Backpacking Chile and Patagonia!

One of my goals/dreams for 2025 was to go backpacking and hiking in Patagonia. I had developed an avid interest in going to Patagonia in the summer of 2024 and had started thinking since then about how to fulfill this new dream of mine. Unfortunately, none of my close friends displayed a strong interest in going to Patagonia, which meant that it would have to be a solo trip and I would have to plan the whole trip by myself. It also meant that I would have to train and learn how to go backpacking in mountains since I had no prior experience. To me this seemed like a perfect opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone and also have fun. So I started preparing for the trip from January 2025 and let things happen. I ended up spending a wonderful 2 weeks hiking, backpacking, and traveling alone in Chile (and Patagonia) in December 2025. 

The main highlight of the trip was hiking and backpacking in Torres Del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia. I did the W trek, which is 5 days long and spread over 80 km/50 miles in the shape of a ‘W’ in the park. Furthermore, I carried all my personal gear (including tent, food, clothes, etc.) in my backpack (which weighed roughly 35-40 pounds on Day 1). I feel my photos don’t even do justice to how beautiful it feels to be hiking in Torres Del Paine. One of my favorite moments from the trip was seeing the mountains from far away in the bus on my first day and feeling a little emotional. I told myself, ‘I hope the day never comes when I look at mountains and don’t go, wow, it’s so beautiful.’  The trip meant a lot to me, and in the moment I felt emotional and grateful to be there.

Even though it was a solo trip, I never felt alone while doing the W trek. I met a lot of people from all over the world and had some fascinating conversations. I was obviously taken away by the beauty of the park, but I also really appreciated everyone I met. For instance, I met an old couple from Sweden (in their late 60s) doing the W trek who spent some time in Delhi in the 1980s, and it was really interesting to talk to them about Delhi in the 1980s. I also met this funny and intriguing woman from China who was on a world tour after quitting her 14-year old job at P&G. And I also had some really insightful conversations with a retired rich banker from Montana about life and working hard. He said something that left a mark on me: ‘If you have to work hard for something, which may come easily to others, then it just means a lot more to you than to anyone else.’ To me it resonated with how much the trip meant to me because I had to work hard to make it happen!  

I was also pleased with how I did physically and mentally while backpacking. I had injured my left knee a few months before this trip in August while backpacking in Olympic National Park. The knee took longer than I expected to heal, and I was worried that I might run into problems again in Patagonia. As fate would have it, the left knee started hurting a little towards the end of Day 1 itself. So, I was forced to figure out how to avoid a serious injury and complete the trek, which still had 4 more days of hiking and camping. Thankfully, I had ibuprofen, which helped me keep the inflammation minimal throughout the trek. But what I found to be most helpful personally was mentally focusing on taking one step at a time instead of worrying about getting injured. I saw multiple injured hikers during the trek, and I just felt grateful that I was able to avoid any injury.

I also experienced classic 'Patagonian Weather' with extreme winds and rain towards the end of the trek. On Day 5, I was supposed to take a ferry out of the park in the morning, but it was cancelled due to extreme winds. This meant that I had to figure out an alternative way to get out of the park, which was hiking an extra 11 km to another campsite and taking the ferry from there. To make things worse, the ferry was completely sold out, and I had to risk hiking in extreme winds to get a chance at some last-minute spots on the ferry. I did the 11 km hike non-stop in extreme rain and wind in around 2 hrs and then had to wait at the dock to get the tickets to the last ferry of the day. It all worked out at the end, and I was able to make it back to a comfy bed at my hotel by 10 pm. That night, while having dinner alone, I felt happy/proud about how I handled everything (although I did end up with a cold after being drenched in rain all day).

After completing the W trek, I returned to Puerto Natales, the city next to Torres Del Paine National Park. I had left some of my luggage here before starting the W trek and had to come back to collect it. It is a nice little town, catering to tourists visiting Patagonia. I really liked the harbor, where I ran into some really nice dogs and had a beautiful view of mountains. I just didn't enjoy their supermarket/grocery store, where I had to wait in a line for more than an hour to buy a packet of tortillas!!

