Explora Torres del Paine
Inside the park, on the Lake Pehoé peninsula. Explorations leave from the door, on foot or on horseback, and the house rebuilds the day around the weather.
Torres del Paine, Chile
Chile and Argentina
Patagonia
One region split by two borders, with a short window and a wind that decides the day.
The read
Patagonia is not one destination, it is four or five, and almost nobody has the days for all of them.
What gets called Patagonia runs from Lago Argentino to Cape Horn and covers both sides of the cordillera. On the Chilean side are Torres del Paine and Parque Nacional Patagonia. On the Argentine side, El Calafate, with the Perito Moreno, and El Chaltén, at the foot of Fitz Roy. Between them there is a border, gravel road and hours of driving that no map shows.
The window is short. From December to February the day holds almost eighteen hours of light and the temperature sits near twenty degrees, though it can drop to five without warning. November and March work just as well, with fewer people and a lower rate. From June to September most trails close and most operations stop.
Wind is the variable nobody controls, and that is exactly why the itinerary is built with slack. A day in Paine trades for another without drama when the house is the same and the guide belongs to it. A day lost between hotel, transfer and a tour bought loose is not recovered.
Flights
Santiago to Punta Arenas, or Buenos Aires to El Calafate
When to go
November to March, with December to February at the peak
Wind
Constant, and strongest in summer
Rhythm
Seven days for one side, twelve for both
The Chilean side
- Torres del Paine, with the massif, Lake Pehoé and the Towers
- Parque Nacional Patagonia, in the Chacabuco valley, almost empty
- Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales as the ways in
- A base for going north to the Atacama, if the trip continues
The Argentine side
- El Calafate and the Perito Moreno, which advances all year
- El Chaltén, at the foot of Fitz Roy, where everything is done on foot
- An open estáncia on the steppe, between one point and the next
- Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel, at the end of the road
Crossing the border takes half a day and has to be in the itinerary from the start, with transfers booked on both sides.
Where to stay
Houses that already carry the exploring inside.
In Patagonia the hotel is not where you sleep, it is who organises the day. Inclusive-rate houses cover the guide, the excursions and the meals, and that is what lets you swap the programme when the wind turns.
Tierra Patagonia
On the shore of Lake Sarmiento, facing the massif, in a lenga-wood building curved over the ground. The view stays with you.
Torres del Paine, ChileExplora Parque Nacional Patagonia
In the Chacabuco valley, in the park built out of the old estáncia. Guanaco, open pampa and trails almost nobody walks.
Valle Chacabuco, ChileExplora El Chaltén
At the foot of Fitz Roy, on the bank of the Rio de las Vueltas. You walk out of the door onto the trails, with no transfer in between.
El Chaltén, ArgentinaExplora El Calafate
On the steppe, near Lago Argentino. The base for the Perito Moreno and for the estáncias of the region.
El Calafate, ArgentinaHow it is done
Three ways to cut across the region.
7 days
Torres del Paine alone
- Fly to Punta Arenas and drive into the park
- Four nights in one house, with excursions leaving from the door
- One day held back for the Towers lookout, for when the weather opens
- Out through Puerto Natales
For a week that goes deep instead of far.
10 days
Paine and Fitz Roy
- Three nights in Torres del Paine
- Border crossing to El Calafate, with the Perito Moreno on the way
- Three nights in El Chaltén, on the Fitz Roy trails
- Out through El Calafate
For both sides without rushing, with a spare day in the middle.
12 days
The wide Patagonia
- Balmaceda and the Chacabuco valley, in Parque Nacional Patagonia
- South along the Carretera Austral to Torres del Paine
- Across the border to El Calafate and El Chaltén
- Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel at the end
For anyone who has done Paine and wants the part of the region with no queue yet.
The ground
What the wind organises.
Images
Two borders, and a single season.
Photographs from free-licence sources, credited on the credits page.
The only destination in Brazil that decides how many people it lets in.
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