Intro to Puerto Natales, a small quaint town

Yet another red eye flight, yet another ritual of flight check in and lounges. However there was a twist to the airport journey, one it was my birthday and two the destination - Puerto Natales. Looked like my wife had informed the airline's crew about my birthday, so the staff came to me and congratulated me one after another. Finally they gave me a small gift hamper with chocolates and snacks. The person seated next to me asked what was happening, and I told them it was my birthday. We started talking, and we ended up sharing our cab ride back to the hostel.

Puerto Natales is the gateway to Patagonia. Patagonia is a geographical region in the southern tip of South America. Patagonia extends between both Chile and Argentina, Puerto Natales is situated in Chilean Patagonia. When I researched online, I tried to see why the name Patagonia came into existence. There were various theories, theory which I liked the most is that the Patagones mean people with big feet, so the Europeans when they came here they started calling the people here as Patagonians and hence the name

Airport View

With that history, we reached Patagonia and our hostel early. Surprisingly, they asked us to come back at 2pm for check in. The hostel was a very small space, so they could not accommodate everyone. At first, I saw the common area and none was there, so I felt it to be a bit rude to ask the guest to get out and come back but realised about the smaller space after a couple of days stay in the hostel. Most of the hostels and stay in Puerto Natales were run by the locals using their own houses. Also the weather here was very harsh, even though it was summer, it was 8 degree Celsius and the weather app showed it would feel like 3 degree Celsius

Local sightseeing in Puerto Natales

We were brave and decided to venture outside, the entire town itself was very small, we could cover this in an hour's walk. We went to the nearby supermarket, again “Lider” , to buy some groceries. After the supermarket rituals, we wanted to have lunch. We were in no mood to go back and cook, so we looked around for a good place to eat and we found “Comida China”. We ordered vegetable fried rice and vegetable chowmein. For the first time in our South American trip, we saw lots of restaurants and supermarkets having vegetarian options and it was prominent like the ready to make noodles and pasta had vegetarian options.

Our lunch menu at comida china

After lunch, we took a stroll around the coast. It was very cold and windy, so we took a few photos around the famous spots quickly and started walking back to the hostel. We were looking at the Milodon animal statue for the very first time. It is extinct now but it got associated with Puerto Natales because of its fossils found here.

The Hand

Milodon Animal

The Coast

This is the first time we were staying in a proper hostel set up, even though our Cartagena stay was a hostel, it gave off a more hotel vibe. On reaching the hostel, we were explained what we can do in Puerto Natales. Most travelers come to Puerto Natales to hike Patagonia. There are two famous treks, O and W circuit trekking. In these circuits, we could see Mirador Base Torres, French Valley and Grey Glacier view points. And people stay at the camp sites during their trek.The entire park is called Torres Del Paine national park. Our initial plan was to hike Mirador Base Torres as a day trip, rest for a day and then take the boat to see the ice glacier. However, we decided to cancel the boat tour to see the ice glacier because it was very expensive ($250$).

We decided to do the Mirador Base Torres the next day. In order to do a day trip, we will have to do a few things

1. Buy Torres Del Paine Parque tickets (We bought it from here. It cost 46,000 CLP, 3x the price of locals). The tickets are valid for 3 days.
2. From Puerto Natales, it will take 2 hours to go to Torres Del Paine national park. So we went to the bus station nearby to reserve our bus tickets a day earlier. There are set timings, we took the earlier one and last one out from JB Buses tour company. Tickets cost 25,000 CLP round trip.
3. Buses will drop us off at the ticket counter, from there we need to take another shuttle to the welcome center from where we could start our hike which cost us another 5,000 CLP round trip.

An amateur hiker’s take on Mirador Base Torres

On the day of the hike, we woke up around 5.30am. The very first thing we realised was the sound of wind outside. We were a little frightened on hearing the sound, especially me who came without even buying a thermal top as I was so sure that I can survive until 0 degree celsius. But the sound instilled fear, so I wore 2 T-shirts, 2 shirts, a hand sleeve and a jacket to replace the thermal for the top, and thermal pants, jeans, woolen socks and running shoes for the bottom. Our bus was at 6.45 am, we had our breakfast of oats and fruits. We packed pasta, boiled eggs and some snacks which we cooked and bought the day before.

