Last month I enjoyed two weeks down in South America. I spent 10 of those days doing a solo trek through Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia. I can say I've truly been fortunate to see some really wonderful things in my tiny amount of time on this planet, but I'm both sad and happy to say that experiencing Patagonia will likely never be topped. I've never felt more alive on a trip than I did for those two weeks.
I started off in Santiago, Chile and spent 2.5 days there. Highly recommend this city if you're into good food and wine. There's a strong Italian influence here so it feels very European in architecture and in cuisine. It's a very safe city with some really tremendous people. If Patagonia and hiking isn't your thing, I've heard great things about northern Chile. You can go up north to the high deserts and do some stargazing. Also, great wine country just to the east and you can go see colorful Valparaiso.
Neighborhoods I recommend:
Barrio Lastarria: (go to Bocanariz wine bar and get an empanada from the place next door. Thank me later)
Barrio Yungay (colorful part of town)
Barrio Italia (self-explanatory)
This was from the Concha neighborhood:
From Santiago, I flew to Punta Arenas. This 'town' is at the tip of South America. More to come on this later.
From Punta Arenas, I bussed to Puerto Natales. If Marathon, Texas is the gateway to Big Bend, Puerto Natales is the gateway for Torres del Paine National Park (TDP). I spent two days here and really enjoyed this town. It's got a ski-resort town vibe to it but without the price tags. Beer isn't bad and Chilenos know how to cook.
Sunset from the docks in PN:
I mentioned this town is the gateway to TDP, that's important as I was set to hike the "W Trek" for 5 days. It's approximately 60 miles of hiking and absolutely incredible. I'd spend the next 5 days and 4 nights in the park; hiking from campsite to campsite and staying at a combination of campsites and mountain refugios along the way. This is a map of the W:
Day 1: Uneventful
Bus ride took about and 2 hours. Nothing exciting. I'm doing the hike from east-to-west, so I stayed at campsite Torre near the base of Las Torres. That was going to be my first hike the next day. It did get to -10C that night. Sleep was hard to come by.
Day 2: Las Torres
I hike to Mirador Las Torres, arguably the crown jewel of the park and of Chilean Patagonia. This is the hardest day from a cardio standpoint. It's about 4 hours up and 3 hours down. The first three hours weren't too bad. Slight elevation gains as you made your way through a valley partially still shadowed by the mountain.
The last hour was particularly difficult. I got lucky as this Canadian who was doing the hike the opposite way (west to east) had just finished and he gave me his trekking poles. Had I not had them I'd have been royally screwed. The last hour is spent going up stuff like this:
Once you get to that tree line, you cross to your right and go over larger boulders and navigate through ice and snow as you near the lookout point. The views were totally worth it once the sound of the blood vessels exploding in my head subsided. These three granite towers rise over 8200 feet into the sky, it's one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. After about 2 hours at the lookout, I hiked back down, Jell-O legs and all. Fortunately, when you get to where you're going and see the views, it's such a dopamine dump you don't even feel the pain in your legs or feet anymore. Slept at the same place as the previous evening. Luckily, it stayed above freezing.
Las Torres (Torre Sur, Torre Central, Torre Norte):
Approx distance: 16.5 miles
Climbed from 100m to approximately 1100m above sea level.
Day 3: The Easiest Day
I spent this day hiking from the base of the towers to the Los Cuernos campsite. This campsite is named after, well you guessed it, Los Cuernos ("The Horns"). LC is one of the mountains in the park, and she's also a gem of Chilean Patagonia. She's a big granite MoFo who has some really great viewpoints. Along the way, I sat down and ate by a stream. Every stream is glacial water so you can drink right from it and it's the best water in the world. This is a dry-ass ham sandwich, but in that moment it was the best meal of my life (it could've used some mustard, maybe Bertman's ballpark or a spicy brown):
Truth-be-told: If a storm had come along and a lightning bolt struck me out of nowhere, I wouldn't have cared. That would've been a great last meal and I would've died 100% happy.
Other photos from along the trail...
