Adventures in South America: Lake Pehoe, Torres del Paine, Chile

We stayed last night at the Hostería Pehoé which is on a small island in the middle of Lago Pehoé.

You park on the mainland and walk across the bridge to access the hotel.

It is quite the idyllic place to stay!

As far as I could find, besides camping, this is the cheapest accommodation in Torres del Paine, but it is $299 USD! The main building, which includes the dining hall, is right on the water, but the rooms face inward and are in separate buildings. 

Geese seemed to enjoy the shelter (it is constantly windy!) provided by the courtyard.

After settling in, Diana and I explored the little island, which provides some great views of the lake and surrounding hills and mountains.

We had a nice dinner in the dining hall at 20:00. It is wonderful how late it stays light, because we were able to enjoy the view as we ate. 

I woke up at 7:00 this morning and took another walk around the island. 

Once Diana woke up we enjoyed breakfast in the dining hall before heading out for a final hike. Just down the road is the Mirador Condor hike, which involves a bit of a climb to a great viewpoint over the lake. The slope is very exposed here and the wind is exceptionally strong. The "fuertes vientos" sign is a bit of an understatement, to be honest. It is hard to overemphasize how windy it is!

Battling the wind is worth it, however, for the incredible view of Lake Pehoe. There is our hotel on the little island down below, too.

We even got to see one of the massive condors way up above us, although you can barely see it in my photo.

After a few minutes of enjoying the viewpoint and braving the wind, we began descending.

We were back down at the parking lot before 10:30 and now we had to leave the park, back to Puerto Natales.