Patagonian Estancias, Both Sides of the Andes

An estancia is a sheep station, and in Patagonia the better ones take guests. Rooms are plain and warm, dinners are long, and there is a wood stove burning from March to somewhere in October. This journey links two of them, one in Chile and one in Argentina, with a few days of proper walking between. It suits people who like the outdoors but have no wish to sleep in a tent.

The geography is the point. The Torres del Paine massif is on the Chilean side, glaciers and the Fitz Roy range on the Argentine, and between them runs a border that can take a morning to cross if the paperwork and the wind both co-operate. Tomás has driven it many times and arranges the timing so you cross before lunch, not after. He also knows which estancias have a handful of rooms and which have fifty; this journey uses the first kind.

What he would change for you depends on how much you want to walk. A confident hiker can do the full Laguna de los Tres day, about ten hours there and back. Others will prefer the shorter Laguna Capri route, which has most of the view for half the effort. The riding is flexible too: absolute beginners are welcome, and the horses are mostly sensible.

The honest trade-off is the weather. Patagonia in the summer months can be bright, still and warm, or it can be a gale that stops the boat and closes the trail. We build a day of slack into each stretch and keep the dates for the ambitious walks loose. If you need certainty, this is not the journey for you. If you can live with a day spent by the fire, with a book and a view that comes and goes, it is one of the best things we do.