Torres del Paine! (Part 1: the approach)

An early morning departure through the misty mountain passes of Tierra del Fuego; on through the surprisingly vast expanse of dead flat sheep-farming pastures and scrubby desert of Southern Patagonia; a bus change in Rio Grande; a very windy border station; a ferry across the Strait of Magellan (!) escorted by a pod of Commerson's dolphins; an even windier surprise bus transfer on the side of the highway; and finally we reached Puerto Natales, Chile, the staging ground for trips into Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, that legend of monumental mountains. It was Patagonia as an abstraction that drew me to this part of the world in the first place; once I started planning, it was TDP which came to embody all those vague but fantastical expectations I had. And ladies and gentlemen, let me say right off, it did not disappoint.

Logistics, for the detail-oriented among you: our plan was to hike most of the "W" route, so called because you essentially make your way up and back down three valleys. We opted to skip the first arm, though, which would have taken us along a lake to a glacier, reasoning that we would later be going to El Calafate to see the Perito Moreno glacier, which would be bigger and better. Also, aware of our limited time in the park, we didn't want to risk missing out on the higher-priority attractions further along should our itinerary be compromised by weather, fatigue or injury. My tent had come with us this whole time just for the four nights we'd be camping in this park, and although in retrospect I'd have left it at home and rented one in town, it was awfully nice to have familiar and quality-assured shelter at the end of the day. (It has also come in handy as an insurance policy when we we thought we might not be able to find beds in towns later on, though we never did have to resort to using it). Plus, now it's been used on two continents! As for food, we rented a stove and brought along two of the four dinners we'd be needing and some stuff for breakfasts and lunches, and planned to buy the rest from the refugios in the park where a few of our campsites would be located.

And so, after a day in town finalizing all these details, purchasing and packing, and repacking, and repacking one last time, we set off on the bus at 7:30am to meet our destinies, under blue skies and little in the way of wind. An hour later we caught our first glimpses of the park from the bus -- even from that distance, the range was magnificent, and unworldly, and more than a little daunting. We stopped at one point at a lookout with a clear view of the entire park, and it is impossible to overstate how thrilling it was to see that line of peaks jutting up into the sky, to know we'd be spending five days there, right in among those huge stone teeth, taking human-sized steps through that giant-sized landscape. It was going to be AMAZING.

I mean, look at those things! How could you not be this pumped?