Christmas in Patagonia! Torres del Paine...

Torres del Paine. I hiked the infamous "W" over Christmas. It took about four long days, one of which it rained like I have never seen before. Non stop, with hurricane style wind, it would litteraly blow me over. I loved it though. The weather here is very intense and very extreme. I guess you could say its vivid. As far as the hiking went it was more like an upturned E than anything, I set up camps in a strait line and then made three long side excursions. I would say I hiked about 10 miles or so a day. It was a workout! The last day, Christmas day I took a seven mile run to a glacier, I had to run to make it back in time to catch the boat back to town. It finished me off! Great trail and great times!
I spent this Christmas in Patagonia, Torres del Paine. What a treat. It was great, I loved it. I thought it would be lonely or something like that but, it was not, I felt totaly content doing what I was doing. It was a great expirence that I wont soon forget! This is a photo of the Torres taken though the window of my bus on the way back from the park to Puerto Natales. I like it.

Cool old skipper throwing out the rope to secure the boat.

This boat was a beast! And it was my way out. The way I hiked the "W " I ended up at this camp on the lake, and the way back to the buses was this boat, or a five hour hike, I took the boat. It was fun stuff. I could not belive the swells out on the lake. There were, easily, eight foot high rolling waves. Nuts! Wind gusts, enough to blow you over.

I ate so many chocolates this trip, I am litteraly sick! One of my packages had a "suprise" Christmas present inside it was this little tree ornament you could build, I guess that was my Christmas present this year...

Christmas dinner! It was acutualy super good, Adam turned me on to adding a little parmesan cheese to the noodles, it makes things taste so much better! Wow.

I am feeling scruffy, I think this is the longest my beard has ever been, I can feel my mustach on my lower lip! I dont like that.

I didnt plan things to work out like this but I ended up at this nice refugio for Christmas eve. It was a nice place to spend the evening. I could have eaten Christmas dinner here but they where taking advantage of the opportunity, Christmas... backpackers that have no where else to go... 40 bucks a plate, sounds good, charge it. I settled for a 3 dollar coke. It was great.

Christmas camp. Nice.

The bridges where super sketchy. This river was a ripping, glacial fed monster, and this bridge was a pile! No more than two at a time, and that was giving it the benifit of the doubt.

Torres del Paine... Spectacular.

I seriously asked like five people to take my photo, this one worked, the guy was a photographer. I just dont understand how come its so hard to frame a photo. I would get my head and a shoulder and no towers... I just dont know sometimes!