At the end of my last post, I said I was considering whether to attempt to try and complete the W Trek.
Day 3 was the day to make this decision. If I did Day 3 I would literally be in the middle of nowhere and I would have no choice but to walk on Day 4.
I didn’t have to walk the middle stroke of the W, but I would have to walk to my next hostel which was another 11 km.
And if I managed that I’d only have one day left so I might as well finish the job and do the final 11 km. Then I had my boat trip the next day.
I’d been sure to arrange things so I didn’t have to catch any transport at the end of a walk, which meant I had no time pressures. My boat was a morning boat, but I was spending the night before in the hostel the boat went from, so as long as I actually made it there the night before, I would be okay.
Again, as mentioned at the end of my previous post, I knew I wasn’t going to give up. The weather was still perfect and I’d never get another chance to come here. So with blue skies and bright sunshine I set off for Refugio Los Cuernos.
Initially I enjoyed the hike, the views were wonderful, I could see the mountains and the lake, I stopped off a few times to take photos. It was very up and down, not the most difficult hiking, but I had to admit, this was becoming an endurance test now. I was finding this very tough. The day before had been difficult, I really could have done with more rest time in between.
The rough terrain meant I was hiking over large stones some of the time which was hard on my feet, my hiking boots weren’t the most comfortable either. Maybe I should have gone with my old trainers and that would have made it easier. I still didn’t think I’d have been hiking that much faster though. I was careful where to place my feet so as not to slide on loose stones, careful with deep steps so I didn’t lose my balance, careful when there was any water so I didn’t slip. Me being fitter than I was wouldn’t have made any difference to those aspects of my hike. I would still have been taking it very steady when negotiating those sections. But my body was also very tired and carrying a heavy rucksack all day was very difficult.
The other thing I had noticed about this trail was that you had to share it with horses. At first I thought that it was for people who wanted to go trail riding. You could go trail riding in Torres del Paine, but not on the W Trek. The second day I saw the horses on the trail. They were pack horses. One horse in front with a rider on it, leading two or three other horses carrying supplies. I supposed the remote hostels with no road access would have to be supplied by horse, although I did find it difficult to believe that the horses brought everything in. Maybe there was some water access or some off road vehicle access as well. Whatever, there were a lot of horse droppings on the path and I had to be careful to try and avoid any horses on the trail due to my severe horse allergy.
The scenery along the trail on Day 3 was amazing. At the top of the first hill was a fabulous view of a lake and the mountains. There was a wooden swing bridge that crossed a mountain stream and looking back, more spectacular views of the mountains. The trail was never flat, I was relentlessly trekking up and down, it was hard work, but I had better weather than I could have possibly hoped for, blue skies, warm sunshine, unobstructed views of the turquoise lakes and snow capped distant mountains. I was lucky to be here, so I enjoyed the walk as best I could, but Day 3 was the most difficult day for me and I got to a point in the afternoon where I just wanted to get to the hostel. The physical hardships of this hike on my body were now diminishing my enjoyment of being in this magical setting.
It was the third night of me staying in a hostel and I’d had enough of that too. The first night had been okay, it was a novelty, it was bearable. The second night where I had sheets and a pillow was quite comfortable, sharing with a French Canadian couple and two German ladies, all a bit older and none of them noisy types. I didn’t like the fact that they didn’t sex segregate the rooms in the hostels though. It wasn’t too bad in there because there was only one man, the husband of the French Canadian couple.
At Refugio Los Cuernos I was back to the silk duvet and satin sheets, by that I mean sleeping bag and pillow and they tried to put me in a top bunk again. I asked for a bottom bunk, which I got, and was quite annoyed to find that a husband and wife had bagged the two bottom bunks instead of having the same set of bunk beds. The staff had swapped me over with the wife. These rooms had 8 beds to them, three bottom bunks, 3 middle ones and two that practically reached the ceiling. The room was dark and depressing.
One of the blokes I had to share a room with in this refugio, who was from Argentina, said it was common to have mixed bedrooms in mountain refuges. He said this wasn’t a hostel. Wrong. A mountain refuge hut in the Alps where you shelter from snow storms and avalanches was not the same as this place, specifically built for tourists that had a kitchen, a restaurant, bathrooms (bad as they were) and dormitories. This place had cost me £90 to stay in, the least I could expect was a female only dormitory.
