TORRES DEL PAINE DAY 1

Good buffet breakfast next morning at the hotel. Somehow, it always feel like a real treat to have breakfast all set out like that; at home, I rarely have more than a banana washed down with multiple cups of tea.

Our flight to Puerto Natales was with LATAM and left bang on time at 1pm.

I’d been checking the forecast avidly for Torres del Paine(TDP) and it didn’t look fantastic. Given it’s reputation for wild weather, I’d deliberately given ourselves 5 full days in the Park(though we actually left a day early, the reason for which will become clear.) This would maximise our chances of seeing the iconic views at their best. Imagine going all that way and having continually cloudy days when the peaks were covered?? Disaster!

Puerto Natales to TDP

Good smooth, packed flight  to PN with some terrific views of the Andes and glacial lakes all the way to Patagonia.Again, a great trip memory.

Good buffet breakfast next morning at the hotel. Somehow, it always feel like a real treat to have breakfast all set out like that; at home, I rarely have more than a banana washed down with multiple cups of tea.

Our flight to Puerto Natales was with LATAM and left bang on time at 1pm.

I’d been checking the forecast avidly for Torres del Paine(TDP) and it didn’t look fantastic. Given it’s reputation for wild weather, I’d deliberately given ourselves 5 full days in the Park(though we actually left after 4 days, the reason for which will become clear.) This would maximise our chances of seeing the iconic views at their best. Imagine going all that way and having continually cloudy days when the peaks were covered?? Disaster!

Puerto Natales to TDP

Good smooth, packed flight  to PN with some terrific views of the Andes and glacial lakes all the way to Patagonia.

Good buffet breakfast next morning at the hotel. Somehow, it always feel like a real treat to have breakfast all set out like that; at home, I rarely have more than a banana washed down with multiple cups of tea.

Our flight to Puerto Natales was with LATAM and left bang on time at 1pm.

I’d been checking the forecast avidly for Torres del Paine(TDP) and it didn’t look fantastic. Given it’s reputation for wild weather, I’d deliberately given ourselves 5 full days in the Park(though we actually left after 4 days, the reason for which will become clear.) This would maximise our chances of seeing the iconic views at their best. Imagine going all that way and having continually cloudy days when the peaks were covered?? Disaster!

Puerto Natales to TDP

Good smooth, packed flight  to PN with some terrific views of the Andes and glacial lakes all the way to Patagonia.

Landed on a sunny afternoon at 4pm- the airport is so small with so few flights that our luggage was out almost immediately.

Coming in over Puerto Natales…

It was great to see  Leonardo, the rep from Magellanes Car Hire,looking eagerly for us and with Chris’s name printed on a board.Lovely to be met by a friendly face at an unknown airport.Our car was a Nissan Kicks as promised, one year old, excellent condition.It took some time for Leonardo to go through all the various conditions of the contract.He had no English but used the voice translation on his phone so that we all understood each other – that worked really well.It translated what he said into written English for us to read; then we spoke into the phone which translated our reply in Spanish.Clever!

Our car…

Essentially, the firm were not worried about minor chips on the paint.Instead,  he showed us on his mobile, some horrific car damage which would be charged for.  His advice was not to do more than 40km per hour on the roads which we stuck tightly to. All in we though £390 for 7 days hire was good value. We also took out our own insurance to cover any Excess, something we always do when hiring abroad.

Puerto Natales has a nice location by Last Hope Sound…

First task though we to pick up supplies at Unimarc Supermarket.Puerto Natales was surprisingly busy and larger than I expected.

A bit of a panic buy, trying to make sure we had enough supplies for tonight through till next Sunday morning. We based it on 5 dinners in the hope of eating out on occasion too. Plus food for picnic lunches, breakfast and vitally, plenty of milk for tea.Some chocolate for me, wine for Chris and plenty of fruit.

As it turned out we bought far too much and left quite a bit at the Cabin – a cabbage (why did I feel that was essential?), milk (more on this), granola, loaf of bread, 6 eggs, butter.But better too much than not enough as there is no shop in the park.

However, I made a HUGE mistake and accidentally picked up several pints of what I thought was semi skimmed milk only to find it was NOT milk (literally, that was the actual title, a giveaway .Somehow I thought it was just the brand!) What a chump! It was plant-based stuff and absolutely horrible. A major error as we both love our tea in the morning and it’s almost all I drink at night. Groan. 

First we had to fill up an empty petrol container which the company gave us. We were a bit worried about being in the park for so long and racking up the miles and possibly being short for the return. The idea was to keep the can at the chalet in case we needed it for the drive back (in fact, we did use it.)Fuel containers cannot be taken into the park as it is a fire risk.

The gauge confirmed that we had 550km in the tank. We ended up doing about 500km in the Park and filling up with the 20 litres for the return.

The garage was temporarily closed for 20 mins for a fuel lorry fuelling up the pumps so we went into Café Kau right at the front edge  of town which turned out to be an excellent place.

Good music playing (our era, Queen and Led Zeppelin!) ,they did a brilliantly rich tart with a filling which tasted of Condensed Milk – gorgeous! Good coffee, black tea for me (Te negro con leche fria aparte.) In Spain, tea often comes with hot milk unless specified cold and on the side.

Off we set on an initially good tarmac road but this only lasted 15 mins or so. Passed some ranches…

I thought it was all going to be like this – wrong!

It’s around 80km to Rio Serrano but given we were keeping our speed down it took us nearer to two hours.The road was poor ridged gravel, regular potholes and heavily pitted. However, it was a very scenic drive and we got our first look at the stunning Torres del Paine mountain range itself.

Zoomed to the Horns/Cuernos…

It was around dusk when we finally arrived, the road down to our cabins and the Rio Serrano area taking a further turn for the worse.I was really nervous about getting a puncture because of the surface but these nerves did settle as we got used to the conditions  though my opinion is,  the roads were worse than I thought.We have some experience of tough roads having driven across Namibia ‘s gravel roads (though they are in pretty good condition) and also some hair-raising drives into remote safari lodges in South Africa, as well as crossing the Kalahari.Maybe at the end of a busy summer, the roads had got really messed up, I don’t know.I thought some reviews were exaggerating the conditions but they were not a joy to drive at all.

Rio Serrano view from the pull in above the area….

We liked the Cabanos Lago Tyndall right away.It was really warm and cosy, simply decorated and furnished,  rustic even,  but it suited us very well.I’d have no hesitation in recommending this accommodation if you want to cut costs and self cater.Attractive area too.I’d had an option of 4 nights in Lago Grey Hotel but we saved over £1,000 by booking the cabin instead so for us, it was a no brainer.

A view down to the cabins..ours on the right of the parked car…

The cabin was two bedroomed with shower/wc and a kitchen/dining table/ sitting area combined.Little verandah too.There were quite a few other cabins some of which looked privately owned.

Handsome Upland Geese feeding by the cabin…

We were close to the river and the vista to the Torres range was stunning especially in the evening light…I was out like a shot, trying to capture the drama as the mountains cleared…

Got unpacked, opened a bottle of BO sparkling wine and toasted to finally getting here and hopefully, an enjoyable time ahead!

Very quiet at night, the cabin, not a sound though we had driving rain and a gale that night – fingers crossed it cleared up for tomorrow!

Next: Mirador Cuernos and Salto Grande walk

Previous days: SANTIAGO AND CASABLANCA WINE VALLEY and getting hereTORRES DEL PAINE – FINALLY!