Patagonia Tours & Adventure Travel

Travelling to Chilean Patagonia’s famous hiking hub Torres del Paine National Park with the family or that one special someone works fine for many people. Some people can pack up the kids and the significant other and head off into the wilderness to hike for weeks at a time surrounded by nothing but smiles, enthusiasm and the great outdoors. Some families work great together on the road and enjoy facing new challenges, tasting new foods and seeing new sights together. And then again, some don’t! It’s actually not as unusual as you’d think for couples to have hugely different interests and for kids to want to do their own thing. So what do you do? Do you give up altogether on your Patagonia hiking vacation aspirations? Do you take the plunge and travel solo? Or do you read our guide to why and how to travel with friends in Torres del Paine National Park?

The South Andean Deer or huemul (pronounced way-mool) is a true icon of Chilean fauna, appearing alongside the condor on Chile’s official coat of arms. Yet it is also endangered and threatened with extinction, with around 15,000 individuals left in the wilds of Chilean and Argentinean Patagonia. This week however, there was a small ray of hope for the gentle huemul, as a new study from Cambridge University reported an increase in the huemul population of Chile’s Bernardo O’Higgins’ National Park. To celebrate this small step forward for our hoofed friends, we’re taking a look at where to spot a huemul in Chile!