12/01/2020 – Torres Del Paine, Chile (Josh Entry)

Alarms go off at 6:00am and we clumsily gather our things for the day ahead in Torres Del Paine, Chile.

We aimed to meet for the exact time of 6:22am for breakfast

(which was arranged by Bill, Obvs) but in true Sudell fashion Jen and I arrived later than the meeting time and sat down for our lovely buffet breakfast with Bill and Ali. After we finished breakfast we waited in the lobby for the tour company to pick us up, we new which vehicle to look out for as it was a 4X6 wheel drive, off road truck! In true South American time it also arrived late… Once all aboard the 4X6, we settled into our seats and gave the back off our eyelids a good examination until our guide, Sylvester gave an introduction about our trip into Chile. We were able to shave off 2 hours of the journey by going 70km cross-country using route 40. We drove through the barren, desert like landscape to the Chilean boarder (thanks to the 4X6), meaning we were able to see more of the local fauna in its natural habitat! We saw Rhea birds (like an ostrich), Guanaco (like an Llarma), Rabbits, Flamingos, Sheep and Cattle. We arrived at the boarder crossing (which was a basic hut) to get our passport stamped and have our baggage scanned. Back on the bus, before we arrived at the crossing, to avoid any penalties Ali was chosen to declare our food items, which we were unsure would be allowed through into Chile! All was well once the scanning process had been complete apart from the squeeze marmite container being mistaken for chocolate spread… We all had a little chuckle to ourselves about the mix up and made our way back on board the 4x6 to be driven 50 yards across the boarder to the café, we had made it into Chile! After our refreshments and a quick toilet stop we all gathered back aboard to continue to our first mirador (view point) inside Torres Del Paine National park. It was a beautiful lake sitting under a very dramatic sky. After taking enough photos to fill up our memory cards we were ready to move on to the next viewpoint another beautiful lake sitting at the base of the famous mountain peaks in Torres Del Paine, The Horns. The views were absolutely breath taking, standing there and soaking it all in was a highlight of the day for me! From here we carried on to our next spot, LUNCH TIME! We had a beautiful little spot next to quite an impressive display of waterfalls where we were able to enjoy the complimentary pack lunch. A beef and onion roll with various sweet treats and a juice box! We were given 20 minuets or so to enjoy our snacks and view before we were of again to the next location, a milky blue glacial lake with a lovely little Scandinavian looking red hotel on the lake side, to get to it you needed to cross a rickety bridge over the freezing water. After accidentally proving my waterproof shoes were no longer waterproof and taking some photos we continued onto our next destination. Jen and myself overheard a Portuguese couple bickering… The guy (who, at every viewpoint seemed to think the size of he’s camera gave him priority to take photos of his girlfriend without regarding the needs of anybody else around him.) said that he’s subject, aka his girlfriend, would have looked more flattering in the photo if she had posed a different way! But as they were getting on the bus it was to late to re-take the photo… and off we went. Sadly our last stop of the tour was upon us, we arrived very close to the Horn mountain range and had a very pleasant walk passed another waterfall to the viewpoint of the Horns. Here, Sylvester gave us a good old lecture of the formation of the surrounding landscape and how the mountain range was formed millions of years ago. He also told us about a tragic man made fire which destroyed pretty much all the tress in the area back in 2012. After the talk we all walked back to the 4X6 and continued back to the boarder. En route to the boarder, to our surprise and delight were woken from our snoozes to see there was group of tourist set up on the side of the road. They had spotting scopes and huge camera lenses posed and ready, they have spotted a Puma!! We quickly pulled over and ascended the bank to our right to take a look at this beautiful and very rare animal. Out came the binoculars to enjoy this serendipitous moment, one may say it was the cherry on the cake! After our fellow tour members were told to keep the noise down and be quite from the spotters (completely understandable!) we continued back to the crossing where Bill (with some confusion) had tried to get the exit stamp on the biscuit in he’s pocket rather then the passport in he’s pocket. After he was accepted through immigration we where able to head home. 21:20 we were back at the hotel, all completely knackered and ready to enjoy our dinner. This was followed by a nice hot bath and a good night sleep.