Horses for courses
down the mountain and eventually reach our waiting van just as the retreating sun disappears behind the mountain range.
We’ve used every bit of daylight to complete our tramp but one of the day’s most breathtaking sights is yet to reveal itself.
As our van weaves it way back to our hotel we come across a puma crossing the road.
The eyes of this majestic animal catch and reflect the beams of our headlights and for several precious minutes it appears happy in our company before retreating back up a nearby bank.
This exquisite hunter is most active at dawn and dusk and even our Chilean hosts seem captivated by the encounter.
Pumas are one of the many success stories of the national park and have swelled in number, thanks to a ready supply of foxes, guanaco and European hares.
Such is their number, these solitary animals have now been observed hunting together, a behaviour not previously observed.
Room with a view
It’s nighttime when we arrive back at our accommodation, explora Patagonia, which is located in the middle of the Torres del Paine National Park.
We arrived at the lodge a few days earlier in the middle of the night after a five-and-a-half-hour drive from Chile’s southernmost city, Punta Arenas.
The lengthy trip is punctuated with a stop at Parador Rubens, a treasured eatery in these parts, and we enjoy a hearty feed of sandwiches and beer.
When we arrive at the hotel our hosts greet us at the door and tell us the weather has been settled and fine all week.
They’re less willing to talk about our surrounds, preferring to leave us with a sense of anticipation for the next day.
‘‘I don’t want to spoil it for you,’’ one says.
‘‘It’s better you wait until tomorrow and see it for yourself, it will be spectacular.’’
He’s proven right when the sun finally emerges at 8.30am.
Some of the best views of the park can be enjoyed from the large glass windows lining the lodge’s dining room, with views of Lake Pehoe, Salto Chico waterfall and the Cuernos del Paine.
The building itself blends effortlessly into its surrounds and is made out of cedar wood and the conifer pilgerodendron.
There are no televisions or radios in guests’ rooms and instead downtime is spent socialising with other visitors or planning the next day’s activities with staff.
Apparently the sound of the willing wind buffeting the lodge can unsettle some people. But I love it.
During the summer months, the winds can reach 150kmh – enough to permanently bend the spines of trees
The wind comes from the west and brings with it moisture from the Pacific Ocean.
Consequently, the west of the park is green and lush, while further east, it is much drier, almost like a desert.
The 49-room lodge opened in 1993 but was nearly lost to fire in 2011.
A huge fire destroyed more than 176 square kilometres of the park after an international hiker ignored the strict no fire rules and attempted to burn some toilet paper.
The lodge was evacuated but thankfully a wind change saw the site spared. Nine kilometres south from the lodge is explora Patagonia’s stables where a team of gauchos tend to horses.
These horsemen, with their distinctive boinas, use the winter months to change the horses’ shoes.
It’s on one of these highly trained animals, a handsome specimen named Cantaro, that I take my first horseback ride across the park’s wind-swept grasslands.
This area of the park is relatively flat and gives us an excellent chance to observe Patagonia’s wildlife up close, such as the exquisite Chilean flamingo, prancing hares and grazing guanacos – a relative of the llama.
The gauchos train their horses using a technique known as imprinting.
A horse’s training can last up to eight years – more than some doctors.
We stop at regular intervals to soak in the surrounds and at one point our lead gaucho, Mauricio, checks and adjusts everyone’s saddles.
After our ride we are invited back to the stables and share a brew of mate tea with the gauchos.
The drink is made from the grounded leaves of a bush herb and is especially popular in southern Chile and neighbouring Argentina.
For medicinal purposes, a splash of whiskey can be added to the brew.
The wind picks up during the morning and continues to blow well into the afternoon when we take a guided tramp to the Grey Glacier bordering the expansive Southern Patagonia Ice Field.
In 1996, the glacier extended 28km and had a measured area of 270 square kilometres.
In the intervening years, it has retreated substantially and today extends for about 20km.
We first glimpse the glacier from across the waters of the Grey Lake and pause to watch large chunks of ice crash onto the pebbled beach.
The melting ice is so fresh it can be eaten and I’m encouraged to sample a piece for myself.
I edge toward the shoreline for a taste but quickly retreat as the incoming waves crash against the icy slabs.
Around the Grey Lake, the charred scares of the fire which swept across the park in 2011 is still visible.
Powerful summer winds allowed the fire to jump across lakes and it spread south-east across the landscape.
Today, dead ash-coloured lenga beech stand as poignant reminders of the devastating event.
It’s estimated it will take the environment up to 200 years to recover.
Seeing the devastation up close is sobering but restoration efforts are visible, with tree sapling boxes peppering some areas of the park.
Compared to the hike to the base of the Torres del Paine, the walk to the Grey Glacier lookout is an enjoyable stroll.
Part of the appeal of staying at explora Patagonia is having staff on hand to help plan park excursions and activities.
While explora guests share an obvious love of exploration and the wilderness, the hotel’s surrounds and cuisine evoke a sense of luxury.
Lunch and dinner time is also an ideal chance to share stories with other guests and socialise with our hosts.
It’s during dinner that Rodrigo and I reminisce about our hike to the base of the Torres del Paine and he offers up an insightful observation about the rewards of tramping.
He says our sore leg muscles reflect the fact we’ve achieved something extraordinary.
‘‘That is, we’ve done something extra ordinary, and those tend to be the experiences we remember,’’ he says.
I couldn’t agree more.
The writer travelled courtesy of LATAM Airlines, explora and Nomade.