Torres Del Paine - The Tour

Torres del Paine National Park was recently declared the 8^th wonder of the World in an international competition involving 330 other challengers world wide. Given that only the pyramids remain of the original 7, that makes it a place worth coming to see!

 The park is a 90 minute drive from Puerto Natales – there are a few hotels in the park itself, but they are all expensive and isolated, so we chose to stay in town, which we decided was a good call, as the drive itself is so amazing. It goes from wild farmland to Patagonian pampas then the mountains take over with their beautiful tree-clad slopes and wild craggy tops.  Anywhere near civilization, lupins brought over by the early sheep farmers have self-seeded and grow wild along the roadsides – a glorious sight!

 

We took a tour led by Francesco, a young and knowledgeable guide with a good understanding of English. First stop the tour (in a minivan shared with another couple) was an enormous cave, once inhabited by Milodons, a herbiveous bear-like critter.  It was interesting, but the highlight of this stop was a sleepy owl - and friend on a ledge opposite -  refusing to be disturbed by the regular flow of tourists below.
 

There was more wildlife to come as we neared the mountains; in El Calafate we had considered ourselves very lucky to see one guanaco (camel family, like alpaca and llama), here they are a protected species, and there were loads of them in the foothills, and also quite a few rhea,  lanky great hares and titchy rabbits, though we didn’t manage to spot a silver fox or a puma (boo!).

 

By the time we arrived at the park entrance, the mountains were towering up among the grassy hills below, interspersed with enormous lakes of different hues – dark blue if mineral-laced and light turquoise if fed by the glaciers. And also pretty smaller lakes with yet more wildfowl including crested grebe and canquen geese.

 

 

 

We stopped for lunch in a fabulous location and took a short walk on our own in warm sunshine:

 

 

 

Then on to see the glacier at Lake Grey – we didn’t take the boat trip, as we will see more glaciers up close and personal in the next stage of our journey, nuff said.

 

 

That was the furthest point of the tour, and we drove gently back, just absorbing the mountains and  beautiful scenery.  Note the close up below, it’s of the three “Towers of Blue” that is the literal translation of Torres del Paine – you will be seeing more of them in the next post, when we climb up to meet them in person

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then a very pleasant drive back into town for a sun-downer and gane of janga at “our” bar, followed by a lamb dinner in a local café – lovely family-run cosy place, great wine, superb starters but have to say terrible lamb, such a shame!! 

 

 

And a nice walk home in the evening light