Can the weather get any better? March is mid-fall here, equivalent to October back home. It was still dark when we boarded buses for our full-day tour of southern Chile’s iconic Torres del Paine National Park.
We drove north. A rosy glow at the skyline slowly transformed into golden light, casting slanted shadows as the sun rose over the hills to the east, illuminating the mountains in front of us.
Some of us were on the panoramic tour, visiting key scenic lookouts and finishing at Rio Serrano for a traditional Patagonian asado, or barbecue. Whole lambs had been roasting over lenga wood fires all morning. The rest of us were on a slightly longer tour, with two lovely hikes breaking up the bus ride. (We still enjoyed the lamb barbecue!)
We were blessed with blue skies, sunshine, and no wind, which is very unusual for southern Patagonia. Well, that is, until our second hike, up a high hill called Cerro Condor, where the wind was so strong that it was hard to walk…at times, even to stand!
After our delicious barbecue, we headed back to National Geographic Explorer, where it was docked at Puerto Natales, ready to continue our adventure.
