Parque Nacional Torres del Paine

---

Torres del Paine is South America’s most visited National Park, with more than 200.000 visitors per year. It covers an area of 181.000 hectares and is on every tourist’s itinerary who is visiting Chile or southern Argentina.

Why? The geological make-up of this place is very special: bizarre rock formations, uniquely coloured rocks, a string of lakes each featuring a different colour of green, waterfalls, streams of all sizes fed by icy glacier water, snow capped mountains and glaciers looming behind every turn. It could not be more scenic. Since the area is notorious for its unpredictable weather we hardly dare to mention we had almost three days of sunshine.

There are numerous treks, but the most popular one is the famous “W”, a four day hike covering the three highlights of the National Park:

1. Mirador Las Torres, where you have a full view of the three “Torres” or granite spires, plus the lake at its bottom;
2. Valle Frances;
3. Glacier Grey.

The “W” is a very good image to describe the course of the trek: up /down three valleys that separate the massive rock formations of Los Cuernos, Pains Grande and Torres del Paine, thus resembling the letter “W”. The more ambitious and experienced trekkers do the entire “Circuit”, a six to eight day extended version of the “W”. Sticking to this image, it is the route that connects the two “outside legs of the W“, thus walking the backside of Paine Grande, Los Cuernos and Los Torres.

We found it all rather confusing in the beginning when people talked about the “W” and the “Circuit” and whether is was better to start from this end or the other end. Once we finally got to see a detailed map of the area, it became crystal clear.

---