Other than underprepared, the best way to describe my camping trip was..

Grossly negligent. Apparently it snows and water freezes when it is below 32 degrees. I also received confirmation that snow becomes quite fluffy when it's below 20.

Weather aside, the trip was an unmitigated success and I can honestly say that I have 10 blisters on my feet. The trip was great and besides carrying the equivalent of a well fed 6th grader on my back for a week, it went off with out a hitch. I will not bore you trying to pervey how breathtaking the scenery was, but just know that it was conclusively above average and at every moment the view nearly made me crap my pants. (In a good way of course).

I went hiking for 7 days in "Torres Del Paines" with my friend Ryan from Boston and Tim from England through a region of the Andes equipped with Glaciers, 12,000 foot mountains and more horse poop than must be ecologically allowable. The park has "Refugios" sporadically dispersed throughout the park, which are houses/huts offering a variety of basic needs such as outhouses, running water, equipment rental, some food for sale (mostly 5 lb. containers of mayo), slightly insane attendants, etc. These refugios are deeply removed from modern roads and therefore, rely on horses (and cowboys) to stock their supplies and remove trash. These horses take the same trails as I took, however they go a lot faster and don't take as many breaks. A byproduct of the horse riding the trail is their ability to relieve themselves in stride. They litter the narrow path with supersized dumps (or smushy rocks), which on more than a dozen occasions found the bottom of my hiking boot. By the end of the trip we couldn't have cared less what or how much we were stepping in.

The park was aggressively beautiful. Any of the epic cinematic feats with devastatingly lush landscapes such as Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park III, Joe Versus the Volcano, etc. could have been filmed in Southern Chile. (On a side note, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were downright mediocre in JVTV. However, by all indications, they are getting ready to release a new film entitled "Sleepless Joe Checking Email on a Volcano in Seattle". Look for it).

Some items you probably don't need in the Chilean wilderness and make your pack a hernia waiting to happen: 1) Fisher price extender fishing rod made of D-grade plastic. 2) Five books when you are hiking 15 miles a day. (nothing like cuddling up to a good page turner in sub-artic temps after sweating your ass off for 7 hours). 3) Two generally solid lbs. of butter.

A few items you may want to consider allowing in your bag: Deodorant, a blowup sleeping mat without holes, sherpa, etc. On this note, I would like to rescind my comments about Tomas (the endlessly smelly German) being the most odorific man in South America. While he was seemingly hide-and-go-seeking fecal matter throughout our Hostel room, without deodorant, it probably appeared that I was playing this game using all of my available pockets (and shoe soles).

ps. I apologize for the general theme of this post. The next one will inevitably be about dandelions or Joe's internet connection in Seattle.