Torres del Paine National Park or Parque Nacional Torres del Paine is in Chilean Patagonia, approximatley 112km Chilean Town of Puerto Natales. Fortunatley for us there were day tours avaliable from El Calafate to Torres del Paine as we hadn´t really planned on going too far into the Chilean side of Patagonia. We were originally in two minds about doing the tour as it was more expensive than other tours we had done so far ($350 AR) and we were taking a bit of a punt on the weather being good…we were so glad that we did though because it was awesome. You could easily spend a couple of days there taking photos and just chilling out looking at the view, or alternativley completing the circuit which takes you around the base of the main range and up into the moutains.
Our day started at 5:30am when the van collected us from our hostel in El Calafate, the staff at the hostel looked after us and had put breakfast out very early. The drive was not particularly comfortable as the van was almost full and we were the last pickup, this meant that I ended up in a middle seat without a head rest, the only way I could get any rest was to rest my bag on my lap and lean my head on it. We reached the Argentinean side of the border around 9:20am, the whole process went pretty quickly, we had to present our bags for inspection at the Chilean side as you aren´t allowed to take fruit, vegies, meat etc across the border. By 10am we were back on the road (in a different, more comfortable van, we changed at the border) headed for Sarmiento Lake to take in the view of Cordillera del Paine, the main mountain range within the Torres del Paine National Park.
Cordillera del Paine from Sarmiento Lake
From there it was back in the van to head to the park entry point to pay our $16 USD entry fee. Along the way we stopped to take some photos of some Guanacos grazing at the side of the road. The Guanaco is a member of the lama family and is native to much of South America.
Guanacos grazing at the side of the road
A few minutes before we reached the park entry point we stopped at Laguna Amarga to take in another view of Cordillera del Paine, this was one of our last opportunitiesto take in the view of the most famous part of the Cordillera del Paine the Torres del Paine (Towers of Paine) as these cannot be seen from the roads within the park. The day was so perfect that in the time we were at the viewpoint at Laguna Amarga the few small ripples that were on the lake dissapeared leaving a mirror like reflection of the mountains in the Laguna.
Cordillera del Paine reflected in Laguna Amarga (Torres del Paine in centre of main range)
Further into the park we stopped at a couple of other viewpoints and then we stopped for a short walk at Pudeto to check out the view across the small frozen lake. Our guide also demonstrated that skipping rocks across the frozen lake made a really cool sound that hopefully we captured on video. Our walking route also took us past the Salto Grande waterfall which got me thinking about paddling when we get to Canada, as everyone was checking out the view I was trying to get close enough to the falls to see if there was a line over them.
Gen taking in the view at Torres del Paine
Salto Grande waterfall
From here it was further into the park towards the park administration, interestingly the administration building is a former farmhouse from the days before the area was a national park. After visiting the park administration and getting a stamp in our passports it was back into the van for the long trek back to El Calafate. We left three people at the Chilean border as they were continuing to Puerto Natales, at least one of them was catching a 3 day boat up to Puerto Montt in Chile. Had we known that this was only $300 USD we probably would have done it as well but we already had flights booked to Bariloche from El Calafate….oh well we can do that when we come back to go walking.
