W trek, Torres Del Paine, Patagonia - a slow hikers itinerary

To my utter chagrin (and inspiration), I only encounter super fit hikers where ever I go. Why is that? I am the slowest hiker on the trail and never the fittest, so the timings other people quote never applies to me. So here is a very slow and relaxed hikers guide to the W trek in Torres Del Paine National Park, Patagonia, Chile. I also drew a map showing what's what. It felt great to be able to complete the trek and the next few posts will be about how to accomplish this.

Day 1 - Puerto Natales

• The bus from Puerto Natales picked us up at our hostel in the morning (I think 8 AM) and drove us to the national park entrance, where we paid our entrance fees of 15000 chilean pesos/person. The bus ticket from Austral Glacier cost 12000 chilean pesos/person.
• Continued on the same bus to the Catamaran @ 12000/person to Refugio Paine Grande
• Hiked from 12.30 PM to 6.40 PM
• Arrived at Refugio Gray around 5 PM
• Camped at Las Guardas
• Rained all night!
• Be the last to enter so that you can get to your backpack first.
• Pay catamaran fees on the boat itself. 

Day 2 - Las Guardas campsite

• Broke camp very late. Very rainy and wet
• 1 hour walk back to Refugio Gray
• 4.25 hours to Paine Grande
• 2.5 hours to Italiano
• 7.5 to 8 hours of hiking in the entire day
• Wet in the morning, sunny in the afternoon
• No turn-back in Italiano if you arrive late. Free campsite, but clean and pretty.

Day 3 - Valle Del Frances

• Swami hiked up to the 2nd mirador (~5 hours)
• Niru hiked up to 1st mirador (~2.5 hours)
• Left campsite at 4 pm.
• Arrived at Cuernos at 6.45 PM.
• Rainy, sunny, windy!!

Day 4: Cuernos campsite and view of the Cuernos

• Longest day of hiking!
• 10.15 AM - started from Cuernos campsite
• 2 PM - Arrived at shortcut to Chileno refugio (after one large uphill climb and a downhill. Lot of flat walking after the shortcut, followed by steady uphill)
• 5.00 PM - arrived at Chileno campsite
• 6.45 PM - arrived at Torres campsite (mostly uphill)
• Camped @ Torres campsite

Day 5: Torres Campsite

• Woke up 4.40 AM to view sunrise at Las Torres, the parks most popular view point.
• Started walk at 5.45 AM (did a small bit of packing)
• Reached las torres at 6.50 AM
• very cloudy and very uphill; could not see the torres at all; very disappointed
• Returned to campsite, packed and left at 9.15 AM
• Reached Chileno at 10.15 AM
• Arrived at W trail entrance @ 12 PM
• Bus to Puerto Natales at 2.30 PM