Читать книгу Torres del Paine. Chile's Premier National Park and Argentina's Los Glaciares National Park онлайн

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Torres del Paine takes its name from the magnificent granite spires which launch themselves skyward near the head of the Valle Ascencio (torres meaning ‘towers’) – one of the most iconic sights in Patagonia, or anywhere in South America for that matter – and the name of a local estancia (ranch), upon which part of the national park still lies.

The national park does attract an increasingly large number of visitors each year, most of whom arrive in the peak (summer) season of January/February, when the ‘W’ route can get quite crowded, yet despite this it is still possible to find solitude, particularly in the more northerly areas of the park. On my first visit to Torres del Paine I sat among boulders by a stream in the Valle Francés, mesmerized, as shafts of early morning sunlight struck the enormous east face of Paine Grande, all dark rock slung with glaciers, and glistening crags festooned with clouds. It mattered nothing that there was a campsite with a few dozen tents hidden in the forest behind me; in those few moments I was completely and utterly alone. On another visit I clung to an exposed section of trail in screaming winds, only to turn and see a Condor rising effortlessly out of the valley, utterly still except for the feathers on its wing tips, and so close I almost felt I could reach out and touch it.