Honestly day 9 was about 10 hours in a bus! Not much to tell there but – I did get to meet the people I was to spend 7 days – and a ton of amazing experiences – with.
We are a group of 15 trekkers and 3 guides. Our treks will be broken up into 2. There are Bobby and Satinder – 2 cousins from the UK and Australia respectively; Deb, Mark, Erin and Martin – a family of 4 from the Midwest; Annie and Chelsea – friends from LA; Helen – a health professional from London; Mike – a sweet family man from the UK; Shayne – an adventure traveler from New England; Christina – a 21-year-old amazing young woman from Austria; Linda – a surgeon! from Germany; Stuart – a finance professional from Australia and me. So far we’ve all gotten on great. And our guides are Roberto Carlos, Claudio and Diego – all from Chile.
On the way to the national park – which is what Torres del Paine is – we stopped by the Mylodon Cave. This is a protected cave in Patagonia where a settler found a strange skin with thick hair that ended up being an extinct animal called a mylodon. Since that finding the cave has become a place where archeologists cove from all over the world to dig.
From there we drove to Torres del Paine. Remember the stunning vistas I was expecting upon entering El Calafate? Well I’d found them. Simply magnificent! Snow covered mountains and the setting sun. So lovely. We pulled up to Ecocamp around 9 pm. It was exactly like the pictures. Small standard domes, suite domes and what they call core domes which is where we eat, relax, drink great wine and do yoga. What an incredible place! Ecocamp is dedicated to leaving no trace of ourselves in Patagonia. They even have compost toilets – that was a new experience! I have to have to say that I was completely unprepared for how DAMN cold it was. When it got dark I was seriously worried about how I’d handle it. You all know how evil I can get when I’m cold! And only the suite domes and the core domes have heat. Oh well, I’d have to make do. I’d heard about the amazing food and wine at Ecocamp and wasn’t disappointed on night 1. We had a yummy pumpkin and ginger soup followed by a traditional Chilean beef roast. So good! And the vino tinto (red wine) served with the meal was so delicious. It reminded me of a pinot noir. With the wine and conversation and the HEATER in the dining dome, I finally warmed up. We were briefed about the trek the next day and I was off to bed. This girl really can’t do 2 nights in a row of going to bed at 3:30 am! The domes – although super cold! – are absolutely adorable. There are 2 twin beds and a couple of small tables and that’s it. The beds are actually gorgeous and covered by about 5 heavy blankets – thank goodness! It was hurry-up-and-change-and-hop-into-bed-freezing! But once I was under the covers everything was just fine. I had my water bottle filled with hot water and my gloves on. And all was good and peaceful with the world. A third of the roof is a clear plastic so you can see the millions of stars in the sky as you lie in bed. There is a quote on my refrigerator that says “You are not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world”. That is exactly like I felt!