The Edge of the Earth

Patagonia. The edge of the earth.  Something about it has drawn me in for years. Its proximity to nothingness except snow and ice.  Its harsh and breathtaking landscape.

We finally ventured to the extreme south of Chile to see it.  Three flights and a 4 hour drive later, we were like ants coming upon one of the most spectacularly majestic landscapes I have ever seen - Torres del Paine.  Its two-toned ridges are well-known throughout the world, and as we crept closer, the views just kept getting better.

We stayed right at the entrance of the park in Hotel Rio Serrano.  I highly recommend it.  The rooms, the common spaces, and the restaurants all have gigantic windows where you can just stare into the face of the grand mountains.  I found myself doing this quite often.  Even the kids were in awe by their greatness.

It seems to me a family of four with two young kids is quite in the minority of the type of visitors to the park.  Mainly there were two kinds, one being the large tours (mostly of empty-nesters and retirees enjoying a more luxurious type of tour), and then the 20-something hardcore backpacks who were there to hike the "W".  The "W" is a 4(ish) day hike around the Torres where you get up close and personal with nature day and night.  Obviously, we didn't fall into either of these categories, so we choose to stay in a hotel and do a more self-guided tour.  It really worked out well.  We stocked up with a cooler and food in Punta Arenas (where we flew into and stayed one night), then toured the area and the park at our own speed.

We drove basically the whole road through the park so we got to see everything.  Along the way are tons of trails for hiking as well as gorgeous viewpoints.  There are many alpaca, lagunas, and rivers as well.  I loved this trip.  Now, for pics.


View from the plane.  This is NOT Torres del Paine.  I have no idea what it is, but as soon as I saw it I thought it was Elsa's ice castle.

Somewhere along the road from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales.  Isaac learned how to blow dandelions, and from that point on he tried blowing every flower he found, dandelion or not.

The view from Puerto Natales

My loves single-filed in our first hike to an old cave from the ice age

Isaac loved riding in the backpack!

Sadie is obsessed with horses.  She wanted to ride it but obviously that wasn't a thing.

Scary mylodon in the cave!

Majestic alpaca

This was one of my favorite viewpoints, but the wind was ferocious.  As in, you would be walking, concentrating on hiking and balancing against the very strong winds, and then all of a sudden an even larger HUGE gust would come and knock you over so you had to catch yourself or you would fall over.  Poor Isaac couldn't even walk in it.  

Holding onto my children against the wind.

Lago Pehoe (pronounced "pay-o-ay").  That is a little hotel right on the water that you have to cross a bridge to get to the island.  It's very very adorable and has the best view in the park!

The kids are adorable.

Best view.

Each kid wanted to touch the lake.  It was FREEZING.

The view.

Hiking to Salto Chico, which is a little waterfall.  We didn't get a picture of the falls because the trail was extremely tricky around there, so we were focused on holding onto the kids.  This is actually right by the hotel called Explora.  We went in for a quick refuge against the wind, and it is spectacular.

Mark it down in history - Steve's first selfie.

Our hotel had great common spaces, and here Sadie is enjoying playing pool against Steve.  She won obviously.

The sun sets around 10:30pm and rises again around 4:45am.  The kids woke up around 7 and immediately opened our curtains to look at our view as well as the horses that walk around all day in the pastures around us. Sadie has great bedhead, right?

Hiking to Lago Grey to see Glacier Grey.

We made it to the beach! It was crazy windy as we hiked to the icebergs.

Steve trying to cover the kids from the winds.

We ended up having to leave the beach area before we made it all the way to the glacier viewpoint, so we stopped in at Hotel Grey (the only hotel on Lago Grey) for some hot chocolate and a great view of the glacier.  So, it worked out!

Playing outside by the hotel.  They loved running around chasing the ducks and the horses.

Jugo break!

On the way back we stopped at Puerto Natales for coffee and lunch.  We found this great place that had a kid area with tons of dinosaurs.  You can see Sadie is a great sharer.

Only family pic in Punta Arenas (it was actually snowing).

Isaac will be back to Punta Arenas again some day (as the legend goes), or he will have safe passage (also how a different legend goes...)