I'm not sure how visible the guanaco will be to most people viewing this picture (it's the small creature on the lower left side of the ridge). But let me tell you something—the guanacos in Torres del Paine hold a Ph.D. in scenic poses. They will stand on hills in dramatic fashion, seemingly calling out for a picture to be taken. Or worse, they'll stand right by the road, in whole herds.
So, what's the problem you ask? Chances are you will in the same situation as I was...stuck on a bus with dirty windows, simply flying by all those fantastic photo ops. And due to the different climates in the park, guanacos are much more numerous in this eastern section of the park. Of course, the scenery even without the guanacos was astounding. But the buses don't stop in this section of the park. In fact, there aren't even any hiking trails between Laguna Amarga (bus stop #1) and Refugio Pudeto (bus stop #2). My park map shows a horse trail away from the road but that's about it. (Yes, you could hike along the very long road, but constantly making way for passing cars and their subsequent dust trails would make for a miserable experience.)
After a torturous number of trips on this bus (long story short: my time in TDP was broken up by a few excursions outside the park, so I ended up using transportation in and out of the park more than the typical visitor) I was desperate to get shots from the roadside in this section of the park.
While staying at Refugio Las Torres I walked over to Hosteria Las Torres (the nicer hotel) and checked out the tours they offered. A day-long van tour of the park with a bilingual guide runs about $80 US. More importantly they will still run the tour even if only one passenger signs up. So I waited till the night before my last day in the park and checked in at the front desk of the hosteria, inquiring about the van tour for the next day. Thankfully no one was signed up. I laid down the credit card and booked myself a "private" tour for the next day. I had a van to myself with a driver and a knowledgable, friendly bilingual guide, from 6:45am to 6:00pm. (If anyone ends up doing a tour out of Hosteria Las Torres please send Kris my regards. She was an excellent guide.)
It had been raining all night and I figured Murphy's Law was in full effect—booking private transportation had ensured no usuable photo conditions. But by the time we hit some side roads looking for guanaco herds we had beautiful golden light and clearing clouds. This was the first posing guanaco of the day.