The refugio staff have lists of advance bookings, everyone has to have an advance reservation. It’s not difficult to look at your list and say, we’ve got 16 women and 24 men booked for the dormitories tonight, so we’ll put the women in these rooms and the men in these rooms. If you have an odd number, put the couples travelling together in a mixed dormitory. I work in the travel industry and I know this is not a complicated process. It comes down to staff laziness, nothing more. For £90 a night, the guests deserve better service. And if not that, a proper dressing area in the bathroom that wasn’t opposite a door that opened out onto the corridor shouldn’t be too much to ask.
Yes. In this scabby hostel, the only place to get dressed was in the bathroom because I was in a room with 6 blokes, and the only place to get dressed in the bathroom, unless you went into a toilet cubicle which was very confined and unhygienic, was to sit on the one bench in the bathroom that faced the door. Which meant when anyone opened the door, anyone walking past could you in whatever state of undress you were in. At one point I was half dressed when a lass walked out of the bathroom for something she’d forgotten and left the door open! Presumably she didn’t think it mattered I only had my knickers on and anyone could have seen me in the two minutes she was gone, if I hadn’t got up and shut the door myself.
I mentioned hygiene in the toilet cubicles. Which brings me to something else. You can’t flush toilet paper. You have to throw it in a bin next to the toilet so you don’t block the drains, which is pretty disgusting. So definitely not somewhere you want to be getting dressed. I came across it all over Chile, not just in the National Park.
My next holiday is going to be super luxury for me. No more hostels where you can’t flush toilet paper!
On my next holiday I can also choose where to eat. Again, as mentioned in the previous post, I’d had both breakfast and packed lunches at the hostels so far and they’d been practically inedible. I didn’t realise you could actually buy food at the hostels, such as order a pizza, I thought it was their meals or nothing so I thought I should have something, at least breakfast and a packed lunch. Had I known how bad the food was going to be, I would have made do with my emergency supply of biscuits for the day hike and had something at the hostel in the evening because the breakfasts and pack ups were an expensive waste of money.
I just didn’t feel like being sociable any more, I had no desire to go and mix with strangers. To be honest at this point, I wanted this to be over and wished I’d said, forget the money I’ve wasted, this is just not worth it, I’m going back to Puerto Natales.
I was so glad that I hadn’t said that, because this was definitely the low point of the hike and things improved substantially the next day.
Earlier in the afternoon I’d been chatting to a lady from Guatemala who was hiking with her niece. She had been carrying the most enormous backpack with a frame that held all their camping gear. If I had had to carry all that stuff I could not have hiked the W Trek. I doubted I would have been able to stand upright with that on my back. Despite feeling antisocial, I saw this lady from Guatemala at a table set outside the hostel and I went to say hello to her and chatted to her and her companions for a while until she left to put up her tent.
I then retreated back to the bedroom with Strauss for company. Listening to classical music was the only thing keeping me going in these hostels. It somehow brought me closer to civilisation. Sophisticated 19th century Vienna, a cultural mecca. I could try to imagine I was overnighting in Schönbrunn Palace, instead of sharing a room with 6 sweaty blokes.
I had to fill in a review about the hostel and it wasn’t good. I’ve used the adjective “scabby” in this post, which is a word I use when I’m generally not very happy with accommodation. I didn’t use this adjective in my review, but I only gave it 1 or 2 out of 5 for everything and only 2 out of 10 as a recommendation, because it was marginally better than a tent and explained that I thought the mixed bedrooms were awful, the bathrooms were inadequate and there was no place to dress in privacy after a shower. If I’d been sharing with all women, I would have got dressed in the room. With 6 blokes in the room? I don’t think so!
When I got back to Puerto Natales I’d have my own room, when I got to Punta Arenas I’d have my own apartment and when I got home I’d have my own house! I was surprised the Little Angels hadn’t made an appearance on my iPod yet, this Scarborough band always feature when I’m homesick.
