Previously, I wrote about the experience of tracking pumas in Torres del Paine. This post will share some travel planning tips.
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Without an Argentine visa (complaining about the $400 visa fee), to get to Torres del Paine, you generally fly to Punta Arenas or Puerto Natales. Puerto Natales is closer, with a drive to the eastern entrance taking about 1 hour and 20 minutes. The only thing that attracted me to Punta Arenas was seeing the emperor penguins, but I heard the experience wasn’t great, so I chose Puerto Natales.
🥾 W Trek?
The three highlights of the W Trek are Grey Glacier, French Valley, and the Three Towers. Since I’ve seen glaciers and ice fields in many places before, I wasn’t particularly interested in the first two. Plus, my main goal was to track pumas, so I decided to only hike to the Three Towers.
🌅 Sunrise at the Three Towers
It takes 4-5 hours to climb up and about 8 hours round trip. You can do a night hike, or book a campsite on the lastorres website to save 2.5 hours. For a night hike, it’s best to give yourself an extra hour in case you’re late, which can be quite disappointing. The downside of booking a campsite is that you can’t predict the weather.
We ended up with a cloudy day, thinking we would miss out, but at the last moment, one tower lit up along with a sky full of red clouds, which made us very happy.
🌄 Cuernos del Paine
Cuernos del Paine is on the western side of the park, where you can watch the sunset. Personally, I recommend the best photo spots as the Explora Patagonia viewpoint, the small island near Hosteria Pehoe, and the lakeside at Restaurant Pehoe.
🚗 Car Rental
When I looked two months in advance, I found that all the major car rental companies were out of automatic cars. So, I contacted a few smaller companies via WhatsApp that I found on Google Maps and ended up choosing rovalrentacar, getting a very new Changan car. Driving a Chinese car across Patagonia gave me a sense of national pride!
🏨 Accommodation
Accommodation within the park is expensive during peak season. Most of the time, I stayed near the eastern entrance at Cerro Castillo, and I recommend Riverline Lodge. There are no gas stations after leaving Puerto Natales, but in an emergency, you can refuel at Hotel Estancia El Ovejero Patagónico, though it’s more than 50% more expensive.
Around Puerto Natales
Besides Torres del Paine, if you like animals, I recommend these two places:
There are many birds by the sea in Puerto Natales. Drive south along Y-340, and just outside the town, you can see flocks of black-necked swans.
Lago Sofia, although we didn’t get any close shots, is said to be the best place to see Andean condors. The wind is very strong (so strong it makes you question life), the trail is difficult, and there are risks of falling off cliffs, so be very careful.
The food in Puerto Natales is surprisingly good, and I’ll write about it when I have time.
