26th February 2017 – Chile here we come !

26th February 2017 – Chile here we come !

Today we have a land transfer to our hotel in the Torres del Paine National Park. 4 hours across the flat, empty landscape of the steppes and a land border crossing into Chile.

This was also the day of the solar eclipse, so our guy had been asked to find us a good sport to watch this so he stopped at this wonderful panorama spot where we could see Mount Fitzroy and the whole range of the Andes peaks.

Eclipse glasses on, camera masked with special paper and we sat and watched the total eclipse.
Steve had shot this image with his new filter that Janette's nephew, Dean and Lisa had bought despite having critical allen keys required for this shot removed by security at Birmingham airport.

Its quite easy to stand in the road and
take pictures without getting run over

Onwards to the border with Chile which wasn’t quite what we had expected. It was a couple of sheds on an Estancia with a little chain fence the border guard had to run out and open for you !

We then left our Argentine driver and were collected on the Chilean side by the hotel. A further 45 minutes over unmade roads in a Toyota Landcruiser with the most stunning views of the Massif and the Towers of Torres del Paine and we arrived at the Awasi Patergona.

These clouds are Venticular clouds that form
at high wind speeds of over 800 mph

Our room with views of the famous
Three Towers of the Torres Del Paine

What can we say, it is a stunning hotel, built of sustainable wood with a main building and all the villas are off on their own blended into the hillside with a full view of the Massif and the Towers of Torres del Paine. Just wonderful and just what we needed after 10 days in a ship’s cabin.

We have a Landcruiser and ranger for our exclusive use so we sat with him and went through the maps discussing what we wanted to see and do. I'm sure he will get used to stopping every 5 mins for a picture because it sure is that kind of place.

Needless to say, photography likes a sunrise or sunset and it looks like tomorrow has the best weather so mad fools that we are, we have a 5.00 wake up tomorrow !!

Sitting now in the bar in the main part of the hotel with a drink in hand watching the sun set over the mountains, just fabulous but with the arduous travel, sleep is not too far away..zzzzz