I’d had a hard afternoon getting to the hostel, the hostel was easily the worst I’d stayed at along the trek and I was faced with a walk the next day whether I wanted one or not because I was in the middle of nowhere. That night and the following morning were definitely the low point on the trail for me.
On day 4, I very much doubted I’d be doing the middle stroke of the W. If there had been somewhere to stay at the top of the middle stroke of the W, I would have stayed there and broken up the journey to make it manageable. As it was, it would mean hiking twice as far as I had done today and I had been told that the hike to the top of the middle stroke of the W was quite tough. I’d see how I got on, but I didn’t expect to be seeing Mirador Britanico.
As I set off in the morning I was faced with a big hill to climb, quite literally. A 2 kilometre uphill slog. It was tough at first because it was walking on big stones which is much harder on your leg muscles and also on my poor, sore feet. I came out onto the beach by the lake shore and decided to take a few photos of myself on this lovely beach. I did enjoy my short time on the beach, it was a nice, relaxing and scenic place to be.
Then the uphill slog began and on big stones too. I remember walking along Brighton beach almost 30 years ago and remember walking along the shingle being hard on my leg muscles. I was in my early 20s then and very fit as I used to go to the gym most days, and as my university was at the top of a steep hill I would walk up and down that regularly. During my first year when I was living in Halls I used to carry 8 pints of milk all the way up that steep hill from the supermarket! Now I’m complaining about a rucksack! Anyway I’m nowhere near that fit now, so a heavy rucksack and the large stones was a killer. I didn’t even mind the climb as much as the stones. At least this was the beginning of the day.
After that initial climb it did get easier, the path was still up and down, but it did level out somewhat and the view of the mountains, lakes and glacier was wonderful. I started to enjoy myself a bit more.
I got to Camp Italiano which is the point where you turn off to go to Mirador Britanico, the viewpoint that everyone raved about and was second only to the Torres. I looked and I hesitated, but it was 4 km one way and took 3 hours. It might well have taken me longer. It was a difficult path, apparently similar to the Torres where you were climbing on and over boulders and much as I would have liked to have seen this view, I knew I’d never make it and then do another 7.5 km to the next hostel. I was disappointed I wasn’t able to do it, but I didn’t regret not doing it. And that’s the wonderful thing about the internet, you only have to Google “Mirador Britanico” and click on images and you’ll see about a million photos of it. To misquote Jim Bowen on Bullseye, “let’s have a look at what I would have seen”.
If I hadn’t had to do so many long hikes over consecutive days and if I could have changed my trainers, because I usually alternate my footwear, it could have been different. But I couldn’t possibly have carried a second pair of trainers and hiking every day was taking too much of a toll on my body. I was now feeling confident I would get to the end of the W Trek and make it up to Refugio Grey the following day, which was 11 km and didn’t seem to be a particularly difficult section of the trail, but I wasn’t going to manage the full middle stroke of the W.
That’s when I came up with my alternative name. I was doing the lazy writer’s W Trek. A lazy writer will form a “W” where your pen hints in a small upward motion, so you can just about see it is a W. So that’s how I referred to my long distance wilderness hike from then on – the Lazy Writer’s W Trek.
After Camp Italiano, the track up to Refugio Paine Grande was pretty quiet. I think most people had left early from the opposite direction to do the hike to Mirador Britanico or were doing the hike if they’d left from the east. I found a nice quiet spot to eat my pretty horrible sandwich that had been in my packed lunch. I was sitting there for 15 or 20 minutes and not one person passed me from either direction.
One of my favourite places on this day, and indeed on the whole hike, was what I called the enchanted forest. The enchanted forest came after lunch and consisted of lots of dead trees, the type you would find in volcanic areas. It appealed to the romance and mystery in me. Okay, it wasn’t exactly where no man had been before, but I was still in a remote spot that a lot of people would never get to in their lifetime. I was pretty well off the beaten track.
There was a bit more of an uphill climb and I was wondering when this uphill battle was going to end and then I got to see the view of Pehoe Lake, which was the most amazing turquoise colour. That must mean that Paine Grande Lodge wasn’t far away. Another beautiful spot on this fabulous hike.
I crossed one bridge and I could see the building, not too far in the distance. Not far now.
