Torres del Paine - Patagonia 2014

Aussies!! On the way to our hotel in Punta Arenas from the ship, we travelled with 2 other couples who turned out to be Aussies also going to Torres del Paine and then El Calafate.  We introduced ourselves; learned one couple is from Darwin (Di & Stewart) and the other from Echuca (Maureen & Dick).  Will be good to travel with some like-minded people.

Our brief time in Punta Arenas was spent walking its streets past very beautiful historical buildings and the back blocks.  We also enjoyed a Chilean speciality… the Completo or Chilean hotdog.

view over Punta Arenas

 A Completo comprises the bun, layer of chopped tomato, sauerkraut, sausage, mashed avocado and creamy mayonnaise on top, served on a narrow plate the width of the bun and a knife.  It sounds a little weird but it actually tasted good, especially when you’re trying it in a packed Chilean ‘hamburger joint’.

Next morning we joined our new travel companions for the 7 hr. road trip to Torres del Paine National Park, including a lunch stop at a sheep ranch where we were served more tender lamb, Chilean wine and other veggies.  Other tourists joined us at our table, 2 girls and a couple from Brazil and 2 video makers from Chile.  The conversation was fascinating, despite the mixture of languages and accents.

As our road journey progressed, we were all waiting to see our first glimpse of the Paine Massif, especially the Torres del Paine, sometimes called ‘The 3 Spires’ which is what the park gets its name from. With a setting sun, we did get a first tempting but cloud surrounded view of ‘The Spires’.

clouds teasing us with views of The Torres

Our hotel, Las Torres, is beautifully located near the base of one section of the massif with tantalising glimpses of ‘The Spires’ peaking out from behind it and the massif made the hotel look very small and insignificant indeed.  The hotel was very comfortable and located on the only remaining private land within the park’s boundaries.

hotel is little white strip bottom left of massif

Our alarm went of at 7am and we peered out our window, hoping we were in luck with the weather, which has a reputation for being extremely changeable and fierce at times.  It was still very dark but we could make out that it wasn’t raining or blowing a gale, but there was some cloud in the sky.

Why were we awake at this hour, simple, we wanted to try and capture the sunrise and its impact on ‘The Spires’.  With cameras and tripod we headed out with a quick stop at Reception.  We wanted to know about pumas (mountain lion type cats) being in the area as heard about during dinner.  When asked about pumas, the guy behind the counter, shrugged his shoulders, told us he knew nothing and then simply finished with… “good luck!”.

So off we went, walking off into the darkness, every little sound catching our attention, particularly one, eyes peering into the darkness catching sight of a man on horseback that loomed out of the greying sky and passed us.  After 30 mins walking, we found a place we thought would give us the best view we could get and simply waited for the sun to join us.

The effort and wait was worth it, first because of the great sunrise we got behind us and then as the sun made its presence felt, the change in colour which appeared in front of us on two of ‘The Spires’ themselves, the third unfortunately hidden from us.  

The whole sunrise inspired colour impact lasted a mere 3-4 minutes before the magnificent massif turned its natural light grey.  We count ourselves very lucky to have seen it based on what guides constantly told us about the weather.

By the way, we also learned over breakfast from our travelling companions, that the specific noise we heard on our walk out into the darkness was from a grey fox and it is a noise they make when there are puma around.

Torres del Paine is known to the Chileans at least, as the 8^th Wonder of the World.  A few facts first, it was created in 1959, has a surface area of 227,298 hectares and averages 155,000 visitors a year.  We engaged in 2 full days of wandering throughout the majority of the park by car, boat and foot.  We got close to the granite spires of Torres del Paine, the Cuemos del Paine, a massif of uniquely contrasting (grey & black) sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and the tallest peak of Cerro Paine Grande at 3,050 metres. 

The rustic boat ride, including a zodiac transfer from shore, took us across the Grey Lake and very close across the 3 faces of Grey Glacier, which happens to have some of the deepest blue ice we have ever seen.  

Cara Cara getting stuck in

There were also numerous animals in this park, some of them eating and some being eaten.

Torres del Paine is yet another place requiring adjectives to try and describe it.  Words like primitive, raw, huge, jagged, breathtaking, demanding and panoramic come to mind because of the profound impact the massif or the numerous lakes has on you, no mater from which location within the park you are observing it.  It also seduces you with multiple and unexpected scenes of serenity.

You will notice there are quite a few panoramic photos in the link attached below because this place naturally inspires this style of photography.

For more photos of Torres del Paine just click on the link below:

CLICK HERE for more photos of - Torres del Paine 2014

As a humorous aside, we did have a very funny experience one night over dinner with our new Aussie travelling friends.  A film crew from Channel Ten (Places We Go – Saturday afternoons) doing a feature on Chile and was seated at the table next to us.  We had noticed them doing filming the day before and again as we walked in for dinner.

Our dinner was progressing well along with a few local cocktails (Pisco & Calafate Sours) and we again noticed we were being filmed from a distance enjoying ourselves.  A little later when the laughter at our table had begun to increase, a waiter came up to us and asked if we would mind reducing our noise a little.  Reason, the Aussie front man was interviewing the owner of the Hotel right behind us.

Well then the fun really began and whilst we did reduce our noise, we started trying to make the cameraman laugh, gave the interviewer wind up signals out of camera shot, all of which cause our waiter to retreat to the furthest wall from us and crack up with stifled laughter.  With his interview over, the front man thanked us and told us he also found the whole thing very amusing.  Their show goes to air supposedly sometime in June this year.

Torres del Paine really is a place of striking place of raw natural beauty!