Then we were on our way to the Torres Les Paine National Park and the famous W-treck, from Lago Gray lookout via Lago Peho - Franches lookout - Los Cuernos to Torres lookout, where the path you walk resembles a W.

The normal starting point for the Torres del Paine National park W treck for most travelers is the Chilean city Puerto Natales.

We arrived Puerto Natales Saturday night and found us a rather shady but cheap hotel in the outskirts of the city. Because of the bad housing standard we were eager to leave for the national park early, but since everything was closed in Puerto Natales on Sunday we could not leave before we had booked our cabins and bought our food for the treck.

Opposed to the Norwegian Mountain Cabins, the Chilean refugios do not have extra space if you arrive unannounced. Because of this the National Park seems to be more suitable for camping. In Puerto Natales we could rent camping equipment too, but since the prices for renting camping equipment and reserving a bed at the refugios did not differ substantially camping did not become the obvious choice, as it would have had if we brought our own gear. Furthermore, when we saw that the weather-forecast predicted two days of heavy rain, we opted for the more comfortable option and booked a spot at the refugios.

But the prices at the refugios where not exactly cheap either. In comparison with the prices for a bed in Norwegian mountain cabins the Chilean refugios actually had a higher fee. We therefore decided to cut some cost by bringing our own breakfast, lunch and wine. This also proved to be quite a good deal as the 2 liter bottle we bought for 20 NOK was priced for 70 NOK per 0,5 liter at the refugios.

We left for Torres del Paine 14.30/2.30 pm, and after a 3 hour buss-ride, a 30 minute security brief from a park ranger and a 30 minute boat ride we finally arrived at the left part of the W-treck 18.30/6.30. What we had learnt from the park ranger at the security brief was that we were not allowed to walk the different routes after 18.30/ 6.30 pm because of the risk for accidents. This became a problem for us, since we had a booking at Refugio Lago Gray that evening, which was at the top of the left W rougly a 11 km walk. We therefore thought that our booking for the Refugio Lago Gray that we had made earlier in the day was money out the window, since we would not be allowed to walk too it. But the young Ranger that worked at the station at Lago Peho, just said that we had to ´Caminan rapido´ and that everything would be alright.

The Ranger at the security brief claimed that the walk from Lago Peho to Lago Gray (the lower left W to the high left W) would take roughly 5 hours. The map we received estimated the walking time to take 3,5 hour. We, however, walked the stretch on 2 hours 15 minutes, which allowed us to arrive at the refugio before nightfall. A French couple that set out on the walk together with us from Lago Peho, which also had a reservation at Refugio Gray did not arrive before 1 hour 30 minutes later, after we had finished our dinner. At this point we regretted that we did not bring a Norwegian flag to boost the Norwegian nature-mountain reputation a bit further.

The trek continued to go quite well over the next 3 and a half days and we were allowed to see the most impressing sights of the Southern Patagonia landscape. We also had a swim in the glaciar lake: Lago Nordenskjöld, which were named after a Swedish biologist, and got to talk with a bunch of other treckers which were just as impressed as us with the sights.

Among the fascinating people we met on this treck was a Israeli lawyer who loved Norway and had vacated there about 10-15 times. He was especially found of the Geiranger fjord and had a business idea to produce small flags for cars and sell them in Norway for the 17th of Mai. He was arranging travel trips to Scandinavia every year, but just as a hobby because he still was working as a lawyer back home. Apparently he also had been closer to the terrorist attack in Norway on the 22 July, than he ever had been to any of the attacks in Israel which he found incredible ironic. I guess his great passion for Norway and Scandinavia had developed from a crush he had on a Danish girl during an exchange trip in high school.

We also met an Italian guy from Firenze that spoke Norwegian, who held a PhD in Bio-chemistry and had worked in a farm near Stange for one year. He lived for the moment in Brazil where he had held a Post-doc position, but he was planning to head home for Italy after he was done with the travels in Patagonia. He missed Italian food a lot and started to become nostalgic when he in Norwegian with an Italian accent was talking about Italian spring, pasta and Italian wine.

I recommend those who like nature hikes to take a trip to Torres del Paine. Even if the climate is similar to the Norwegian, the views are different. But bring a bottle of wine to the treck, so you do not have to pay for expensive stuff they sell at the refugios.