Travel With Phie

Oh boy was today a day! We woke up at 5:40am as we had a driver coming to pick us up to take us to drop our bags at the next lodge and then drive us to the beginning of the trailhead in Torres del Plaines at 6am.

We quickly got ready, grabbed our stuff, and headed out of the lodge to met our driver. We loaded up the van and the driver asked us if we wanted the heat. We said yes a little, but apparently we should have said a lot as we were freezing the whole 1.5 hour drive to the lodge. We were expecting to sleep but it was so cold none of us really could. This ended up being okay as the sunrise outside the window was stunning.

We arrived at the prettiest lodge of the trip and dropped our bags. When we walked out the sunrise was perfectly placed on the mountains allowing for probably the best sunrise of my life. Once we admired it, we headed on our way to the trailhead / Catamaran. This was fairly quick drive maybe 35 minutes.

We arrive and got in line for the Catamaran. In line for the Catamaran we met the nicest couple from Georgia. We chatted with them for around 30 minutes before we were able to board the boat. We all exchanged travel stories and were we had been and planning on going it was a blast and a half.

We ended up being able to board at 8:50am and took the boat across the lake. The boat ride was a little longer than expected around 30 minutes. Once we got across we went in to the refregio to grab snacks/lunch. There were truly no options for lunch expect Pringles or cookies. We went with Pringles. We then headed out to the trailhead. We were all super excited for the journey (13 miles & 2,500 ft of elevation gain). Today was the day we were going to do the French valley hike which is one of the main hikes in the W Trek.

When we started it was windy, but had not yet started to rain. The beginning was amazing, great view points and just rolling hills. After around an hour of hiking the rain begin. We were expecting this, so we were not at all surprised. We had seen the rain in the past hiking the past couple of days, so we’re expecting spiting rain. This was not at all the case. This was real and true rain.

We kept moving onward as we did not know the full extent of the rain. The wind was blowing us over at some parts, but honestly the vibes were high. I would say around mile 5 our pants were soaked all the way through and by mile 6 every layer was crazy wet. At this point we were near the top and there was no chance that we were going to back down.

The last .6 miles of the hike was also the hardest, it was about 900ft of elevation gain in the wet mud. But again vibes were high because we could still see amazing views and we had each other to get through. Once we reached the top, we quickly took a couple photos and enjoyed the views before heading right back down. The top was beyond windy and practically blowing us over (not even a joke lol).

The way down was not as fun as we were all soaking wet, freezing and ready to go back inside to warm up but still had 7 miles to go. The way down was very slippery, but we were hustling to get down. We met two unreal Scottish girls who we chatted with for a while, but they were camping so booked it back to try and get dry prior to sleeping in a tent. At this moment, we realized how thankful we were that we did not have to camp that night. We kept on hiking down getting blown over by hurricane-ish winds (literal tornados were forming on the lake next to us). We continued to have our wet clothes freeze, but kept the vibes high. We just kept smiling and laughing thinking of the pain we were in, which made it 100x better for sure.

We finally made it down and could not be happier. Everything we owned was wet, but we were finally inside in the warmest of the building. While we were waiting inside we met this group of German girls who were hiking the O trek. They were talking about how yesterday was just like this, but was a bit higher so snowing. They had their packs on their back, but kept slipping and sliding, so by the time they got back to camp everything including their tents were soaking wet. They also mentioned how no one at the lodge would let them use the fire to dry their belongings, so they all squeezed into others tents to make it through the night. After hearing this story we were even more excited that we did not do a backpacking trek this week.

After we were inside for 15ish minutes chatting and warming up, we saw the guide from earlier and he said he was going to go wait for the boat and we decided to follow. We wanted to get in line to ensure we made the 5pm boat instead of waiting for the 6:30. When we got in line, we were, again, right behind the Georgia couple. We got to catch up on their day and them on ours. There’s sounded quite a bit different then ours. They started the hike just like us, but when it began to down pour they went inside and hung out at the bar until it was time to line up. They were practically dry and were only wet because they were waiting in line for the boat, just like us.

We chatted with this could for another 45 minutes, which was a blast & a half. It truly made the time fly by. We were telling the story of the girls inside and the wife turned and said to her husband, “if I was summersaulting down like those girls we would have gotten a divorce by the time we made it down,” we knew at that point who had planned this trip and who was just tagging along. But this was honestly one of the best quotes of the trip.

After waiting for 45 minutes, we finally got onto the boat to head back to the other side to get picked-up. On the boat, everyone just looked miserable. We wished we had a morning v. afternoon photo as in the morning everyone was so excited and ready for the day. In the evening it was like everyone had seen a ghost. There was no chatting, it was mainly just people saying how cold they were. Just wild.

We finally made it into the hot van. We were about to take off, when our driver asked if we had room for one more. Of course we said yes, and we are so glad we did. The girl who had joined us needed to get back to Puerto Natales by 9pm to catch her next bus and the bus didn’t leave the area we were in until 7:30pm. She was from Denmark and the sweetest girl ever. We chatted for the entire way back to our lodge before she continued on our journey.

Once we got back to lodge we tried to check in as quickly as possible so we could get to the room and hop in a warm shower. We all took hot-a** showers and got ready for dinner (which we were having in the lodge which was great as it meant we didn’t need to go back outside). Once we all showered we hung-up all of our clothes all over the room.

Once our clothes were hanging up, we headed off to dinner in the lodge. Ashley and I, of course, ordered Pisco sours. They were to die for! We also ordered hummus as an app and it was unreal. Might have even been the best hummus I’ve ever had. For dinner, I ordered a burger (I had been craving one), Ashley ordered Pasta, and Katherine got the salmon. It was all delicious!

We had a blast at dinner celebrating the day. After dinner we went to the front desk to check the weather for the next day (very hopeful). Our dreams were crushed. It was supposed to rain the entire day with probably no views of the towers. We were all ~thrilled~ with this news. Hahaha!

Katherine at this moment decided to she was going to have a lodge day the next time and Ashley & I decided we were going to brace the rain again. Until tomorrow!

Buenas Noches!