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Chapter 1: The Choice is Made

Well.... Here I am, sitting in the shade, yet still sweating my figurative balls off at my lovely hostel in Moshi, Tanzania, reflecting on our journey here, which started 2 days ago, but really months ago as these things typically do. So, reaching back and considering how this came about, how I'm sitting here, wasn't born of a daydreaming revelation after our previous adventure, as my travel plans typically do. Coming home from our last adventure, remember that grand Patagonia region - if not then I got some recommended reading for you with my other blog: The Grand Patagonia Adventure (hint hint, nudge nudge). I was still so caught up in the high of that trip, didn't want to let it go, holding onto the memories tight in my brain, reliving it over and over again. Man that was an amazing time, the mountains, the hiking, the camping spots, oh Consuela how I miss you dearly... Oh shit I've gotten off track, breath, you're in Africa, focus (this heat might be messing with my head). Anywho, once I could come back to reality, I honestly thought I would be returning to a Latin American country, or possibly several, for our next tour. I love South America and knew there was so much more to discover there and had all intentions of improving my Spanish, heading back down, maybe not as far, maybe do a circuit of Central America, there began talk of Panama, Guatemala, Belize... you get the idea. However, when it came time to decide when we would be able to go, for how long we would be able to take off this year and so on.. We decided that January would be the only realistic time, and 4 weeks is what our circumstances would allow. This brought another significant detail into the picture. January is my birth month, not only that, but I would be celebrating turning the ripe old age of 30! My goodness, I'm going to be a full fledged adult, when did that happen? Now if you know me, you know that I take birthdays very seriously and think that Milestones should also be celebrated with style, basically anything of note is cause for some kind of celebration in my world! But this is a big one. So this trip and the day of my 30th birthday obviously had to be epic.... If I wasn't going to be dressed in a costume and dancing around the streets of Halifax, then what was I going to be doing, and more importantly, where? Whatever I was doing had to be monumental! So then it began, what epic way did I want to spend my 30th? Well out came the bucket list journal to see what younger Shauna had to say about that (she was good for some things I swear). So much of my bucket list involves hikes, long ones, short ones, steep ones, flat ones, red ones, blue ones... Oh dear... There came a full bout of mountain fever. A mountain, of course a mountain, what else could I possibly do but climb a mountain? I mean I'm turning 30... Why not officially embrace over the hill status by going over a really freakin' big hill? Alright well, which one? It's gonna be winter, so somewhere warm would be nice, probably shouldn't choose a mountain in the north where I'll be trekking through knee deep snow for a week to reach (though that would still probably be a good time). Did some research of mountains to climb in Central America, there are volcanos mostly, all of which are basically day hikes, and none grabbed me with the epic factor I was looking for... I needed something bigger, longer, monumental! Near the top of that bucket list was of course Mount Kilimanjaro. I stared at my notes on this one, it had everything I was looking for in an epic birthday trek, Tanzania of course would be warm (as I, sure it is all year round) and beautiful (it's freakin Africa) and have amazing animals so see as well (the Serengeti anyone?) I quickly googled best hikes for January and Mount Kilimanjaro popped up on top of every list I could find, apparently it was the best time to climb, best weather, clearly the universe was trying to tell me something.... So naturally my heart was instantly swollen with that familiar yearning for this to be it, this to be my birthday Mecca. Once I get an idea in my head, a trip in my heart, a grand desire for the perfect adventure, it is very hard for me to settle for another path (impossible really... I'm kind of insane, but in a good way, yes? Hmm). In this moment I felt light as a feather, giddy... You know that feeling of new found love with a person, on like your 10th proper date when your like, wow I can tolerate this person, I want to actually spend more time with them? Well that is what I get when I fall in love with a travel experience, only probably x 10. Come hell or high water I will have it... Wanderlust like fire through my veins, mountain fever making my head swim, jaw aching from the large grin I can wipe off, god damn I love the tortured bliss. As I peruse my notes, I come across my only real challenge, the word I had written in bold and underlined 3 times: EXPENSIVE! It ain't cheap to climb Kili folks, it ain't cheap at all. So what you need to understand about this as opposed to many other climbs and treks, is that there is a ton of regulations/rules/government fees involved with climbing Kili that make it so expensive to do. All prices are shown in US dollars when you do the research, so I'll be a lovely little peach and convert it for my Canadian readers. Let me break it down for you: A 6 day trek (standard) Rescue fee: $26 Conservation fee: ($92 x 6 days) = $552 Camping fee: ($66 x 5 nights) = $330 Porter/Guide entrance fees: $17 each Porter wages: $13.15 x 4 = $53 x 6 days = $318 Assistant guide/cook wages: $20 x 6 days = $120 Guide: $26 x 6 days = $156 Food for 1 person plus crew = approximately $290 Transport: approximately $84 Add all that together and you gettttttt...... $1978 This doesn't include any gear you may need to rent, like a sleep bag or warm jacket. Also you are required to tip your porters and guides so that they can have a decent living wage. You see... It ain't cheap. Now this is obviously negotiated, you can certainly get it for less, this on the high end of the scale for a non luxury company, however you must do so with a bit of caution. The fees are set in stone, which are government regulated and you have to pay, no ifs, ands or buts. You also have no say in the amount of porters you have, the amount they are allowed to carry is regulated by weight, and they actually weigh every bag at the gate to ensure it is so (generally 4 per person, but could be 1 less if you're in a group since certain equipment is shared). You are also only allowed to carry a certain amount yourself, which is significantly less, basically a small day pack. So when it comes to getting a cheaper rate, that means the tour company may have to skimp on certain safety items, equipment, food, or the guides and porters wages (which obviously is a dick move since they don't make much per day for the hard work that it is). Either way, it still ain't cheap. Being the mostly seasonal worker that I am, and avid travel junkie, I had as usual been putting away money for whatever trip I would be going on this winter, and usually by now it's at a pretty decent amount, generally more then I think I will need, so the money existed. However, the real challenge here isn't necessarily the money, it's convincing my boyfriend that we are spending this amount of money on a trip. Now, it's not like Sean is a dream killer or doesn't have the same desire for travel and trekking that I do, but, as most of you know, we had just completed a long not so cheap trip on our last adventure, Consuela took almost as much from our pockets as our hearts, and living the van life in Patagonia isn't the cheapest region of the world to do so. One of the reasons for our thoughts on hitting Central America next was so our dollars could stretch a bit further then they had in Chile and Argentina, then maybe we could consider something a bit more costly for our next trip. So what I will be presenting to Sean is obviously the opposite of that. EXPENSIVE. Why did I have to write that so boldly? So I presented the idea to Sean, and got the response I was expecting, "I thought we were going to do a cheaper trip this year? We aren't rich dear, didn't we just do a trip of a lifetime?" But at no point did an absolute no escape his lips, so I knew, I could wear him down, I could grind on about how wonderful it would be and how it would be a dream trip and oh yeah remember it's my 30th freakin birthday?! Though he kept shaking his head at his silly pipe dream little girlfriend, telling me I'm nuts, saying we will discuss it more when he gets back from sailing, taunting me with indecision... Sure enough, on a glorious day in November, he passes me a piece of paper that it takes me a moment to realize is... His approved leave pass for Tanzania! That shithead had just been teasing me and grinding gears right back at me all this time, though I knew that he would come around to the proper way of thinking, how could he not, how could he deny me? And besides, I already bought the guidebook. So here we are, ready to fork over a small fortune to this delightful and hot country so that we can drink in it's beauty, OD on adventure and meet some enormous kitties (which you get to cuddle right?). Here, sitting in a pool of my own sweat, I look around breath deep and I already know, it's totally worth it.

