Currently I am staying in Puerto Natales, Chile. A beautiful town in the patagonia region. One of the big highlights for people to do while here, is visit the park Torres Del Paine. I knew coming here that I was going to visit this park and I had seen pictures of what the park had to offer. I must say my research skills for this particular place were not up to par. Thank goodness for my friends who told me what to bring becasue I was thinking it would be a nice, easy hike up to the base of these mountains. Was I ever wrong

I am writing this while trying to stretch my legs, becasue I think I hit a personal record of steps taken in one day. I reached 43,00 steps! These steps were recorded on my phone which was in my pocket, and part of me thinks if I had my apple watch on, how many more there would have been. By the end of the hike I was sweating so much, that in between my fingers were damp. My feet were on fire and all I could think about was if I sit down I will not get back up, so I pushed fast to the end.

But I am getting ahead of myself, lets start at the beginning of the day. We woke up at 6am. Thankfully we had a good breakfast, oatmeal, banana, and eggs. We caught a bus at 7am and had a smooth 2 hour bus ride to get to the park. One thing about this park is that when you are a tourist, it is very expensive to get into the park. If you are chilean the price is a third of what it is for a tourist. Once at the park we had to stand in line for 30 minutes to get our park passes (if you are going, buy your tickets online ahead of time, because it causes delays). Once we had our tickets and everyone went to the bathroom one last time we were off.

We started the hike at 10am. Also when I say “we”, I went with a group of friends. Two italians, two chileans and me, the lone canadian. You start off walking in a grassy area and up some small hills. Nothing crazy and felt good. The weather was beautiful to the point we all took our jackets off and were sweating. After about an hour we all began to feel it. The entire hike was up hill. Two reasons I am the idiot on this hike- 1. I brought so many layers and things in my backpack that it weighed about 10 pounds (way too much) 2. I wore a toque with my hair down, I was so hot and wanted to take my toque off, but I never brought a pony tail. The one thing I always have except the time I need it. I had to do the whole hike with my head full of sweat. Also may I mention 90% of the climbers were going up with hiking poles (I did not have these and I fully think on this particular hike you need them).

After about 2 hours we arrived at our first rest stop. There is a little area to fill up your water and picnic tables to eat at. We filled our water with fresh water and sat down for 20 minutes to eat some nuts, and yogurt. (also shoutout to my friends for taking us shopping and getting nutrients for the hike). At this point we are almost halfway. We were all excited so after this break we were feeling refreshed.

We continued on and one of the things that was amazing to me was the different landscapes we passed through. We started through grass patches, hiked up little grass hills, walked on paths in dried riverbeds, walked through a forest along the river and then up a full rocky mountain with no path just huge boulders you climb over. At one point there was a sign saying only 45 more minutes but extremely difficult with lots of exclaimation points. And oh boy was it hard. I had a lot of moments that I had to work through to tell myself to keep going. It was hard. Our group was seperated as some were in better shape and wanted to just keep going. Myself however needed some breaks and needed to go at my own pace. After what I felt was an impossible last hour I made it to the base of torres del paine. A beautiful frosty lake at the bottowm of these three tower peaks. It was a beautiful sight but felt better that I had accomplished this. We sat and ate some tuna sandwiches and took pictures. After a 45 minute break it was time to start the hike back. It took about four and a half hours to get to this point. We were hoping for a shorter hike back becasue we were in a rush and had to cath a bus.

The way back was easier physically but it was even more difficult mentally. I kept thinking what point is this and how much longer. We pushed through and got back to the main area after three hours. My feet were so sore and my legs felt like giving out but we made it and that felt the best. We got back on our bus for 8pm and got home by 10pm. I felt almost delusional from physical and mental exhaustion, so we had some crackers and electrolytes and went to bed. Might I add I am currently living in a tent at a campground, so the comfort of a bed was not enjoyed but I was able to fall alseep fast.

Overall it was a really challenging day but it made me proud of myself for completing something that had got into my head so hard.

A few tips for if you are ever planning on going, prepare and research before because you will need to plan out everything.