After disembarking from our small expedition ship in Puerto Natales, Chile, we rode a carriage through a broad, flat, dun-colored valley to the national park. The drive revealed little about the splendor that awaited us just a bit farther along the road.
Yes, the Andes were there—dark rises off to both sides, capped with snow and sometimes enveloped in cloud. But at this point, they looked more like the suggestion of mountains than a high-altitude wonderland. That would soon change.