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We wake up to the stunning views that we had missed on our stealthy mission under cover of darkness into the Park #torresdelpaine #morningdelights

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As the Preparations Continue....

The next morning after our night of excessive beer drinking at Base Camp, I am awoken by my bladder aggressively pushing at my lower abdomen, all those Patagonian Ales from the night before just screaming for release back to their native soil, creating as much discomfort as possible to their foreign host. Head aching for not quite enough sleep yet, I pull open Consuela's door to roll out and relieve myself from this demon, to look around and discover, oh that's right... I am in the middle of a town, not some lovely camping spot of seclusion down by a river as our usual habitat has been of late. My guess it's around 6am, we are parked by a public square that is basically wide open, there isn't much in terms of people walking around, I do see a few down the street, but there are certainly cars passing, mostly cabs and not much in the sense of a sheltered space that I could maybe squat behind without being noticed. Quickly taking a little run around the block, holding on with all my might not to pee myself, there is nothing open, even Erratic Rock is shut up tight. Well, I certainly wasn't going to soil my only set of pants currently in my possession, so I had no choice but to pick a bush in the square and let er go. This of course would be the longest pee ever, I'm sure it must have been a full minute (damn you Patagonia Ale!) and I may have given a cabbie or 2 a show. Men really don't understand how easy they have it when it comes to these situations. Well these quirks are all part of living the van life, and afterwards I got to fall back to the comforting embrace of Consuela for a few more hours of rest, hopefully when I wake again I will be able to have my next call of nature indoors. That day our first course of action was to book our campsites. Before coming, I read many mixed reviews about whether you need to bother with this process, or just book once on the trail, but you are taking a risk that it may be full and you'll have to keep going to the next one, which could add several kilometres to your already long trek of the day. We had also heard that this season has been getting more visitors to the park then ever before, and even though it's the tail end of high season, we should probably be more safe then show up after a day of 25 km of walking and being told no dice. So since we had already this preparation day before going, figured we might as well actually prepare or something silly like that. So, what you need to know about Torres del Paine National Park, and booking campsites, is it's not as simple as you may think. My to date experience with National Parks is that it's government owned/sponsored and you deal with one straight service when it comes to camping, permits, payments, etc.... This is not the case here. The weird thing going on with this park is that it's not just a national park as the name suggests, only a portion is owned by Chile, the rest is owned by 2 private companies, Fantastico Sur (most of the eastern side of the park) and Vertice Patagonia (most of the western side) that operate the camps and refugios and even hotels (this ain't your average park folks), with a range of prices for each style of accommodation, the cheapest of course is just for being allowed to pitch your own tent that you've carried in yourself, as we planned on doing. The park itself also operates 3 of their own campsites that are free (Apparently there was 4, but one has been recently gobbled by one of these companies) with limited facilities, which can also be booked in advance, though we were only planning on staying in 1 of those, the final one at the base of the Torres, the others didn't work for our planned route, so we would be paying for 3 of our camping spots, and needed to visit both companies to make our reservations. Puerto Natales isn't very big and it's pretty easy to walk around and get this done and neither place is hard to find. We stopped at Vertice first, but of course they had stepped out for a bit and the sign on the door indicated to come back later... In traditional South American fashion there was no specific time frame. So we continued on to Fantastico Sur, which was open and we waited while an older German couple were preparing their trip to the park with their limited English skills. Being the nosy person I am, I was Eve's dropping on their conversation and plans. It appears if you aren't going on one of their organized tours, they don't do much in terms of helping you plan out your route and other things pertaining to your trip. This German couple didn't seem to have much of a plan as to what their route was going to be or much sense of the park itself, and the booking agent didn't seem to be offering up any useful information besides the prices of the tents and refugios. From what I over heard, I was uncertain if they truly understood what they were getting themselves into with what they were choosing to do, and appeared to be finishing and expecting to head back from a point that wasn't possible to do so. I'm staring at the booking agent mentally trying to encourage him to give them council, but apparently my ESP powers aren't as strong as I would like them to be. I am contemplating intervening, swooping in there and taking these pour souls under my slightly more educated wing, but as I wrestle with this thought, they've signed things, taken bookings in hand and are exiting the office, my brain screams after them, but nothing audible actually comes out as Sean nudges me to step up to the desk to make our own bookings. To this day I still feel the pang of regret that I didn't at least ask them a few questions to see if their trek would be as sure footed as it could be. We made our bookings for Campemento Grey and Campemento Grande in minutes and left. We headed back over to Vertice, got our booking for Campemento Cuernos, then headed to the Park office for our final booking. There they told us that as of February 1st, we didn't need a booking for their free camps, I asked again just to confirm, but this seemed to be the