The Hike Day 1

Whew. After a phenomenal night of well desired sleep we were up at the crack of dawn and rearranging packs for our highly anticipated hike. Emily and I met up with mom, dad, Ben, and Viv for breakfast. It was quite the spread and everyone was energetic. Some of our group had fought a GI bug and were steadily recovering. But this hotel was amazing! It sat on the edge of a lake with iridescently blue mammoth icebergs floating in front of a slowly receding glacier.  The view was framed by sharp and pointed mountains slicing the drifting clouds like enormous mandolins. Viv and mom decided they wanted to ride the ferry with us to our trailhead.  So we all hiked a mile to meet a catamaran style ferry on the choppy glacial lake. The wind was rip roaring from the glacier at the end of the long lake filled with whitecaps. On the little ferry there were about 60 other tourists, we were the only hikers. The boat had filled prior to our arrival so we were all sitting separately. As a tour guide rambled on the back ground Emily and I chatted up some local Chileans to find out that, “pisco is not only made in Chile, but it’s the best in the world.”  Speaking of which, Ben came around with pisco sours for us that were delicious but the boat had stopped to drop us off and so we had to literally down our drinks and jump off the boat, great way to start a hike. With our packs set and waving good by to mom and Viv, who were going to continue the tour we set out! Dad had a huge grin on his face. 

The first portion of our epic journey took us the a beautiful lookout near the glacier. Tons of small floating icebergs and weather that kept us on our toes. One minute it was 60s and sunny and the next it was cloudy with rain and chilling wind. But our spirits were high and we started the 4 hour trek to our overnight spot. Beautiful and fun we hiked back along the glacial lake with heavy winds at our backs and the whirlwind weather over our heads. Dad kept us on pace the whole way. To our left was part of the famous “towers” (pictures to follow). Our group chatted and marched at a good clip without breaks until we reached Paine Grande a hostal on another lake that looked like liquid turquoise. It sat at the base of “the towers” and endures a never ending bombardment of howling wind.

The hostel itself was modern and quaint. Though feeling good, everyone was glad to strip off their boots, change clothes, and grab a beer with a slice of pizza. Dad and I took a quick nap before dinner and for dinner we had high-school-cafeteria-style large pieces of mystery meat with gravy and veggies.  I think we are all going to call it an early night after our first stint of 9 miles. Can’t wait for tomorrow!