Day 26 - End of the trek

December 9 - Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

The night we slept at Glacier Grey campground was the worst weather we had on the entire trek. It rained a decent amount, and there was a lot of wind. We had positioned our tent between two clumps of bushes, but there was still a huge amount of flexing in the tent when the wind gusted. Amazing how powerful wind can be when pushing on a rain fly.

We woke up, made breakfast, then tore down the tent after drying off the fly using a towel. By this point we have got pretty good at putting up and tearing down.  I admit I'm a bit obsessed with the tent  - it is awesome.

The last hike of the trek was to Paine Grande, where the catamaran docks to take people to and from where there are buses back to Puerto Natales.

The hike wasn't anything too crazy, but as we walked we got to where Grey Glacier stops and becomes Grey Lake. There is just a huge wall of ice where the glacier stops, and actually right now there is what looks like a football field sized iceberg that broke off a while ago.

There are also several huge cable suspension bridges- extremely crazy looking and they move a lot when you walk over them which can be very unsettling. Some people apparently really love how much they bridges move, because we watched one Aussie sprint halfway across the bridge, stop, and start jumping up and down as much as possible to make the bridge buck him as much as possible. 

The further we walked the more people we saw. At this part of the loop there are lots of hikers going both directions. Some people even hike out to Glacier Grey from Paine Grande for day tours of the park. Lots of people and lots of wind. Some of the day trekkers didn't seem to be enjoying the very windy and damp conditions, but we were fine.

We ended up making it to Paine Grande after 2 hours and 40 minutes of walking. We had plenty of time before the catamaran would arrive, and originally the plan was to try to make it up to Mirador Frances for a view of some granite walls. The weather did not cooperate though - the whole valley was socked in with clouds and misty fog. It was probably a blessing, we weren't that excited about walking more anyway.

While we waited for the boat, we made lunch, played cards, and chatted more with our Chilean friends before we said goodbye for good.

The catamaran back was pretty painless; the bummer was that it got so foggy from all the people breathing that it was hard to see out the windows and enjoy the view while travelling over the lake. Once we got to the landing on the other end, we waited for a bit until out bus arrived, hopped on, and then rode back to Puerto Natales.

Once we reached town we stayed at a place called Hostel Walkers, which was a bed and breakfast style place with private rooms and hot showers! It felt great to clean up.

Before completely crashing we went for dinner and a beer in town. The beer was better than the burger, but oh well.

(Evan)