case, alright then, we set. Bookings done, pretty painless, what now. So we spent the rest of our prep time loading up on supplies/food and searching for new hiking boots for Sean, his current ones were starting to wear out over the course of the trip, but were really done in when he lit one on fire for a moment when attempting to dry them by a campfire (#vanlifestruggles). Planning out our meals wasn't too difficult, we wanted to keep light but also not eat complete crap if we could avoid it (I'll post a picture and description of our food in the next post for those of you who would like an idea on what to bring). The UniMarc in Puerto Natales had plenty of selection to choose from on the food side of things, and I even found myself a small sewing kit to stitch up my day pack that was experiencing a bit of wear n' tear from over use (mostly from Sean squeezing it on his shoulders before loosening the straps after I had been wearing it, his arms are slightly bigger then mine if you didn't notice, apparently he hasn't) and would need a bit of TLC before we hit the trails. From my research I had read about "The Dried Fruit Guy" who has a shop in town with a large amount of snacks perfect for trekking, so we searched it out. Sure enough there was every kind of nut you can imagine to combine together to make the ultimate trail mix (basically one of my favourite things to do) to get your protein fix and huge bins of all the dried fruits you could want from mango and pineapple to bananas and apples, condensed vitamin rich snacks, natures candy, simply wonderful, so yeah, load up there. Finding boots was fairly easy, with the growing popularity of the park and the influx of trekkers flowing into town creates the opportunity for hiking equipment shops to prosper, so there are now plenty to choose from. He chose a brand that was Chilean, so you know it's a functional souvenir, that were fairly inexpensive and seemed good quality (everyone we met that was from around here had camping/hiking gear of this brand so it must be legit enough, guess we will know after a few days of hard trekking). We head back to Base Camp to sit in on their free daily talk at 3pm about trekking the park, highly recommended to anyone doing it, they give you a complete play by play and answer any questions you may have, they also rent any gear you might require, so it's the complete package. Now I had already done a bunch of research (this was my dream remember), and had already chatted with some of the staff so I felt pretty prepared, but thought I would stay for any little tidbits. After the general overview, which was indeed very informative, they open the floor for questions. I could only stand this part for about 5 minutes when I had to walk out of there, the majority of questions had already been answered in the talk, it was as though the majority of these people hadn't listened to a thing she had said, don't understand basic common sense, or had never hiked a trail in their entire life but we're planning to attempt this anyways. I may sound like I'm being harsh or a stuck up trekking snob, but as I exited, I had several others flowing behind me mumbling similar frustrations. But seriously go to this talk if you are planning on attempting the trek, if you've already done your research this will at least confirm the info and allow you to feel prepared and ready for the adventure ahead. We returned to Base Camp for our last fun meal before we planned on setting off to the park for our stealthy entrance and overnight stay with Consuela. The tacos at Base Camp are amazing by the way, we immediately decided that this would be our reward at finishing the trek meal as well. We said pleasant fair-wells to the staff and piled into Consuela for our mission to the park. The drive was simple enough, we stopped for a moment on the side of the road to boil our eggs, not wanting to risk anything with the parks strict no fire or cooking outside of designated spots policy (more on that later) and it took about an hour and half to reach it. However we didn't really consider the difficulty of entering a huge park you've never been to after dark, where there are obviously no lights. Though I had a pretty detailed map, we weren't sure when we had actually officially passed the gate, and there only appeared to be 1 road to follow for a while, we saw some large buses parked on the side of it at one point, that had lights on and a few people around them, but didn't want to ask anyone as we were being sneaky of course, so we kept on, passing lakes and probably amazingly beautiful scenery, definitely something we were missing out on taking the stealthy way in. There were few signs along this winding gravel road, until we came upon a sign directing us to the ferry, which we were planning on getting to in the morning, but was also unfortunately on the opposite side of the park then we were planning on parking our beloved Consuela for the duration. We must have missed a turn, but where? Sean blamed me of course as the navigator (typical), but I'm sure he wouldn't have done much better the the pitch black wilderness. We back tracked to discover that where we had seen those buses parked on our way in, was actually completely blocking a road, the road we were supposed to take, and was now clear as the buses must have been getting ready to be parked away for the night. We made it to the hotel's parking lot much later then we had originally intended, but we made it, and from all appearances we had succeeded in our mission of sneaking passed the entrance fee, so that's gotta be a win. It was late and we figured we would get some sleep and do our packing and getting ready in the morning with light to guide us, we had until noon to catch the ferry, so we figured if we got up at 8am we would have plenty of time to do all that and catch a shuttle over and probably even arrive earlier then most. We rock that this right? As we snuggled in for our last night before the trek in our cozy Consuela, my mind buzzed with excitement, the hike of my dreams, just one sleep away, but I had to get to sleep first. Eeeeeee, I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve, the struggle of excitement vs logic, ok shut up brain, yes it's very exciting, but it won't be here unless you sleep, sleep, sleeeeeppppp.......

