Torres del Pain(e)

Waiting out the crazy winds in Cerro Castillo for a day, we set out for the national park of Torres del Paine. This park attracts visitors from around the world due to its famous W and O treks as well as the Grey glacier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torres_del_Paine_National_Park

Heading in, we enjoy the Chili’s efforts in expanding tourism and modernisation with a recently poured 30 mile stretch of concrete road. Until a few years ago, the path from Castillo to the park entrance was dirt and although it feels a little like cheating, our hands and butts appreciated the smooth ride.

Leading to the park, we pass several signs indicating what critters might hit us on the bike (we missed a photo of the guanaco marker).

A nice torquoise lake greets us just before the park entrance. We catch Ben and ride with him to see Lara at the control area.

Our plans are to spend four days in the park with a hike to the Torres del Paine towers and some other excursions. Lara and Ben want to stick to cycling the park so we separate at the entrance with plans to reunite in Puerto Natales a few days later.

We make our way to the Camping Centrale area at base of the Paine trailhead. It is also a launching point for the W and O hiking circuits, which take 5-7 days to complete. Anne had done the W hike 14 years ago when she came to visit our daughter Sophie, who was doing a year exchange in Chili for her Junior year of high school.

We wake up early to start the day hike and beat the crowds of tourists arriving by bus. A vibrant sunrise cast a glow from the campground onto the towers we will try to reach. The hike is not trivial given our fatigue from cycling, 22 km and 1500+ climbing and it takes us 9 hours to complete. Our plans had been to pack up the tent upon returning and bike 30km to another camping area. That idea was quickly discarded and we stayed a second night with an early bedtime!

The next morning as we are packing, Anne hears a light sound behind her and turns to see a pretty kitty cat walking the trail about 10ft way. The cat, better known as a puma or South American Cougar, was not concerned with our presence or any of the other campers as it meandered down the path.

We set out for the aforementioned short ride to the next campground and plans for a short 2 hr hike en route. The winds hit hard, the mountains acting as a tunnel to focus gusts directly head on. We have to pedal downhill to go forward and are blown off the tandem 4-5 times. No injuries or damage but we are gassed after a few hours of these conditions on the gravel.

Finally we arrive at the trailhead side road and find it blocked with buses and cars parked on the main stretch. Apparently, roads are closed to traffic and hikers if sustained wind speeds are above 80 kph. Reviews on iOverlander recall instances where motorhomes have been toppled and car windows blown out from wind force. Fortunately, they still allow bicycles to pass - maybe some dark humor on the part of park officials…

We make it to Camping Pehoe and are grateful for a shelter to pitch the tent and block some wind. A few meters away beside the lake, it was howling.

20 km of soul-sucking crosswinds the next morning and we take a welcome turn to the southwest and head to Puerto Natales. Here we will rejoin Lara and Ben and take a needed rest day. As a bonus, we reserve a table for lunch at the Singular Patagonia, a former factory storing and shipping lamb meat around the world but converted into a luxury hotel and spa. It boasts an onsite museum of the plant history and the equipment is still in place from the early 1900s used to generate electricity for the town and supply refrigeration for the 850,000 tons of meat the plant could store. https://www.thesingular.com/patagonia

Rested up from good eating and a zero day, we are off to Punta Arenas, one of the larger cities in southern Patagonia and where we will catch a ferry for the last leg of the trip. It is roughly 250 km of open plains nothingness between Natales and Arenas and the wind can make life great or miserable. The wind gods took pity on us and with Lara, we connected the dots in two days while most take three.

For our one night to Punta Arenas, we were fortunate to encounter a small refugio by the road. With the 50 kph winds outside, we were quite happy to have shelter and not have to pitch tents! A few hours later, a fellow bikepacker came along and we invited him to share space. Eduard, from France, had recently retired from corporate life (Stellantis Group) and was finding purpose in bikepacking. He was also known as The Starlink Guy as he carried a complete hiker‘s Starlink receiver and battery pack. Ed set it up and we were able to hotspot. He also surprised us before bed by pulling out a ukulele and playing a few tunes. As his bike setup was not that big, we wondered were he carried essential stuff like clothes and tent.

The next day brought us to Punta Arenas alsog with an early morning bikepacker’s stop for some much needed coffee and pastries. The lady running the bakery store was nice enough to let us eat inside from the cold wind and even brought out a small table. Even in late February, it is still Christmas season in Chile!

At one long stretch of road construction, we saw a bike in the distance. Finally catching it after a while, we were quite surprised to discover another tandem with a French couple. More funny was that it was the same tandem whose stickers we had seen on the Caraterra 5 weeks ago. They had been riding for several months and also heading to Ushuaia. We exchanged info if they wanted to connect back in France later.

Next up, Punta Arenas, the ferry to Porvenir and the last etape of the adventure. Penguins, anybody?