgot the third two-person tent in the van and unfortunately our driver was MIA so we decided we would get it from him the next day and just rent another one for the night. We started the long trek to Refugio Chileno where we set up camp for tne night. We had no idea that the hike would be entirely up and over a mountain! It definitely was hard, but a great bonding experience and a great way to feel like part of a team.
We did end up racing the clock as we did not get to the park until after 5 pm and had a 3.5 hour hike ahead of us. John, Alyssa and I made it to the refugio just as night was setting in, rented an extra tent and started setting up. Everyone else got there in no time and we took advantage of the table space to bring in our peanut butter sandwiches, tuna salad on the spot, bread and jelly and heaps of peanuts and raisins. We did not stay up too late because we knew were going to get up before the crack of dawn to trek 2+ hours to the famous torres to see the sunrise. Before going into our tents and nearly tripping over the fox lingering around the doorway of the refugio, a couple of us took a romantic moment to just gaze in awe at the stars. As you may already know I am a sucker for celestial bodies (especially the stars) and this was the first time I have ever seen the Milky Way with my naked eye! There were so many stars that we couldn't even find the Big and Little Dippers. It was pretty awesome.
The next morning we had planned to be out the door by 6 am to trek to the torres (large towers from which the park derives its name) and unfortunately due to our friend the fox stealing Jess's shoe, it set us back a bit and a couple wrong turns led a couple of us to actually *mistakenly* leave the path and crawl up the side of the mountain on our hands and knees. That was a big whoops. The only view we got of the torres was the top half but we know in our hearts what it looked like, thanks to one of the actually successful hikers showi
ng us his pictures as we met him on his way back down the mountain. Although we missed the sunrise and it was starting to sprinkle, we made it the rest of the way to the torres and got to see exactly what the hype has been all about. They are extremely massive and like everything else, pictures just do not do it justice. 
After navigating our way back down through the rocks and boulders we got back to Refugio Chileno, packed up our things and set off to head back to the park entrance where our escort was going to take us to Lago Pehoé, from where we were going to catch a catamaran to the other side of the lake equipped with campsites and another refugio. The catamaran was absolutely great! Within five minutes of boarding and dropping our mochilas (backpacks), we were offered coffee and/or hot chocolate with cookies! One of the crewmen told us to drink it fast because there were waves, but we didn't really know what he meant. As the good students that we are we listened to him and within 10 minutes the boat was hitting enormous waves!! It was unreal, but quite the adventure! People were squealing with delight, getting seasick and just generally having a great time. Within no time were arrived to the other side where we paid our $9/person to sleep outside, yet again, set up our tents and relaxed the rest of the evening, enjoying the campers' kitchen and making friends with some people from Israel! Apparently this park is a hot-spot destination for Israelis because there were a lot of them there. After scarfing down our dinners and drooling over the actual campers' warm food, we set out back to our tents where we made it to sleep within the hour.
Steph, Laura and I slept all together in a cozy two-person tent, but had some great giggles and actually woke up in the middle of the night sweating! And let me tell you, it was not warm out! Apparently those tents really do a great job of blocking the wind!
The next morning we got up and set out to go see Glacier Grey. Minus the "DANGER" warning sign painted on a rock for part of the path, this path was a breeze in comparison to the last two and seeing the glacier was pretty amazing.
We decided to not hike an extra four to five hours to the next lookout point and just take our time coming back. We were all glad we did because we got to frolic around a bit and try getting blown away by some of the extreme wind. For a split second I opened up my jacket and parachute mode kicked in and I was nearly knocked off my feet! It was unreal! We eventually made it back to the site and after being welcomed by an amazing view of the lake through the valley we took much needed showers, ate some dinner and then tried to warm up by sitting in the bar enjoying some chelas (a.k.a. beers). 
We retreated back to our tents quite early, despite the rain and extreme wind, and the next morning woke up, a couple times, and eventually made our way back on the boat, to the bus, to Puerto Natales where we had a delicious fried meal followed by chocolateria hot chocolate and desserts! It was quite the weekend.We had a ton of laughs, learned a lot about camping and I know I got bit by a Patagonia bug and cannot wait to go back! While I hope you enjoyed reading the literature, I really just want you to enjoy the photos. Included are a couple of my favorites.
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