Torres del Paine National Park

Merry Christmas from Torres del Paine National Park!  This National Park is arguably the most well-known in Chile and is a very popular hiking destination.  We've been here two days now and have hiked over 25 miles.

Torres is the spanish word for Towers, and our first day we hiked to the Towers for which the park gets its name.  The last kilometer is very steep, and is referred to as a rock scramble in hiking parlance.  

We made it to the base of the Towers

As the name implies, it's very rocky -- but it also has its fair share of boulders and large rocks to climb over.  It's not uncommon to see people sit and slide down one of them on the way down due to the steepness.  One of us may have done this as well 😀.  Not including stops, this was about a 10.5 hour hike for us.

The trail to the Towers is part of a larger multi-day hike called the "W" circuit because it is in the shape of a W.  Most people who come here come with the intention of doing this circuit in about 5 days and camping along the way.  We didn't have enough time to do the entire circuit, plus we're not campers. You have to hike with all of the extra gear, and we'd rather spend the day hiking and then go back to a comfy bed and shower.  There's an even longer 10-day hike doing what's referred to as the "O" circuit because you're circling the entire section with the Towers.

Lake Pehoe -- yes it's really that blue!

Yesterday was our second day here, and we drove to a different section of the W circuit to hike in an area called the French Valley.  We had to catch a 30-minute catamaran across Lake Pehoe to an area called Paine Grande. Unfortunately, they overbooked the first ferry.  Even though we had already bought our tickets ahead of time, they wouldn't let about a dozen of us board.  We had to wait two hours for the next one.  Because we lost two hours, we didn't get as far into the French Valley as we were hoping. It was still nice hiking with beautiful views.  We've had several people tell us the French Valley is their favorite section.

We've had great weather so far, with lots of sunshine and no rain.  Hope that continues today.  It is very windy here which we knew ahead of time. While not a constant strong wind, when it gets going, it's hard to keep a hat on unless it's a stocking cap.

The landscape and the views are glorious.  Seeing places like this reaffirm my love of the mountains.