The Birthday Buck List · Chile

The story

My sisters and I have a rule: whoever's birthday it is picks the destination, no vetoes, no taking it back. That's how three of us ended up on a flight to the literal bottom of the world for a birthday.

We eased in gently — a night in Santiago, a day in wine country, then a four-and-a-half-hour flight down to Punta Arenas and the long drive north into Torres del Paine. The drive is part of the deal: guanacos watching us go by with the mild disdain only guanacos can manage, golden pampas grass stretching out in every direction, the occasional gaucho on horseback minding his own business.

Four nights at Explora Salto Chico, on the edge of Lake Pehoé with the granite spires of the Paine Massif filling the windows. Horseback across the pampa for the first time, thundering waterfalls, the blue wall of Grey Glacier, lakes the colour of something photoshopped, fall colour on every ridge, flamingos where you'd least expect them, champagne on the rocky shore after the glacier hike, achy happy legs and blisters from a park that never seemed to run out of trails, and mornings we couldn't help but hold our breath as the first light hit the granite towers and the whole dark, icy massif ignited, the sky turning from deep grey-blue into a fiery canvas of crimson, orange, and pink.

Santiago again before we flew home — a day getting thoroughly lost in Valparaíso's murals and stairwells, the only acceptable kind of lost.

The Itinerary

Santiago · 1 night
Torres del Paine · 4 nights
Santiago · 1 night

Where we stayed

The Ritz-Carlton, Santiago
Explora Patagonia Salto Chico
Torres del Paine