At the Bottom of the World – Chilean Patagonia

Eight of us embarked on a long journey to get to the bottom of the world, all the way to Chilean Patagonia.

Hiking into the Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile was a friend’s idea, which Dharmesh and I gladly accepted. We remembered our hiking trip to Mt Fitz Roy in Argentine Patagonia and how breathtaking the landscape was and it was hard to let go another chance of exploring the Chilean side of the region.

It was a long flight from San Francisco to New York to Santiago and from there to Puerto Natales, which was our final destination.

Our journey started with a hiccup, a friend had a mix up with her passports and she had to miss the flight. Later we found out that she was able to take a flight next day and would join us a day late.

Flight from Santiago to Puerto Natales had some of the best views from the airplane window. The path of the flight passed across the Andes mountain range and we got to see many volcanoes and craters that line the famous Lake District of Chile.

We used Hello Patagonia to help us make reservations. Leslie, who is the owner of the company, was a very helpful and genuinely nice lady. She was able to help our friend who missed her flight reconfigure her trip to be able to catch up with us at the national park the next day.

After checking into our hotel (Hotel Hellef), which was a nice clean basic facility, we headed to the town to meet Leslie at their office in Puerto Natales. She gave us maps, a lot information about the hike and useful tips.

We then walked around the town to see some historic sites and headed to the water to catch nice views of the setting sun. Monuments, sculptures, broken pier and brightly colored structures at the shoreline made the entire area absolutely picturesque.

In the evening, we opted for casual dinner – Pizza and Beer at the Pizzeria Mesita Grande was just perfect for that, it sure hit the spot.

Next morning was supposed to be our day 1 of hiking. We packed our backpacks and repacked our luggage which we were supposed to leave at the hotel. Day was long, there was still a bit of daylight left when I went to bed around 10pm.