Arrived at Torres del Paine

The next morning we woke to the usual Patagonia version of Garrett County Sunshine: wind, sun, very cool temps and on and off rain. We jumped into the car and headed the 90km north to our lodge just outside the park in the little “enclave” of Villa Rió Serrano.

The drive for the first 40 or so km was 2 lanes of pavement and then turned into a gravel road that was in terrible shape with bad potholes and washboard for over 30km. It did improve towards the end but not by much and it took over 2-1/2 hours of white knuckling. I mostly was worried about destroying the rental car with the $2k deductible and getting stranded in the middle of nowhere.

We didn’t know what to expect, but this is a little development containing a few hotels, some government facilities, stables and other random stuff along the Rió Serrano. We were staying in the Morrena Lodge, a nice but not too fancy, affordable place that had a very welcoming lodge vibe as opposed to a pricy hotel (at $2500/night) just down the road. Which BTW we did visit for drinks and appetizers as a “Gypsies in the Palace” move. The best of both worlds!

Steve Callison found the lodge and booking our room online, Lisa picked the rooms that were away from the main lodge, essentially tiny houses with 2 beds and a little toilet/shower and radiant heat. Quite cozy and basically large version of our van with facilities. We were right at home! The lodge itself had a great common area and dining room with good starlink WiFi. This was to us a real score, our kind of place. They made a great box lunch for hiking and arranged for early breakfast if you were an early bird hiker. The staff was very friendly and it was easy to chat with other guests.

We got checked in, went for a little hike around the river, back for drinks and dinner and turned early as the next day hiking was going to be epic!Read more