Day 21 - The trek before the trek

December 4 - Puerto Natales, Chile

In Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, there are many day hikes and two routes for “trekking”, multiple-day back-packing adventures.  The “W” is popular because you get good views for manageable miles.  The “O” or Circuit is less traveled (maybe 50 people a day) and is more miles.  Evan of course wanted to do the Circuit.  This is the first year that the number of people on the Circuit was regulated, thus reservations were required in advance.  The Circuit is usually done in seven days or so.  Evan wanted to do it in four, so obviously I was a little hesitant. This area is known for wind and rain, and lots of mileage (or kilometerage?).  The entire O is 120 kilometers or 75 miles.  75 miles in 4 days?  Happy husband, happy life – let’s do this.

Because one of our reservations for the Circuit was not confirmed, we planned on arriving at the office of the booking company first thing when they opened Monday morning to work this out (not open on Sundays).   We didn't have much wiggle room as we had planned on heading to the park the next day.
Camping at the park is operated by three different organizations, and so you have to coordinate across these three that don’t talk to each other.  Oh ya and by the way, the park’s camp reservations are free and fill six months in advance, so we actually didn’t even have reservations with one of the three organizations. 

So Monday morning in Puerto Natales went like this.

• Arrive at the Park office to confirm we weren’t missing something about the reservation scenario (info online is very incomplete).  It was confirmed.  Move on to Company A, approx. 10 blocks away
• Arrive at Company A.  Wait on a bench for two workers to finish with the people in front of us, many walking out with discouraged faces.  Company A says Yep you are right, you don’t have a reservation.  They offered a few other days that wouldn’t work unless we changed our other reservation AND if we violated the park ranger rule of having a place booked at a certain area of the park known for bad weather in case you have to turn back.  Can we hold that reservation while we go see if we can change w/ Company B?  No.  Ok, hold that thought.. We'll be right back.
•  On to Company B, 8 blocks away. To  Company B – if we can switch this reservation, then this will all work.  Company B says, we don’t have that, but we have this.  Hmm…. Ok we need to talk to the Park to see if we can just have one really long day.
• Back to the Park Office.  We have a reservation here and here.  Can we just wake up really early and conquer the pass?, we asked in Spanish.  We are quick, we assured him.  He responded in animated Spanish that is was highly highly discouraged to do this.  Danger.  Broken ankles.  Fallen off cliffs.  Lots of things to scare us.  We were used to conservative park rangers.  We are confident in our hiking.  And we’d have more weight in our packs than we were used to and really aren't familiar with this park.  Ok ok ok – you win, hombre.  You win.  Back to Company B.
• We confirmed with Company B that we could shift everything back a day, cancel our first reservation, and just a day on the back end with Company A.  Yes!  Well, we couldn’t cancel – we’d have to talk to Roberto (Who’s Roberto?   They guy in the office.  Ok – Roberto has the key to refunds).  We had reservations…..but would Company A still have availabilitly?  On to Company A.
• We arrived at Company A, waited again, and secretly hoped it would work out for us to go back to the nice woman we had originally. Score.  Got her.  Can we book this other day at the site that originally was booked?  All the pieces would fit…. YES!  Ok great – can we book this other night in addition to add on to make the park ranger happy? ….. No – booked!.... Back to square one….. but our faces must have looked pretty pathetic.  She was instant messaging her buddy at the campsite.  We waited. She pondered. We waited. She negotiated.  We waited.  She smiled. You are booked, but don’t tell anyone. YAY!  We held our excitement as to not rub it in the other disgruntled trekkers faces.
• Last step  - back to Company B to try to cancel one of our existing reservations.  They of course would not refund is, but did offer breakfast at one of the hotels in the park on our first morning - we'll take it!

We walked out, breathed a sigh of relief, and went on with our day.    Only took three hours…

We needed to figure out our food, buy gas canisters, a electrical outlet converter, bus tickets, and pick up laundry, so the day was not yet done.  But nothing could hold us down.  Not even the sugar coma that commenced from our celebratory cake, some type of layered dulce de leche flakey deliciousness.

We had plans to go to dinner, but ate such a big lunch we didn’t really need much.  We stopped at a place and shared a burger, a  beer, and a pisco sour.  It was nice – a hostel called Wild, catering to English speaking tourists.  No shame.  We liked the vibe.  We headed back to organize our packs and food.