This swinging suspension bridge had the same effect on your gut as when you go over a hill in a car or roller coaster
Section of Los Cuernos:
Waterfall:
More of LC:
Mountains of Patagonia:
Los Cuernos and the namesake campsite sit along Lake Nordenskojld. I was able to get some photos along the edge of the lake. The mountain in the background is Mt Ferrier:
As I mentioned earlier, most bodies of water are glacial fed and this lake is no exception. It's about as cold as you can imagine. My legs and feet were incredibly sore so I ended up sitting in the lake like an ice bath a la high school football days. Even though I think my testicles are still hiding behind my kidneys somewhere it was totally worth it.
This night I stayed in the mountain refugio in bunk beds. The guy below me was from Brazil. His name was Pedro and we had done some chatting on the trail the day prior. He was a super nice guy, and he rolled his own cigarettes:
When I walked into the room his eyes got real wide. I figured out why only seconds later as I tossed my backpack onto the top bunk and the whole 'structure' shook. I'm 220 on a good day and this bed looked like the bed out of Step Brothers. I almost sang, "This is how we do it!" as I jumped up onto the bed. All was good, though.
Approx distance: 12.5 miles
Day 4: The Hardest Day (The French Valley)
This was going to be a 10 hour hiking day. I woke up at 6am to catch the sunrise and see Los Cuernos and Paine Grande with the sun lighting them up. It was fantastic.
Paine Grande:
Los Cuernos:
From this campsite I had to hike to the next stop: refugio and campground Paine Grande. Along the way I completed the middle part of the W. I got all up in the guts of the park, or, the French Valley as it's formally named. Landscape in Patagonia is odd. One moment you're in mountains, then you're in steppes, then you're in a swamp, then you're in a forest. You get all sorts of views on this day.
From Los Cuernos campsite you hike past the Francis campsite to campsite Italiano. Here I left my backpack, crammed a sandwich and rain jacket into a dry bag, and began the 3 hr climb to the Britannico viewpoint at the top of the French Valley. Along the way, you can stop at the Plateau lookout (essentially a halfway point) and have a great view of the side of Paine Grande. About every 5 minutes you'd hear a rushing noise and see sheets of snow plummeting down the mountain in mini-avalanches.
View of the side of Paine Grande at the plateau:
It's another hour and a half from Plateau to Britannico. This photo is of the French Valley. It was taken in the same spot I was standing in the photo above, just moved the point of view towards the right.
You'll go through areas like this:
Then see areas like this:
Then have to go through this (really crappy pic):
But then you get to see things like this:
& trail markers guide you along the way:
& this:
Eventually, you make it. The lookout is basically a cul-de-sac in the valley between two mountains. From here you can also see the back of the towers I visited on my first day of hiking. Views from the top (one featuring yours truly, Senor FancyKetchup14):
(I hiked from the bottom to that gd rock and enjoyed every second of it)
Hike back to Italiano, I pick up my backpack and start the haul to the next campsite. Photos along the way:
(Below is my favorite of the whole trip)
I got lucky because not 5 minutes after that photo, the winds Patagonia are known for picked up. I'm from West Texas, and even these winds bested what I was used to. Regardless, I made it to the campsite, drank a bunch of beer, played pass the pigs with some folks in the campsite, and fell asleep after a hot shower.
Approx distance: 18.5 miles
Day 5: Last Day (Lago Grey and Grey Glacier)
I wake up and look at my feet. I've never had a pedicure, but I am strongly considering it on my return to the states. Today I hike to Lago Grey, check out the glacier, and then board a catamaran followed by a bus and go back to PN. I'm on the western side of mountain Paine Grande. This part of the park is pretty swampy. I've never been to Ireland, but one of the people I did a stretch of the trail with mentioned it felt similar to the Irish countryside. You're going through a lot of bogs and water-soaked areas. A lot of times they just use fallen logs to cross streams or rivers. Last day I got pretty careless and my leg slipped off the leg and I stepped into freezing cold water nearly up to my knee. Not great. This is also the worst day for weather. It's raining and cold as I start the hike. Then it stops raining for about an hour and then snow begins to fall. Then it stops snowing and the wind starts to blow. Then the sun comes out and it's 50 and clear skies. I'm just glad I didn't get all the nasty stuff at once.
