The next part of our journey involved a relatively short (in South American terms) drive to Puerto Natales, the gateway town to the Torres Del Paine National Park, about 250km to the north. The wind here was no better, pushing the car around at about 100km/h. We had to stop off at a small café where the owner plied us with coffee and home-made apple & dulce de leche cake until the wind and rain abated outside.
Arriving at Puerto Natales our first impression was that of a small Alaskan outpost with views over a huge lake and beautiful snow capped mountains. Absolutely stunning! The bungalow we had booked ended up being a little way out of town in what Cameron described as a “favela” (it really wasn’t that bad, but it was cheap – my favourite kind of accommodation!) To compound matters, we got lost and it took over an hour to find the place during which time tempers (mainly mine) began to fray. Thankfully, the bungalow itself was quite comfortable, the owner was charming and the views over the town were amazing. And eventually Adele & I started speaking again!
The downside of being on a hill is the wind is even worse, we were woken up with our bungalow literally shaking and creaking ominously – the owner informed us the next day that winds of 150km/h had been recorded, no wonder Adele was scared that we were going to be blown into the sea!
The drive to Torres Del Paine can only be described as breath taking, with ice-blue lakes, snow capped mountains, and quite literally a photo opportunity around every corner, the boys moaned very time I pulled over! The entrance to the Park itself is around 100km from Puerto Natales, but after about 80km the road again turns to gravel. A combination of the pot- holes (in Spanish, “baches”), bumps and dust created by passing vehicles makes driving in a normal car pretty challenging.
The ‘torres’ or towers the park is named after.
Another highlight of this drive was seeing a “Rotel” for the first time – this is essentially a big red bus towing a trailer containing about thirty 6 ft x3 ft x 3 ft sleeping pods – rather akin to a Tokyo hotel room!. We later found out on Google that these are all over the world and owned by a German company established in the late 1950’s – a great way to do adventure travelling!!
Rotel Hotel
To be fair much of our accommodation is nice, and here we treated ourselves to a night at Hotel Lago Grey, as we had a early start to see the Grey Glacier the next morning, and to drive from Puerto Natales would have meant a 4am start! The hotel has gorgeous views of the glacier. Ever budget conscious, however, dinner consisted of cold chicken and salad that we ate at a picnic table in a campsite to save money!! We did treat ourselves to a drink at the bar though, Adele’s new favourite tipple is Pisco Sour, and watched the sun go down over the glacier.
Unfortunately our trip to the glacier started with driving rain and wind and after a short drive and a very wet 20 minute walk we were transferred by a tender to Grey II, our boat for the 3 hour trip to the face of the Grey Glacier. Despite the rain and bitter cold out on deck, it was an incredible experience seeing our first glacier descending from the mountain into the lake 25 metres above our heads. As ever, we were lucky enough to meet some lovely people, mainly from an American tour group that we ended up bumping into several times over the next few days.
Thankfully the weather improved during the day and we were blessed with clear blue skies and sunshine that enabled us to do a trek past the Salto Grande waterfalls and up into the hills. Again each turn brought us to another incredible vista, even the boys were really impressed! I hope the photos here do it some justice. It is also fantastic to be in a place of such natural beauty, yet have so few people around so you can just sit and enjoy it in complete silence – well except for the boys complaining they were hungry again – they now eat a lot!!
Next stop is El Calafate to see the Perito Moreno Glacier.
Guys these photos are amazing so I sincerely hope they are doing justice to how beautiful it all is. Just reading about the wind and rain makes me hungry too – warmer climates and the appetites will diminish hopefully !!!
I hope you have a fabulous Christmas wherever that may be (less windy hopefully)
Robcathlani xxx
Thank you, the Chilean Lakes are less windy and a whole lot warmer so it’s back to shorts and sunscreen again. Hope you had a Happy Christmas and New Year.
Ax
Hi Guys
This place looks amazing, although the weather reports you are giving don’t marry with the pictures !! but you can’t photo wind can you. Just watch out Adele, Ben may not be able to resist that Rotel. Excuse my ignorance but the animal in one of the photos is it an Alpaca or a Llama – whatever it is the photo is lovely.
S xx
Hi Sharon, yes the wind is ferocious here, but not all in parts of the park as it is so huge and seems to have it’s own microclimates. But I promise you there were places I thought we were going to see Ollie actually fly! The Rotel looked interesting but I think you’d enjoy it more if you were 1. retired 2. German! The animal is a Guanaco (in Spanish) which seems to be a less woolly combination of both Alpaca & Llama, that wouldn’t make a very good jumper. Axx
The scenery looks breathtaking and perfect for wild man Walker!Just hope the winds abate at some point and Santa finds you on Christmas Day.
Have a great Christmas guys
Hi TB, this country is truly stunning, the wind is a bit frustrating though as its prevented us doing a few things – most recently, 80 mph+ winds stopped Tim and I summiting an active volcano and we had to turn back after 4 hours walking at an altitude of 2300m. Hope you are ok – “Feliz Ano Nuevo”, as they say here in Chile! Love to all. BW
Arghhhh. The most amazing update ever……… such sweet pain is getting a Mr Ben Blogcast on the 6am (Christmas timetable).
Simply fabulous guys – keep ’em coming….I can take it (sniff)
Hey Phil, sorry for the tardy response, down to the poor WIFI! Hope you and Laura had a great Xmas and that the weather held out for the Solstice Slog! Will aim to give you more 6am train material from New Zealand. Cheers, Ben
Guys,
Chile looks fabulous apart from the Llamas, they always look like there up to something…..
Looks like your experiencing the sort of weather that makes you wear a hood or woolly hat without any sort of self consciousness. I have been there and believe me it will wear off the further north you eventually travel. Chilean Disneyland looked a bit low rent but thems the breaks when you travel I suppose. Also I believe on a technical point when scenery is that big it officially becomes Geography, sorry kids. Finally, that last comment on the children’s appetites, despite it being not uncommon to ration children in the second world I am not sure it is the norm for visitors.
Stay safe Ramblers and lets get Ramblin!
Merry Christmas …!
Yes, shifty little fella’s – had a habit of wandering aimlessly and eating a lot, a bit like my boys! I think the hats were more to cover bad hair days as there was no point using a brush at any stage of this part of the trip, and by now you’ve probably noticed that Ollie might not have any hair at all as it’s permanently under his latest hat purchase! As for the theme park, I think they spent all the budget on the background (must be CGI) and not enough on the ‘thrill element’ – will send them your thoughts.
Geography? … gives me a new word to use – noted!
Seasons greeting to you all! Axx