Time to don the hiking boots again, this time for the 5 day "W Trek" in the Torres del Paine national park. Unfortunately this has nothing to do with the chain of luxury hotels of the same name, rather the rough shape of the route followed.

After yet another rude early awakening, a coach took us and many other fools the couple of hours or so to the park entrance. After shelling out the entrance fee, watching an instructional video about park rules and signing an affidavit (it seemed overkill but more on this later), another bus transferred us the short (but an hour walk) distance to the official start of the east to west trek, the Hosteria Las Torres.

Day 1 : blue skies dotted with clouds, reasonably warm with a refreshing breeze. The 4.1km to the first refuge was generally uphill and to be honest a bit of a struggle in the heat and fresh legs. Still, there were commanding views over the park to distract us.

Not surprisingly we had not opted for the camping option. If nothing else the thought of renting and carrying all our own gear & food for five days was enough to can that idea. A very pleasant surprise awaited us at the Refugio Chileno as we were expecting huge dorm rooms and very basic facilities, whereas the relatively new building was a cool glass and wood affair with very good facilities. Fears of no showers for 5 days were quickly dispelled. To be fair, since the prices they charge their captive audience are not a million miles from those of a W Hotel, I should hope so.

Dumping the bulk of our stuff there, we continued the 4.9km to the Campamento Las Torres further up the valley. Most of this walk was through forest and so sheltered from the sun. The final section beyond here is a 45 minute scramble up an exposed rocky slope to the Mirador Las Torres, a viewpoint of the towering rock formation that gives the park its name. With the skies still pretty clear we had great views of this impressive sight.

All that remained was to return to the refuge and relax for the evening. We ate dinner with a lovely Spanish couple (or rather Catalan couple) called Dani and Irene who were also in our room.

A good first day.