You start through a valley:
Then the trail turns into this:
Iceberg along the trail:
Glacier Grey:
Final Trail Marker:
After hiking back to the Paine Grande campsite I waited for the catamaran. Pretty smooth ride, and once the clouds cleared I was able to get some photos of Los Cuernos (right) and Paine Grande (left). Bussed back to Puerto Natales.
Paine Grande:
Los Cuernos in all her glory:
Approx distance: 16 miles
Argentina
I spent a day back in PN and then hopped on a bus to Argentina. From PN I rode to El Calafate, from El Calafate I bussed to El Chalten.
El Chalten lies at the base of Mount FitzRoy, named after the captain of the HMS Beagle, the ship that took Darwin around the world during the journey that spawned On the Origin of Species. On the ride in, I noticed there were some great shots of the mountain from the road but it was a struggle getting a decent photo through a bus windshield (I'll come back to this).
The following morning I hiked to the top of FitzRoy and back down. Compared to the hikes in TDP, it was pretty easy. The last km was rough, as boulders, snow, ice, and loose gravel made it difficult to traverse but the views were worth it. I did the hike with a Canadian girl I met at my hostel the night before, her company helped pass the time. FitzRoy, much like Los Cuernos or the Torres in Chile, is also a granite mountain carved away by time and water. It's really a spectacle. This is also the logo for the Patagonia clothing brand. At the base of FitzRoy lies a lake that was frozen over at the time. Kind of eerie walking across it.
View along the trail:
View at the top:
On the way down I took a detour and you could get this view:
Total hike was about 25km or approximately 16 miles.
Now, remember earlier how I noticed that there were some great shots of FitzRoy from outside of town? Well, when I got back to my hostel and loaded up on an Argentine dinner [read: strip steak and french fries topped with two fried eggs and a filled-to-the-brim glass of wine], I got a hankering to go get that photo.
I paid a kid $5 to borrow his bike and after a 10km ride outside of town I caught this view of FitzRoy on Ruta 40:
Also, I may have shattered the Patagonia land speed record on this hog:
From here, I went back to El Calafate and then made my way to Buenos Aires. BA is a nice town, but Argentina is in a horrible recession: terrible for currency exchange but great for eating out at night. You could get a giant steak, a bottle of Malbec, and a side for around $20. I swear, I never saw a vegetable in that city. Every meal was bread, steak, and wine. Not that I'm complaining, personally, but my GI tract was. The empanadas in this town are to die for. I think I ate 3 a day. They're so cheap; you can get an empanada and a beer for $2. I also tried the tango in BA and it's way harder than it looks.
Ventured into La Boca neighborhood and saw the historic Boca Jr's soccer stadium:
Empanada shop:
------
Lastly, remember how I said there would be "more to come" on that tiny town (Punta Arenas) at the tip of South America? Now is that time. I saw a lot of wonderful things on this trip from the mountains, to landscapes, to sunrises, and wildlife, but this sh*tty photo and this moment are both extremely important to me.
This body of water is the Strait of Magellan. In the background lies Tierra del Fuego, beyond that lies Antarctica. Nearly 500 years ago, in 1520, Ferdinand Magellan entered these waters on an attempt to be the first person to circumnavigate the globe. He never saw that vision all the way through, though, as he got himself killed being a dumbass trying to fight native tribesman in what is now the Philippines. Now, in 1834, our aforementioned buddies FitzRoy and Darwin entered this same strait. On that journey, Darwin wrote letters to people back home. In a particular letter to his sister, he contemplated that, "A man who dares waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life."
I sat at this broken pier, looking at those dumb seagulls, thinking about that quote. It sounds silly and obvious, but it's a friendly reminder to not waste our time. Life is too short to live an unoriginal one. I love traveling because it pushes me out of my comfort zone; I sometimes go at it alone because it intensifies that need for adaptability. It's daunting, spending two weeks alone in two strange countries, but I met some great people along the way - people I am still keeping in contact with - and challenged myself physically and mentally. The whole journey was incredibly eye-opening for me, and I sincerely hope yall can experience this part of the world once in your lives. Travel is the one thing you can buy that makes you richer.
Thanks for indulging me. Flame away.