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Food for our Torres del Paine trek, 5 days, 2 Trekkers, decent meals! So we didn't want to eat complete crap, so our bundle may have been a bit heavier then others, but really wasn't that much more and well worth it to have good food on those long days of trekking. Supplies need for cooking: We had a small camp stove, one of those twist onto a butane canister (we brought 3 canisters but really only needed 1.5, we left the 3rd at our last camp spot for another Trekker who may need it) 1 small lightweight trekking pot that we had bought in El Chalten We each has a KFS set (knife,fork,spoon) 2 bowls that came from Consuela A sharp multipurpose knife Food we brought: Breakfasts: 10 hard boiled eggs (1 each per day), 5 avocados (half each per day), dried fruit, green tea to put in our thermos. Lunches: 5 buns, salami, cheese to make sandwiches that we would prepare at breakfast time to have ready to grab and eat when the time came. We also brought 5 empty ziplock bags for this purpose. Suppers: Mushroom soup mix, powdered milk and canned mushrooms (emptied into plastic bag) to add more substance to the soup, 2 extra buns with the soup. Ziplock of spaghetti and 2 bags of sauce, meant for 2 suppers (we added bits of salami, cheese, garlic powder and hot sauce to make it better). 2 packages of ramen noodles. We wanted to have a bit of variety in our suppers since everything else would be the same Snacks: trail mix, dried fruit, Sprim flavouring for water, 2 granola bars. Treats: hot sauce and garlic powder to add flavour to various things, highly recommended so as not to have too boring of meals. 1 bar of chocolate, a chunk to reward ourselves for reaching our camp each night. Overall I think we ate great! Certainly better then many people we met on the trails who were envious of our spread, many of them living off mostly crackers and ramen, so I'm glad we took it up a notch. It wasn't too heavy split between 2 people. It was definitely nice to have fresh stuff like eggs and avocados for breakfast, good start to a day of being brutal on your body. The eggs did get a bit squished, but it really didn't matter, I always tried to pack them on the top of my bag to keep them safer. Also kept all snacks and lunch in the top pocket of my bag, easy access while on the trail is key.

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Preparations can be just as important as the Journey

