Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine, Chile

I arrived in Puerto Natales by bus from El Calafate in Argentina. Crossing the border was tedious, but pretty painless. It is becoming clear that I need more pages in my passport. I calculated that if I do my trip as (somewhat) planned, I won´t be able to get back into the states, so hopefully I can pick up some more pages in Santiago. I met a couple people on the bus, then a few more people around town, and we all set out for the 5 day "W" hike in Torres del Paine a few hours away.
Overall, it was a flawless hike- definitely the highlight of my trip so far. We had amazing weather- gorgeous days warm enough so that you could walk in a t-shirt and even sweat a bit, and the nights pretty cold, but with lots of layers it was no problem. TDP is notorious for inclimate weather and wind, and we didn´t have a drop of rain or wind- we got SO lucky. The scenery was out of this world, everything from mountains to lakes to fields to glaciers to massive granite towers. It is low season so there were very few other hikers which was really nice. There were eight of us and everything went perfectly-- I couldn´t have asked for a better group with which to hike and camp.
The first day we hiked 6 hours up to Guardas and camped next to Grey Glacier. The next day was about 8 hours hiking to Italiano next to a huge river and another glacier and we could hear avalanches all night long. The third day we climbed up Valle Frances and saw some even more spectacular foliage than normal, and ended maybe 7 hours later at Cuernos next to the lake. The fourth day was all up hill 7 or so hours to end at Torres but we got there early and got to sit out in the sun for awhile and just enjoy the view. The last morning we got up at 5 am and hiked straight up in the dark to watch the sunrise against Los Torres. We were the first ones up and about halfway up the trail turns to just rocks, and it was a giant game of connect the dots stopping at each trail marker to try and find the next as it zig-zagged all over the place. We found a giant rock at the perfect incline, crawled in our sleeping bags, made tea, and enjoyed a spectacular sunrise turning los torres every shade of red and orange right in front of us.
When we came back to Puerto Natales we were thrilled for some showers and hot food, and more than indulged ourselves in one last celebratory night out. Fantastic trip!