Day Five – Camp Los Torres to the park exit.

This went so much faster than we thought it would. We were nervous about getting down in time, but we beat all the posted times, sometimes by a factor of two. So, the times on the guide were inconsistent, to say the least. We did notice that as we went from day to day, we actually got less tired. My feet were aching at the end of day one, couldn’t even feel them on day four. Same with shoulders. I guess that’s the real secret to long distance backpacking – just do it every day, and by day four, you’re fine.

We had a running joke about the condition of the trails (that was interspersed with the jokes about the CONAF workers' parentage.) Ev decided that at some point, there would be no trail, and we'd just run across a frayed, knotted rope. We need to stop telling jokes.

One minor (possibly major) hitch is that something popped in Evelyn’s knee on the way down. From that point on, downhill was painful. So, we took lots of breaks to try to stretch things out. Even then, we were flying, and saying hello to lots of day hikers on the way up (including a horse team - I say getting to the towers doesn’t count if all it cost you was some oats and you messed up the trail for hikers. Goddammit I hate horses.) (One woman in particular saw fit to sing as the horse carried her – her fellow equestrians didn’t look as though they were enjoying this any more than we were – and as she came upon us on the side of the trail, stretching, made little “poor baby” noises at us, as if she were talking to a child with a skinned knee. She’s lucky I didn’t have any rocks in my hand. I suspect recreational pharmaceuticals. Nobody’s that weird.)

I had been wondering where all these day hikers were coming from. At the bottom, we found out. There’s a very ritzy resort someone has deposited there, where the rooms cost 300 dollars a night per person. (You have to admit, though, that there probably aren't many resorts in the world with a nicer location.) We snuck in and used their bathrooms, and washed up a little in the sink. Then we started hiking out the road to get back to where the buses were – my suspicions were confirmed and there’s a shuttle bus to take you the last 7 kilometers that only costs a few bucks. I was pretty much done walking after five days, so that was fine with me. We sat under a shade tree for several hours and waited with a bunch of other backpackers, including the Canadian couple again. I finished the issue of the New Yorker I was reading (we brought three issues along, and have read each of them cover to cover, and discarded them in hostels as we go.)

Back home, where the pizza place we liked before was open (on Christmas – sucks to live in a town full of tourists from the other hemisphere). We stuffed ourselves, and dropped off laundry at a lavaderia that was open on the day as well (18 bucks to wash two loads of laundry - we didn't even blink, as we really wanted to set our clothes on fire at that point.) On getting back to the hostel, the owner dragged us to his Christmas barbeque a few blocks away, where someone had made some mulled wine. We talked to another couple from Seattle, who’ve been touring/trekking for the last 5 months, and aren’t going back for at least a year, sounded like.

Debated about where to go next – this was the only event on the trip that was planned at all. Finally decided to go back to Punta Arenas, so as to see some penguins again, this time with a fully charged battery. And put off the decision as to how to get to Argentina one more day.

The hike was probably the coolest thing we’ve ever done on vacation – it was only 5 days out of the entire trip (plus another day of prep.) If we could do it over, we’d probably spend a few more days trekking, either in the this park, or in one of the thirty other Chilean or Argeninian parks that span Patagonia. So many glaciers and mountains down here, and we only looked at the most famous ones. And that’s just the southern Andes (and Torres del Paine isn’t even part of the Andes system, they say.) If we were a little harder core, we could spend a month doing this (and if we did it for a month, we’d certainly be that hard core – Evelyn’s knee notwithstanding – jury’s still out on that.) So much to see.

If you’re into birds, this is also the place to go, as even the little brown birds down here are different (one camp bird in particular – same niche as a sparrow – has a neat orange patch on his back, that makes him very pretty.) We say ibis on the lake shore, more condors than we could count, and there are always penguin trips to make. And, this park in particular offers every range of support you might need - from going it alone in the backcountry to staying in really nice places inside, to doing the mix we did, camping, but having a shower most nights. Plane tickets are only about 1500 bucks.

One other funny thing that happened on the shuttle bus ride out of the park, is that there's this bridge across some river, where the bridge is only just wide enough for the bus (they have to fold in the side mirrors, giving maybe an inch of clearance on either side.) They make all passngers get off and walk, so that only the driver is with the bus. I suppose it's nice they care enough to make sure that only the captain goes down with the ship, but it didn't inspire confidence in that bridge.