So the time has finally come! The moment I know you’ve all been waiting for, I’m sorry it’s taken so long but I wanted to do this right, it’s such an awesome place and experience that I want to make sure I could capture it properly. So this is the story of our trek at Torres del Paine National Park! Since I have so much to say about this experience of a life time, I’m going to break it down for y'all, each day is it’s own little extreme adventure in itself, and I figured it would be the best way to lay it all out. So here we go! For an adventure like this, preparation for this trip is as much part of the adventure as the trek itself, so we are actually going to start with that! The day BEFORE the day BEFORE our Torres del Paine W Trek: We arrived in Puerto Natales on a Saturday just before supper time, desperately in need of doing some laundry after our El Chalten experience and to prep ourselves for our 5 day trek ahead. Our plan was to have a full day to chill out and gather supplies, then hit the park on Monday for trekking Day 1. So with this plan, priority 1 was finding a laundromat. Before we even left on this adventure, I had done abundant research on the Torres del Paine trek and all information surrounding it, where to get more information, where to book things, where to get gear, what markets to get food (can you tell I was obsessive about this or what?) but unfortunately I didn’t think to dig up anything on laundry (sorry everyone, I’ll be better next time). What I did know, is that there is a Hostel called Erratic Rock, which is joined with Base Camp, a pub/gear rental/trekking information hub that combined are supposed to be the experts on all things Torres del Paine, they must know where to send people to get their sweaty backpacking gear that has been re-worn multiple times on unshowered bodies clean right? We easily find Erratic Rock, park Consuela out front and I pop in to get some info. I’m greeted by a lovely Australian girl named Jenn who advises me of a laundromat a block over that is likely still open, however, since tomorrow is Sunday, it (along with everything else of course) will be closed, so we may not actually get our stuff washed until Monday. Of course the next day is Sunday, I knew that, we are in South America, I knew that, we’ve been travelling here for 5 weeks now and keep running into this Sunday issue, but do you think I thought about that on our way to Puerto Natales and how it may jam up our plans of hitting the trail on Monday? No, of course not, I don’t seem to learn my lesson every week. With this revelation, I chatted a little more with Jenn to confirm that yes, the stores will be closed tomorrow, so getting supplies won’t be a thing, yes the offices of the companies that you book your campsites at the park with (more on that later) are closed, and yes they do serve beer and food next door at Base Camp to help me recover from this unfortunate knowledge. I also inquire about using their showers, which we absolutely can, we can even hang out in their lobby and use their Wifi if we would like, in fact all they ask is for a small donation to one of the programs they support. They have 3 big jars to drop our donations in, 1 for a recycling program that the owners have started in the town and for the park that hadn’t existed before, 1 for planting trees in the park that have been consumed by accidental fires (more information on that later), and 1 for animal shelters in the area that most of their staff volunteer at. To top it all off, they have a kitten living there. Hmmm, I think I’m going to like this place. Before taking her up on that offer, we head to the laundromat, which is still open, but as Jenn had expected, they informed us our clothes would not be done until 4pm on Monday as they are closed on Sunday and closing soon for the day. Well, guess we are hitting Torres del Paine on Tuesday instead, no big deal really, we will still have enough time to make it back to Punta Arenas and do what we want to do there before we fly home (arghhhh…. let’s not think about the flying home part yet). We however will only have 1 set of clothes to wear for 2 days, for me that means no underwear and a pair of lose fitting fleece leggings that I generally wear over top of other leggings when it’s cold out camping or hiking. I discover almost instantly that these don’t stay up very well and need to basically keep a hand on them while walking to keep the world from seeing my bare ass, this is going to be good. We head back to Erratic Rock and enjoy some warm pleasant showers, then some pleasant relaxing time in the lobby and check in with the internet world, and chat with some pleasant fellow Trekkers before heading out to find some food. Honestly, if you re in Puerto Natales, stay at Erratic Rock, it’s a home on the road kind of place, the staff are really cool and it’s just awesome, if we didn’t have out lovely Consuela we would have definitely checked in there for the night, but try to book in advance, their awesomeness seems to be well known and they fill up quickly. On the food hunt, we decided to save Base Camp eating for the next day (it appears pizza and tacos are their thing) though we plan on having a few drinks there later, and since we are camping out on the street in town tonight, we might as well treat ourselves to a nice meal. We discovered to our disappointment that there were many places that weren’t open until much later (typical), but we were hungry now and I was getting frustrated with all this walking around trying to keep my pants from falling to my ankles. We finally come upon a place that’s open, looks pretty plain on the outside, but when we walk in, the place looks way too fancy and possibly expensive for us in our last resort laundry day clothes. The waiter greats us with a smile wearing a very smart apron, crisp white shirt and bow tie combination and escorts us to a beautifully set table with expertly folded linen napkins and perfectly polished wine glasses. Hesitantly picking up the menu I’m dreading what such a swanky place will end up costing us and if it would be rude to get up and hightail it out of there (hopefully without dropping my pants of course). To my surprise everything on the large menu seems to be moderately priced, maybe even a little cheaper then other places we’ve treated ourselves with. It’s