We arrived at Torres del Paine National Park in the 2nd week of our trip. As we entered the park, the granite spires of Torres del Paine portrayed grandeur and sublime beauty. Foreboding clouds hovered over the park, our car buffeted by the notorious Patagonian wind. The formidable landscape felt like we were indeed at “the end of the world”. The park is famous for its winds. We experienced sporadic rain and sudden wind gales that went up to 80mph throughout our time here. We were reminded that we are the blanket people, where rain and cold weather would follow us around the world wherever we camped.
Our campground, Camping Lago Pehoé, was prepared for the gales; each camp site had a wooden structure, allowing our tent to stay intact for 5 days. Just 100 feet away, we were greeted with a breathtaking view of Lago Pehoé with its backdrop of the granite spires of the cordillera. It felt surreal as we sat by the lake watching sunset as avalanches thundered down the slopes of Cerro Paine Grande.
Despite its cold and winds, Torres del Paine has a large variety of animal species. Throughout our time here, we saw guanacos, caiquens, wild horses and several species of birds. The guanaco is native to South America, and is closely related to the Llama. They are shy and avoid being close to humans; we were excited to have spotted them along our drives.
On our 4th day, we joined a boat trip to Lago Grey to see Glacier Grey. It is believed that 18,000 years ago the original glacier covered all of Argentina and the south of Chile. Today, Glacier Grey measures 28 kilometers in length for a total area of 270+ kilometers squared. It starts on the west side of the Patagonian Andes Mountains and ends at the shores of Grey Lake.
The boat ride to and from Glacier Grey was around 3 hours long. The ride was extremely rocky from the 50 mph winds and it was incredibly cold out in the open. The wind exfoliated our skin and ripped off the moisture in our eyes. Yet, we remained on the upper, open deck this entire time (with a Pisco sour in hand, of course), as we marveled at this world wonder.
