The Grandest of Adventures!

Greetngs Friends and Family!

It´s been a long time since I´ve been able to post to the blog to tell you Murray and I are safe and sound. But we are, and we are returned from our grand adventure!

With minutes to spare from Murray´s taxi dropping him at my hotel door, we sprinted to a cafe then to the domestic airport for El Calafate, the small mountain town north of our destination, Torres del Paine. Plane to bus, we were finally settled in our humble hostel for the next few hours before our 530 am transport to the park.

Poor Murray had slept none on the plane here, little on the flight to El Calafate, but we were both satisfied with a 3 course pizza dinner in town, sustaining us till midnight sorting our backpacks and assorted sundries, in preparation for the trek.

At noon, we arrived in the Torres del Paine, having crossed to the Chilean border with scraps of paper attached to our passports we were at pains not to lose.

Murray helped me off the bus with my pack, and I held his aloft as he settled his on his shoulders. And thus we were off on our trek!

We saw the most spectacular mountain ranges, trekking humbly in their midst, under cover of a bit of rain, a bit of snow, brilliant sunshine, and strong winds that swept the breath from our noses, and the threw us onto the rocks. We crossed rivers on bridges meant for one person at a time (um, does that include the pack?!), crossed streams leaping rock to rock, traversed plains of brush, fields of boulders, climbed small walls of granite to achieve steeper hills on the top. We were stretched to our breaking point, not to mention tripped ankles, sore toes, bruised shoulders and backs. We saw wildlife, birds of all sorts, emu, llama type creatures, fox. All told, I think we traveled 56 miles during our 5 days trekking. Every evening we arrived at our destination, I swore I was done, for I hadn´t another step in me. And each morning we re-tied our laces for another 20 kilometers or so.

Then suddenly, it was ended, and we had arrived at our destination. Bittersweet, we celebrated our endurance, our determination, simultaneously mourning it was ended. But then again, boy oh boy did we need a shower!!

We´ll fill you in on more of the details later, like the time Murray tripped on the pathway and landed upside down turtle-style limbs akimbo, flailing, while I watched on, helpless with laughter. Or the toenail on my right big toe which, injured by repeatedly stubbing my toe descending from the 3rd day´s ascent, formed a blister which separated my toenail from the nail bed -- we performed minor surgery by headlamp that night on my offended toe, trimming the nail and excising the blister. It was *so* gross!

Murray flies out tomorrow and I am staying in El Calafate to relax a bit, instead of heading straight to El Chalten (another trekking town north of here). We will post more later but I am overdue for my first night in a real bed :-)

Sending you hugs and kisses,

Love T