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The Best of Patagoniaby Rod Lopez-Fabrega
This little-known region of South America still echoes with the names of Ferdinand Magellan, Charles Darwin, Butch Cassidy, and even Defoe's fictional castaway, Robinson Crusoe whose solitary place of exile was patterned after Juan Fernandez islands off the southern coast of Chile. Patagonia is an archipelago of pristine estuaries, fjords, snow-topped volcanoes, glaciers and open steppe. Squeezed between the towering Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific ocean to the west, the land is largely uninhabited except for remote fishing villages and a few very large sheep and cattle estancias or ranches.
However, the emphasis remains on nature. With all the comforts assured, the real excitement for visitors to this Explora Hotel is in the many options available for exploration of the Torres del Paine National Park. The hotel is equipped with its own four-wheel-drive vans and a power boat to explore Lake Pehoe. Jaime Droppelmann, former general manager of Explora Hotel Salto Chico, explains that Torres del Paine is not for everyone. A love of the outdoors, an interest in the unspoiled places on the planet, and a minimal degree of physical fitness are required. It is possible to explore the park from the interior of a comfortable van, but the most fun is to do so by foot or on horseback. Excellent, well-marked trails go to all the major points of interest, the park is manned by a full complement of well-trained rangers, and Explora guides carry portable communications equipment on all extended hikes to keep in constant touch with the lodge. Hikes vary in difficulty from an easy half day walking along the shores of a lake to a difficult one-day hike to the base of the massif. It also is possible to tour the entire park by van, culminating in a barbecue of coal-roasted lamb prepared by the local huasos or cowboys.
A word of advice: bring good hiking shoes and a windshell jacket to wear over layered clothing. While the weather is moderate all year and accumulations of snow in winter (June, July and August) are modest at the lower elevations, wind can be a significant factor with near-hurricane conditions reported occasionally. When you goWith so many attractions, Torres del Paine National Park is not easy to reach. The nearest airport is in Punta Arenas, the southernmost city of any size on the planet (though this distinction is also claimed by the city of Ushuaia in Argentina.) LanChile, the airline of Chile has daily non-stop flights Miami/Santiago and daily direct flights JFK/Santiago with a stop in either Miami or Lima, Peru. The airline also has daily flights, except Friday, from Los Angeles to Santiago with stops either in Mexico City or Lima. Check both LanChile and Ladeco Airlines for special package fares from Santiago to Punta Arenas. At times, these fares are available only to non-residents of Chile and in the past have included free stopovers in Concepcion or Puerto Montt, the gateway to the spectacular Chilean lake country. Punta Arenas is an interesting destination in itself and is the port from which many Antarctic expeditions depart and are resupplied. This attractive city has many good hotels, and one that can be recommended is Hotel Cabo de Hornos, an elegant little establishment right next door to the posh Union Club. From Punta Arenas, there is a six-hour drive on partially paved roads to the Torres del Paine National Park. Transportation for those staying at the Explora Lodge in one of the lodge's four-wheel-drive minivans is included in their price structure. Prices at the Explora Hotel Salto Chico are commensurate with the high quality of its services. For full rate structure, check: http://www.interknowledge.com/chile.explora/ratespata.htm The backpacker with a tight budget has the option of coming from Puerto Montt by ferry to Puerto Natales (about half-way to the park) and then taking the once-a-day bus from Puerto Natales to the Torres del Paine National Park's administration center at Lake Pehoe. During the summer months (December, January, February), travelers on a budget can find their way from Argentina with a combination of buses, thumbing, and luck. Once there, those backpackers who need a break from life in a tent or in a hiker's hut have some options other than the elegant Explora Hotel. There is the Posada Rio Serrano at the Lago del Toro administration center and the somewhat more expensive Hosteria Pehoe near the southern gateway to the park. Prices for these two options range from about $25 to $50 per night. Finally, this is one of the world's remaining relatively unspoiled places. The name of the park confirms poet Pablo Neruda's words. Paine is not the name of an explorer or mountain climber; it is an Indian word meaning blue, the startling and impossible colorations in the glaciers of Torres del Paine, one of South America's most stunningly beautiful national parks. LanChile Airlines, 800-995-4888, 800-244-5366, Fax 305-670-9599; Hotel Cabo de Hornos, Phone/Fax 011-61-242-134; Explora, 800-858-0855, 011-562-206-6060, Fax 011-562-228-4655, E-Mail: explora@entelchile.net , WEB: http://www.interknowledge.com/chile/explora PHOTO CREDITS: Rod Lopez-Fabrega |
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Pablo
Neruda, Chile's Nobel laureate, said it best: "There lives the blue
mother-of-blue; blue's secret, blue solitude; blue's aerie, lapis lazuli blue;
the blue spine of my country." He could have been referring to the
startling and impossible colorations in the glaciers of Chilean Patagonia. 
