• Home
  • About Me
  • Destinations
    • Europe
      • Austria
      • Belgium
      • Croatia
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Hungary
      • Iceland
      • Italy
      • Portugal
      • Russia
      • Slovenia
      • Switzerland
      • UK
    • Asia
      • Borneo
      • India
      • Indonesia
      • Malaysia
      • Japan
      • Singapore
      • South Korea
      • Sri Lanka
      • Thailand
      • The Maldives
      • Vietnam
    • The Middle East
      • Abu Dhabi
      • Qatar
    • North America
      • Caribbean
      • Cuba
      • USA
    • South America
      • Argentina
      • Brazil
      • Chile
    • Africa
      • Morocco
      • Tanzania
      • Zanzibar
  • Love London
  • Foods & Feasts
    • Indonesia
    • Food Markets
    • Food Tours
    • Restaurants
    • Tea & Cake
    • Street Food
    • Hotel Cuisine
    • Cookery Classes
  • Travel Styles
    • Animals & Wildlife
    • Beach
    • City Break
    • Culture
    • Festivities
    • History
    • Hotel Reviews
    • Meaningful Travel
    • Markets
    • Parks
    • Scenic
    • Shopping
    • Spa Break
    • Sporting events
    • Tour Companies
  • Weird and Wonderful
  • Blogging
    • Blog awards
    • Blog link up
  • Contact Me

Why Waste Annual Leave?

~ Foreign Lands, Fine Food, London Landmarks & Married Life

Why Waste Annual Leave?

Tag Archives: Chile

A Day Trip to Torres del Paine, Chile

06 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by Shikha (whywasteannualleave) in Chile, Parks, Scenic, South America

≈ 31 Comments

Tags

Chile, nature, parks, Patagonia, South America, Torres del Paine, travel

London, January 2014

Pumpkin: “Would you fancy doing a day trip to Torres del Paine from Argentina on our South America trip?”

Me: “You what? Of course I would but is that even an option?”

El Calafate, Argentina, March 2014

Pumpkin: “Straight to bed after dinner for me. I’m knackered. Weren’t we lucky the clouds lifted eventually? Are you going to blog about this?”

Me: “Yeh, it was amazing. Definitely going to share this on the blog. Might even pinch some of your photos, they’ve come out really well…”

most beautiful South America destinations

London, November 2015

Pumpkin: “Are you ever going to write about Torres del Paine? I’d love it if you did a blog post on it and I reckon people would be interested in hearing about the day trip option. I’d definitely have read a blog post like that when we were planning our South America trip.”

Me (hastily:) “I will, I will, I just haven’t got around to it yet.”

Pumpkin: “But surely if you don’t do it soon, you won’t remember any of it? You do write them in a strange order. That afternoon tea you’ve just blogged about was long after Chile…”

London, June 2016

Pumpkin: “Such a pity you never wrote about Chile.”

Me ( hanging my head in shame: )

No inverted commas, as no speech.

Out of excuses.

London, January 2018

Me: “Are the Torres del Paine photos on your laptop or mine?”

Pumpkin: “Dunno, why? Wait – are you actually writing about it finally?”

Me: “Yeh, I thought I might. This month’s travel link up theme is ‘once-in-a-lifetime experiences’ and this was what sprung to mind.

Pumpkin: “What’s a link up?”

best places to visit South America

Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Google

Like this:

Like Loading...

Explore The Elements Travel Photo Blogging Competition

09 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by Shikha (whywasteannualleave) in Africa, Animals & Wildlife, Argentina, Blog link up, Blogging, Chile, Morocco, South America

≈ 39 Comments

Tags

#ExploretheElements, Argentina, Atlas Mountains, blogger competitions, Chile, competitions, glacier, Morocco, Patagonia, safari, Torres del Paine, travel bloggers, travel photography

Don’t you just love a good travel photo blogging competition?! Forget about winning or losing, I thrive on being able to sift through countless old pictures, reliving priceless memories in the pursuit of seeking out some of my favourite captures and snooping voyeuristically at the photos shared by fellow travellers, adding to my never-ending wishlist of destinations still to conquer.

Thomas Cook are challenging you one step further by asking you to select four photos that best reflect the elements, Fire, Air, Water and Earth as part of the #ExploretheElements challenge. And if you happen to impress, you’ll be in with a chance of winning a MacBook Air, a Fujifilm X-T1 camera, an I-phone 6 or even a £5000 travel fund!! Click here for full terms and conditions but remember, you only have 7 days left and don’t forget to nominate 5 fellow bloggers to take part and here’s my entry for a little inspiration!

FIRE

I had toyed with the idea of sharing a smouldering tropical sunset from Havana that radiated the Cuban skies last summer. I had wanted to introduce a motherly warmth into the gusty British blizzards by including a traditional log fire from a Cotswold cottage into this post but what stopped me was a childhood memory.

As much as fire provides light to those paralysed by darkness, fuel to the impoverished and warmth to those unshielded from the winter chills, it can also have more tragic consequences.Torres del Paine trees fire damageAs a child of six, I lived with my family in a block of flats in the Middle East and one humid day, the building caught fire. We were amongst the lucky ones, walking away unharmed with nothing but a singed curtain as evidence. I vividly remember the flats above us in hysteria, shrieking mothers, pandemonium, anxious crowds amassing outside. What was left in me was an etched imprint of fire’s destructive potential and sadly, many years later, our family lost a wonderful woman in a burns accident.

The Torres del Paine National Park in Chile is proclaimed by many to be the unofficial 8th wonder of the world with magnificent rugged terrain and mosaics of water and coloured soil. There was a time when the trees in this photo were enrobed in lush foliage, a far cry from the image above. Unfortunately, hectares of land at the park were damaged during a fire and in the affected region, these charcoal branches are the skeletons that remain. But they stand proud and somehow don’t deflect from the majestic views, reminding us all that despite the far-reaching consequences of fire, there is a resilience that lives on in the survivors.

