From Colombia, we flew to Santiago, Chile. We had some great views on the flight to Santiago.
We had booked a tour of the Palace of Coins (La Moneda Palacio) in Santiago. La Moneda Palace is the nation’s seat of government and an example of Italian neoclassical architecture. Designed by Joaquín Toesca, construction began in 1784 and it opened in 1805 as the Royal Mint. It became the presidential seat in 1845, famously bombed during the 1973 coup, and restored by 1981.
From Santiago Chile, we flew to Puerto Natales, which is the closest airport to Torres del Paine National Park. We spend 4 days in Torres del Paine, and the various sights were awesome. We hired a car at Puerto Natales, and drove to the key sights.
On day 1, we first visited Nordenskjöld Lake. Next we drove to Salto Grande Waterfalls. From Salto Grande Waterfalls, we did a 2 hours return trek to Mirador Cuernos. While the views of lakes and mountains were awesome, the wind speeds were quite high and one needs to be careful when walking on mountain paths.
On day 2 we first drove to Lago Azul (Blue lake). We did a trek along the shores of the lake, enjoying the views of the snow covered mountains. Then we drove to Lago Amarga, again with some really lovely views.
Our third visit was to the Rio de Paine waterfalls. The car park is quite close to the waterfalls.
Our last visit of the day was to the Milodon Caves, near Puerto Natales. The cave was formed by the erosion of Lake Sofía and glacial activity, with a main chamber over 650 feet deep.
From the caves, there is a 40 minutes trek to the top of a hill with grand views of the surrounding mountains.
On day 3, we drove to Lago Gris (Grey Lake). We had booked a boat ride on Grey lake, well in advance. A point to note is that it takes about 40 minutes walk to get from the parking lot (about a kilometre from Hotel Grey Lake) to the boat embarkation point. The views of the glacier and mountains were awesome.
On day 4, we drove to Lake Pehoe. On the way we did a short trek to Lago Sarmiento. We did a catamaran ride on lake Pehoe, which has some great views of snow capped mountains.
On day 5, we drove early morning to Puerto Natales airport to catch our flight to Atacama. The morning drive was very scenic.
Overall the visit to Torres del Paine was awesome with some great sightings.
My Travels - by Sivamani 