South America Sabbatical

From the dry lands on the east of The Andes, we head west to Chile and the town of Puerto Natales. Until recently, Puerto Natales was a port town on the Pacific fjords of Chile and the center for shipping wool and lamb to Great Britain from the huge sheep and cattle ranches of Patagonia. Today this is the jumping off point for Torres del Paine National Park which is the classic mountain destination in the southern part of the range. While we are on the shore, the town is surrounded by very large mountains and glaciers.

During our two days in Puerto Natales, we take a boat up the Seno Ultima Esperanza, or Last Hope Sound, past soaring mountains and huge glaciers that nearly reach sea level (they reached it not too long ago). The water is so clouded by glacial dust that there is little wildlife, but we still see cormorants, sea lions and other smaller creatures.

Our hotel here, Remota, was designed by a well-known architect from Santiago who was inspired by the local buildings and the landscape of Patagonia. He used local building materials and carved it into the site to fit the topography but still capture views and plenty of sunlight. This was an enjoyable place for an architect to stay.

On our final day here we hiked through some of the local ranch lands. The forests are wind scoured and there are as many trees on the ground as there are standing upright. The weather changes many times each day from sunny to rainy and we occasionally get a taste of the legendary Patagonian winds. Not many people or signs of them while hiking. Fantastic place!

At the end of each of our days here has been the asado (barbeque). In the Chilean part of Patagonia, that means lamb. We have also been able to have some seafood again (best was conger eel) and on our last night we were served guanaco carpaccio (guanaco is a wild llama) which has been the source of much commentary ever since.