Food on the W Trek

One of Chile´s national treasures is Torres del Paine national park in Patagonia, so it seemed rude not to visit. Clare and I did the very popular W Trek over 5 days and 4 nights, hiking to see Lago Grey glaciar, Valle Frances, and the famous 3 Torres.

We stayed in relative luxury in the refugios dotted around the park, which had hot showers (!) and beds everyday - we did snigger at the poor campers freezing outside. Unsurprisingly, the standard of the food was variable up in the mountains. Potentially the worst was at the largest refugio of all, Refugio Grande Paine, right by Lago Grey. The steak was pretty much indigestible, and the only spice they seemed to know was salt:

Refugio Cuernos (right at the foot of the Cuernos, with huge windows for you to admire them) did a bit better, mainly because they served us fresh vegetables with their chicken and rice:

But the most impressive was Refugio Chileno, where there was an obviously enthusiastic young chef at the helm. We finished the hike relatively early that day, so I spent the afternoon watching through into the kitchen as she made a crepe lasagne all from fresh.

One thing I really will not miss though is egg, ham and cheese. I seem to have eaten some combination of the three every single day in Chile. Up in the mountains, everyday we had ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch between slices of indigestible bread. Bleurgh!