Patagonia Hiking For Middle-Aged

Hopefully some of you have already read part one of our adventure to Chile. This post is dedicated mainly to our experience in the Patagonia area of Chile, specifically Torre Del Paines National Park.

We arrived early at the Santiago International airport for our flight to Puerto Natales in Patagonia. It was about a three hour flight on Latam airline, which in comparison to our 10 hour flight to get to Santiago, seemed like a breeze.

Things went smoothly on the flight and we got to Puerto Natales Airport right on time . Calling it an airport was a bit of a stretch, but I always find it fun to disembark right onto the tarmac, then walking into the terminal dragging your luggage. Makes me feel like I'm in one of those old school Hollywood movies, where you see someone like Humphrey Bogart standing in a raincoat outside the plane.

View stepping off the plane at Puerto Natales

Our car rental, a tough Peugeot 3008. Fun ride.

Before........

After......

Now it was time to deal with the car rental. While we were pleased with the upgrade to the car, the price to pay was the long wait due to computer issues and certainly a different speed of service from those working in the office. It all turned out fine in the end, but we lost an hour or so to our hopes of getting in a quick hike.

In addition, the car rental was in downtown Puerto Natales. It's a cool little town of restaurants, bars and shops, from what I could gather while waiting. The issue was, the park and our hotel were still another hour and 45 minute drive.

As we got away from the town and began driving, I was beginning to realize from the changing scenery, just how special this part of the world was going to make me feel. I don't often drive when we go to very different places around the world, but I highly recommend renting a vehicle if you were to do a journey like this.

View from our drive toward Torres Del Paine

Our homebase for next few days - Hotel Las Torres Patagonia

As we pulled into the park and approached our hotel, I was already feeling the stress and tension of the last several months melting away. There was a quiet peace in the air.

We quickly checked in and dumped our bags in our room. The hotel had a warm welcoming feel, with beautiful views from different locations throughout. It appeared as if this was one time a more rustic lodge, which they began adding on newer sections with time. Fortunately, we had a newer room. It was modern, but not very spacious. We really weren't planning on spending too much time there, so it was more than sufficient.

The entrance way into the hotel lobby....

We knew we had limited time in Patagonia, so we really didn't want to waste this day completely on traveling. We went to get a map of the park and spoke with this nice gentleman, Colin, who gave us some suggestions on hikes and journeys, not just for our entire stay, but that we could sneak in on this late afternoon.

With time limited, he suggested a hike that he said would be about two hours. Of course, what I came to realize, when you ask some people how long the hike takes, they often just give you the time to the destination point as opposed to the round trip, which is double the time. Live and learn.

We were excited just being there, so we took off on the path he suggested. The other great thing about this hotel, is that it's on the grounds of the National Park. The hiking trails are literally right out the front tour to hop onto.

The weather up to this point was not great. It was raining intermittently and the wind would howl quite strong on occasion. We were told this was more typical of Chile Patagonia, not those pictures you see with beautiful blue sky.

Again, it's something you must accept to enjoy the experience. Resistance is really not a thought at this point. Well, at least to a degree. So we took off on our first hike in Patagonia and not more than a few steps out the door what do we see?

Beautiful sign from above.....A Patagonia Rainbow

The trail we set out on was the Los Cuernos Trail. It's the trail that takes you toward the base of the mountains that appear to be horns. Los Cuernos meaning the horns in Spanish.

The good news, was that the rain had abated, but the bad news was the wind was whipping. In fact it was so windy, even my hair was out of place. All of them.

We followed the trail for about 2.5 miles or so, but realized the sun was getting lower in the sky and the clouds were also lowering across the mountain peaks. It would take another hour or so to reverse and head back and we were getting tired and hungry considering our day started at 6 AM.

I was able to get a couple of nice shots before heading back.

The weather forecast for the next day was not pretty. It called for rain much of the day with wind gusts potentially 70-80 mph. We were told certain trails would close if that happened. With only another full day after that in Patagonia, I was a bit worried we wouldn't get to some of the things we wanted to see and experience.

So it was back to the hotel for a nice hot shower which felt great after a long day. Freshened up, we took our hungry selves to one of the dining areas which would have had a beautiful view of a mountain facade, except it was obscured by clouds and rain.

For dinner, I ordered something hardy. According to the English translation of the menu it appeared to be a type of meat stew. I interpreted that as beef. They said it was a traditional meal of Chile in Patagonia. Little did I know. More on that later.

The meal was very good and the bar at the hotel is very well known for making exotic cocktails. The creator of the bar is also very environmentally conscious. Most of the glasses and vessels the drinks are served in are recycled and restyled glass or pottery. The straws are copper and reusable. The herbs and things used or infused in the cocktails are grown on premise. You get the idea.

Seems one of his family members was my dinner! I'm sorry Guanaco....

So it was time to call it a night as I tried to make a loose game plan for tomorrow, with the potential of the entire day being a washout. I figured if anything, we could at least take the car and drive to various lookout locations within the park.

After falling asleep quite easily I was awaken in the middle of the night by the sound of cascading rain against our window and wind howling with the force of what sounded like a hurricane. As I tried to get back to sleep my thoughts turned to just how much reading I was going to do the next day while waiting out the storm. Well, it might give me time to go through their cocktail menu.

I'll leave it there and let you know in the next installment just how things turned out. Hint. Different than expected.

Hope you're enjoying the travel blog to this point and keep following along.

Sunshine Always!!

A couple of very interesting and tasty cocktails served up.....