We both arrived to Patagona in the year 2013, we didn't know each other yet and the idea we both had was to stay and work for a season (i.e. September to April), however the pure magic and the raw natural beauty of the Chilean Patagonia and Torres del Paine National Park stroke thus convincing us to come back the next seasons and so forth.
Trekking in Torres del Paine is one of the most rewarding activity that you can perform around this area, although Patagonia is a marvellous place for photography, birdwatching, horse riding and many other outdoor activities. When we arrived in the area we both started to work for two different hotels inside the national park.
Pelin worked her first year and the following three for the world renowned Hotel Tierra Patagonia in which she led groups along the Base Torres trail or the French Valley, together with horse riding in Cerro Guido and Laguna Verde, birdwatching and wildlife photography fullday excursions and many other half-day trails in Torres del Paine area.
Marco spent his first season in Hotel Pehoe, located right in the hearth of the national park, and then the following two years he decided to move closer to town and worked as a guide for Puerto Natales-based Hotel The Singular Patagonia, improving his knowledge in the area of Ultima Esperanza province with boat tours in the Last Hope fjord, half-day hikes around Cerro Benitez and the Milodon Cave, as well as horse riding excursions in Laguna Sofia and kayaking in Eberhard fjord.
During their first season in Patagonia Marco and Pelin got in touch via a mutual friend. Marco had played football in Italy with Stefano for several years before he moved to Holland to start his PhD in Phisics at the university of Leiden; here is where Stefano met Pelin who lived in the Netherlands for two years while studying for her Master Degree in History and Migration. When Stefano realized that both his friends where working and living in the same place it occured to him to put them in touch. While at the beginning they didn't have the opportunity to meet, during the following years they had the chance to getting to know each other better and better, while sharing a house in Puerto Natales, hiking together in lesser known part of Torres del Paine like the Silence or Bader Valley and spending their holidays travelling, trekking and diving abroad in the Indian Himalayas, the Peruvian Andes, Colombia, Mexico, South Africa and Botswana.
Within the years Pelin and Marco attained indipendence from the hotels thus becoming freelance guides. Trekking tours started to become longer and more engaging; sometimes Pelin was leading up to three Torres del Paine W Trek a month during the busy season, while Marco turned out to become more expert in Torres del Paine O Circuit. Little by little the word started to spread among friends and Middle Earth Patagonia became the natural prosecution of their path to lead people to the discovery of Torres del Paine and the Chilean Patagonia with tailor made proposal for Torres del Paine hiking, photography, horse riding and kayaking.
Eventually in September 2019 they decided to get married, turning Puerto Natales into the place they called Home nowadays. Here they've been living in the last seven years, sharing their passion for travelling and the outdoors with their fury "children" who were named after two of Lord of the Rings main characters: Aragorn and Galdalf!
Visit our Excursions Page and choose the program that suits to you