All I can say is that it’s a damn long way to go for two-and-a-half
days…..but well worth it. Having left
the hotel in Santiago at 0715, we did not arrive at the Awasi until 1730 that
evening – a flight via Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas followed by a 4.5 hour
drive to nowhere – well, not exactly nowhere, but on the edge of the Torres del
Paine, a 200,000 hectare national park in southern Patagonia.
 |
| The ultimate bucolic scene |
 |
| Spot the hotel |
The Awasi is situated in the foothills of a local mountain
range in ground which is let from a local estancia. It is a modern build and, whilst it initially
looks slightly out of place in such wild territory, it somehow blends in well. Inside, everything is immaculate and well designed, and we had
plenty of spare room - even with 3 of us in one room.
 |
| Our room - sitting room at far end |
The scenery is breath taking, with views to mountains which
have seldom been climbed.
One of the
issues here is that virtually every activity here requires about an hour`s drive, minimum,
to get to the starting point. Given that
we had spent so much time in a car and had only 3 nights here, we opted to do the walks as close to the hotel as possible.
There was what looked like a fairly easy hike right behind the hotel – a 2500 foot climb – 4 to 5 hours to the top & back – no problem! The only problem was that the final half to the top was on scree; two steps forwards, one step backwards – and it was steep!
Our reward was a small but welcome picnic at the top with our guide, Patrick, followed by, on the way down, a visit from a local Condor – Wow! He/She came within 10 meters of us. Unfortunately I only had my small camera, but even so I was very happy with the result!
 |
| A true Condor moment |
After the walk, we were informed that we were only the 4
th group to make the top. Admittedly the hotel only opened in November, so not too many contenders for that objective – but not an easy walk.
We also went on a couple of spectacular rides. Having insisted that we wanted horses that
were going to be fiery, we were hoisted by our own petard, being given horses
that ONLY wanted to go flat out and were difficult to master. WHAT FUN we had chasing the Guanaco on the
plain and galloping for miles, Jemima and Philippa clearly well in control but James having to resort to pointing his horse uphill from time to time in order to draw it to a halt! This really was riding in the wild.
 |
| Guanaco |
One of the things we really noticed about the landscape was
the number of Guanaco and sheep skeletons (and occasional carcass) scattered
around the place. For a protected
species, the Guanaco are plentiful in this part of Patagonia and they wander
around in largish (40) herds. They are terrifically territorial, and if unwittingly one wanders across a certain male`s territory, he is highly likely to start his extaordinary braying noise, which sounds just like he is laughing at you.
There is
however one other protected species here – the Puma. Shy animals, they tend to operate at night
and are very effective killers.
 |
| Guanaco grazing |
The people at the Awasi were delightful. They add a new dimension to the word service –
where else would you find a general manager prepared to take a 9-year-old off
your hands for an hour….and end up playing hide-and-seek around the hotel with her! Thank you Rosario!
 |
| On a hike |
The place only accommodates 24 guests and
each room has its own vehicle and guide for the duration.
It comes at a fair price, but there is no question that the whole experience was incredibly spoiling.
 |
| Orange Brested Finch? |
The chef was excellent and the bartenders
superb – the Pisco Sours as good as you get anywhere. We would like to have spent a little longer
there, but our 4-day cruise beckoned. We
were driven back to Puerto Natales, where we changed cars into a ridiculously
small car (we had 10 items of luggage by now) for the final 200km to Punta
Arenas. All went smoothly – boarding the
Via Australis – until………
No comments:
Post a Comment