From Puerto Natales, I headed further south, to the southernmost city in the world: Punta Arenas. I was literally at the edge of the world, and it felt a little unreal. I came to Punta Arenas searching for penguins. They reside on Magdalena Island, which is 1 hr away from Punta Arenas by ferry. But the adverse weather conditions that I faced on Day 5 of the W trek earlier had continued in the region, which led to another ferry cancellation for me. So I had to again adapt and change my travel plans so I could still have a chance at seeing penguins. I decided to change my flight and hotel reservations, and the next day, the weather was marginally better. I was able to take the ferry to see the Penguins! It was a great experience, but the winds were so strong and cold that it felt unbearable to be on the island for just a few minutes. I remember a seagull trying to fly and just giving up in exhaustion! After spending an hour with Penguins, I returned to the city. I explored it a little more. I had learned from the internet that there is a Hindu temple in Punta Arenas, and it is the southernmost temple in the world! I am not a religious person per se, but it just felt necessary to me to go see the temple and express gratitude for being able to experience Patagonia. The temple was unfortunately closed, so I couldn’t go inside and had to explore from the outside. While moving around, I found that there was a small garden in front of the temple with some statues. When I got closer, I realized the garden had statues of Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi!! It was ‘Plaza Hindú,’ inaugurated by ex foreign minister of India, Salman Khurshid, a while ago. It made my Indian heart happy to see a part of India far away from home at the edge of the world. This was a really pleasant surprise, and I felt a lot of emotions.

After Punta Arenas, I moved up towards the northern edge of Patagonia and arrived in Puerto Varas. Here, I visited the oldest and most visited national park in Chile, Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park. The main sight of attraction in the park is a beautiful volcano, Osorno, that can be seen all the way from the airport on a clear day. I did a beautiful hike near Osorno and river rafting in the Petrohué River. Both were great experiences and really fun. I also met some interesting people and had great conversations. I had a really nice pizza at a pizzeria run by an Italian man from Venice who was living in Chile. He told me his story and how he ended up in Chile while making the pizza in front of me in a stone oven (designed by himself), and it just felt perfect. I also made a new friend who was from Mexico and at the same hostel as me. I found a Mexican food truck in Puerto Varas that seemed authentic, and we went to get tacos together. At first I thought the plan was cancelled because it was raining and I was running late. But I was pleasantly surprised when I ran into the person at the taco food truck waiting for me. The tacos were great, and I was happy that plan wasn’t cancelled after all!

Finally, it was time to head back to Austin. I was first flying to Santiago for a 10-hour layover before heading back to the US. I had spent some time in Santiago at the beginning of the trip and covered almost all major sights to see in the city. But staying inside the airport seemed a boring option, so I decided to head out into the city to get lunch.

By the end of the trip, I had started missing Indian food, so I looked up Indian restaurants in Santiago and went to one of them. At the restaurant, I had an extremely interesting conversation with the restaurant owner/head chef. The owner was from India, and we talked in Hindi while I was enjoying the food. We talked about living in Chile, how he ended up in Santiago, and related things. The most intriguing part of the conversation was his views on recent election results where the far-right won. The general mood online on Reddit was of disappointment. However, he was looking forward to the change because of the recent rise in crime in Santiago, which he attributed to unchecked illegal immigration. He felt this was affecting his business, and fewer people were coming than earlier, particularly at night. This seemed plausible to me. However, later we were discussing social media, and he explained to me that he had been receiving comments online on the restaurant's Instagram page suggesting that Indian food is unhygienic. This was based on some viral reels on Instagram that had become popular recently across the world. When I reflected on this conversation later, I felt that maybe the slowdown in his business was not entirely due to the rise in crime in Santiago but partly because of the general decline in perception of India abroad post-COVID. Perhaps this is because some people in India have figured out that showing India in a negative light is a money-making venture. Cheap and easy access to the Internet in India has been really beneficial for India in many ways, but maybe a side effect is that now the whole world gets to 'see' India.

Lastly, I'd just like to say that I had the pleasure of interacting with the most amazing Chileans. I always found them to be extremely helpful and nice. One person had the best reaction I have ever experienced to telling them I am from India. He just showed genuine surprise and happiness to see someone from far, far away in his country. When I was in Punta Arenas shopping for an alpaca sweater, I ran into translation issues about the wrong size of sweater with the shopkeeper, and a nice person stepped in to help me out. He stayed until I had purchased the sweater to make sure I didn't face any trouble. While dining in a fancy restaurant in Santiago, I left my bag at the table to go to the restroom. When I returned, the bag was still there, but the couple sitting next to me told me that I shouldn't do that and be more careful about my belongings in Santiago. I agreed, and then one thing led to another, and I ended up talking to them for an hour and a half about a lot of different things. It was just really nice. I had a wonderful time in Chile altogether, and I'd love to go back.