TLDR: If you get the chance to make it to either Chile or Argentina, their respective Patagonia regions deserve your time. It is equal parts humbling, extraordinary, gratifying, and breathtaking. You'll come back a changed human.
I started off in Santiago, Chile and spent 2.5 days there. Highly recommend this city if you're into good food and wine. There's a strong Italian influence here so it feels very European in architecture and in cuisine. It's a very safe city with some really tremendous people. If Patagonia and hiking isn't your thing, I've heard great things about northern Chile. You can go up north to the high deserts and do some stargazing. Also, great wine country just to the east and you can go see colorful Valparaiso.
Neighborhoods I recommend:
Barrio Lastarria: (go to Bocanariz wine bar and get an empanada from the place next door. Thank me later)
Barrio Yungay (colorful part of town)
Barrio Italia (self-explanatory)
This was from the Concha neighborhood:
From Santiago, I flew to Punta Arenas. This 'town' is at the tip of South America. More to come on this later.
From Punta Arenas, I bussed to Puerto Natales. If Marathon, Texas is the gateway to Big Bend, Puerto Natales is the gateway for Torres del Paine National Park (TDP). I spent two days here and really enjoyed this town. It's got a ski-resort town vibe to it but without the price tags. Beer isn't bad and Chilenos know how to cook.
Sunset from the docks in PN:
I mentioned this town is the gateway to TDP, that's important as I was set to hike the "W Trek" for 5 days. It's approximately 60 miles of hiking and absolutely incredible. I'd spend the next 5 days and 4 nights in the park; hiking from campsite to campsite and staying at a combination of campsites and mountain refugios along the way. This is a map of the W:
Day 1: Uneventful
Bus ride took about and 2 hours. Nothing exciting. I'm doing the hike from east-to-west, so I stayed at campsite Torre near the base of Las Torres. That was going to be my first hike the next day. It did get to -10C that night. Sleep was hard to come by.
Day 2: Las Torres
I hike to Mirador Las Torres, arguably the crown jewel of the park and of Chilean Patagonia. This is the hardest day from a cardio standpoint. It's about 4 hours up and 3 hours down. The first three hours weren't too bad. Slight elevation gains as you made your way through a valley partially still shadowed by the mountain.
The last hour was particularly difficult. I got lucky as this Canadian who was doing the hike the opposite way (west to east) had just finished and he gave me his trekking poles. Had I not had them I'd have been royally screwed. The last hour is spent going up stuff like this:
Once you get to that tree line, you cross to your right and go over larger boulders and navigate through ice and snow as you near the lookout point. The views were totally worth it once the sound of the blood vessels exploding in my head subsided. These three granite towers rise over 8200 feet into the sky, it's one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. After about 2 hours at the lookout, I hiked back down, Jell-O legs and all. Fortunately, when you get to where you're going and see the views, it's such a dopamine dump you don't even feel the pain in your legs or feet anymore. Slept at the same place as the previous evening. Luckily, it stayed above freezing.
Las Torres (Torre Sur, Torre Central, Torre Norte):
Approx distance: 16.5 miles
Climbed from 100m to approximately 1100m above sea level.
Day 3: The Easiest Day
I spent this day hiking from the base of the towers to the Los Cuernos campsite. This campsite is named after, well you guessed it, Los Cuernos ("The Horns"). LC is one of the mountains in the park, and she's also a gem of Chilean Patagonia. She's a big granite MoFo who has some really great viewpoints. Along the way, I sat down and ate by a stream. Every stream is glacial water so you can drink right from it and it's the best water in the world. This is a dry-ass ham sandwich, but in that moment it was the best meal of my life (it could've used some mustard, maybe Bertman's ballpark or a spicy brown):
Truth-be-told: If a storm had come along and a lightning bolt struck me out of nowhere, I wouldn't have cared. That would've been a great last meal and I would've died 100% happy.
Other photos from along the trail...