a good damn thing, I was ready to start gnawing off Sean’s fingers for sustenance at this point and didn’t know if I could make it to another place without doing so. We both order different versions of a fish dish that is apparently a specialty around these parts and sit back to enjoy our Patagonia Ales. We are only 1 of 2 tables when we arrive (remember this is much before dinner time for Chilean standards), the other being a rude pair of Chinese men that keep calling the waiter (who was also ours) over while they were waiting for their food and loudly insisting in broken English that there wouldn’t be any salt in their food as they requested it, harshly commanding “No salt, No salt!” Our waiter was the most pleasant man you could imagine and kept himself perfectly professional, polite and perfect through each interaction (this happened 4 times before they received their meals) while I personally was having visions of the lovely ornamental light fixture above them coming loose and falling on their heads. More people began to show up, most of which were tourists and backpackers, and each time we got to witness the same evolution of expressions on their faces as we likely had upon our entrance as well, the look of joy to find a place that was open, turned to shock and dazzlement at the fine dining appearance and the tentative glances at each other wondering “do we belong here?” Well I’m sure glad we weren’t intimidated by this place, our food was amazing, maybe the best meal I’ve had so far, the waiters were just awesome, best service I’ve had in a long time. We left a big tip on the table, thanked the waiter for everything (I really wanted to give him a big hug and maybe a check pinch) and as we left I had a pulling in my heart telling me to go back there again. Sadly we never did make it back. We headed back to Basecamp for some drinks, where we met plenty of recently returned from the Park backpackers who were there to drop off rented gear and have a beer to wind down from the long trek. It was nice to talk to these people and got a bunch of tips and information from them. We also learned that there was apparently a sickness raging through the Park and hikers had been dropping like flies to this illness, symptoms were mostly vomiting and feeling like garbage, obviously making it a terrible thing to contract during a long hiking and camping trip where hiking out is your only option of rescue. Everyone seemed to come back blaming the water, and a few seemed angry at the Base Camp staff who had told them the water was safe to drink and they wouldn’t need to filter it. The wonderfully patient guy at the rental shop calmly insisted to each of these slightly rude (or stupid assholes, whichever term you want to go with) that it likely wasn’t the water, unless you used the water right in or downstream from the camping area (which they advised against in their talk) but the close quarters in the camping areas and people being generally unhygienic, not washing or sanitizing their hands (like they had also suggested that you do in the talk) and other gross things then using the cooking facilities. Having lived in a tree planting camp for several years of my life this is all been very ingrained in my head (and also basic common sense right?) so I wasn’t too worried about falling victim to this illness and would be taking precautions even if I hadn’t heard of it. Either way this wasn’t going to stop us from embarking on the trek I have been dreaming about for quite some time now, it was 2 days away, I could taste it and it tasted pretty darn fresh. We spent the rest of the night swapping trekking stories with our fellow wanderers and drinking a decent amount of beer, we weren’t leaving until Tuesday so why not get a buzz on. I ended up having a great chat with the owner of Basecamp, a really cool guy originally from Oregon who came down here for trekking, fell in love with the park, never wanted to leave so built a business here with his brother (who owns the Erratic Rock Hostel side) and has been living the dream ever sense. I just adore meeting people like him, so inspiring, I will chuck that in the back of my brain log as something I could do someday, it’s obtainable! I told him about Consuela and our plan to drive there instead of taking the bus like everyone else and asked if he knew whether it’s chill to just park her there for 5 days and where we should do it. He inquired as to which direction we were planning on hiking (which was east to west) and suggested that it would be a good idea to park it where we were going to end up so we wouldn’t have to figure out a way to the other side of the park after hiking for 5 days, and since we wouldn’t be able to gage what time we would get off the trail to know when a shuttle would be available to do so anyways (this is a smart man folks). Then in a hushed voice he gave us another tip, apparently after 8pm, there is no longer anyone monitoring the gates to the park, which are always open, until 8am the next morning, so if we arrived the night before we could get in without paying the $28 each fee, sleep in our van overnight and beat the crowds to entering the next morning (scratch that, this man is a genius). Looks like we got our plan in place. We spent time pouring over the huge map of the trails on the wall, deciding which campsites we were going to try for based on how much we felt we could walk each day (much of which I had decided with my epic pre-trip planning skills). We had our sights on doing what some call the extended W, which covers more kilometres per day, and allows you to reach a part that only the full “O” or “Q” hikers normally get to see, I think we are up for the challenge. Wow I haven’t even gotten to the preparation day yet, geez I have a lot to say when it comes to this trek, should probably cut this off here, that’s enough for one post. Sorry it’s taken so long for me to post this, I haven’t had so much free time for writing since my return and retirement from the Van Life, back in the civilian world of working and making social plans… But I guess I get to relive and daydream myself back into that beautiful land through writing about it, which is just wonderful, my memories of it are still so clear and vivid, it obviously left and impression, hopefully I can pass that on to you. And so I shall.