One
of Chile's natural wonders lies in this region. It is the Cordillera Paine, a crown of Alpine mountains and its
jewel, the Torres del Paine massif, a marvel of upthrusting granite towers
surrounded by clear, glacier-fed lakes. Geologic youngsters, the towers were
formed some 12 million years ago by the subduction of tectonic plates that
define the western coastline of the South American continent. They are not a
part of the much older Andes mountain range and are a geologic oddity of a type
found only in three other sites: Half Dome and El Capitan in California's
Yosemite; the Fitz Roy massif in Argentina; and the Bugaboos in western Canada. 
In
1959, the Chilean government established the Torres del Paine National Park,
thereby creating and protecting in perpetuity one of the first and arguably the
most beautiful natural preserve of its
kind in South America.
The huge park is a hiker's paradise, with an extensive selection of
well-groomed trails that range in difficulty from an easy walk around a lake, a
moderately difficult seven-hour walk to the massive Ventisquero (Glacier) Grey,
to strenuous, back-packing 10-day circuits of the entire reserve. It is
supervised by a staff of park rangers and boasts a system of shelters,
including three with caretaker, that offer tired hikers bunk accommodations,
three hot meals a day, hot showers, and a store for resupplying (at the Refugio
Pehoe shelter.) 
The
hiker will encounter herds of near-tame guanaco, short-haired cousins of the llama;
nandu, a miniaturized version of the
ostrich; foxes; chinchillas; armadillos; black-throated swans; pink flamingos;
and flocks of Andean condors. On occasion, a wounded condor will be captured and
reared until its wounds are healed. Very
rarely, the Andean puma is seen as these cats are shy of humans. Smaller than
their North American cousins, they are no threat to anyone but the local cattle
and sheep ranchers who will occasionally lose a calf or lamb, though the cats
prefer rodents and the plentiful guanaco. There are no poisonous plants or
reptiles in the park.
Torres
del Paine also offers first-class accommodations for the non-hiker. The new (1993) Explora Hotel Salto Chico is a
handsomely designed, luxuriously furnished lodge that respects the ecological
needs of the site and hugs the ground so as not to impact the natural
landscape. Designed by internationally
noted Chilean architects German Del Sol Guzman and Jose Cruz Ovalle, this
elegant lodge contains 30 rooms--singles, doubles or suites--all equipped with
bay windows facing the Blue Towers massif, bed linens from Barcelona, tapestries
from New York, and bathroom fixtures from Italy with floors of Bolivian slate.
Interior bathrooms feature strategically located windows allowing bathers a
clear view, through the bedroom, of the geologic towers. All public spaces are
designed to face the view and the interiors throughout are five-star. A
satellite dish enables constant communication between this remote corner of
Chile and the outside world. Yes, guests are able to make direct phone calls
anywhere, send and receive faxes and keep up with CNN. The hotel is equipped
with a computer system and radio communications with all its explorer vehicles.
Service
at this five-star lodge is impeccable and includes Jacuzzis, saunas, an indoor
lap pool, genuine Swedish masseuses to rub down
tired hiking muscles, and excellent light nouvelle cuisine. Breakfast is
self-service and two different menus are offered for both lunch and dinner.
Served on English china, the cuisine is "lite" and features natural
and regional ingredients, such as Patagonian lamb, fresh salmon and shellfish
from the southern channels, a wide variety of fresh vegetables, the marvelous
fruits North Americans have come to know so well in winter and, of course,
Chilean wines. Supplies, are trucked in from
Santiago twice weekly and include a mountain of goods required to run such an
enterprise in the wilderness.
A
recent hike, rated "difficult," began with an early breakfast and a
9am departure from the lodge's private dock for a motorboat crossing of Lake
Pehoe to the trailhead leading to the towering peaks of Torres del Paine. At the landing site, there is
a comfortable Alpine hut, the Refugio Pehue,
providing bunk accommodations, hot baths, and meals to backpackers. From there,
the trail follows the shoreline, gradually climbing past pristine lakes, across
mixed grasslands and sparse forest, crosses the Rio Frances on a suspension
bridge, then enters the boulder moraine between
the towers of the massif, ascending past the Campamento Frances and the
Campamento Ingles, base camps for the ascents of the towers by rock climbers
many years ago. The final destination was a picnic on a plateau overlooking the
Glacier Frances as it spills down the granite cliffs of the Macizo Paine
Grande, exposing glimpses of azure blue ice, the awesome silence interrupted by
rumblings of avalanches from snow-packed peaks across the ravine. This
"difficult" six-hour hike was completed recently by a visiting family
from Mexico with a 5-year-old youngster who walked most of the way.