Centro de Visitantes y Administración

Centro de Visitantes y Administración is the park’s environmental information center at Villa Monzino in the Lago Toro sector, beside the administrative headquarters. It’s a good first stop if you want the park to make more sense before you get farther from the main road: staff can help you orient yourself, and the center connects the scenery outside with the park’s natural and cultural story.

The collections cover the park’s biodiversity along with archaeology and paleontology. That gives you a different way into the landscape than another viewpoint: here the focus is what lives in this region and the human story behind it. Guided visits and workshops are listed among the center’s educational services; ask what’s available during your visit.

The current administration and visitor center opened in 1985, after a fire in 1982 destroyed the old Río Paine estancia house that had served as the park’s first administration. The park itself began in 1959 as Parque Nacional de Turismo Lago Grey, a 4,332-hectare reserve between Grey and Nordenskjöld lakes. It later expanded to 227,298 hectares and took the name Torres del Paine.