Hola from Southern Patagonia!!!

Where to start! I have only been traveling for 9 days and I feel like I have been gone for ages. Right now, I am in El Chalten, Argentina with my friends Lindsey, Katie, and Sean. Let's back up and start from the beginning:

The first few days we were in transit to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. Here is where it all begins.

January 5 we started our camping trip for 4 nights and 5 days in the park. With all of our camping gear and food (no, I brought hardly any extra clothes) we started our way from Lago Pehoe up to Glacier Grey. It was a challenging first day with our mochillas (backpacks) at their heaviest. However, the hike was beautiful and the weather wasn't too bad. It was raining a bit, but nothing to cry about. We arrived at the camp site (yes, I camped out) which was on Lago Grey. The campsite was really tranquilo (relaxing) and we were on a beautiful lake where we saw little pieces of broken of glaciers pass by. We rented all the equipment we needed, and by equipment, I mean our home-in-a-bag tent that literally only fits two sleeping bags and there is no way in hell you can sit up straight in there. We basically had to crawl in.

In the morning we woke up and were very lucky to have a gorgeous day! We hiked back down to where we started from and up a little up towards Valle Frances. Since the weather wasn't great the first day, we had a beautiful view on this 2nd day of Lago Pehoe which was absolutely incredible. "Paine" actually means blue in spanish, and all of the lakes are these beautiful shades of blue. We camped out next to a raging river and met tons of people, mostly from Israel and Germany.

Day 3 my knee bothered me a little so I didn't go crazy. We hiked up into Valle Frances and back down to the same camp site. We had incredible views of the cuernos (horns), one of the highlights of the park since again, we had incredible weather.

Day 4, this was the real doozy. We hiked about 16+ kilometers this day (about 10 miles). We started off leaving the valley and hiked alongside another beautiful lake and then up to the part for the grand final, the Torres. However, this hike was the longest and hardest. We had to get over a part of the river where, in lieu of a bridge, they had a wire that you had to hold as you crossed over rocks with some decent current. After passing some fields and feeling like we were never getting to where we were going, we arrived to the hard part. We had to go over the peaks and valleys of some hills with some pretty steep inclines. Everytime we got over the next peak, and we thought we were getting close, there were still more. Finally, we got to our campsite and relaxed.

Day 5, we woke up to rain! How sad! One of the main things to see was completely blocked by clouds and we totally missed it. But, it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. We saw the torres very briefly from the campsite the night before, but decided to forgo the hike up to the look out point this morning because we knew we wouldn't see much. We headed back down and returned to Puerto Natales for what was the best shower ever.

Sorry, no photos until I return to Santiago. I will tell you that I think you will see a clear progression in the photos based on the daily grease level of my hair since you wont be able to tell from my outfit. I am wearing the same thing everday.

After our wonderful shower and a very delicious meal, we headed to El Calafate, Argentina. Here we went to Perito Moreno, an "active" glacier. There are viewing platforms since the glacier has pieces that break off mutliple times a day, and then it re-freezes over time. Apparently, it's one of the few glaciers that continues to grow.

Today, we left El Calafate for Chalten, Argentina home to the Fitz Roy Mountain. This town is just about to be paved so imagine how small it is and that the main road is still a dirt road. We leave on the 14th and are still deciding exactly where we want to go from here. We will end up in Bariloche around January 20th, because we will probably be sick of these small towns by then!

Anyway, hope everyone is well! Next time I write, I will probably be in the Lakes District... maybe in Argentina, maybe in Chile. Who knows?!?!

besitos!
Lauren