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Home/2009 photos/South America/Torres Del Paine

Mountain scenes from Torres Del Paine Torres Del Paine is an awesome national park that's up to par with Yosemite, the Utah Canyonlands, or anything else that North America has to offer. I was totally blown away with the beauty of this park and the great classic 'W' trek that winds its way through the park. I spent a few extra days hiking the 'w' so that I could have a better shot of beating the unpredictable weather. Instead of tackling it in 3-5 days, I spent 8 days total in the park trekking around (including my arrival and departure days). Because I was traveling alone, I didn't want the effort of packing in a tent or food so instead I stayed in the huts that are offered by a couple of the concession companies. The prices are fairly steep (especially compared to camping) but are way cheaper than the hotels in the park. I booked all of my accommodations through an outside company which facilitated the transaction and made it very easy to do - especially considering that this was all planned rather last-minute. The company that I used was Experience Chile. Their fees were very reasonable for the convenience they offered and they worked very diligently to make sure that I was able to enjoy the park on such short notice. I was really uncertain about whether this would be needed and I found out as one of the huts (refugios) was fully booked when I arrived - but I had nothing to worry about as I had reservations waiting for 2 nights. Several others had to continue on in the rain for many hours to the next hut option because they didn't have reservations. The W trek hikes around the base of several impressive peaks and I loved the way the days would slowly reveal new vantage points across the mountains, lakes, and meadows. I had very mixed weather from warm sunny days through pouring rain to cold, windy, snowy storms.