Chile/Argentina - Torres del Paine Pt 1

We stayed for three days in a cabin in the Villa Rio Serrano, a tourist base just outside Torres del Paine with the horns within view of our front porch.  For those days, we were able to do sunrise and sunsets either from our accommodations or from vista points nearby.  It was really handy not to have to hike in the dark for sunset.  

We did an afternoon hike along the river and also did an after dinner hike behind the Rio Serrano hotel.  The long summer days meant there were lots of time between dinner and sunset although the horns are not at their best at sunset.  It's sunrise that brought out the colours.  We made one trip to Grey Lake but it was too windy to walk around.  Nevertheless I got my favourite shot that evening of the moonrise over the backside of the horns, a perspective not often seen.  

I tried not to be repetitive with my photos but the reality is the towers are the most photogenic mountains I've ever seen.  I have shot them many times on my first visit but it didn't stop me from photographing them again and again.  No matter where we went, we came back to vistas of the towers in its different incarnations depending on the light and the clouds.  So please bear with me.  😅

The view of the Paine Massif with the Rio Serrano in the foreground

Sign marking the Villa Rio Serrano area

View from Vista Paine where we stayed

Black-faced ibis in the field

Merlin

Chimanga Caracara a regular visitor

The first sunset

Grey Glacier at Grey Lake

Sunset from the other side

Moonrise on the not often seen side of the Paine Massif

Golden hour hit

Second sunset - it didn't hit the mountains

The horns from the river

Upland Geese - white males, brown females

Male in mating form

Great Grebe - the largest species of grebes in the world - a lifer for me

Lots of these trees on the river walk

Sunrise on the second morning was spectacluar, almost surreal, accompanied by a rainbow!

The red is true colour!

And then it faded...

Then the sun came out

Behind the Rio Serrano Hotel

The horses came out before sunset for their evening exercise

Third sunset

Sunrise on our last day at the cabin - different again

Sunrise panorama

Patagonia - Torres del Paine National Park

Torres del Paine was for me the high point of our tour - a place that I had wanted to go to for years.  And now the wish came true and triple blessed with a warm, sunny, windless day - an unusual phenomenon for the Patagonian park famous for its wind! When we first arrived near sunset the day before, we were not sure if we would actually see the famous towers after being told by the local guide that it had been raining before we got there and no one had seen the towers for a week! Having gone through the disappointment of not seeing the volcano in Puerto Varas, we were not optimistic. When one of the towers peeked through the clouds, every body scrambled for pictures as we may not see it again!

As it turned out, it was a magical evening with one of the towers being caught by the setting sun.  The following morning, it was even more magical when we stopped at the lookout to see the massif above the village with a thin layer of mist in between - it was Lord of the Rings country in Patagonia! The rest of the day continued to be one "wow" after another - awe-inspiring through and through.  We ran out of words to describe the wonderment.  You can see for yourselves the photos below.

This image of the Paine Massif was the reason for our trip to Patagonia  - and I was overjoyed that I was able to capture it!

 

This was all we saw when we first arrived in Torres del Paine the evening before!          Why wouldn't we be worried?

And then it got better as the evening progressed - but still no one could predict what it would be like in the morning

Morning came - our hopes were up!

This has got to be the most magical landscape I have ever came across - not even in New Zealand, the original Lord of the Rings country...

 

And then we saw this view from the bus - the local guide told us we would not be stopping for 2 hours.  I begged her to stop and let us take a photo before the reflection disappeared.  She changed her itinerary and we s made photo stops all the way to the waterfalls!  A terrific example of listening to customer input!  Good for you, GAdventures staff! (at Lake Pehoe)

Salto Grande Waterfall

This was the high point of the day - what an awe-inspiring panorama!

Lunch time!  We saw this Andean deer and many birds as we ate lunch by the river.

Austral Thrush

Austral Blackbird

Rufuos Collared Sparrow - it must know that it's on camera!

Patagonian Sierra-FInch

After lunch we did a "short" hike to Grey Beach and up to the lookout to see the Grey glacier flowing from the Southern Patagonian Icefield.  That was hardly a "stroll" on the beach because we were walking in 100 km wind.  The pebble beach was a wind tunnel!  But we got to experience at least a little of what Patagonian wind felt like.  There was another "short" climb up to the glacier lookout but it was the end of the day and we were all tired.  And the glacier was far away so we took a few pictures and left.  That was a two hour roundtrip even though it felt much longer.

View of the massif from the beach

The Grey Glacier

 We saw a lot of wildlife in and near the park. 

A rhea near the road to Torres del Paine

A Gray Flanked Cinclodes

A king cormorant at the waterfront in Puerto Nattales

Guanaco in the Park

Upland Geese near the hotel

We were extremely lucky - as we were leaving the park the following morning, it was cloudy and windy.  100mph winds were in the forecast!

Next post:  El Calafate and the Perito Moreno Glacier