From our hostel, the bus station was a 10 minute walk. With full cover, we ventured outside and the cold was bearable with all the layerings. We got into the bus, well it was a van similar to the one we used for the Volcano Osorno hike. There were 12 people in the van, looking at the way everyone dressed I felt like I was the only amateur hiker in the van especially with no hiking boots, thermals and wearing jeans and multiple shirts and t-shirts

Our van ride

Torres view from our car

Welcome centre

It took a couple of hours to reach the destination, we slept the whole way. On reaching the park entrance, we showed our tickets. My bus ticket included the shuttle price as well, so we got dropped off at the starting point of the hike instead of catching another shuttle. It was also not like a public bus, it felt like a shared tour. On reaching the starting point, there was a kiosk with coffee, snacks, souvenirs and washroom. However there was a long queue to use the washroom, we spent close to 20 minutes there waiting.

Starting point

Trekking path (red - W, Yellow - O)

Mirador Base Torres hike

We started the hike exactly at 9.15am. When we first started, it looked like a cake walk. We crossed a beautiful fairy tale hotel, a bridge across the water stream. The first 30 minutes were very pleasant and then came the first hurdle

Starting terrain

Las Torres hotel

Traffic due to the bridge

Road along Las Torres hotel

First bridge

Trouble started from here

The path started with stones and it started to get a little inclined. We almost walked until 11.30 am and still figuring out why our next spot was yet to come because it was only 3.6km from the previous direction's board. The total trail was 20km. We trained ourselves back home and we used to walk 5km in an hour, so we thought this should be easy considering the fitness we were in. The trail first consisted of gravels on a flat land, then no gravels but with little inclination and then with gravel and more inclination. This terrain alternated until we reached the Chileno camp. In between we crossed the Windy Pass where the wind pressure was so much that it felt like pushing us away from the trail. We did not experience this just at the windy pass but at many other places. We also saw a horse stable just before reaching Chileno camp, horses were used to transport goods. We reached Chileno camp at 12pm, where we stopped to refill our water bottle and eat the lunch we packed.

We again started to hike from Chileno camp at 12.30pm, this time the terrain is into the forest cover, however there were inclination, bridges to cross, until we reached the final climb which was the hardest climb.

The last part of the hike should be around 1 to 2 kMs, however the terrain was so hard that there was literally no path. My wife started complaining of knee pain. We thought a lot about wrapping up the hike and returning to the base, because we did not want to hurt ourselves or miss the bus back home, remember we have to return to the starting point by 7pm to take the shuttle back to our place. But my wife gave us the confidence that she wanted to see the end point, so we continued hiking. After the final turn, we could see the mirador Torres from far which gave confidence that it was getting closer. After beating the crowd for one last time, we reached the view point “Mirador Base Torres” with a lot of people sitting and enjoying the view

Once we reached, we were mesmerized by the view. The blue color of the lake along with three big mountains (remember these are granite) glittering in the sunlight with the white snow at the bottom of the mountain, no phone or photo can capture the beauty of the view. We clicked many pictures, sat there for some time, and ate the snacks that we bought. We saw a couple of guys with Indian looks, we got excited, so we asked them where they were from. It looked like they got offended and ashamed when we referred to them as Indians, they told us they were from the USA and the UK even though they had Indian roots. One guy did not even bother to talk to us, and the other guy for name sake asked us where we were from. All the while when I was travelling, I saw people from other countries, taking pride in their language, country. Whereas we Indians, were not happy to associate ourselves with neither our language nor our country. I ain’t a patriotic person, but country, language and race form our identity, we do not need to be proud but at least we need not be ashamed of it.

