Hiking the French Valley of Torres del Paine NP

Every evening over appetizers and juice or pisco sours, we met on the patio with our assigned group and one of the guides described the activity options for the next day: easy, medium, or difficult activity level.

We chose the 15 km. French Valley trail. They told us it was "Patagonia flat", meaning some up and down but not a large elevation gain, so we were hopeful we could do it. And we did, but not without effort!

After our breakfast buffet and packing our lunch in our tin "tupperware" as they called it, we boarded a van full of other guests and drove to where we got a boat to the trailhead.
It was a beautiful trail with amazing views everytime I glanced up from my feet. We hiked with three guides and about eight other people. The temperature was cool with warmth in the full sun, and of course gusts of wind! Nearly always the wind! It howled at night and at times we had to stop and brace ourselves against the powerful gusts. 

Two by two we crossed a swinging bridge over rushing water.
We stopped to rest on a large rock.
The views, always the majestic views of the granite massif and Paine towers that we saw from many angles, and the blue green lakes, rivers and white glaciers.


We rested and ate our packed lunch and then hurried back along the same trail to make sure we got on the boat at 5:00 and wouldn't have to wait till 6:00, or worse yet, have to spend the night.
We refilled our water bottles from the clear glacier springs along the way. It was an exhilarating hike, but I felt that I was hurrying the entire time and I didn't like that. Magda, one of our guides said we had to keep up the pace to make it back to the boat in time. I was fine on the level and downhill, but I slowed way down going uphill. I huffed and puffed and my face got beet red. I really need some hills for walks and not just flat old Homestead.
We felt we had accomplished a challenge at the end of that day. A shower felt ever so wonderful. After that we were ready to be served our three-course dinner at 8:00 pm and chat with fellow travelers.










Comments

  1. JillJanuary 25, 2024 at 5:45 PM

    Gorgeous! The views and you guys! Sorry you had to hustle to get back.

    ReplyDelete

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