Bring your own food. And bring your own stove & cooking utensils/pots. FYI: When stocking up on food, definitely try to get freeze dried dinners, but if you can't, pasta's a good main stay. Tuna, power bars, oatmeal, etc are good. Peanut Butter is hard to find down at Grocercy stores in Puerto Natales, so plan ahead and get some in Santiago or Buenos Aires, ARG.

Also, there are refugios (campgrounds) throughout the park. Several of them have small stores where you can buy supplies and food for ridiculously marked up prices.

Going to bed at 8pm and trying to not freeze your ass off.

You may see a fellow trekker who brought his guitar (like we saw), but don't count on it.

You will need a hostel/hotel in Puerto Natales for the night before your trek. You will leave for the park at 7AM and it takes approximately 3 hours by bus to get to the Park from Puerto Natales on really crappy washboard dirt roads.

The Patagonia Adventure Hostel is a good option. Tomas Rogers 179,
www.apatagonia.com
Telephone:
56-61 411028

Or 1) Erratic Rock Hostel- Baquedano 719
2) Natales Hostel in Patagonia- Ladrilleros 209

Los Torres at Sunrise, Los Cuernos, the glaciers, etc. THE SCENERY IS IMMACULATE.

The Circuit travels along the backside of the park. This area has fewer trekkers that the front side "W" route. My recommendation: DEFINITELY DO THE CIRCUIT IF YOU HAVE THE TIME!

You probably won't meet too many locals in the park other than the refugio attendants, however you will meet many great foreigners sharing the same wonderful Torres Del Paine experience.

Puerto Natales is the starting point for all treks. There are three options to getting to Puerto Natales:
1) Fly via Santiago, Chile into Punta Arenas, Chile and then take a 3 hour bus ride from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales. (There are many buses running between these two towns) LAN Airlines serves this route.
2) Fly via Buenos Aires into Calafate, Argentina and then take a 5 hour bus ride to Puerto Natales. Aerolineas serves this route. Austral Airlines may too..
3) If you are already near Patagonia, take a bus to Puerto Natales. This bus ride will be really long and will likely suck. I recommend flying if possible.

There are several daily buses that go from Puerto Natales to the park. Take the early one.

Trekking in Torres Del Paines is challenging and should not be taken lightly. Your pack on the other hand, should be light. The park service suggests that your pack weigh no more than 20% of your body weight. Take all necessary precautions for hiking and camping in extreme conditions. Be aware of the time of year. Just because it is summer doesn't mean it won't be 25 degrees and snowing. Bring a very good sleeping bag, BROKEN IN hiking boots, non-cotton clothing, proper supplies, a first aid kit, etc. Beware of the Pumas. And the horse shit that is all over the hiking trail. (Horses are used to carry supplies to the refugios and they deuce all over the trail, and you will step in it. -Fact of life).

The Torres Del Paines National Park offers two popular treks varying in difficulty and length. The first is the "Paine Circuit", which is recommended as a 7-9 day hike and travels over 150 kilometers assuming all of the side hikes are completed, or 100 kms if you just want to do the circle. This hike involves a mix of everything, as it starts out with grassy plains, and then gives way to intense slopes, never ending traverses and impeccable landscapes.

For the less ambitious, there is a 4-day hike called the “W,” which follows the southern section of the Paine Circuit. Contrary to not-so-popular belief, the “W” does not stand for Wimpy or George Bush’s middle initial, but rather the shape of the actual hike. The “W” travels by the most notable scenery of Torres Del Paines, in particular, the Torres (Towers) themselves, and the Cuernos (Horned Mountains). This trek is very popular and heavily traveled during the South American summer season between Mid-December and Mid-March.

, the diversity of the trekking in Torres Del Paines makes it one of the most spectacular parks in the world. In the same day, you can have a nice jaunt through open fields, bushwhack through a dense valley of forest, scale a rocky ridge and celebrate your summit with a snowball fight on a high mountain pass in knee-deep snow. Feel free to contact me with any questions.