South America - Chile Torres del Paine, we shall meet again.

There are these places, when you see the pictures, you wanted to go; while you are there, you couldn't get enough; as you are leaving, you wanted to come back!

Torres del Paine is one of those places.

For my South America trip, the planning was to go Patagonia first because it seems to be the thirst of all time. I plan in 2 weeks for Patagonia, however, it did seem never enough. As the day I was leaving Torres del Paine, I felt so much that I needed to come back again.

The weather really lives up to its reputation as I woke up with the ground furred with cotton snow.

Refugio Los Torres - Chile, Apr 2010.

There was another occasion when I was at Grand Canyon in Arizona that I had 3 different types of weather in 3 days - cloudy with cold drizzle rain, sunny with cloudless sky, then a snowy day after.

The transport only left in the evening around 4pm.  It meant we (me, a Swiss lady, a father and son from Israel, an Australian woman with a Chileano husband) had a whole day to hang around. There was practically nothing to do in-door in the refugio. Thus, I packed my bag and headed out to the Laguna Amarga junction where I came the first day.  Surprisingly, it seemed Torres del Paine consisted with 2 polar weather.  There was no snow and bright sunny at the other end of the national park. The Guanacos were happily out and enjoying themselves for a nice walk.

Guanacos at Torres del Paine - Chile, Apr 2010.

Using my long zooming lens, I looked backward to the refugio which is near to high ground, I saw Los Cuernos in the distant standing in the snow.

Los Cuernos in Torres del Paine - Chile, Apr 2010.

No doubt in that moment I knew Torres del Paine has became the first to join my South America re-visit list.

As I only spent 3 days here, the 'W' circuit takes 4 to 5 days to hike.  But it will require 2 weeks to do the full circuit in Torres del Paine.

Bringing back good memory, my boss in New York, Rui Lou, had visited Torres del Paine in the summer time of Feb 2008.  With closed to 2 weeks in the park, she had taken some of the photos which inspired the visit.  I can't show all her photos here. Here are some of her photos which relates  the 'Blue' to Torres del Paine in which I had been trying to illustrate.

 Photograph by Rui Lou - Torres del Paine, Chile, Feb 2008.