At 3.30pm, we started our walk back. We had 3.5 hours to complete the hike back which took us 5.5 hours. We were not sure whether we could return on time, so we started thinking of alternate options to go back if we missed the bus. Till now, my wife complained occasionally of knee pain especially during the ascend, but walking back she was completely fine. Whereas my right leg started to get tight, nearly 45 mins after the walk, I got my first cramp in my right inner thigh. I could not move an inch so I rested for 15 mins and tried relaxing and walking back. After another 15 mins of walking, I got my second cramp but this time it was on my left inner thigh. It was again huge, and I literally stopped mid way. One of the people walking ahead of us stopped and asked whether I was alright. I told her that I got a cramp, she told me that she is a nurse and asked whether she could help me stretch and remove that cramp. She told me that my cramp is big, and that it would be difficult to stretch or walk so she gave me a tablet and mentioned it will release the cramp in 5 minutes. She stayed with us for 5 minutes and bade us goodbye and vanished. Without her, at that point, I thought I would not have completed my trek.

Once my muscles were relaxed, we started walking back. My wife was doing fine, we realized that she had problems when it was uphill and I had problems when it was downhill. Somehow we crossed the difficult part, it took us 3 hours round trip to complete the last leg of the trek. After crossing the difficult part, we walked towards the Chileno camp, my wife led the way and I was walking slowly behind her. We reached the Chileno camp at 5.30pm, we stopped only to refill our water bottles and started moving.

If we have to break down the hike, it has four parts

1. First part was a pleasant walk
2. Second was a walk through gravel with little bit of inclination
3. Third was a walk through the forest cover
4. Fourth leg of the trek was a difficult one with a steep path and full of rocks

Now, we have two more parts to cross. My wife was feeling tired during this, we both were slipping a lot, our shoes were not meant for hiking which made it even more difficult. It was 6pm, and we just finished the second leg. From here I started walking and running a little faster as the medicine helped, and reached the starting point at 7.30pm. The bus driver was waiting for us, as we were the last one to arrive. I told him to wait for another 10 minutes for my wife, he jokingly said no. Once my wife arrived, he asked whether we wanted to use the washroom. After 10 minutes, we apologized to the other members of the van. Both of us were almost crying, not sure how we made it back to the starting point.

Throughout the journey, both of us supported each other when we felt low, and I was doing my Dhikr (prayer chants). What I realized having gone through many lows in my life is when we have a good support system in our life, everything will fall into place. For some reason, I always thought I am in the good books of god, and had that imaginary support. There is a dialogue in a Tamil movie which says, “God gives everything to bad people, but does not support them in the end; God gives nothing to good people in the beginning but supports them throughout”. That is what exactly ran through my mind at the end of the hike. For one, we were not sure how we completed the 6 hour onward hike in 4 hours on our return , how a woman magically appeared to provide help and vanished, how my wife who was on her first hike, completed the most difficult one in 10 hours. Reminiscing of all this in our van, our tiredness overcame our thoughts, and we drowsed to sleep.

In two hours, we reached Puerto Natales, we got down and started walking towards our hotel. We were damn hungry ,and we saw a small food truck kind of shop. We ordered a vegetarian sandwich, French fries and hot cocoa tea. After finishing, we went back to the hostel, took a hot shower and slept back. We did not move out of the hostel for the next couple of days. We were just resting and relaxing and reminiscing about our trip even though there were few other attractions like Milodon caves and Gray Glacier and French valley hikes. But anyhow it was a hike and a place to remember.

Our learnings from the trip are

1. If you want to hike the Torres Del Paine, we recommend you to take the camp instead of doing day trips. One it was expensive to travel to the park, two there is limited time to explore the hike and we need to rush our way back
2. If you are a beginner like us, try with the shorter hikes first like gray glacier or French valley before trying Mirador Torres which was the hardest of all
3. Have proper gears, like trekking shoes, poles to support your back and layering with thermals, jackets and raincoats. It gets windy, rainy and sunny so ensure you have everything for the weather
4. Finally, ensure you were trained to walk at least 10 kms before you were on this hike. What we did was a half marathon that too on an uneven terrain



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