Chile The Singular Patagonia, Puerto Bories
Chile The Singular
Patagonia, Puerto Bories
Sleeping in a former abattoir is not to everyone’s taste,
but this 57- room heritage hotel is in a former frigorific, a cold- storage
plant built in 1915 near Chile’s pretty Puerto Natales. Governed by strict
conservation rules, local architect Pedro Kovacic has left the original
external brickwork intact, installing a funicular to take guests soundlessly
down from the hotel entrance (the plat’s tannery and hering pens) to a
reception area, a glass cube suspended above British- made pullers, pumps and
pipes. Gabtries snake past a brace of 1915 Babcock & Wilcox boilers to a
bar and restaurant carved from a cavernous chamber, where expertly prepared
octopus and king crab are served beneath a corrugated iron roof. Guests can
saddle up for horseback forays on neighboring estancias, bike the blustery
coast, or chug up Last Hope Sound in the hotel’s 16- passenger motor launch. (The
Torres Del Paine national park, an hour to the north, is also just
accessible.). they return to ample rooms decorated with Edwardian good taste-
mahogany writing desks, brass lamps and sepia sprint of bleating flocks- where
the eye is drawn through a plate- glass window to the oystercatchers and upland
geese that wade the Sound’s wind- whipped shoreline.
The Singular
Patagonia Spa
When to go
December and January is peak season; the September/ October
spring is braching but more suited to strenuous outdoor activities.
Room to book
Ask for a room close to the lift to avoid a lengthy walk. 00
56 61 722030; www.thesingular.com. Doubles from USD 520
Tierra Patagonia Hotel & Spa, Torres del Paine
Tierra Patagonia
Hotel & Spa
The anerican Chilean Purcell family, owners of elegant
desert lodge Tierra Atacama and the ski resort of Portillo, have added to their
empire this 40- room Patagonian lodge with uninterrupted views of the Torres
del Pain massif. In its big- sky landscape oj sweeping valleys and broad bowls,
90 minutes’ drive from Puerto Natales, the low- slung hotel remains almost
invisible. Banked with earth and clad in lenga beechwood, it winds along the
base of a low bluff, its aerodynamic wing shape barely interruppting the
buffeting gales that whip in from Patagonia’s Southern Ice Field. The principal
public space is as expansive as the sky scape: a wall of plate glass, two
storeys high and 40 maters long, draws the eye across Lake Sarmiento’s
turquoise waters to the serried Paine peaks beyond. The ample bedrooms are
smartly outfitted in a soothing, natural palette of wood, wool and leather, and
all command views of pampas and peak. Each morning, guests dress for all- day
hikes up cerro and down dale or simply tramp off with the hotel’s able, affable
guides to search for condors and caracaras by deserted lake shores, returing
long before dusk, safe once more from the wind, to soothe weary muscles in the
excellent spa and to pair Chilean sea Bass with a mineral- rich Matetic
Chardonnay.
When to go
Open September to April; despite Patagonia’s infamous winds,
expect piercing sin during the ever- warmer December/ January summer.
Room to book
One of the three suites, which sprawl over two floors.
00 56 2 263 0606; www.tierrapatagonia.com. Doubles from US$
1,950 fro a three- night minimum stay, including local transfers, meals, open
bar and excursions
Ecuado – Casa Gangotena, Quito
Ecuador Casa
Gangotena Quito Hotel
Casa Gangotena is so much more than a casa. Well located on
Quito’s famous Plaza San Francisco, right in the heart of the rapdly
gentrifying old town, it makes a wonderful base from which to explore the
Ecuadorian city. At 9,200ft above sea level, Quito is the second highest
capital in the world and the only one (almost) an the Wquator; it stretches for
40km along a plateay surrounded by volcanoes. The hotel opened in October after
a four- year, US$ 10- million transformation from 1920s mansion to stylish
boutique property with 31 bedrooms. Its is surrounded by renovated colonial
house and restaurants and bars set in former plalaces, painted a multitude of
cheerful colours. The hotel is a tranquil haven, with 45 staff to keep things
running smoothly; the bedrooms are light and spacious; all with Wi- Fi, some
with views of the plaza from the bathtub. Afternoon tea with humitas (corn
bread served in corn- leaves) and wonderful local hot chocolate is served in
the internal courtyard; there is a rooftop terrace with spectacular views of
the city (for hotel guests only) and the cosy downstairs bar serves great
cocktails with delicious local snacks. The restaurant has a global menu, and
serves what is probably the best breakfast onmelette in town.
Bed room, Ecuador
Casa Gangotena Quito Hotel
When to go
Any time; the country is on the equator.
Room to book
Any of the eight rooms facing Plaza San Francisco (a bit
noisy over weekends, but the view makes up for its). 00 593 2 400 8000;
www.casagangotena.com. Doubles from US$ 457
