We woke at six bright and early this morn. Some of us only had like three hours of sleep but I wolfed down some breakfast and we all ended up taking a taxi back to the buses instead of walking. We made it just in time for the bus to start loading. The ride to Torres was nice and smooth, most of us all fell asleep pretty quickly. We entered into the park and everything looked like a different word. There were tons of buses dropping tons of people off. The park lady came into our bus and explained what we needed to do. Their system is kind of crazy to me. Just so many random people w such mislead information online and complicated bookings. We stood in the long line waiting to get our paper work. We paid the entrance fee, filled out some forms about our stay, showed them our passport and got some sheet of paper. Our final stop was to watch a video on park rules and then they let us out.
Lunch spot.
A million other shuttles were waiting for us but I was like where is it even taking us. It drops us off at the main hostel area which was super boujie and even had a Patagonia store. We ended up checking in and leaving some of our food for the hike up to the towers. I also had washed my underwear this morn and wanted it to dry so I hung it out one of the hooks in our room. We then hang out in the main restaurant that has huge windows of the mountains. The others order food and we are still sitting until noon. We finally get our stuff together to hike out, it almost felt like we would never start hiking.
Selfie at the towers. So windy.
There was a road walk out from the hostel to where the trail starts. We pass so many nice hotels and civilization. The climb up in the first half mile was so pretty. We were going so slow bc we were taking so much footage. I could also feel how harsh the sun is! The trail is definitely mainly all uphill to the towers and quite steep. My achilles were def feeling it. The winds were so strong every time we rounded a corner on a ridge. I loved it. We get to the first Refugio and take a break in the sunny wind, it was so relaxing. Then we make the final push all the way up. We pass this last campsite and it's another steep "scramble" up all rocks but a niceish path. Then we finally saw the lake and towers. It was so amazing I can't even describe it! The lake was the same color as Blanca and the peaks reminded me of dragontail. The sun was shining on small parts of the water and looked so magical. We took a bunch of pics and things were getting blown over. We sat and took it all in a bit before we headed down.
Chair at the towers. The sun glowing on the water was amazing.
Going downhill is always hard for me. I have to super careful w my ankle and knees. No me gusta. It felt like what was forever before we finally made it back to the hostel. I was starving and my feet were hurting pretty bad. I wasn't that physically tired, it was just my feet/ankles. It felt like after a long day when I had to push miles. This trek is giving me a glimpse on how hard the pct was and how we had to just suffer w all the feet pain. So insane we spent last summer doing that everyday. Everyone was pretty wiped as well. I met our nice hostel mates and wolfed down some of my cold soaked rice wrapped in tortilla. I also ate a bunch of candy, i may run out before the end of this trip. :( then I joined the rest of the guys at the restaurant. Chair seems to never finish any of his meals so I shared his leftover pizza w will. We may just eat his scraps from now on.
The horses came out in the evening heading down.
I ended up buying some wifi and finally took a shower around midnight. It's still weird that it stays light till 10pm and the sun rises so early. I'm quite happy actually to be sleeping in a warm bed. Our schedule change made us end up glamping but it's pretty sweet. I've never glamped before!