Day 9, after a very long day to the Torres del Paine yesterday, we decided to just chill today instead of trekking to the base of the Torres. We purchased a half day horseback ride to Cerro Doterra which departs at 3pm. Puerto Natales is a small town, we spent our morning to explore. We strolled to the waterfront, it’s very quiet. It rained a bit so we enjoyed a cup of herbal tea in one of the cafeterias near the waterfront.

At 3pm, we were picked up from the tour agency and we were the only guests in the car. After a quick ride we arrived at the foot of Doterra. A wooden house built in middle of the wild. A cowboy who looked very young (21 years old) welcomed us to the farm. There was another guest who was from Santiago. (Can’t remember her name anymore… ) It was her first experience riding a horse.

Not much conversation between us. We set off from the foot of the mountain and towards the top, zigzagging up the hill. The horses seemed a bit untrained – they loved to snack on various bushes and trees all the way up the hill, all of us were useless to chase the horse to continue the journey. Literally every time we went through a low brushes with some fresh green leaves, the horse would stop to have a little taste. Our guide was a young cowboy who had to keep chasing our horses to move forward. It was hard work for him.

It was really windy throughout the whole journey with some spots of rain. After approximately 1 hour and half we approached the peak of the mountain where the “mirador” is. We stopped here for 20 minutes, taking some pictures and stretching our legs. I was quite glad that there were so many trees to shelter us from the wind. There was a are near “mirador” where we were able to keep out of the weather.

Our way down seemed to be much easier than coming up, as the wind was blowing against the backs. The weather also improved a little, so I could see a few patches of blue sky. The view of the mountain range and lakes were really spectacular.

Upon our return to the farm, we were all invited to have a hot tea or coffee in the owner’s house – I had 3 cups of hot tea in one go to help me warm up. I shared our robbery story with the Chilean girl as well as the family of the farm while we were enjoying our hot drinks. After a little while our tour agency arrived to collect us for the return journey back to Puerto Natales.

Our last night in Chile was quiet,  we stocked up our food bag for the journey tomorrow to Argentina.