Torres del Paine

In the following 4 days we paid visit to our friend Lucas at the Tyndall hotel many times.

Unlike the people working at the Rio Serrano who were rather cold and unhelpfull, Lucas gave us plenty of ideas on how to spend our days at the National park.
Amongs other things he cut us a deal with Don Segundo to take us where we wanted when we wanted.
This was quite essential as there is no public transports in the park and without bike we had to rely on the fenomenally expensive rates of the Rio Serrano drivers (£120 for a 40 min drive!!!!!)
Lucas also organised the bus to El Calafate, told us the best trekking routes and pointed us in the right direction to hire fishing equipment.
If you are reading this, Thank you Lucas!

On day 1 we were blessed with blue sky, bright sun and no wind, a very unusual condition in the park.
Don Segundo took us to the Catamaran at lake Pehoe.
As there was no wind we were able to take this picture with a mirror effect!

For people with no budget limit and who love nature we would probably recommend  to stay at the hotel Pehoe.

This is the setting that you get:

Elena is obviously thinking "next time we come at Torres del Paine we are going to stay here......"

The journey on the catamaran is only 30 minutes long and it takes you to the other side of the lake where the trecking to the french valley begins.

In the 25 kms hike in the French Valley between the 2 mountains you never lose sight of the horns (on the left) and the snowy peaks on the right.

This is only the central part of the much longer circuit called "THE W".

The W is 92 kms long and very simply is the walk that takes you on the left of the horns, in the middle valley, and on the right where the glacier Gray is.

Brave hikers cover the distance in 4/5 days sleeping in tents and carrying heavy loads on their shoulders.

The trail is very well marked with beautul flowers blooming along the way.

Once you reach el Mirador in the middle of the french valley the views are spectacular.

Big blocks of ice are detaching from the glaciers above us making a rather frightening noise.

The melting water is filling roaring torrents that luckily can be easily crossed with bridges.

We cannot praise the chilean authorities enough on how well kept this park is.

In 8 hrs walk we could not see a single piece of paper or any rubbish left on the trail.

When we finally made it back at the Catamaran we were glad that an hot shower and a nice warm meal was waiting for us at the hotel.

If you are interested in walking the W there are basically 4 ways of doing it:

1) The hard way = in a tent

2) The middle way = sleeping at the well equipped "rifugi" in the middle of the park (They cost $45 per person and you need to book well in advance)

3) The soft way = base yourself in one of the hotels in the park and pick and choose a different trail every day.

4) The crazy way = Base yourself in Puerto Natales and drive backward and forward every day

Another excellent trail that we would recommend is the one that takes you to the mirador on Lago Gray.

The lake is dotted with blue icebergs detaching from the glacier Grey and floating close to the shore.

If you head to the Mirador the wind can be fierce.

But the view is certainly worth the effort.

Some people might disagree with us but we noticed that in TDP national park some of the best view points are not actually from the W trail.

Our hotel is nicely sitting on the Rio Serrano where expert fishermen can catch trouts or salmons weighting up to 30 kgs!!!!

We rented the equipment from the "torres del paine cabanas" nearby for an excellent price ($10 p/h) but unfortunately had no luck.

Even the wild horses realised that we were no threat to animals so they came to drink in the clear water next to us.

We were finally put to shame by this gentleman who in no time caught a huge trout.....he said it was small for his standards!!

We truly enjoyed our 4 days at TDP which was certainly one of the highlights of our trip.