Unconventional Thanksgiving

While most of you enjoyed a large meal in the warmth and comfort of your homes for Thanksgiving, I began a four-day trip to Chile's Patagonia region. My plane left a 2:50am on Thursday and arrived just in time for the sunrise. After severals hours on two different buses, I entered the Torres del Paine National Park. The typical route for trekking this area is called "The W." While I didn't have time to do the entire trail (I cut out the middle part), I was able to do the two most important hikes: Glacier Grey and Torres del Paine.

Day 1: Upon entering the park and driving to the end of the W, I boarded a catamaran that took me across Lake Pehoe to the campsite. Unfortunately, one of my travel companions didn't confirm our reservation so we slept four people to a 5x6 foot tent. It was a bit crowded.

Day 2: We woke up to a beautiful day and began the four-hour hike to Glacier Grey. Parts of the hike were very challenging, particularly the 85 km/hour winds that came and went, but it was worth it to look out across the water and see a glacier. To the left is a photo of two friends and me with a chunk of the glacier in the background.
After hiking back, we packed our bags, boarded the catamaran once again, and made our way to the next campsite at the foot of the Torres del Paine trail.

Day 3: The Torres del Paine hike has three legs: the first is a steep 1.5 hour climb, the second is a 1-2 hour roller coaster through the woods, and the third is a 45 min. rocky climb to the final lookout point. We got an early start and made it to the top by lunchtime. The view was unbelievable - green lake, huge mountains, clear sky...I was in a state of hiking euphoria.


Then things changed. One of the girls from my program had fallen behind and arrived at the lookout point 30 minutes after the rest of us. She had been experiencing some intense knee pain and was not looking forward to the descent. When we decided to return to the campsite, she asked for one of us to trek down slowly with her while the others went on ahead. I volunteered. Six hours later, I arrived at the campsite...alone. The first part of the descent should have taken only 30 minutes, but we did it an a slow and steady hour and 45 minutes. It was like hiking with someone who had just woken up from a deep slumber. I won't go into all the details of the descent, but I would love to tell you in person all that happened that day. I later described it to someone by saying, "We raced a turtle down the mountain and lost." To make a long story short, this girl's knee was killing her and she ended up staying the night at a campsite on the trail while I ran down a mountain to let the other girls know that we hadn't been eaten by a puma or fallen off of a cliff. That night, we got into our sleeping bags and zipped up our tents a hour before the sun began to set...we were tired.

Day 4: My injured friend safely finished the hike down to the campsite and we made our way back to the airport. With the stress of the previous day lifted, we cheerily explored Puerto Natales, a tourist town en route to Punta Arenas where we took a flight back to Santiago. This trip definitely topped all of the other viajes (travels) I have taken - injury and all.

Despite my excitement to return to the US and see my friends and family, I realized that a big part of my wants to stay and just travel with some of the people I've gotten to know here. It's safe to say that I will be back to Chile someday.