WATER

My experience of water as an element during my travels took a voyage rather akin to a coming-of-age. Initially, I viewed it through the simplistic and childlike lens of warm chlorinated pools, of waves dragging forth shells for my collection, the glue needed for my sand castles. Over time, I learned more of its force, witnessing its vigour and wrath, the Devil’s Throat at Iguazu Falls immediately springing to mind. And where water surprised me most was when seeing how it evolves, taking on new forms, forming solid structures but retaining its lucent purity.Perito Moreno Glacier The water captured here at the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina has coalesced and frozen, as if to take on a geological stupor. It does not pour the way I had first encountered water, it does not wash over my fingers. I cannot submerge my cold extremities in it. But its pulse is still evident in its continuing evolution with boulders breaking off and generating thunderous crashes as they plummet into the pristine waters below.

EARTH

It was not the undulating postcard-perfect landscape where the valleys converge in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains that drew me back to this photo time and again, nor was it the sheer breadth and magnitude of this Moroccan mountain range. I had previously been absorbed by the perfect contours of the Matterhorn in Switzerland and the snow-capped peaks throughout the Alps but it was these North African mountains that embodied the spirit of earth as an element for me.red iron soil Atlas mountains The sheer palette of colours (the iron-rich terracotta soil being the one I was most drawn to) buried within the ground is testament to the delicate fusion of scientific, geological and inadvertently artistic processes that go on in the soils beneath our feet, painstakingly slowly, drawing together over centuries to form this breathtaking panorama.

AIR

Selecting a photo that encapsulates the essence of air as an element posed the greatest challenge to me. It is upon the first fragile moments of our existence that we become exposed to air. We rely on it to take our first breaths. It fills our lungs as we expel our first cry. Our mothers exhale deeply into the air as we arrive, perhaps sighs of relief, perhaps apprehension, perhaps pain, perhaps joy.

Probably a prolonged sigh, flooded with all.

There is no limit to air; it is boundless, transcending political divisions and geographical markings. It has the same intangible breadth and kindness of a mother’s love. It is the ever-expanding love my Mother unfailingly shows me and the flawlessly consistent love her Mother showed her.mum and baby Selous safariI would find it one day in the remotest of places, at the Selous game reserve in Southern Tanzania, where the air was dry and humid, where man’s thumb-print was thankfully still minimal. I would spot this mother and baby seeking solace under the shade of a tree branch. I would sense the naivety of the infant as she was cradled in her Mother’s tired but nurturing trunk. In our most friable moments of vulnerability, perhaps this is the air we depend on?

Which one of these entries was your favourite?

Thank you so much to Char from Taylor Hearts Travel for nominating me. I’m now passing on the challenge to these great bloggers:

Anna – Slightly Astray

Upasna – Life on my Plate

Emily – The Cosy Traveller

Nita – Spilling the Beans

Allane – Packing my Suitcase

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Google

Like this:

Like Loading...

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Follow Why Waste Annual Leave? on WordPress.com

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Liebster Award

Why Waste Annual Leave

Why Waste Annual Leave

Top Posts & Pages

  • Where to find the Best Chocolate Shops in Bruges
  • ​Which is the Best Cinque Terre Village to stay in?
  • An Essential Survival Guide to Shopping in The Souks of Marrakech
  • Visiting the Pakleni Islands from Hvar
  • A Ponta Delgada Travel Guide, Sao Miguel, The Azores
  • A Day Trip from Tokyo to Mount Fuji Shibazakura Festival
  • A Dreamy Luxury Honeymoon at Breezes Beach Club & Spa, Zanzibar

Blogs I Follow

  • Best Travel Blog | Defining New Wayz
  • Travel With Nano B.
  • The Foodie Diaries
  • Paper Planes & Caramel Waffles
  • Luxury Columnist
  • abitofculture
  • On the Luce
  • The Mayfairy
  • Pearlsbounce
  • wise monkeys abroad
  • Going Awesome Places
  • Whaddup JP
  • foodandphotosrtw.com/
  • Safari254
  • Traveller Soul

Africa Animals & Wildlife Asia Beach Blogging Blog link up City Break Culture Destinations Europe Food Markets Foods & Feasts History Hotel Cuisine Hotel Reviews Indonesia Love London Markets North America Parks Restaurants Scenic South America Sri Lanka Tea & Cake Tour Companies Travel Styles UK Uncategorized Weird and Wonderful
  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Blog at WordPress.com.

Best Travel Blog | Defining New Wayz

British/Swedish Travel & Lifestyle Blogger. Defining New Wayz is the ultimate travel guide for fellow adventurers written by Rebecca Knutsson. She write’s travel guides and shares inspirational stories into what to see, do and eat while on your adventures around the world.

Travel With Nano B.

Travel | Food | Lifestyle

The Foodie Diaries

Paper Planes & Caramel Waffles

A travel & UK lifestyle blog by a Yorkshire girl finding the adventure in every day...

Luxury Columnist

Food, Style,Travel | Luxury Lifestyle Blog

abitofculture

Travel writing and top tips

On the Luce

Part-time travel, full-time travel obsession

The Mayfairy

I did it for the whimsy

Pearlsbounce

Oscillating between Dining In and Dining Out and all things pretty for the table!

wise monkeys abroad

the world is our playground

Going Awesome Places

Off the beaten path and experiential travel - Detailed itineraries, destination guides, and tips and tricks

Whaddup JP

A Travel and Motorsport Blog

foodandphotosrtw.com/

Safari254

Travel . See . Be Inspired

Traveller Soul

Travel, Food, Lifestyle

Cancel
%d bloggers like this: