Author: bethstapleton0201@gmail.com

Today is a 26K trek with over 4,000 feet of elevation gain. The winds were gusting over 35 mph in many exposed areas.

We are the slow hikers in our group. The leader Felipe and all the other hikers trek at a very fast pace which was not what we expected.

The climb today took us to the Mirador Francés to see the Torres del Paine towers.

At one point on the climb, David from southern CA had his boot sole come unglued. Felipe used some glue and gorilla tape to McGyver his boot back together. Felipe is an experienced climber and said he’s been to (and hiked) in over 68 countries.

Part of our trek today went through the area that was burnt down in 2011 by a careless hiker.

Felipe told us if the wind gusts are strong enough you need to get down or it will knock you over. It didn’t take long for that to happen but everyone in the group did get down to be safe.

Once we reached the summit we got to see the towers but the wind was brutal at that point. We were lucky that we had no rain today but this trek is a lot harder than we thought it would be.

It was a brutal 9 hour day and we are pretty beat up. We are spending the night in a tent at the Paine Grande Refugio.

Today is a 5 hr 8.5 mile 1500 ft of elevation trek between Torres del Paine mountain range and Lake Nordenskjold.

They called today’s trek on Patagonia flats which is to say all ups and downs.

There was a lot of single track, small stream crossings and a couple of suspension bridges.

We had great weather. What was interesting is that the water is so clean in most streams that we use them to fill our water bottles.

For the next two days we will be camping as opposed to staying in the Eco Camp as we make our way into Torres del Paine park on the W trek.

Our Refugio we are staying at tonight has tents on platforms 4 feet off the ground.

When we got to our tent the entry way was covered with lime green bugs both in and out of the tent. We spent 20 minutes trying to kill them all and then headed for a beer and dinner. God, I love camping. Sleep tight.

Today was a 3 hour van ride to Puerto Natales for lunch and then a 2 hour van ride to Eco Camp. We met Alex and Michele from Phoenix AZ who will be in our group as well as Alejandro and Alana from Brooklyn NY who will be in the other hiking group.

We will be staying in small geo-domes that have 2 twin beds. Communal bathroom is a separate dome as well as the dining/bar area.

After a traditional pisco sour, we shared a dinner with David and Brian (southern CA) , Ivonne (our Chilean co-leader) and Robin and Carol (Calgary , Canada).

Last night we had a great dinner on the terrace of our hotel.

When the bill came we wanted to charge the dinner to our room but we didn’t know what our room number was so we showed the waiter our room key …..

…. Yep, the shepherd’s room.

It’s raining this morning so we’re just killing time at the hotel. While eating breakfast, we’ve decided to give our “shepherd’s room” key a nickname. We call him “Wooly”. I think his real name is “Baaaaahb”.

I took a quick walk up behind the hotel to take a few pics.

Inside the lobby, the front desk guy certified me on how to operate this early 1900 cash register.

Success!

Anybody have two tens for a five?

Took a Sunday morning stroll around sleepy Punta Arenas.

That’s Beth pointing towards North. Also came across some “Penguin like” birds on the beach called Comorans.

Decided to go for a light lunch and ended up with this…..

For dinner, we took a 20 minute walk to the outskirts of town to Luan’s Restaurant. A nice family run place where we got to try Chilean desert “Leche Asada” (similar to flan).

This may be our last post for awhile as we are going off the grid tomorrow as we enter “Torres del Paine”.

Hasta luego.

On our way to hike the W trek in southern Chile. It was always on bucket lists we see online so we thought we’d give it a try. Flying out of JFK to Santiago, Chile on LATAM airlines. I also decided to cross another item off my bucket list and fly first class for the first time in my life. It was great being able to fully recline on the 10.5 hr redeye flight.

Waiting for our next 3.5 hr flight to Punta Arenas which will take us down by Antarctica.

Nice views of Andes mountain range leaving Santiago.

24 hours after leaving our home in NJ, we finally arrived at our hotel “La Yegua Loca” (The crazy horse). We are staying in the Shepherd’s room (El Ovejero). Each room has its own eclectic decorating theme.

The view from the room is looking out over the water at the southern tip of Chile.

Hoping to make it an early night and get some sleep but sunset isn’t until after 9:30 pm down here.

Hasta mañana

We had a relaxing communal dinner at O Lagar de Jesus last night. A lot of nice people from all over…Madrid, Slovakia, Canada, Australia,…

Today was only 20K but was a very hilly day. We walked in the dark for an hour and got to SdC around 1:30. From there we went to the pilgrims office to get our Compostela (ie certificate) and headed for a well deserved beer.

