Municipalidad de Torres del Paine

The Torres del Paine commune is located in the Ultima Esperanza Province, northeast of the City of Puerto Natales.

It has an area of 6,630 km2 and includes the Torres del Paine National Park.
Its population is around 800 people.

Villa Cerro Castillo is the capital of the Torres del Paine commune, with a police station, a Public School, a Border Complex, a first aid post, an airfield, a tourist service center and a museum.

It has a favorably strategic geographic location in that it is constituted as a route to and from the interior of Argentina, and represents the concentration of all basic services at the communal level. It also has two cafeterias, a hostel and a hostel. It has two multipurpose rooms, a new gym, Public Library and Telecentre with Internet service for use by the Community and the Public in general.

Featured activities in the commune:

• Shearing tasks: carried out in the month of December, approximately 1500 animals are sheared daily, of the “corriedale” breed.
• Fiesta a la Chilena: It takes place during two days of the month of January and consists of taming foals and steers, horse races, sheepdog training competition and as a closing it takes place a popular dance party.
• Chilean Rodeo: It takes place during two days of the month of February.
• Bovine cattle brand: (January or February) and designated sheep brand (November).

Tourist attractions of the commune:

• Cerro Castillo Colonizers Cemetery: Place where the remains of the first colonizers were buried at the beginning of the century. Declared a National Monument. It is located three km from Villa Cerro Castillo, Estancia el Solitario.
• Visit to the Grotto: Image of Santa Teresita de los Andes, Estancia Anahi del Valle.
• Visit to the Escondida Lagoon: Small and beautiful lagoon between the trees, difficult to access, you can only get there on horseback, Estancia Anahi del Valle.
• Mirador de los Cóndores: Geological fault that serves as a nest for the condors, which can be seen from a plain of the ravine at a distance of approximately 20 meters, Estancia Anahi del Valle.
• Villa Cerro Castillo Shearing Shed: Construction dating from 1906 and that to this day performs the same shearing functions as in the times of the old “Cerro Castillo Section”.

It should be noted that to visit the aforementioned places, it is necessary to contact the ranchers on whose land the attractions are located.