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 annoying. It seemed like all the big groups with guides were served first. Breakfast was okay - juice, eggs, toast, Nescafe and some weird cheese that tasted a bit unusual.

We finally managed to start the walk just after 9am, but because most people had already left and there was nobody to follow, we had a sudden realisation we might be walking the wrong way. David went back to the refugio to ask directions and it turned out we were in fact going the wrong way.

Having wasted more time, we started again, this time on the correct route, along the road past the campsite and hotel. The track began to climb the hill, up towards Refugio Chileno, but it didn't offer any great views. We stopped a few times on the way and could admire the blue lake that was behind us as we walked up the hill. The wind increased as we gained altitude and with the track becoming narrower as it crossed a steep section of scree, it was becoming a bit of challenge not to be blown off the track into the river valley below.

After just under two hours we reached the refugio and it was packed with people loitering outside, in the entrance and inside as well. We were staying the night so we checked in and left the big rucksack in a locker. There was rain forecast for later in the day, and with the increasing gusty wind, we decided to change into waterproof/windproof pants.

We set off on the next section of the walk to the Torres Mirador, a lookout to the three granite spires towering over a glacial lake and probably the major attraction in the entire park. The track took us through beech forest until it broke the tree line and onto bare rock. The forest section was not particularly steep and bared tree roots were the major hazard. The rock section was completely different though, it was a very steep and hard path to follow. The path wound it's way up river beds and over large rocks.

We had been keeping an eye on the clouds where the Torres were but as we got nearer the clouds started to thicken and lower. The rain that was forecast didn't come, it started snowing instead. As we made our way up and over the crest of the track, after 75 minutes, we had our first view of the glacier lake. Even in the cloudy conditions it still had a nice colour to it. There was no view of the towers though and just to compound the disappointment, it was really windy and cold.

We took a couple of photos and waited for 10 minutes on the off chance that the clouds might just miraculously disappear. They didn't, so we made our way back down the track slowly. With the wind and the snow, following the path across the rocks was not so easy. On a couple of occasions we had to retrace our steps and look more carefully for the pole markers.

As we crossed the last river before getting back to our refugio, we looked back up the mountain and two of the three towers were visible in the thinning cloud. We weren't going to walk back up again though, we just accepted that it wasn't our day.

There were showers in the refugio and to our surprise they had steaming,hot water too. After all the tramping we have done in New Zealand, we have never had the luxury of the hot shower at the end of the day. Our tour package included a Pisco Sour 'welcome' drink, but they had run out and offered extremely large glasses of red wine instead. Bonus!!

The refugio was smaller in terms of the number of people it slept, but it was also a lot smaller in terms of common area space. It also seemed that everybody who walked past, including day walkers, just came in and used the bathrooms leaving them in quite a mess. The dorms also held 8 pax with two beds really high up, on a third level, but we got a bottom and middle bunk. Dinner was quite good, a bowl of soup and then a big pork chop with pasta. There was even a small dessert to finish off the meal. It wasn't gourmet, but it was definitely enough to fill us up and keep us satisfied until breakfast in the morning.