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If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It is lethal

Paul Coelho

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The view leading into El Chalten is breathtaking.... when it’s not pouring rain that is. So glad we got to capture it on the way out!

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Hike to Cerro Torre, another amazing mountain outside of El Chalten, such an amazing area.

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Damn that Mother Nature knows how to paint a beautiful world

We are northbound once again on the famous Ruta 40 in search of, what else, mountains! We have heard from many a traveller we've met along the way that El Chalten is a trekker and mountain chasers paradise, you are treated with views of the amazing peaks for kilometres before you reach the town and it just gets better from there. It's less busy then the famous Torres del Paine National Park, but just as stunning, easily accessible since you can hike right out of town and the camping on the trails is free! So naturally we are pretty excited for this particular destination. We are leaving El Calafate on a Sunday, so nothing is open, as is tradition, and no one who actually lives here is doing anything or going anywhere, so the streets are pretty empty as we navigate our way out of town (luckily the gas station is open, thank goodness, but without its usual 10 car line up at every pump). Right outside the town gate we are greeted with an abnormally huge line up of foreign hitchhikers holding up signs and waving hoping to catch a ride with one of the only vehicles actually travelling on this day of rest. However, basically everyone appears to be travelling south towards the famed Torres del Paine, so we sadly can't offer them assistance, they may be out of luck today. Further up the road at the turn off towards the northern route, we see 2 girls jumping up and down flailing their arms on the side of the road so we pull over. These 2 French girls were indeed heading to El Chalten, and very grateful to finally get a ride, they had been waiting for quite some time and only seeing a few cars pass them by. We learn from these girls that the reason there are so many more hitchhikers here is that they apparently hike up the prices of buses out of El Calafate, since so many people go there to see Perito Moreno and it's right in the middle between El Chalten and Torres del Paine. The cost for them would have been about $120 CAN each to either destination for the 3 hour drive! That is pure robbery! At prices like that I would certainly be sticking out my thumb as well. There's not a whole lot to see for most of the drive, which seems to be the theme throughout Patagonia, large sections of magnificent beauty, that suddenly end and become long strips of nothingness, until you are met with starkly different landscape. In this case it becomes a desert, with hills and rock formations that shares a resemblance to Arizona. Somewhere on this desert strip, I grab my cd case to pick a new soundtrack and open it to discover an earwig in it. Blurg! I'm not particularly creeped out by bugs generally, I actually find spiders fascinating and will let them roam around anywhere they please, I also shrug at many other bugs, even if they're crawling on me, but for some reason earwigs give me the heebie-geebies. So of course my instant reaction is to hang the cd case out the window and flap it around to rid it of the vial creature, because that's a smart thing to do with winds gusting at probably 50 mph. As to be expected, a few CDs were whipped out of the case along with the creepy crawly earwig, and sent on a flight in the other direction of our driving route. We did turn around in attempt to look for them, but I knew in my heart that they were lost forever, consumed by the far reaches of the desert, destined to float around in the wailing wind for all eternity. After inspecting the case for what was lost, I deduced that it was a few of the burnt "Shauna's Mix" that hailed from the late 1990's, maybe some Argentinian farmer will pick it up and have a blast jamming to Casey and JoJo, Eminem and Cher, well you're welcome! Soon after, as we were approaching about an hour away, clouds started blowing in and very soon it was dark and pouring rain, which continued for the rest of the trip. Though we weren't out in the rain, this impeded us from having the amazing welcoming view that everyone had told us about approaching El Chalten, which I'm sure was a wonderful sight, but we weren't going to be witnessing that today. Dropping the girls off in the town centre, we had plans on making it further past the town to Lago del Desierto, where we thought would be a nice spot to chill out for 2 days, take a day off from driving and actually stay at a campsite for more then one consecutive evening. It was a bit farther then we had anticipated, slow because of the rain and being on a gravel road, we saw a few other campsites along the way, but we were determined to reach the end of the road. Though we were certainly in a super beautiful area, surrounded by gorgeous mountains, we unfortunately couldn't see any of it, no view = longer feeling drive. When we finally arrived we located the small office/shop/house of the owners of the small campsite at the end of the road, paid them for a 2 nights stay and they assured us that tomorrow would be a much clearer nice day, to which we were very hopeful. We woke the next day to indeed a very nice sunny day, our campsite we discovered was a beautiful spot looking straight at the mountain and Huemul Glacier, we picked a good spot for a 2 day break. Though it may sound strange to someone who hasn't done much travelling before, but you sometimes need a vacation from wandering, this kind of travel is like a full time job, seriously, it's true, my fellow gypsies know what I mean, HOLLLLLA! So we were able to have a relaxing breakfast in the sunshine, sit around for a while and made plans to hike up to the glacier when we felt like it, which was apparently only a short 40 minute hike from the campsite. Since to reach the trailhead you must walk through private land (the land that belongs to the owners of this campsite), they are able to charge a fee (about $6) to people wishing to hike up to the glacier to access it, a pretty sweet deal for them. Shuttles from El Chalten bring people down here for it and other trails in the area as well. Because we were already camping on the private land there was no need to pay, so we headed on up. It was a super nice and fairly leisurely hike, with panoramic views of the valley that we had missed seeing on our drive in. After lunch we also checked out the trail that follows the other side of the lake, the length was apparently 12 kms, a 5 hour hike but we didn't go the whole way, just about an hour and a half in (we are on vacation remember, that's a work day kind of hike). But it was very nice and I would recommend trying out the whole thing for sure if you find yourself down there, we think that it may end with a campsite, but we never confirmed that, there's also boats you can take to the end of the lake, but also unsure where exactly that ends up (again, inquires like that aren't for a day off). Overall, Lago del Desierto is a very pretty, chill spot with nice hikes if you find yourself looking for more around El Chalten. After our vacation, it was time to get back at it, a new task to accomplish on our travel job laid out in front of us, get to Mount Fitz Roy! On our route back there was a large waterfall that was described as only an hour hike, so we stopped off, after 10 minutes of walking we arrive at the waterfall, so that was a bit exaggerated. The waterfall was indeed impressive, but since we are us, we thought this couldn't possibly be all there was to the hike, so we start hunting around for more. We soon find a path leading up to the top of the waterfall that no one else's following, perfect! There was a point in the path that looked as though we had to do a bit of rock climbing up the cliff to make it, after contemplating for a minute and about to attempt it, Sean makes a quip that likely if we went a bit further we would find an easier path up that a granny could accomplish, so we try for that and sure enough, there was that type of path exactly slightly passed it, see we make smart decisions most of the time. This path lead to the top and beyond to a secondary waterfall, bonus! We likely could have gone up the next one to see if there were more, but this time would definitely have involved some serious cliff climbing, so we decided to head back instead. Driving back into El Chalten, though it was no longer raining, the cloud cover was still impeding our view of the giant, why are you avoiding us Fitz Roy, get your peak out