Food¶
The food on the trail was a really important topic for us, and the one we learned the most during our hike. Indeed, we started with really low calories rations and ended up being hungry almost all the time and losing lot of weight in the first few weeks. Following Piia and Oliver1 example, we started to count calories and did our groceries with this food-math in mind. This was a bit complicated at first, but then, we developed sort of a habit and at the end, we knew the ballparks numbers of calories/100g of many of our typical food items.
Calories count¶
Our menus were trying to reach :
- 2,800 kcal/day for Alexis
- 2,100 kcal/day for Iris
Meals schedule¶
A typical day on the trail was with 5 meals every 2h/2h30:
- Breakfast - hot or cold ;
- Morning Snack - cold ;
- Lunch - cold ;
- Afternoon snack - cold ;
- Dinner - hot.
Trail menu¶
Breakfast¶
- When: just before leaving, after packing everything.
- What: We had two different types:
- Instant oatmeal with dehydrated soup (chicken was the favorite) slightly cooked.
- Museli with milo (powder cacao) and cold water or powder milk.
- Alexis' bonus: Harina tostada with cinamon.
- Calorie count:
- Alexis: 530
- Iris: 330
Morning Snack¶
- When: Usually after 2h/2h30 of walking or when one of us was feeling hungry
- What: Cereals bars. There are multiple types in Chile, but it is hard to always find the same ones. Our favorite were the NatureValley, but we also loved Soul and Protein. However, the most available ones were the Quakers, not super tasty. To reach the expected calories count, sometimes we had to take 2 or 3 bars for a single break.
- Alexis' bonus: None.
- Calorie count:
- Alexis: 200
- Iris: 200
Lunch¶
- When: Between 12 and 14, usually 2-2h30 after the snack.
- What:
- One tortilla with a spoon of peanut butter
- One tortilla with a spoon of chocolate/chestnut/honey spread
- Alexis' bonus: Another tortilla with peanut butter
- Calorie count:
- Alexis: 700
- Iris: 510
Afternoon Snack¶
- When: In the middle of the afternoon. For shorter hiking day, this was skipped.
- What: Homemade trail mix. Our best combination was:
- Peanuts with merken
- Japanese peanuts
- Chestnuts
- Almonds
- Alexis' bonus: Spéculoos or kit kat
- Calorie count:
- Alexis: 460
- Iris: 250
Dinner¶
A plate with quinoa and carne de soya
- When: Before going to sleep.
-
What: We alternated between few different options.
- Puree de papas with dehydrated soup
- Polenta with spices or dehydrated soup
- Semola with spices or dehydrated soup
We always added soy meat (carne de soja) for proteins and often crispy onions for the taste. Finally, a desert (usually a cookie)!
-
Alexis' bonus: Extra ration of soy meat.
- Calorie count:
- Alexis: 950
- Iris: 850
Extras¶
For shorter sections (like 19 or 16), we also carried vegetables to improve our daily meals (such as carrots for the tortillas, or avocados for the breakfast). A fresh version (but with less calories) of the lunch break was a tortilla with boiled eggs, carrots, red cabbage and hummus.
Our regime lacked some vitamins, so we also took some supplements to limit our carences. And in towns, we would often buy lot of vegetables and eat big salads to compensate.
Harvesting food¶
Jan explains the food you can find on trail better in the manual. For our part, we managed to harvest food on the trail, either directly from the nature, or simply by buying it to the locals. The sweet fruits of the fuschia made refreshing little snacks, calafate berries a more stringent snack, and blackberries a binge snack. We were also spoiled because we hiked in the Araucania region when the piñones were ripe, and ate plenty of those (we cooked them in open fires to save our gas). This allowed us to extend our reserves, and to do the 12-9 stretch in one go.
It is also possible to sometimes buy food on the trail to extend even further the reserves. For example, we were able to buy 5 tortillas rescalda at the camping near Lago Desierto that lasted for days (one could easily serve as a lunch for 2).
Spices¶
To improve our meals, we usually carried some spices:
- Salt ;
- Pepper ;
- Curry ;
- Merken2;
- Garlic (powder) ;
- Parmesan (sold in bag of 40 or 80 g in every supermarket);
- Cinnamon.
Along our olive oil, this allowed to make every meal a bit tastier!
Groceries repackaging¶
To avoid carrying useless (and sometimes relatively heavy) packages, we always used a repackaging step with ziplocks. This allowed us to minimize the garbages we had during the hike and for the food to fit in our bags. We also used extensively the tortillas bags as bigger containers for many items.
Weight loss¶
Even with the improved calorie count, we both experienced some heavy weight loss. Indeed, going from a sedentary lifestyle as full-time hikers, we increased our physical activity by quite a lot. For example, Alexis lost a bit more of 12 kg in the first two months of hiking and Iris almost 6kg.