On Saturday we were picked up by the Patagonia Camp van late in the afternoon for the 5 hour drive northeast from Punta Arenas to the hotel near Torre del Paines National Park.  Patagonia Camp consists of 18 “designer” yurts on the southern coast of Toro Lake, Chile’s 3rd largest lake which is fed by the nearby Patagonia glaciers. Toro Lake has a glorious, turquoise color which makes it even more scenic.  This part of our adventure would be 3 days of hiking around the national park with different views of the signature cliffs. Our yurt sat high above the lake frontage; and, the views from our yurt were mesmerizing.  The yurt was lovely but, at times, with the high Patagonia winds and  usual nightly downpours, you felt like you were either going to slide or be blown into Lake Toro.  It actually was quite a fun experience listening to the rain hit the yurt along with the winds howling around the yurt at the same time.  (It was quite noisy; so, the hotel provides everyone with earplugs as well as blackout masks.)  There is a skylight in the yurt above the bed to gaze at the stars; however, the sun comes up around 5:00 a.m. and it feels like the middle of the day.  Needless to say, we were up quite early every morning.

Our first hike on Sunday morning was the Valle Del Frances Trek.  It is a 13+ mile trek to Frances Lookout in the Frances Valley just below the key peaks. This hike involved a 1.5 hour van ride into the park, a 30 minute boat ride across Lake Pehoe and an 8 hour hike up and down the mountain.  About three-quarters of the way up the mountain, there is a suspension bridge and a spectacular view of the French Glacier.  Across the bridge is a backpackers camp and some roaring waterfalls.  At the final viewpoint, we were awestruck with imposing views of the magical shapes granite makes into mountains.  We only spent a few minutes at the lookout because of the inability to stand with such high winds shooting down the valley.  Our arrival back at “Camp” was 12 hours after our 7:45 start.  It was an exhilarating and very rewarding day, but we were pretty worn out.  We also had to keep up with a darling honeymoon couple in their mid-20’s and our two guides who were 30 years old!  We had a lovely gourmet dinner tonight with Chilean wine from the vineyard of the Patagonia Camp owners.