We are in Chile and experience the Patagonian winds and Torres del Paine National Park!

The next day we left our hotel in Calafate by 7:15 am for a long bus drive.  It's 2.5 hours until our first stop at La Esperanza on our way to the Chilean border.

Our spacious bus for a long ride.

This is the whole town of La Esperanza

We chuckled at the sign outside the women's toilet.

Silvia, our guide from yesterday, rode with us today, pointing our various landmarks, animals, etc.  from the bus. We saw lots of sheep and even some gauchos riding their horses.

And then Silvia pulled out her mate cup and explained to us how to prepare mate and drink it.

First she showed us her favorite mate cups.

Then she talked about the mate tea and that it is traditionally drunk in family gatherings or with friends, all sharing the same mate cup.  Yep, you got it, we are all her friends and we all get a chance to taste it.

One individual assumes the task of server and prepares the tea with the yerba mate leaves and hot water, letting it steep for a few minutes before sipping it.

When the water is gone, the cup is refilled by the server with hot water and passed to the next person in the group.  When that person finishes, the cup is handed back to the server for another refill, and so on and so on.

I thought the tea was quite bitter and did not enjoy it.  We saw the mate cups all over as we traveled--people sip on this tea all day long.

Finally we were at the border crossing for Chile.  We had to unload all our bags at the Chilean immigration/customs.  They do not permit any fruit, nuts, seeds into the country.  They check this by putting the bags through an x-ray machine.

Immigration office 

We got into a new bus on the Chilean side; said goodbye to Silvia and hello to our new guide, Javier.  Lunch was next at a restaurant just yards inside the Chilean border.  We had a stew, which was very good.  It was chicken...I think.

And the opportunity to browse around the gift shop.

This was the most unusual mate cup we saw.  We did not buy it.

 There were lots of others, too.

Then it was time to head to the Torres del Paine National Park, which comprises about 935 square miles and is part of the Paine Massif, granite mountains that emerge suddenly from the plains of the Patagonia steppes.  It is one of the most recognized mountain profiles in the world.

On way to hotel, located inside the park, we stopped to hike.  It is VERY windy.

We reached this waterfall after just 300 yards.

We were experiencing 70+ mph winds, with gusts even higher.  This is the Patagonia wind!

We had to kneel down to prevent being blown over.

Hang on, Billy...

Our trip leader, Nelson, and guide, Javier determined that we needed to abort the hike and hopefully try again tomorrow.

Our hotel, the Rio Serrano, is nestled down in this valley alongside the river.

We had the most gorgeous views

The next morning Terry hiked up the mountainside behind the hotel for views of the valley; Joyce chose to do a horseback ride.

 He is loving every minute of this!

While Terry was hiking, Joyce went on the horseback ride.

We never tired of the view.

That afternoon the planned hike was closed due to high water...it has been unusually warm and it had rained several days the week before we arrived.

We were able to do the hike that was aborted yesterday.

We hiked to a lookout point where we saw an avalanche.  Of course it happened so fast we didn't catch it on film.  The winds were still very strong today.

We finally were able to see the "gaucho on horseback" on the rock.  If you look closely at the flat lighter spot at about 1:00 above Terry's head, you might see a darker image that looks like a gaucho on horseback riding toward you--it's all flat; just a darker area on the rock.

This guanaco poised perfectly for us.  Guanacos are native to South America and are very similar to a llama.

Next morning we checked out of the hotel and did one more hike before leaving the beautiful Torres del Paine National Park.

Before we hiked, we stopped at the visitor center and Javier explained the geology of the park to us.

It was then time to hike with the "towers" of the mountain always in our view.

During the hike Bob proposed to Dawn.  We were wondering why they were lagging behind all the rest of us.  

We agree that Bob certainly picked a wonderful location to propose marriage.

It was now time to leave Torres del Paine National Park.

Along our way we saw a huge herd of guanaco and were able to walk among (or at least very near) them, until a ranger came by and told us to get back on the road.

This one made us laugh.

We stopped for a picnic lunch alongside a nice waterfall.

 A group of young adults sang and danced the national  dance.  Just because they could...

We then traveled to Puerto Natales for our hotel for the night.

 I think this artwork depicts the Patagonian winds.  It's hang on or you will fly away.

Just one more photo of the magnificent Torres del Paine National Park.  Our photos just don't do justice to the beauty.  This one is a professional photo from the internet.

Ahhh....

Next we leave Puerto Natale and begin a 4-night cruise on a small ship through the Chilean fjords.

To continue reading, scroll up towards the top of this page and click in the right-hand column the entry entitled:  We begin the Chilean Fjords and Tierra del Fuego cruise.