On first view arriving at Paine Grande Lodge it looks very impressive. They were busy cleaning the windows of the restaurant so you had a nice view out to the lake. It was just a pity they hadn’t thought to clean the rest of the place. It was filthy! I was shown to my room and it was empty so I could have whatever bed I wanted. All of the bedding on all of the beds looked a bit grubby. I had a feeling I would be sleeping on my towel tonight. The staircases needed washing too.
But by far the worst was the shower room. It was filthy. They really needed to invest in new shower facilities. The only good thing you could say about these shower rooms was you could get dressed out of view of the door. And that was the only good thing. I couldn’t even work out how to turn the shower on, I had to ask somebody. Now I haven’t been to the swimming baths for years, so I don’t know if they’re still like this now, but when I used to go, probably around 30 years ago, you had to press a button on the shower and you got water for about 30 seconds and then if you wanted more water you had to press it again. That’s what these were like. Except you didn’t even get water for 30 seconds. You only got water for 10 seconds. I timed it. I know they want to encourage people not to have long showers and save water, but 10 seconds is ridiculous. I was not impressed. The whole shower area was dirty.
It’s all very well having all these nice new sofas in the public areas. If the rooms are grotty and the bathrooms are filthy, it doesn’t give a very good impression.
For all the bad things I said about the other hostels, their bathrooms were reasonably clean and they had showers you could turn on and off properly and it was only in the first one that the water wasn’t really hot, the other two had really hot water.
I certainly wouldn’t be sorry to see the back of these hostels, the first two nights were bearable, now it was becoming really awful.
Some people like the social side of staying in hostels, I’m led to believe. I’m not one of them. I like travelling on my own most of the time. I’m happy to chat to people. And sometimes that leads to lasting friendships, like with Cristina who I’d climbed the volcano with at the start of my trip. I kept seeing the same people on this trail and would say hello and chat to them briefly. I didn’t want to share a room with them.
This latest hostel with the swimming baths showers also didn’t sex segregate the rooms. From what I could see all the rooms were mixed. I could only conclude that it must be down to laziness on the part of the staff. Was I the only one who found these mixed dorm rooms wholly inconvenient? Possibly. Speaking briefly to some young French Canadians in my room, they seemed to think that the swimming baths showers where the water only lasted 10 seconds was a good thing! 10 seconds of water doesn’t even get you completely wet.
I obviously have very different standards. My mother’s high standards. And I’m not ashamed to admit that. Nor am I ashamed to share my honest opinions of these extremely expensive hostels. I understand that these are remote locations and their running costs will be high. But wouldn’t take much organisation and effort to make them a lot better. So when they’re charging £90 a night just for a bunk bed in a dormitory, they should be prepared for criticism. Because as I’ve said before, I don’t get any free stays on my holidays. Who pays for Yorkshire Hayley? Yorkshire Hayley does!
Despite my criticism of the refugios, if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t let staying in them put me off hiking in Torres del Paine. They’re not bad enough to abandon the idea of the hike altogether. It all comes down to what minimum standard you will accept. For me, I was willing to put up with staying in hostels to hike the W Trek and my personal experience hasn’t changed my mind. I wouldn’t have been willing to sleep in a tent for 4 nights to do this particular trail.
I still had to walk 11 km to my final hostel and my boat out of Torres del Paine National Park the next day. But it was now indisputable. I had succeeded in hiking the W Trek.
I had completed the Lazy Writer’s W Trek. The normal writer’s W Trek is 60 km. As a lazy writer I’d completed 52 km. So was I a success because of the 52 km I had completed or a failure because of the 8 km I hadn’t managed?
Did completing the Lazy Writer’s W Trek count as success? For me it did. Completing it had been challenging and very tough. I’d got to the Torres which was the main thing I wanted to see. Trying to get to Mirador Britanico would have been stupid. If I’d done the trek from west to east I probably wouldn’t have managed the Torres either.
It’s also important to note that there are quite a few variations for hiking the W Trek. Those who hike west to east often start at Paine Grande Lodge where I was tonight, thereby missing the left hand stroke of the W.