here! We had heard from other trekkers that they were disappointed on their hikes and not getting to really see the famous mountain, the weather had been terrible here for about a week now, but we planned on making the hike in to camp at the base no matter what the weather the next day anyways. I was stirred awake the next morning by Sean nudging me saying "Babe... Babe... look out the window!" So slowly I pushed up my eye mask, rubbed some sleep from my eyes and pulled the curtain aside. It took me a moment for my eyes to adjust in the bright light I was met with, but soon they came into focus and widened at the sight before them. Wow, there it was, the amazing backdrop to the town, a series of towering peaks above it without a single cloud in the way, the tales were true, we hadn't even started hiking towards it yet and I was already stunned by its majesty! So once again, Mother Nature was clearly sending us a message, "You deserve to have the greatest hiking and travel experience ever, cause you're so awesome, and you are my favouritest little trekkers in the world!" Thanks Mother Nature, big fan of your work! We get ourselves packed up for an overnight stay: tent, sleeping bags, pack pillows, compact air mattresses, camp stove and pot, bowls, kfs, change of clothes, rain gear, sunscreen, water bottles, headlamps, baby wipes, 3 cameras, a partridge in a pear tree, all stuffed into our trusty packs, you know, usual stuff. We stop into the town's mercado to find ourselves some food to bring, which didn't have a very wide selection of items, but for trekking supplies you generally don't need much more for cooking options then soup packets, pasta sauce and spaghetti, or instant mash potatoes, especially if you're only going for a few days, so it was adequate. Other folks were definitely taking advantage of the beautiful clear day for a hike, so we weren't alone on the trail, so it was certainly also a good day for people watching. One of things I always find so interesting on easily accessible, popular trails, is the attire people choose to wear for a hike like this. Mount Fitz Roy can be reached right from the town (literally the trailhead is off of the Main Street) and it's the #1 thing to do if you are there (basically the main reason you would be there in the first place), so if you're in El Chalten, you're hiking to Fitz Roy, or at least the first Mirador viewing point. This means that even people who aren't normally trekking enthusiasts, and who've possibly never set foot on a trail that's not a walking path in a town park, who find themselves here, are still likely doing this hike. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love that hikes like this force others to push their boundaries, comfort levels and fitness potential, would gladly give a high five to anyone who is attempting this regardless of their experience, and believe that the stunning beauty of his mountain should be viewed by everyone as close as possible, but I can still be entertained by their get ups. There were many people who were wearing pretty thick jeans, dress coats and boots, not hiking boots, I'm talking stylish boots that one would normally wear with jeans and a peacoat. Since it was a hot day, they were obviously sweating bullets by the time they reached the first kilometre mark, which in usual hiking to a mountain fashion, is straight uphill. The other spectrum is the girls wearing jean shorts and flip flops, struggling not to slip out of their footwear as they march upwards. I even saw a girl in skinny jeans and platform boots, whaaaa?! This hike to the finish at Lago Los Tres is 10 kilometres, now it's not uphill the entire way, but it's not an easy trek, and I still stifle a giggle of pity as I climb passed these poor soles, thinking about how their feet are going to feel when they reach the 10 kilometre mark, enjoy the view and a moment of rest, only to realize that they have 10 kilometres back to town to trod afterwards. I didn't believe there are actually people that go on a trip without at least a pair of sneakers, especially to the hiking capital of Argentina, but I stand corrected, power to them for giving it a go anyways! For our properly booted feet, the hike was great, a steep start, but as soon as I was faced with the amazing view of the mountain that you get to stare at for the next 6 kilometres, it felt like I was floating there on a cloud. The weather stayed beautiful the entire way to the Poincenot campsite (free!), at the base of the mountain, where we set up our tent and fill up our water bottles to continue the hike up to the Laguna. This portion of the hike is only about 1 km, but takes about 1.5 hours due to the steepness, and we were very happy we didn't have to do this portion with our full packs. With Mother Nature still smiling on us, we reached the top with the perfectly clear view of the amazing sprawl of Mount Fitz Roy, this hike takes you so close to the mountain, it feels like you can reach out and touch it. Wow, just wow.... I really can't describe it much better then that, words really can't capture what we were seeing. We spent a considerable amount of time up there, the benefit of camping at the base is you aren't in a rush to get back out, though it is certainly possible to do the 20 kilometres in a full day hike, quicker to do without a full pack (and proper footwear) which many people do, we were very happy with our choice to camp, and I would highly recommend it. Camping at the base also means you have the opportunity to wake up and watch the sunrise creep across the mountain face, bathing it in a warm orange light, right from the campsite, no nighttime steep hiking required! We set our alarms for 6 am with hopes on witnessing this marvel, however when it went off, we discovered that Mother Nature was no longer smiling, but sobbing and her mood darkening the sky with clouds. Oh well, she has treated us so well this far, and we really aren't morning people anyways, so we were fine with staying snuggled in our sleeping bags for a bit longer instead. When we awoke a couple hours later, it was a beautiful clear day again, maybe Mother Nature just wasn't a morning person that day either. The hike back out was a simple affair, on another beautiful day, and we made our way back to Consuela fairly quickly. The next day we decided to do a day hike to Cerro Torre, another series of famous peaks in the area. This hike can also be done from the trail to Mount Fitz Roy, you can join most trails in the area together to do longer stints of several days hiking and camping, if I were to do it over again, I would choose to do at least these 2 hikes together in 3 days and 2 nights of camping. But it was still a nice, definitely easier hike then to Fitz Roy, and also a very nice mountain to view, this whole area really is gorgeous. We certainly could have spent a least a week in El Chalten, there are so many awesome hikes large and small to discover, the town itself is quaint, has some cozy restaurant and is full of chill adventurous people, it truly is the trekkers paradise we were lead to believe it was. On the way out, it being a beautiful day that we didn't get on the way in, we stopped to take a few pictures and appreciate the amazing entrance to this lovely little town, and it didn't disappoint. El Chalten is truly a picture perfect town built for an awesome purpose, you can almost hear a voice calling out it from a distance: "Get them people to the mountains!" Love Mother Nature. Well.... If you insist.

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I love finding geocaches at famous places #geocache #torresdelpaine

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Keeping with the animal theme, emus where everywhere, and awesome

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I tried to befriend a Fox multiple times, my idea was that it would live with us in our van and join in our travels and be our exotic pet. Sadly none of them went for it

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Seeing horses roaming basically everywhere we went was nice #freethehorses

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Southern Caracaras liked to creep around campsites to scavenge for food on Tierra del Fuego, they certainly weren't shy #birdsoftheworld

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When living the van life, spoiling yourself can be as simple as buying more comfortable chairs. You have no idea how happy we were to find these beauties #vanlife #simplepleasures

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Beavers are messing up so many things in Patagonia. But destruction has its own beauty #beautyindestruction

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The perfectest day to hike up to Mount Fitz Roy.... man, can a mountain get any more stunning then this??