So much has happened since my last update. The last two weeks have been really crazy. I finished up school, said some good-byes and had pretty much the craziest trip of my life thus far. I’ll start with the boring things…
My semester finished up last week at La Católica. My final for my international organizations class ended up being a simulation about the nuclear weapons in North Korea. My team was Japan. I got an A in that class. Yay! I can’t say the same for History of Economic Thought. My test was rough, but all I had to do was pass the class. I also had to write a really long paper for my internship about supply chain transparency and consumer sustainability. But I’m done with that now too!
We also had a goodbye party and Asian food night with my church. I made a lot a lot a lot of pancit. The Chileans loved it. They liked the pot stickers, but had had them before, the curry was too spicy, so I guess my pancit was just right. We hung around my friends house watching miserable youtube cumbia videos and all these Japanese pranks, and I witnessed about 3 Chileans rapping the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire in Spanish. Priceless. I’m definitely going to miss our youth group people from church. My last church service was at a park. We played soccer (I’ve played a lot of soccer here). Yay for me and Sonia playing with all boys! And the pastor took all the gringas up in front of the church and they prayed for us.
So the day after my econ final, we left for Punta Arenas, Chile. We felt incredibly unprepared with our borrowed tents, backpacks, stove, packs and packs of instant noodles, etc. Packing was a huge adventure. Once arriving in Punta Arenas via airplane, we got on two buses to Puerto Natales. These two cities are basically at the bottom of the world. Only one more city, Tierra Fuego lies between these cities and Antartica. We stayed at a hostel in Puerto Natales, found some gas for our small stove, and went to sleep, destined to wake up super early the next day. At 7am, I, Jennifer Jay and Krystal Burns split up with the rest of our group (Cherise and Bibiana- they did other things like seeing the penguins… ) and headed out for Torres Del Paine National Park to begin our 5 day backpacking trek. After a very long bumpy bus ride through rolling pampas filled with Guanacos (kind of like a llama) running around, we arrived at the park. We boarded an over priced catamaran to begin our trek at Refugio Pehoe. On the Catamaran we decided to keep a diary of our journey on Jennifer’s white jacket. We sort of kept up with it.
The catamaran ride was crazy. I am pretty positive the boat was completely covered with water various times. The water was so turquoise; slightly out of place for a lake filled with icebergs, I felt like that color water only belonged somewhere like the Bahamas.
Icebergs:
Glacier Grey!
The first day of hiking was the hardest. We only hiked for 4ish hours, but we also had 5 days worth of food on our backs. We stayed the night in a campsite by the lake and hiked up a hill to get a good view of the glacier later that night. Firsts night’s meal was a hearty Mac and Cheese filled with Spam. That night we weren’t sure we were going to make the entire hike, as our tent pretty much would have blown over if our heavy packs and heavy bodies hadn’t been within it.
We woke up the next day and hiked about 8 hours to the next camp, passing rolling hills, lakes and waterfalls. The final stretch to reach the camp included a pass over a violent river and a suspended bridge moving quite a bit in the wind. That night we made friends with a couple from Oregon, who are traveling the world for one year (South America, then Africa, then China, then Southeast Asia). They were my favorite people I’ve met here in Chile (well at least most inspiring). We shared our leaking boxed wine, and they heated it up with their far superior propane stove. Krystal was happy she didn’t have to carry the wine the next day.
The Precarious Bridge:
Day 3 was an uphill hike up Valle Frances. We actually got lost really close to the top. We lost track of the blazes, so had to backtrack quite a bit. We didn’t have time to get to the top when we found our way back to the path, and it was snowing quite hard, so we made our way back to camp, then packed up our wet and muddy tent and headed to the next camp. That camp was at the base of “Los Cuernos”. I decided on the trail that there would be no way to explain “los Cuernos” nor would the picture do it justice. But look at the picture all the same.
Los Cuernos:
Day four was a very very very long hike to the base of Los Torres. We hiked quite a bit up hill, in ferocious wind (not exaggerating at all), and actually even had to climb this hill with a rope with our packs on. We got to the base camp, made our nasty noodles, made some smores, brushed our teeth in the stream, and went to sleep around 8. We woke up at 3:30 the next morning intending to climb the boulder mountain up to the Torres to watch the sunrise. I have no idea how we got ourselves out of the sleeping bags. It was freezing. I actually didn’t sleep well any night we were there, but it was still hard to get out into the cold. We started climbing around 4:30. The blazes were incredibly hard to see. The hike was a little bit over an hour. But it was more like climbing boulders. The Torres were still pretty astonishing, like something from Lord of the Rings. Alas, it started to snow, and the Torres were all fogged over at the top, so we disappointingly made our way back down, packed up and headed out for a 5ish hour long hike back to administration.
All finished! Super Women:
After 45 miles of trekking uphills and downhills, we were beat but so satisfied.
Things I learned:
I feel like I can handle anything with the proper motivation. And being a girl doesn’t make me any less capable.
I really really really love traveling. And really love the mountains. So who wants to explore all the national parks in CA with me when I get back?
Water straight from melted glaciers is satisfying like none other. Best tasting water of my life.
After talking to a lady in the hostel, I think I really really really want to do this hike in Nepal through all these native towns. Maybe one day. Mount Fuji too. That would be great.
Backpackers are the coolest people ever.
You cannot call a daypack a backpack. That would be a huge understatement.
Downhill really is harder than uphill.
Maggie gets here in the morning! We are going to Buenos Aires in two days. Look forward to that!
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