There are few places I’ve blogged about here more than Patagonia. If ever you wanted to visit a place of immense beauty, gaping space and old-fashioned, Latin American charm, it’s the bottom of the South American continent. When I lived in Chile, I took several trips down to Patagonia, one of which had me trekking and riding the long, cool trails of Torres del Paine, a magnificent national park in Chile that is something of a mix of Yosemite, Yellowstone and, well, another world. The towers themselves (or Torres) are like modern art layer cakes carved by eons of wind, water and ice. The animal life is unique and varied and includes the guanaco (some of which actually spit at you) and the Nandu, an ostrich-like bird that lumbers around and one of which actually stalked a friend of mine and I as if we were prey.
Well, seems the mainstream media is catching on…they have for a while, actually…and the grandeur of Torres is revealed nicely in this piece in the LA Times. One key place mentioned here that I too, highly recommend, is the Hosteria Pehoe and it’s amazing dining room overlooking Lake Pehoe. I don’t recall EVER having eaten a meal with as fine a view as this one…with the exception, perhaps, of sitting one day years ago eating a sandwich on the lip of the Grand Canyon. But that’s a different story, and one that I’ll refrain from telling here.