Cerro Negro Ranch — The Perfect Complement to Torres del Paine

Located midway between Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine National Park, Estancia Cerro Negro is a perfect place to enjoy a traditional lamb barbecue and savor the lifestyle of an authentic Patagonian ranch during your sojourn with Hotel las Torres.

Cerro Negro (Black Mountain) has been in the Kusanovic family since 1944, when Antonio Kusanovic Jersic purchased the property after emigrating from Croatia in 1906 and developing interest in breeding his own livestock.

Very much a working ranch, Cerro Negro sprawls across 14,800 acres of pampas grazed by the ranch’s 2,000 to 4,000 sheep (depending on the season) and 300 cattle. The sheep — looked after by shepherds and their trusty dogs — are usually sheared once a year and each animal produces approximately 9.9 pounds of wool. A skilled sheep-shearer can shear between 200 and 250 sheep a day.

All-inclusive guests arriving in Patagonia via Punta Arenas are treated with a Cerro Negro visit on the drive from the airport to Hotel Las Torres. A stop that includes lunch or an afternoon snack and an authentic sheepdog and sheep-shearing demonstration.

Visitors also get a chance to look around the old ranch house. Maintained as a museum, it contains furnishings and mementoes from when the estancia was founded in the 1940s.