It really is down to personal choice how you do the W Trek factoring in time, availability of lodging, your fitness and what you want to see. I was disappointed that I wasn’t up to hiking to Mirador Britanico. But I had seen the Torres in perfect weather and practically had them to myself, which was the most important thing to me. I’d done this long distance hike and thoroughly enjoyed being in the Patagonian wilderness, even though it had been difficult at times.
So I concluded that the W Trek, albeit the Lazy Writer’s one, had been a success.
I now have even more of a reason to count it as a success and be pleased I persevered and didn’t give up and saw all this amazing scenery in beautiful Patagonia.
I have always believed in pushing yourself and making the most out of life. I had had a hard 12 months of travel, back to back tours, a holiday in Australia with less than 24 hours to between flying to Adelaide and getting back from tours in the Baltic, a trip with my niece and nephew to Northumberland, more quick turnarounds in November and December to tours in 6 different European countries with a day off in between if I was lucky, and then off to South America on New Year’s Day for 7 weeks. It was exhausting and I said I wanted to take more time between my travels after a hectic year visiting 15 countries on 4 continents with 58 flights.
I am now writing this at home, having been grounded since mid March due to the catastrophic Coronavirus pandemic. Be careful what you wish for. I would swap the exhausting year of travel I had last year over sitting at home wondering if I’m ever going to see anywhere else in the world again.
I am so pleased that I got to hike the W Trek in February, because who knows when anyone will be able to do that again. And I would have been devastated if I’d said I was too tired with all the travelling and I wouldn’t go in February 2020 because look where I am now. Always grab the chances when you get them, you never know what might happen in the future.
My next post will detail the final day on the W Trek hiking to Lago Grey, my boat trip to Glacier Grey and my night at the Last Hope.
I travelled to Torres del Paine National Park and hiked the W Trek during the first week of February 2020.
To hike the W Trek in Torres del Paine National Park you must book all your accommodation in advance. There are hostels and campsites you can stay at along the route. There are a few free campsites run by the National Park Service. All hostels and the other campsites are run by Fantastico Sur in the east of the park and Vertice Patagonia in the west of the park.
You can get information about hiking in Torres del Paine National Park including the W Trek, the O Trek and the Q Trek, on the Conaf website.
I hiked the W Trek independently. I hiked from East to West starting from Torre Central to El Chileno to hike the eastern stroke of the W first. There are various tours available, but the hike is easy to do on your own without a guide and allows you to go at your own pace. The hike took me 5 days with 4 overnight stays at Refugios in the National Park.
I stayed at Refugio Los Cuernos for the third night on this section of my hike. This refugio is managed by Fantastico Sur. I booked online via the company’s website. A made up bed in a bunk room sleeping up to 8 people in each hostel cost $116 USD per night in 2020. Rates for 2020/2021 can be found here. I was able to book online from the UK using Paypal to secure the reservation.
I stayed at Refugio Paine Grande for the fourth night on this section of my hike. This refugio is managed by Vertice Patagonia. The rates for their hostels were cheaper at $87 USD per night in 2020. I was able to book online from the UK using Paypal to secure the reservation.
It is possible to start or end your hike at Refugio Paine Grande. You can take the bus from Puerto Natales to Pudeto and then take the catamaran across Lago Pehoe to Refugio Paine Grande. The Torres del Paine website details the transport options and timetables.
I travelled to Torres del Paine National Park from Puerto Natales with Bus Sur. There are several buses each day departing from Puerto Natales Bus Station. I took the 1200h bus from Puerto Natales to Terminal Laguna Amarga which took 2 hours. I booked my ticket online in advance, but it is possible to book on the day.
Everyone must disembark the bus here if they are hiking from East to West in order to register with CONAF Park Services and pay the National Park fee which was approximately £25 for 5 days.
Read about the beginning and end of the W Trek
The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Days 1 & 2
The Lazy Writer’s W Trek – Day 5 & Glacier Grey
Read my experiences driving the wild, rugged and remote Carretera Austral.
My Tips for Driving the Carretera Austral
Driving South on the Carretera Austral
Read about my other adventures in Chile
Rafting and Canyoning in Futaleufu
Read about my day hikes in Argentine Patagonia