A Patagonian Paradise

As Chandler Bing might say: "Could there BE any better place on earth than Patagonia?"

It's doubtful. Imran and I finally found what we were looking for on the South American leg of our trip and it was more than we ever dreamed it could be: a landscape so beautiful it takes our breath away; a world so serene and untouched that we feel rejuvenated and at peace with every breath we take. A place where we spend days hiking to get to a scene of nature so grand we do nothing but stare for hours; a location that makes us want to have kids simply so we can bring them here. Somewhere we haven't even come close to exhausting so will have new experiences when we visit again.

It was, in short, our perfect place and now officially our number one favourite destination on the planet. We ask every traveller we meet the same question: "What's the best place you've visited?" Now we understand why so many of them have said Patagonia.

I know I sound like a broken record. Every post I write seems to go on about stunning scenery that gets better and better with every country we visit and it's unlikely this will be the last time you hear it. But while we may visit countries next year in Asia that become our favourite destinations, we won't be doing anything like the activities in Patagonia so it's a safe bet it'll stay high on the list. And it takes a very special place that is so breathtaking it moves grown adults (not to tears but certainly to the bar for another beer to toast the incredible surroundings.)

Patagonia is an area on the Southernmost tip of the continent and both Chile and Argentina have a section. It's not quite 'the end of the world' but it's close enough to Antarctica to be jokingly referred to as this. Put most simply, Patagonia is a mass of mountains, glaciers, lakes, forests and steppes. But it's not 'just' this: it's the epitome of natural beauty at its finest and the most hard hitting example of the magnificence of the earth's creation and its superiority over man. Torres Del Paine is a National Park on the Chilean side and this is where we started our adventure. It remains unharmed because I think anyone who comes here with a view to building a chain hotel or a wretched McDonalds just looks up and thinks: "Sh*t, there's no way I can ruin this place." (Ok, I'm not really naive enough to believe that bigwigs from such corporations could think that nice a way. Lucky then, that the locals are too clued-up and have made it illegal for them to even try. And also I would personally go and beat them to unconsciousness with a giant turnip.) The highlights of Torres Del Paine are the 'torres' or 'towers' themselves: a massif made up of spires and mountains separated by valleys. This wondrous sight is what we woke up to every morning.

So, where did we stay? Harry Potter campsite. Sadly without the lovely Dumbledore anywhere. 'Harry Potter campsite' actually goes by the name of Ecocamp but I called it the former because our tents looked small from the outside but inside were big enough to run around in! The Ecocamp is not only our favourite 'hotel' on this entire trip but I would personally consider it the all-round perfect lodgings in any situation (for me, anyway.) As the name suggests, the camp prioritises the avoidance of environmental degradation and we were surprised to find how efficiently everything ran with just the use of mostly natural resources. Yet despite the 'natural camping' aspect, our dome-shaped 'tents' were ridiculously luxurious and comfortable with a quality bathroom and amazing shower. And a log fire to boot (enclosed and with a chimney but still - in a tent!) We were high up in the mountains staring right at the towers, surrounded by little pockets of secluded mini forests where you could disappear to for hours, refreshing your lungs with clean, crisp air and the scent of unidentifiable flowers with friendly birds and funny-looking insects for company. Imran even set his alarm to get up at sunrise just to take photos of dawn breaking over the towers and was greeted by a majestic rainbow for his efforts. We love, love, LOVED the Ecocamp (and its very social bar, of course) and recommend it to anyone who wants to go to Torres Del Paine; not just because of its location and environmental benefits - this is the icing on the cake - but simply because the rooms are great by any standards.

The activity options at the Ecocamp were named 'active' and 'soft' and we were asked each evening which we'd like to do the following day. Obviously with a name like 'soft option' we opted for the active and went on a 20km hike with another couple from London. Not just any part of London but five minutes down the road from us! I doubt we would've ever crossed paths in our home city but it just so happened we met at the end of the world. Anyway, we trekked through the mountains to reach Lake Nordenskjold, a spectacular body of turquoise water from where we also had a fantastic face-on view of the towers.

Our final day here was spent travelling to the famous Grey Lake & Glacier whilst stopping at various additional lakes, mini waterfalls and other scenic beauties. The Grey Lake is well known for the grey coloured water of the lake (shocking) but is more famous for the blue icebergs and glacier. I'd heard the stories about how blue they were and seen pictures too but thought: 'Pah, exaggerations and Photoshop.' So you can imagine how silly I must've sounded when we got there and I cried: "Oh my God, they're SO blue!" It was crazy. They really ARE as blue as you can imagine and look awesome. Here comes the science bit: the reason has something to do with the dense compression of ice and lack of air which captures sunlight and only allows high-energy blue wavelengths to escape. Something about the ice being like a prism and refraction and stuff. I don't know for sure - I didn't pay much attention in Physics class because I was always too busy laughing at the fact that my teacher was called Medhi Gedhi Medhi. Either way, the icebergs and the glacier are remarkable and the blue varies in colour and intensity according to the position of the sun, so we got to see them on a pretty perfect day.

Crossing over the border to enter the Argentinian side of Patagonia, we went to a place called El Calafate famous for the Perito Moreno glacier. It's bloomin' huge! 250 sq km and 30km wide, to be exact. It's just... wow wee, oh my days, riddik, blimey, gorgeous, whoop whoop, amaaaaaze! (I can't think of any more words for 'incredible' so I thought I'd just write the words that we used when we saw it.) Big ice hunks continuously fall off throughout the day; you know it's about to happen because you hear a loud, high-pitched creaking from right underneath the glacier and then a slow cracking on top before a sheet of ice just slices off and crashes into the water with an almighty, thunderous roar. It's seriously cool!

The best thing about Perito Moreno is that you can actually go on the glacier and ice trekking is now my all-time favourite holiday activity! I wasn't sure how much I'd like it because I even dislike ice-skating but there's no chance of falling on the glacier thanks to the crampons they put on your boots. Crampons are steel platforms strapped to your shoes with thick spikes on the bottom. Once you master the simple technique of walking (like a penguin) it's easy to run around in them - not literally because they weigh a lot and you have to jam your foot into the ice with each step but I had a lot of fun trying anyway! Imran and I were jumping over ice crevices and trying to land in various funny poses and this entertained us enormously, if not the other people in our trekking group. I don't think I've had so many continuous hours of fun like that for a long time.

At the end of the trek our guide of course had to do the obvious: he broke some chunks of ice off the glacier into a bowl and divided them between glasses of whiskey. Scotch on the rocks, the best possible way!

There are so many other parts of Patagonia which we could have seen but didn't have time. There is a seven day 'W' trek and a nine day Circuit trek around the towers of Torres Del Paine which we really want to do one day with children and perhaps other friends. For the very first time on our travels we were disappointed to be leaving a place and felt like our stay wasn't quite long enough. With so much still to see, we know we'll be back here in the future but for now we just have to remember the mind-blowing things we saw and the way we felt. At one point on our journey, in the breezy sunshine, we took a picture of a lake so picturesque that its image is used on the bottles of the local beer, Austral. The song we were listening to at the time was Michael Buble's version of 'What a Wonderful World.' So apt; so perfect. It really is a wonderful world and it's a waste of life to wait to see it.

Wishing everyone a very happy new year and hoping 2012 is filled with love and happiness! Xxxx