This swinging suspension bridge had the same effect on your gut as when you go over a hill in a car or roller coaster
Section of Los Cuernos:
Waterfall:
More of LC:
Mountains of Patagonia:
Los Cuernos and the namesake campsite sit along Lake Nordenskojld. I was able to get some photos along the edge of the lake. The mountain in the background is Mt Ferrier:
As I mentioned earlier, most bodies of water are glacial fed and this lake is no exception. It's about as cold as you can imagine. My legs and feet were incredibly sore so I ended up sitting in the lake like an ice bath a la high school football days. Even though I think my testicles are still hiding behind my kidneys somewhere it was totally worth it.
This night I stayed in the mountain refugio in bunk beds. The guy below me was from Brazil. His name was Pedro and we had done some chatting on the trail the day prior. He was a super nice guy, and he rolled his own cigarettes:
When I walked into the room his eyes got real wide. I figured out why only seconds later as I tossed my backpack onto the top bunk and the whole 'structure' shook. I'm 220 on a good day and this bed looked like the bed out of Step Brothers. I almost sang, "This is how we do it!" as I jumped up onto the bed. All was good, though.
Approx distance: 12.5 miles
Day 4: The Hardest Day (The French Valley)
This was going to be a 10 hour hiking day. I woke up at 6am to catch the sunrise and see Los Cuernos and Paine Grande with the sun lighting them up. It was fantastic.
Paine Grande:
Los Cuernos:
From this campsite I had to hike to the next stop: refugio and campground Paine Grande. Along the way I completed the middle part of the W. I got all up in the guts of the park, or, the French Valley as it's formally named. Landscape in Patagonia is odd. One moment you're in mountains, then you're in steppes, then you're in a swamp, then you're in a forest. You get all sorts of views on this day.
From Los Cuernos campsite you hike past the Francis campsite to campsite Italiano. Here I left my backpack, crammed a sandwich and rain jacket into a dry bag, and began the 3 hr climb to the Britannico viewpoint at the top of the French Valley. Along the way, you can stop at the Plateau lookout (essentially a halfway point) and have a great view of the side of Paine Grande. About every 5 minutes you'd hear a rushing noise and see sheets of snow plummeting down the mountain in mini-avalanches.
View of the side of Paine Grande at the plateau:
It's another hour and a half from Plateau to Britannico. This photo is of the French Valley. It was taken in the same spot I was standing in the photo above, just moved the point of view towards the right.
You'll go through areas like this:
Then see areas like this:
Then have to go through this (really crappy pic):
But then you get to see things like this:
& trail markers guide you along the way:
& this:
Eventually, you make it. The lookout is basically a cul-de-sac in the valley between two mountains. From here you can also see the back of the towers I visited on my first day of hiking. Views from the top (one featuring yours truly, Senor FancyKetchup14):
(I hiked from the bottom to that gd rock and enjoyed every second of it)
Hike back to Italiano, I pick up my backpack and start the haul to the next campsite. Photos along the way:
(Below is my favorite of the whole trip)
I got lucky because not 5 minutes after that photo, the winds Patagonia are known for picked up. I'm from West Texas, and even these winds bested what I was used to. Regardless, I made it to the campsite, drank a bunch of beer, played pass the pigs with some folks in the campsite, and fell asleep after a hot shower.
Approx distance: 18.5 miles
Day 5: Last Day (Lago Grey and Grey Glacier)
I wake up and look at my feet. I've never had a pedicure, but I am strongly considering it on my return to the states. Today I hike to Lago Grey, check out the glacier, and then board a catamaran followed by a bus and go back to PN. I'm on the western side of mountain Paine Grande. This part of the park is pretty swampy. I've never been to Ireland, but one of the people I did a stretch of the trail with mentioned it felt similar to the Irish countryside. You're going through a lot of bogs and water-soaked areas. A lot of times they just use fallen logs to cross streams or rivers. Last day I got pretty careless and my leg slipped off the leg and I stepped into freezing cold water nearly up to my knee. Not great. This is also the worst day for weather. It's raining and cold as I start the hike. Then it stops raining for about an hour and then snow begins to fall. Then it stops snowing and the wind starts to blow. Then the sun comes out and it's 50 and clear skies. I'm just glad I didn't get all the nasty stuff at once.
You start through a valley:
Then the trail turns into this:
Iceberg along the trail:
Glacier Grey:
Final Trail Marker:
After hiking back to the Paine Grande campsite I waited for the catamaran. Pretty smooth ride, and once the clouds cleared I was able to get some photos of Los Cuernos (right) and Paine Grande (left). Bussed back to Puerto Natales.
