Word: explora
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Such attention to detail is just what German del Sol had in mind when he designed the 30-room Explora hotel five years ago. "We wanted to create a place for tourists to spend a week without worrying about survival or unnecessary sacrifices," he says of his $7 million retreat in the windswept Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, a six-hour drive from Punta Arenas, Chile's southernmost city. "We aim to soften the roughness of nature...
...exuberant chief executive officer and president of the rapidly growing Explora hotel chain. He founded the venture in 1989 to bring five-star accommodations to Chile's most isolated regions, ranging from rugged Patagonia to the arid Atacama desert in the north. His chain is geared to environment-conscious baby boomers who have limited time but substantial savings and boundless yearnings to revel in wilderness with all the comforts of home. "We belong to a culture of cities," he told me. "We do not want Explora guests to face the wilds unprotected...
...Explora prices are not cheap. At the hotel in Torres del Paine, a double room for four nights can cost up to $1,624, though that includes meals and a choice of five daily guided outings--by car, foot, mountain bike, boat or horse. The park is a 600,000-acre, UNESCO-declared biosphere where flamingos, black swans, llamas and condors thrive amid emerald lakes, glaciers, fjords and floating icebergs. At day's end guests can relax at the health spa with a Thai massage or a dip in the outdoor Jacuzzi. At mealtime they gaze out at the Salto...
...insistence, the Explora blends in with its surroundings. Hotel waste is treated with a complex system of filters, ultraviolet light and two kinds of beneficial bacteria so the sewage is crystalline before it enters Lake Pehoe. The staff burns dead wood purchased outside the park, places generators in soundproof sheds to prevent noise pollution, and uses some solar power...