The end of the walk is always anticlimactic for us. It’s what happens on the walk that we enjoy. It was a big accomplishment for us to do the whole walk and carry 14-15 lbs on our backs. We weren’t sure we could do it but that’s what makes it an adventure.

“With age comes wisdom, with travel comes understanding”..Sandra Lake

Last night’s dinner was a ham and cheese sandwich with Ruffles on the terrace of where we were staying.

We have a 24K walk today as we start to wind down our Camino. After 18 days of walking we are pretty tired.

At one point, in order to follow the Camino we had to walk through a massive flea market. It went on for blocks and people were driving in and parking everywhere.

We stopped to get lunch in Padron and met an Irish dad and his daughter doing their third Camino for his 70th birthday.

We are staying at O Lagar de Jesus tonight in the bunk rooms. Nice rustic farmhouse. We met sisters Martine (California) and Linda (Perth Australia) who lived in Malaysia/Singapore when they were young. It was fun talking with them about Malaysia where I was a Peace Corp volunteer.

Tonight we’ll have a communal dinner and then it’s onto Santiago de Compostela.

“The Camino teaches you the journey is more important than the destination”…

Last night we strolled down to the historic district filled with tourists and local families walking about as well as the international athletes.

As 21:00 approached the crowds really picked up. We stumbled onto a drum corp playing for a newly married couple.

Today’s walk will be close to 23K. We seem to be able to do these walks under 23K without much problems since we entered Spain which doesn’t have the cobblestones. We left at 6:45 and walked in the dark for an hour.

Chatting it up along the way with some guys from Perth (Australia) and a couple ladies from Brazil and a couple cafe stops helped the walk go by quicker. Seeing way too many peregrinos now that the coastal and central route have come together. You can usually see people ahead of you and behind you almost all day.

When we got to Caldas de Reis we stopped for lunch by a river cafe.

Afterwards we went food shopping at a “supermercado” to have something for dinner. We are staying at a home that rents out its 4 rooms upstairs with a shared bath/kitchen/terrace which is outside of the town.

“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted”….Bill Bryson

Yesterday we had a beer at O Mesón restaurant in the afternoon followed by a forgettable meal in the evening.

This morning we climbed ourselves away from the river to our first cafe con leche of the day.

Afterwards, we made our way along a small creek until we came across “Porky Pig”. How cool is that. Porky did seem a little snooty though.

I’m not a fan of graffiti but the the graffiti art under this bridge was impressive.

We only walked 12K today because we wanted to spend some time in Pontevedra. It’s a fairly big city. We decided to have a big lunch at Casa Fidel since dinners here don’t begin until 20:00. We shared a plate of shrimp followed by the house special “pulpo” (octopus) which is big in the Galicia region. The local custom in this region is to drink wine out of bowls instead of wine glasses.

Pontevedra is currently in the middle of a 4 day international triathlon with multiple events. The albergue we are staying in have peregrinos, tourists and athletes from all over the world. We seen many athletes pedaling their time trial bikes around the city.

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home”….James Michener

As we were waiting in the albergue to go out to dinner last night we met Marshall (Denmark) again who is our bunk mate again. We got caught up on what’s going on the camino before we headed out for a burger (Tripadvisor #1 restaurant in town. Weird, right). Turns out the guy there performs magic tricks all night. Incredible.

We got an early start this morning again at 7:45 which is when the sun comes up now in Spain. We came upon an old Spanish guy while leaving town and it was the same old guy we met who helped us when we came into town yesterday. We walked with Antonio for about 3K as we tried to use our Spanish again. We haven’t spoke Spanish since our first Camino in 2016. Antonio was out for his daily 20K around O Porriño.

We later met Jeff and his son Doug (Buffalo/NC) and walked with them for a few K which makes the time go by fast. Our walk today was in and out of the rain. Luckily for both heavy downpours, we were in cafes.

We also keep meeting a nice mom and son from Perth, Australia. The mom’s name is actually Peregrina.

At one cafe we were finishing lunch and then the downpour came so I ordered a delicious chocolate croissant and a couple cups of cafe con Leche.

For those of you who are playing along at home…..yes, today was “Have fun with your hat day”.

We did 25 K today and it was a lot easier not having to walk on all that Portugal cobblestones. We arrived at Pontesampaio around 15:00 crossing the old Roman bridge.

“There are no foreign lands, it is the traveler who is foreign”….Robert Louis Stevenson