Yesterday Kaya and I stumbled, smelly, sore and tired, back into the hostel after our 4 day epic hike up and down and around Torres del Paine in Patagonia. Okay, so four days is probably not that impressive, but as a first time hiker I thought I did pretty well. There was an 8 day hike option too but we have to be in Buenos Aires for when Mel arrives so we went with the shorter option (that was our rationale anyway).

We were warned that it is Patagonia so it will rain and it will be windy and the weather will change in an instant. We hired all our gear from town, including our super light tent and very snazzy looking hiking poles (ski pole looking things). Apparently the poles can help take up to 15% of our weight and came highly recommended. So, all kitted up with waterproof, windproof, weightproof gear, we headed for the hills to try our luck.

All up we walked over 55 kilometers in 4 days and covered some amazing country. Each day it was like we were in a different landscape. The first day we followed a glacial lake to the first campsite. The water comes straight off the glaciers so is an amazing milky aqua colour.

Day 2 we hiked up a gully to the top of the lookout overlooking crazy rocky mountains. We'd had pretty good weather so weren't surprised when the rain came in but it wasn't too bad and cleared up in a couple of hours. We sheltered under some rocks for lunch then heads back down the gully. The wind was impressive too - nearly sends you off the side of the walkway.

Unfortunatly I'd left my coordination somewhere back at camp and managed to fall over a ridiculous amount of times - first fall I smacked my right forearm, second fall smashed my left forearm (have a lovely bruise from that one), third time I rolled my right ankle and then I smashed my left knee. Pretty impressive I thought - and Dan and Kaya were clearly impressed with my ability to even it up with something to each limb.

That night the campsite we stayed at had a shower which was an incredibly welcome luxury. Unfortunately I didn't have a towel with me so had to improvise - using the dirty sock I'd warn all day to dry myself. Such a lovely conculsion to my shower, but still well worth it.

Day three was defiantly the most challenging. It was an uphill hike all day long. Just constantly trudging up and up and up. 25kms in one day but we eventually made it all the way to the campsite and then up the very steep incline to the Mirador (lookout) to watch the sun set. We were so tired by the time we got there we pretty much just laid down in front of it appreciating the view with eyes mostly closed.

Yesterday we had an easy 2 hour hike back down the mountain to the bus which brough us into town. Blessed shower and blessed matress!

Tomorrow we're off again, this time to Buenos Aires via a 7am bus, then another bus then we hang out at the Rio Gallegos airport until 2.55am for the cheap flight into BA.

xoxox

Ps - there is a chance I have bed bugs. Gross I know. I've been eaten alive by some sort of insect but i'm holding out hope it was just sandflies and not hideous, extremely difficult to get rid of bed bugs. Kaya maintains they're not bed bugs so I'm going with her diagnosis - she is a nurse after all.