Paine Grande:
Los Cuernos in all her glory:
Approx distance: 16 miles
Argentina
I spent a day back in PN and then hopped on a bus to Argentina. From PN I rode to El Calafate, from El Calafate I bussed to El Chalten.
El Chalten lies at the base of Mount FitzRoy, named after the captain of the HMS Beagle, the ship that took Darwin around the world during the journey that spawned On the Origin of Species. On the ride in, I noticed there were some great shots of the mountain from the road but it was a struggle getting a decent photo through a bus windshield (I'll come back to this).
The following morning I hiked to the top of FitzRoy and back down. Compared to the hikes in TDP, it was pretty easy. The last km was rough, as boulders, snow, ice, and loose gravel made it difficult to traverse but the views were worth it. I did the hike with a Canadian girl I met at my hostel the night before, her company helped pass the time. FitzRoy, much like Los Cuernos or the Torres in Chile, is also a granite mountain carved away by time and water. It's really a spectacle. This is also the logo for the Patagonia clothing brand. At the base of FitzRoy lies a lake that was frozen over at the time. Kind of eerie walking across it.
View along the trail:
View at the top:
On the way down I took a detour and you could get this view:
Total hike was about 25km or approximately 16 miles.
Now, remember earlier how I noticed that there were some great shots of FitzRoy from outside of town? Well, when I got back to my hostel and loaded up on an Argentine dinner [read: strip steak and french fries topped with two fried eggs and a filled-to-the-brim glass of wine], I got a hankering to go get that photo.
I paid a kid $5 to borrow his bike and after a 10km ride outside of town I caught this view of FitzRoy on Ruta 40:
Also, I may have shattered the Patagonia land speed record on this hog:
From here, I went back to El Calafate and then made my way to Buenos Aires. BA is a nice town, but Argentina is in a horrible recession: terrible for currency exchange but great for eating out at night. You could get a giant steak, a bottle of Malbec, and a side for around $20. I swear, I never saw a vegetable in that city. Every meal was bread, steak, and wine. Not that I'm complaining, personally, but my GI tract was. The empanadas in this town are to die for. I think I ate 3 a day. They're so cheap; you can get an empanada and a beer for $2. I also tried the tango in BA and it's way harder than it looks.
Ventured into La Boca neighborhood and saw the historic Boca Jr's soccer stadium:
Empanada shop:
------
Lastly, remember how I said there would be "more to come" on that tiny town (Punta Arenas) at the tip of South America? Now is that time. I saw a lot of wonderful things on this trip from the mountains, to landscapes, to sunrises, and wildlife, but this sh*tty photo and this moment are both extremely important to me.
This body of water is the Strait of Magellan. In the background lies Tierra del Fuego, beyond that lies Antarctica. Nearly 500 years ago, in 1520, Ferdinand Magellan entered these waters on an attempt to be the first person to circumnavigate the globe. He never saw that vision all the way through, though, as he got himself killed being a dumbass trying to fight native tribesman in what is now the Philippines. Now, in 1834, our aforementioned buddies FitzRoy and Darwin entered this same strait. On that journey, Darwin wrote letters to people back home. In a particular letter to his sister, he contemplated that, "A man who dares waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life."
I sat at this broken pier, looking at those dumb seagulls, thinking about that quote. It sounds silly and obvious, but it's a friendly reminder to not waste our time. Life is too short to live an unoriginal one. I love traveling because it pushes me out of my comfort zone; I sometimes go at it alone because it intensifies that need for adaptability. It's daunting, spending two weeks alone in two strange countries, but I met some great people along the way - people I am still keeping in contact with - and challenged myself physically and mentally. The whole journey was incredibly eye-opening for me, and I sincerely hope yall can experience this part of the world once in your lives. Travel is the one thing you can buy that makes you richer.
Thanks for indulging me. Flame away.
TLDR: If you get the chance to make it to either Chile or Argentina, their respective Patagonia regions deserve your time. It is equal parts humbling, extraordinary, gratifying, and breathtaking. You'll come back a changed human.
