The next destination was a place in Chile called Torres del Paine which is famous for trekking. Our tour gave us the opportunity to do the W trek a three or four day trek in the shape of a W and basically going up and down three mountains. You also have to carry everything on your back for the three days including food and tents etc.
Surprisingly we were considering doing it. But then the price of the rental and campsites proved too expensive for something we weren't overly fussed about. So we decided to stay at the campsite for the next 5 nights with the majority of the group. Because there were so many of us staying back they decided that we could do a day trip into the park to do the first mountain of the W trek.
Our first stop was in Puerto natales (I think) where you rent tents and bags and cooking stoves etc for the people doing the whole hog. The next chore was to buy meals for the next few days as it wasn't included even though technically it should have been. It was a controversial decision from the leader. We also had started the day off late so the hikers couldn't get started today in the afternoon and had to wait till tomorrow morning, everyone was a bit angry.
We arrived at the campsite in the middle of nowhere with cold and terribly windy weather not the nicest place to be camping for 5 days. We did have a lovely view of Torres del Paine every night. There was a huge kitchen area that we could go in yo hide from thew weather but it was still cold, and a lovely posh hotel where we could use the internet and the lovely toilets as ours weren't cleaned the whole time we were there.
The first day we got up super early and drove to the national park to start the trek altogether. After around half an hour of uphill me and three others decided this wasn't for us and Dan and another guy carried on without us. We decided to have a walk around the flat part but it still wasn't that flat. We wasted the time waiting till the others had finished by sunbathing and watching night at the museum 2 at the truck. Dan came back 6 hours later covered in sweat and he said he wasn't that impressed, as the only viewpoint was at the top and the rest of the walk wasn't very scenic. Dan was meant to write this blog but I'm sick of nagging him.
The next day we didn't do very much. I read a book and I'm not sure what Dan did. That night after dinner we all got drunk together till 8am which was much better then hiking for 3 days! The following day I didn't even fully wake up and get out of the tent until 5pm so that day was entirely uneventful. The final day before they got back in the evening from the hike we all used the WiFi in the posh hotel and then everyone came back and told us they had an amazing time so that was nice.
Our final day consisted of truck games and a talent show. I taught people how to do the macarena and Saturday night, it went down well. Others sang, one made up a fairytale with everyone as characters, one read out their best mans speech and our tour leader played the didgeridoo. We barely got through half until the lights went out and the party was cut short. For dinner that night the farm we were staying at slaughtered a lamb for us and we had a spit roast lamb for dinner which was really really really yummy!