Yup, we get why everyone comes to Patagonia. It’s beautiful! First off, it’s huge. It’s not a place but a large region that spans across Chile and Argentina. And there’s a lot more water than either of us thought upon our initial research.
Ship wreck from Punta Arenas 
Road Block to Puerto Natales
We landed in Punta Arenas which is almost at the southern end of Chile, rented a car and made our way north. Initially we were going to rent another Wicked camper van, similar to what we had in the Atacama, but realized the few amenities the van had didn’t offer us much. So we opted for a 4×4 SUV for a smoother ride and were able to roll out our sleeping pads, bags and stuff our pillows and sleep in the back. We bought a cooler, bare minimum “kitchen” necessities, a ton of water and groceries and set out! Our plan was to sleep and eat in the car 2-3 days at a time, then grab a hostel for a shower, a bed and food, and then repeat. We drove up to Puerto Natales which is the town at the Torres del Paine National Park, famous for the O-trek, W-trek and the Three Towers (Torres). When we started planning our Chile trip in October we were going to do the W-trek but it had already booked out! Turns out that worked out better for us anyway. Upon further research the National Park has become so popular that it’s highly regulated for backpacking. Tent sights are designated and set up right next to each other, there are restaurants and pubs at each camp ground (yes, right in the middle of beautiful nowhere) and cabins if you don’t want to sleep in a tent. You can pay extra and have someone carry all of your things for you or pay to use their tent, sleeping bags, etc. and not have to carry a thing. This kind of took our “outdoor” experience away – having to camp a foot away from another tent and 300 other people. Thankfully the day hikes were great! They added extra mileage, having to do out and backs but it got our legs moving for our backpacking trip the following week.
The first day we did the French Valley Circuit which took us along Lake Nordenskjold. We decided to turn around and head back at mile 10. Our legs were feeling it and we had a great introduction to the Patagonian winds and rain! The rain wasn’t that bad and it wasn’t cold, but that wind gusting at you plus the rain was another thing! The weather seems a little bit like Colorado, give if 5-10 min and it will change. Thankfully that was the case and after getting pretty soaked, we sat in one of the pubs (shell shocked these existed on the trail in the middle of nowhere) and dried off before continuing. The views were amazing! We see mountains all the time, but these were different – different rocks, different jaggedness and all the water. There’s a little cafe at the entrance of the trails to start the W-trek and they serve pizza and beer! So after 20 miles we figured we deserved it.
The second day we set out for the Torres Trek through the Chilean Valley. There was a good incline and a lot of people but I think we still had our elevation lungs on us and were able to jump around a good number of them. The hike to see the famous Towers was the equivalent to a 14er (for all you Colorado friends). 3000’ of gain with a path through a rock field at the top and this is where the winds kicked in even more! We totally lucked out on the weather, and unlike the previous day it was blue skies which made it perfect for seeing the Towers! We wandered to our own rock away from the crowd, had lunch, tried not to loose anything in the wind and then started our descent back.
We pieced together the last stretch of the W-trek by taking the ferry across Lake Pehoe and hiked 15 miles (out and back) to Grey Glacier. It was a moderate hike, a little longer than either of us really wanted to do, but with just a small day pack and a fanny pack between the two of us, it was easy to move quickly. That’s how we’ve been doing our day hikes and it works out really well to switch off when you get tired of the backpack. Neither of us had seen a glacier before and just getting to the beginning part and seeing the large pieces that have broken off was awesome! The hike itself was beautiful too, catching glimpses of the glacier along the way, walking next to another lake (remember, there’s a lot of water here) and along a different set of mountain peaks we hadn’t seen yet. We felt very satisfied of seeing Torres del Paine on our own after this.
The final day, we initially were going to drive the car back to Punta Arenas (4 hrs) and then take a bus back to Puerto Natales, to catch a different bus the next day to El Calafate. Tom’s motto is “it never hurts to ask”. Somehow he asked the car rental people if it was possible to return the car in Puerto Natales instead of having to drive back to Punta Arenas and waive the drop-off location fee. And the guy said “sure”! We promised to bring him beer when we returned the car and he laughed. This bought us an extra day of no travel! Instead of doing more hiking, our legs were feeling it, we found a horseback riding company! Tom had never ridden a horse before and it’s been a few years since I’ve been on one. We were in a group of 10, Tom picked the horse that was practically a big dog and I picked the slightly ornery and stubborn horse. The gal said “good, he needs an experienced rider, he can be tough sometimes”… super. Thankfully he wasn’t too much work but just enough to kick in my horse riding/ training days. We went on a beautiful trail ride to the top of a ridge where we saw the Torres del Paine mountain peaks and Lake Sophia. On the way down we went through a flat pasture and were able to gallop the horses, which was so much fun! But boy, I could feel the saddle the next day. We made it to town, dropped of our laundry, returned the car, checked into the hostel and grabbed dinner before waking up early to catch the bus the El Calafate for the Argentina side of Patagonia!