Category: health & safety

Recently a friend asked for a “best hike” recommendation for a female hiker, possibly travelling alone. She is very experienced with many serious treks completed in Europe and the States.

Immediately we suggested The Towers of Paine in Chile.

Paine is well policed and maintained. It is safe. No need to speak Spanish, though it helps.

As evidence, we link to a charming and entertaining trip report from two young women who just completed the most demanding itinerary, the Circuit. They LOVED it:

HIGHLIGHTS:

* Ascending John Garner Pass for a devastatingly beautiful view of Glacier Grey below on one side and Lago Paine on the other. I moment I will never forget.

* Eating chocolate surrounded by the Valle de Frances

* Seeing three shooting stars cross the Milky Way and a comet (and I was totally sober), whilst lying on a swing bridge, with a very energetic river flowing below us

* Drinking Pisco with Cowboys in the sunshine

* Making friends with Porters (Sherpas) and sharing our walks with them

* Watching ice bergs float past our tent whilst making a lovely cuppa tea snuggled up in my sleeping bag!

* That Condor moment! Seeing Condors sore majestically above the snowy peaks of Torres del Paine

* That vegetarian sandwich at Camp Chileno!

* The best drinking water in the world on tap! (We drank only the water that flowed through the Parque; no boiling no purification tabs). Ah, agua nectar!

* Realising what we thought may have been a clap of thunder and so the start of a wet day was only another ice berg making a splash into Lago Grey.

* Realising what we thought may have been another clap of thunder was merely another avalanche in the Valle del Frances.

* Meeting the boys from Ecuador at Camp Japonese (a camp only for climbers).

* The satisfaction of completing The Circuit when a lot of the locals thought we may be clinically insane!

Sophs in South America: Torres del Paine Circuit, Southern Patagonia, Chile.

organize a trip to Paine, Chile – besthike.com

Newsvine tipped us to this NYT article.

(Not that we were worried about the Maoist terrorists in the past.)

WITH political stability returning to Nepal, so too are adventure-oriented travel companies, many of which had discontinued their trips to the country over the last few years.

For the first time since 2002, Country Walkers, based in Waterbury, Vt., is returning to the Himalayan nation of Nepal with special tours in the fall, said to be the ideal time for trekking in the region.

Other outfitters, like Mountain Travel Sobek of Emeryville, Calif., and Wilderness Travel of Berkeley, Calif. — which had halted all trips but those to the Khumba or Everest regions in the northeast — are now offering trips to the Annapurna region in central Nepal. Mountain Travel Sobek is also starting treks to the remote Dolpo and Humla regions in the northwest, which they deemed off limits because of the political unrest.

After more than 10 years of bitter conflict, the Nepalese government signed a peace deal with Maoist rebels in November. …

And Maoists have stopped collecting money from tourists along trekking routes.

… GEOGRAPHIC EXPEDITIONS, which continued to operate trips to Nepal during the unrest but only to the Kathmandu region, is planning two new excursions. One, a rigorous 27-day trek through the Kingdom of the Mustang in the spring and fall, starts at $4,695 a person for a group of eight people. Another 31-day trek, Around Manaslu, to be offered in the fall, starts at $4,995 a person for eight people.

There are some added benefits to being among the first tourists to return to Nepal. “For the moment,” said Mr. Steigerwald, “it’s really a treat to be there without crowds.”

As Political Unrest Eases, Travel Picks Up – New York Times