December 28, 2005: Torres to Puerta Natales
Our last day in the park. The plan was to wake up early early early (4am) so that we could start our 2hr. hike up to the Torres (towers) and try and catch the sunrise. Whatever. We opted for waking up at 5am, missing the sunrise and just checking out the Torres. Ziad, the eternal early riser started to shake my sleeping bag at 5:10 or so....I pretended to ignore him. Thought he would go away:-) I finally woke up. We left by 5:30. What a hike for such an early time in the morning. The last 30 minutes of the hike was steep uphill over very rocky (loose) terrain. We made it.....and yes, it was worth it. The Torres was very impressive. There was a beautiful glacer lake below the Torres and we had the place to ourselves.


The towers were smooth, pale grey and very majestic. It reminded us of some of the scenes from Lord of the Rings. Beautiful granite structures. We stayed there for a while and left by 8am or so.


When we returned to the refugio, we packed up and made our way down the mountain side. Took 3 hrs, I think. The other trekkers we met along the hike were at the bottom. We had to wait awhile for the bus to pick us up and take us back to Puerta Natales.

These guys were mulling about. Guanacos - part of the camel family (very similar to lamas).

The ride back was very quiet. Everyone was sleeping:-)

We met up with a few others later that evening for dinner and drinks. Lots of meat. It was a great way to end the trek.