The second in the series of photos highlighting good trips in Latin America comes from Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia, where I trekked the “W” route for 5 days. The park is a world biosphere reserve and is home to a huge amount of plant and animal species, as well as snow capped mountain peaks, rivers, lakes, glaciers and waterfalls.

This photo was taken at the entrance to the park, and as I wrote at the time, it got things off to a great start:
I had an hour …

Day 175 – Monday 13th March 2006
Wanting to get back to Argentina I needed to take a 7 hour bus trip to Mendoza. This journey involved crossing the Andes mountain range. I had heard this was a spectacular road and therefore I decided to make the trip during the day so I could appreciate the famous mountain range.

Day 174 – Sunday 12th March 2006
I wanted to return to Argentina on the following day, which left me about 8 hours to see Santiago before the Oasis concert began in the evening. Whistlestop tour it would have to be, but that is better than nothing. As I walked along a street leading to the city centre I came to a blocked off area and saw a lot of police milling around. I asked someone what was going on and was informed that there would be a parade in honour …

Day 173 – Saturday 11th March 2006
After travelling for 24 hours mas o menos the only thing I wanted was a bed. As I arrived in Santiago at 7am I wasn’t able to properly check-in to a hostel until a bit later, so I settled down in the TV room and used their couch as a bed in the interim. I managed to keep my eyes open to see Spurs lose to Chelsea, but I wish I hadn’t bothered.

Day 172 – Friday 10th March 2006
The huge distances between points of interest in Argentina means a lot of time is spent on buses going from town to town. That is unless you want to fly, which works out a tad too expensive. So with the Oasis concert in mind I set out from Bariloche at half five in the morning to make the 1300km trip to Santiago.

Days 158 & 159 – Friday 24th & Saturday 25th February 2006
The final day of hiking began late, as all I had to do was walk 2 hrs downhill to be picked up by the bus which would take me back to Puerto Natales. I could have chosen to get up at 4am and hike back up to see the Torres, but I woke up in the middle of the night and it was cloudy so I sacked it off.

Day 157 – Thursday 23rd February 2006
Having been ill the day before I was a little bit concerned about overexcerting myself and making myself ill again, so I decided to take it a bit easier. It being the 4th day as well my feet were beginning to feel the heat. Thus the first hour was slow and steady loosening up.

Day 156 – Wednesday 22nd February 2006
Despite waking up a few times in my tent I managed to get a reasonable nights sleep, and the sleeping bag passed the test. I woke at around seven thirty, packed up and left the campsite about an hour to begin a long days walking.