Torres del Paine ❤️

Now we have arrived in Torres del Paine for the third time 😀 one of the most beautiful parts of the world for us.

The starting point for the visit is Puerto Natales. Here too, a lot has changed since 2018. More and more tourists are flocking to the park and therefore also to the town. Basically it consists of hostels for backpackers, holiday homes and also 5-star hotels. It feels like 99% of people make money from tourists - cafes, restaurants, excursion agencies, shops selling hiking equipment. Whatever your heart desires, in every price range.

The park can only be reached from the town after a 2-hour drive on potholed roads. It's not fun, but you'll be richly rewarded 😀 unfortunately the weather was very mixed, but whatever, the park is always beautiful. Of course the photos would be nicer with the sun, but that's just how it was.

The Torres del Paines are three towering granite mountains located relatively at the beginning of the park. They were still shrouded in fog, we couldn't take a photo that showed anything but fog.

After the usual photo stops, we went on a hike to a somewhat remote viewing point of the mountain range with the squirrels (Cuerno Principal and Cuerno Norte). This is definitely Sandra's favorite mountain formation. And after a lot of patience and changes of rain, fog and clouds, they showed themselves to us 🍀 simply wonderfully ☺️ and we were back just in time before the strong wind started. It is so strong that you can no longer walk the path.

At the end of the park is Lago Gray with a glacier that extends up to the lake. You can take a boat trip there, but with this weather it doesn't make sense. In front of Lago Gray Lodge there was a large iceberg that had drifted onto the shore from the glacier. The black dot in front of the mountain is people. You can get an idea of the size there.

In the evening we rewarded ourselves with a trip to the Last Hope Bar. Two Australians had stopped here years ago and made gin. The bar is great, even if you have to get there early because there is a queue later. The place is still small, but the guys don't want the pressure of having to fill 150 seats every night. The cocktails are great, Sandra tried her way through the menu. Also when eating with lamb and guanaco ham. Jutta drank two very tasty non-alcoholic cocktails. In Chile the tax rate is 0.0!

Tomorrow we're off to the ship, you can see the route in the last picture. We will have no phone or internet there for 4 days. So the blog will only continue after a few days break.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalpark_Torres_del_Paine