The sky continued to lighten gradually revealing the silhouette of the towers looming overhead. Eli and I had climbed on top of a massive boulder the size of a school bus. From there we had unobstructed views of the iconic Torres del Paine. But I wasn't enjoying the view. I was panicking at the realization that my DSLR camera was broken. Several frantic attempts to free up the jammed shutter only drove home the realization that I probably wouldn't be able to fix my camera in the backcountry. We had traveled all the way to the bottom of the world and I couldn't capture this climactic moment! Eli helped talk some sense into me. 'Yes, I couldn't use my camera but we were here and I did still have my cell phone camera.' He was right and I wouldn't allow this to steal away the joy of this epic experience. As the first rays of the rising sun bathed the monoliths in orange light I did my best to capture the breath-taking scene with my cell phone camera.
As the sun continued to rise another day was before us. We had already been up for hours and, man, what a start to the day! Once we had soaked in as much of the scene as we could, we turned our backs to the Torres and started down into the valley toward Chileno camp where our tent was. It was going to be our longest day of the entire trip. We would have to hike a total of 17 miles to get to our next camp: Serón. Thankfully the first third of today's hike would be downhill and then, after that, mostly flat. Our route would take us through Camping Centrál where we would stop to take a break and eat our lunch.
We soon had packed up our tent and had our 50+ pound packs strapped on our backs. Downhill is less work on the muscles but harder on the feet and knees. As the sun got higher it became clear that this was going to be a warm day. Thankfully we were still shaded in the valley we had climbed the day before. We soon deviated from yesterday's path and continued downward into open plains. We passed groups of day hikers making their way up to the Torres del Paine. They were coming from one of the park's luxurious hotels and many didn't appear to be used to roughing it. A train of horses was led out onto the trail in front of us. Eventually we made it to the hotel in a wide-open expanse with the Patagonian mountains in the backdrop.
While we took a lunch break we were able to connect to the internet and do a video call with our family. It was so fun to be able to share our stories and show them where we had just come from! Normally I would hate to have technology invading this wilderness experience. But the opportunity to share our adventure with those closest to us was so special. Up until now we had been hiking along the popular 'W Trek' along the southern stretch of the park. From Camping Centrál we would be turning north on the longer 'O Trek' into the backcountry of Torres del Paine National Park. This area was more remote and was not accessible to day hikers. Only backpackers like us could get to the places we were soon to see. This section of the park was so different from the terrain along the W Trek. There were no more lakes to be seen and we were now hiking through fields and prairies. As we circumnavigated the mountain we had descended that morning we could see the Torres tucked away in the distance!
Our feet ached and it was beginning to take some mental perseverance to push through the pain with each step. Our feet were beginning to blister and it was necessary to bandage our feet with moleskins each morning. After miles of hiking we exited a wooded section above a wide, gently sloping valley with the turquoise blue Rio Paine meandering through it. Somewhere down in that valley was our camp. We descended and continued to hike through open spaces offering little shade. The sun was severe! We could feel the intensity of the UV Rays and I offered my sun hat to Eli. This already had been such a long day! Our packs weighed on us. We reached the Rio Paine and enjoyed its beauty as our path followed its contours. Finally, we reached camp Serón.
After pitching our tent we walked around the camp. It was a peaceful place in an open field not far from the river. We had ordered a home-cooked dinner here at camp Serón- our only one during our nine days in the park. After 17 miles of hiking, when the dinner bell rang, you better believe we enjoyed every bite of the salmon over pasta dish! We were even more grateful to have made it safely into camp when we saw a sign warning that the UV rays had been indexed at 11, 'Extreme'!
After such a long day of being exposed to the sun's intensity it was hard to believe that we had been shivering in the dark by the mountain lake, Lago Torres, just that morning!
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