Torres del Paine

We are excited today. Along our 10 week journey we have booked to stay at four really nice hotels for a few nights. Most of our days are spent in wherever we can find accommodation. And whilst these are often quite nice, today we are going up a notch.

Torres del Paine is one of the most important protected wilderness areas in Chile. It is located between the Andy’s mountains and Patagonia step. It has an area of 227,300 acres and comprises of the pain mountain range and it’s famous massive and it’s famous towers which give it its name within a ride variety of national geographical landmarks such as valleys, rivers, lakes and glaciers all belonging to the southern Patagonia icefield.

The Explorer hotel is the jewel in the crown of accommodation in the park with its unbelievable location underneath the Torres Massif. We are staying for three days and on each of those days we have explorations arranged for us. We should be able to park the bikes and forget them for just a little while.. We plan to do an excursion to the Patagonia step to see Condors and Guanaco, Upland geese and possibly even Puma. On another trip we are going to go to the Grey Glacier which falls from the Patagonians icefield into Lake Gray. This exploration will be done by boat, so Tim and I will have our Captain’s hats on and will be teaching them exactly how to do it. . We also have full use of the Spa with its outdoor Jacuzzi on the edge of the lake.

The hotel is fully inclusive and we are looking forward to great food and fabulous Chilean wine.

However, first we have to get there. The road from Puerto Natales is mainly unpaved and is around 85 km in distance. The weather forecast was for rain in the morning and possibly clearing later. Our original plan was to ride into the park and then up to Lake Grey have a look at the lake and maybe take a walk and have a late lunch before moving to the hotel in the afternoon. However, the heavens opened on our way into the park and the temperature dropped to around 3° and the wind got up to make the actual temperature much lower. . We were dry inside of our motorcycle gear but we were cold and with the clouds covering every part of the park and the mountains there was absolutely nothing to see. So we decided to head directly to the hotel knowing that our rooms would not be ready, but hopefully we would be able to get out of wet gear and have a coffee and a sandwich in the lounge.

The hotel were really accommodating and we’re actually pleased to see us arrive early and we’re most concerned about our appearance. We seem to forget that we have been travelling through desert and steppe and dusty roads for the last four weeks. Our motorcycle gear was not the cleanest and our boots were filthy from the muck throwing up from the road. but we did not imaginge our appearance to be so shocking for others .

We were able to change and put our bikes away in a quiet location out of the way of the hotels transportation system. We then enjoyed an afternoon of washing and drying clothes and enjoying the amazing facilities of the hotel.

In the evening we met our guides for the following day and discussed our options of things to do before having a great dinner in the restaurant which overlooks a huge waterfall on one side and the Torres massive on the other a truly spectacular place and we are looking forward to the next few days.