Sunrise on the Torres Massif. This image was captured on the last morning of my second trip to Torres del Paine. Many years ago, Howie Garber, a photographer friend in Salt Lake City, captured a stunning black and white image of the Towers. And a few years later at an art festival in Park City, Utah, a photographer from Missouri displayed a large panorama of the Towers in winter, captured with a Fuji 617 panorama camera. It was simply amazing. Those two images, more than any others, created within me a desire to visit Torres del Paine. The first trip was somewhat of a washout, literally, because of heavy rains. In spite of that my son, a friend and I had a wonderful experience. In 2009 my wife Kathy and I returned to spend a month in Argentina and Chile. I had an image in my mind that I wanted to capture of the Horn of Torres del Paine at sunrise. I had not succeeded but gambling the weather might co-operate, we spent the last evening in the park near a vantage point that I had scouted.Heavy cloud cover made the morning less than promising. Nevertheless, I decided to set up for my shot in the hopes it might happen. Shortly after setting up and without warning, the clouds opened a bit to provide some partial illumination of the towers and the low hanging clouds. The light lasted for about two minutes, then the skies closed. The shot was my departing gift from Patagonia.

Torres del Paine is amazing. Although it's now 'discovered', as with many national and internationally known parks, most visitations are hit and run, lasting a few hours and then back to the cruise ship. Torres del Paine deserves never less than a week to experience the hikes and views in the back country.