Day 5 was the final day of our hike, completing the right/east side of the W by viewing the park’s namesake, the Torres del Paine. Torres means “towers” in Spanish, and Paine means “blue” in the Tehuelche Indian language. We began our day about 3:30 AM to arrive at the towers in time for sunrise. It was quite chilly up there, but it was well worth our time!
We were glad we took a sleeping bag up there.
Here are a few phases of the sunrise:
After the sun was up, we headed down to pack up our camp and leave the park. On the way out, we passed a group on horseback.
At then end, we collapsed on the grass to wait for the bus with our new friends from Baltimore, with whom we had been with on and off for all 5 days.
I don’t really need to do that long of a backpacking trip again, but I am so glad we did this. We would recommend it to anyone…after you save up your frequent flyer miles of course! Next up: A couple of days in Punta Arenas before heading to Peru.