Part 3 - The Walk - Day 3

To your comments :

• Hermano : it depends on the day, I will show you a map where distances are written. But between 7 and 20 km a day... And I did not get any phone number in Torres del Paine !

• Mr President : yes, merveilleurs is the word !

Anyway there was a 3^rd day ! As you might remember, I was having breakfast everyday in the refuge and it was not really really good... So some people would not eat everything but me... I ate this ugly / disgusting milk with rice there was, and when André asked if someone wanted his, I rised my hand. So maybe they noticed or not that I was hungry, but Andrea gave me a part of their lunch bag so this day I had a lot to eat and that was a nice feeling of safety !

So I left camp los cuernos, following my fellows indians New Yorkers. But they distanced me within the first hour. I know it might confuse some of you that I can actually be distanced, but I'd like to remind here that I was carrying a big backpack, whereas Rahul and Navin haf smaller ! So I was no more with them when I arrived on the beach.

Two hours and a lot of nice landscapes later, I arrived at the first stop : camp Italiano. For the faithfull gugusses that have readme so far, you might remember it was the place I planned to rent a tent in the first place. That would have been a freezing night mistake !

But I could here drop my backpack to start the trail through the "valley of the french". And this track was rocky ! I had luck because my ankle stood it good.

There is not much to say about this part, except that the landscape was beautifull, maybe I didn't mention it already...

Sometime one might hear an avalanche falling from the snowy montain, but nothing dangerous because our part of the vally was dry.

The first stop on the way was a spot on a little galcier, where I found Rahul, who was waiting for Navin, who had gone further to see the second mirador on the Torres.

While I was chatting with him Leah and Jasmine arrived so we kept going together. Most of the way was either rocky, or in a forest, but most rocky... From this place I will actually remember this image of a dead burned forest in the middle of a very green and healthy one !

We saw André and Andrea who were better equiped than me (with trecking sticks)

And the more we went, the better we saw the torres .

We went through camp Britanico (what a joke to put a camp Britanico in the middle of a french valley...) which was made of... Small little thing that might (or might not) protect you from the wind. It's a little bit like someone built a cover with trees and called that a camp. But there was people enjoying it (at least you are not crowded!).

We met Navin on the way, but he was going down because the New Yorkers still had a lot to walk that day.

But when you arrive on the top, you see that :

And you are happy :

So what is it like... Like Grenoble but without the town ! You are surrended by mountains (some of whom you can climb on, but I has been told that you then have to sleep on the wall, because you have not enough time to do it completely in one day!), it's beautifull, the down side if very flat and Paris seems far away.

We ate there and I left the girls soon because I knew I needed time to go down. Some people can tell I'm very very (very) carefull when I go down. So I take my time and maybe 20 minutes before arriving at the Italianos, I'm caught up by Leah and Jasmine... (no of course I let them).

We did not stay long at the Italianos, because we still had a 2-hours walk untill the next camp. This part was really windy, and cold, and windy, but still marvelous / beautifull / magical.

Paine Grande is a very huge camp ! The atmosphere is more comfortable, but the spirit is not the same as in smaller camp where everyone gather at diner time, and stay in the heated place after. But there is internet, a mini-market, a restaurant and so on (warm nice spacy shower...)

I asked the receptionnist of los Cuernos to book me a tent for this camp and he did, so I had tent and breakfast paid without giving money. Everything was well !

There was a lot of people, a lot of group so it was not really easy to meet new people here, but there was a lot of different languages spoken.

I had the opportunity to load the battery of hernan's phone, and there was no PIN code as well as... No Servicio acqui.

Hmm... But it was allright, a almost warm tent, something to eat, a place to take the catamaran the next day and I could almost pay everything here with my credit card.

I slept well.