Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine (November 27 to December 08)

After leaving Land of fire we were staying in the Chilean part of the continent with the idea of visiting the area of Punta Arenas and later the National Park "Torres del Paine", one of the so-called "must sees" in Patagonia.

We were driving on the Ruta 255 towards west, passing two ship wrecks in San Gregorio. This is also a way of dealing with rotten things; declare it as a tourist attraction or a historic site, and then you don't have to remove it. And it was really interesting seeing it from short distance as in Europe it might take years installing all the security items in terms of visitors not falling or injuring and the aspect of natures prosecution. What way of doing is really better, sometimes lies beyond your mind capabilities.

In Punta Arenas we visited the cemetery, which is also a tourist attraction, as some famous (local) personalities are buried there. Furthermore the names and dates on the graves give some kind of insight in the historic settling of the area. There are departments for Baltic, Italian, German, etc. emigrants and the historic roots of Europe are present everywhere. A lot of graves are build with small houses, fences, shrines, and decorations like plastic flowers are typical.

Downtown in Punta Arenas some effects of the demonstrations just recently took place where were still visible. Most shops and even more banks and buildings of state institution had barricaded windows to avoid damage and graffiti with political statements were sprayed on the walls. However, at the time we stayed there it was absolutely calm.

After seeing Punta Arenas we went towards south in the "Fin del mundo" area of Chile. As Argentina is calling Ushuaia "Fin del mundo", Chile is using this name for the whole area around Punta Arenas and they have a "Fin de camino", which is the most southern point on the South American continent one can drive with a car to. This was much more scenic to us, as it was completely nice and cozy with just a few people going there compared to some millions visiting Ushuaia. The weather there is rough, windy, and rainy and is fulfilling the saying of the four seasons which could be present in one day in many parts of Patagonia.

From "Fin del mundo" we drove to the National Park "Torres del Paine", one of the hot spots for all kind of tourists, but especially hikers. One could find so many information, stories, and fairy tales about this mountain massive, that is difficult not getting confused. Hikers are excited about the so-called "W- and O-Circuit", there you can hike around the massive seeing the typical "Torres", 3 tower-like mountain needles peaking around 2500 meters above sea level. The needles itself can just be climbed by highly experienced climbers, all others are walking to some viewpoints or around it. The O-Circuit is a complete round trip of around 100 km and 8 to 10 days to hike. The W-Circuit is just the front side with some trails into valleys with around 60 km and 4-5 days hiking. For this multi-day trips one has to reserve campgrounds in advance coordinating with 3 different agencies, and most of the spots are sold-out months in advance. The short version: We didn't do the O- or W-circuit, "just" a day trip to a viewpoint seeing the three needles having perfect weather and sight conditions and besides that we did some hikes to other viewpoints, with almost no people around and fantastic scenery and views to the Torres-Massive, the Grey glacier, the Grey lake with icebergs in it, and overall a fantastic panorama with mountains and lakes.

With a lot of guanacos saying goodbye at a salty lake we left the national park driving to Cerro Castillo in the direction of east going back to Argentina.