Despite having 8 people in the dorm, it was a very peaceful night and we slept well. David was awake at 6:30am, which wasn't much earlier than the others. Everyone was keen for an early start, we were all walking the same route and it was the longest of the walks. We needed to walk about 23km and it was expected to take around 11 hours. We were booked in the first breakfast sitting and started early at 7:25am. It was the usual breakfast - Nescafe, juice, porrid...

The refugio in Chileno, despite having more beds per dorm, was much quieter than last night. Even David managed to sleep through the entire night and not snore. The sleeping bags that were on the beds were really warm and even the slight cold from the room couldn't penetrate them so we slept really well compared to the previous night. We were scheduled for the second sitting of breakfast again, but we did manage to eat earlier than the assigned 8:30am slot. It se...

There was supposed to be a quiet period in the refugio from 10pm until 7am but people didn't seem to pay any attention to that. The building wasn't particularly soundproof either so most people heard the few who loudly went to bed after 11pm and those who started their morning conversation before 6am. With all the snoring as well, it wasn't the best night's sleep ever. Having to wait until our scheduled 8:30am breakfast, after being awake so early, was quite an...

The delayed trip into Torres del Paine National Park might have been a blessing in disguise. As forecasted, it was an overcast morning which threatened rain any minute. After another filling breakfast, we arranged to rent a locker from the hostel for the 5 days we would be away before returning on Friday. We needed to store most of our stuff and for 500 pesos a day it seemed reasonable to know it was securely locked and monitored by CCTV. The locker looked quit...