Getting up at 6am, packing last bits and having breakfast in our hostal. The bus leaves at 7:20am from the bus terminal. For us it’s easy to get to, as we are staying in hostal Alcazar near the bus station.
Yesterday we bought two tickets with company Buses Gómez, departure at 7:20am from Puerto Natales and price 15000 pesos open return ticket for one person.
The bus left on time and we got A4 form to fill in with our details. It is a declaration form for the national park Torres del Paine. At 8:10am we get on slightly worst roar surface and continue to the park. At 8:45 a dirt road came along. And we could enjoy views of the Torres towers. In about 45 minutes we got to the park entrance, waited queue to get tickets and at 9:45 we were done.
Then we continued to Pudeto stop. The most of the people got off the first stop - Laguna Amarga. We got off the bus at Pudeto at 10:30 and at 11am we started to walk to Mirador Cuernos viewpoint. Very nice sunny weather all the way. The distance between Laguna Amarga and Pudeto is about 21km and takes 30 minutes to drive.
The hike took us 3 hours and 30 minutes round trip, with 20 minutes stop at the end to have some food. During this hike, we also met first Czechs since we started in South America. So we didn’t catch bus back to Laguna Amarga at 2pm. We were deciding on what to do next and how we get to Laguna Amarga. So we started hitchhiking. Only few cars stopped and all of them continued the opposite direction. So we walked a bit mor further to a junction where a direct road between Laguna Amarga and Gacier Grey is. And after few cars someone in Daihatsu van stopped and took us with them. The whole hitchhiking took almost 1.5 hours. We got lucky as it was starting to rain. The guys who took us was a Chilean family (parents and a teenage girl playing loud pop music through her phone) and the father was enjoying quick drive on the dirt road and stopping to take photos of lamas.
At Laguna Amarga it was already raining and we took a bus transfer to to Las Torres (3000 pesos per person). There is a building at the las Torres bus stop, where you can use toilets and buy some drinks and simple food and also get some information. Behind the building is a short trail to camping central.
It was raining and my jacket was getting soaked through (it’s suppose to be goretex Haglofts Roc jacket, not cheap). We checked in the camp in a small stall next to a building with showers and toilets and got a sticker to put on our tent. And then we started pitching our tent. Raining and raining. Not that cold, but felt cold as I was wet. A bit of arguing with my wife, while setting up the tent, but we got through it and both of us were kind of upset. One of the issues we are having is that I bought a small tent for adventurers and we are not one of them. Terra Nova Laser Competition 2. Lightweight tiny tent with weight 1.2 kg only. When two people sleep in, the rucksacks have to stay outside. Which makes it difficult while it’s pouring down like mad. Our rain covers Doldy cargo bag were getting wet through as well. We managed to put some main things inside of the tent and then put our rucksacks into large plastic bags (90L hdpe bags I took with me for this purpose) so the rucksacks didn’t get completely wet and could stay outside.
Denisa left the tent and went to take hot shower. It’s still raining and I’m trying to make some space inside of our mini tent. I don’t know where to put my wet trousers and jacket. Can’t be in the tent and can’t be outside.
In about one hour later the rain stopped and we hoped that we can cook warm dinner. We took our cooking gear out (MSR PocketRocket 2 and GSI Dualist) and started cooking water for rice. In next two minutes started raining again. Slowly, so we decided to go for quick 5 minutes dry food pack cooking instead. Finished, ate, got back to our tent and waited if the rain stops. At least we weren’t hungry and weren’t feeling cold.
The rain didn’t stop. And the rain didn’t stop until the next day 14 o’clock...
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