Chile -- November 16-27, 2010

^{The hiking portion of this trip is rated 5 boots out of 5 on the Hiking Boot-o-meter.}

^{The world travel portion of this trip is rated 5 little upside-down (southern hemisphere) globes out of 5 on the Globe-Trotting Globe-o-meter.}

After a 38 hour journey (taxi to Cusco airport, flight to Lima, flight to Santiago, flight to Puntas Arenas, bus to Puntas Natales, bus to Torres del Paine National Park), we started on hike number 3 - the Torres del Paine W-Route which includes the Towers, French Valley, the Cuernos, and Glacier Grey 

after a long steep hike in a snow storm, we made it up to the Torres

at around 4:00 the weather started clearing up

and the sun finally appeared

at 5:30 the clouds moved back in, and we headed back down to Refugio Chileno for the night

the next morning we headed to Refugio Cuernos for 2 nights

the "off" day in Cuernos was anything but - we hiked over to the French Valley and headed up to Camp Britannica in another snow storm  

the weather cleared briefly and we had a good look at the Cuernos (Horns)

our expensive cabin at Cuernos

the next morning we headed over to the Refugio Paine Grande

the view from Refugio Paine Grande

the next day saw an aborted hike up to Refugio Grey where we had reservations for the night - but the wind was so strong we had to go back to Refugio Paine Grande and then try to scare up a place to sleep for the night

the next morning we headed off to Refugio Grey again, and this time we made it

the first view of Glacier Grey

we hiked back down to Refugio Paine Grande, and the next morning took the boat to Pudeto, then bus to Puntal Natales where we spent the night

then the next day a 3 hour bus ride to Puntas Arenas, followed by a quick trip to Seno Otway to visit the Penquinas

back to Puntas Arenas and to the airport from which we flew out at 3:35 the following morning, spent a few hours layover in Santiago, then on to a 12 hour layover in Lima where we took a taxi into town and did the obligatory bus tour,

walked around for an hour or two,

crashed a wedding, had a burger at Bembo's,

then headed back to the airport, flew to SF, then on to Seattle - it was about a 56 hour trip from the time we got up Thursday morning at the B&B in Puntas Natales till we got home at 7:00 Saturday evening