Ariadna Nicole Mahncke Cárcamo

Ariadna Nicole Mahncke Cárcamo is in her second season with Beckons and her fifth in the Torres del Paine region, a place that continues to surprise her no matter how familiar it becomes. As Head of Food and Beverage at Tierra Patagonia, she leads the lodge’s culinary experience, drawing on a career spent working both within and beyond Torres del Paine National Park. For Ariadna, hospitality is as much about conversation as service. She loves exchanging stories with guests from around the world, whether they’re talking about the park, Chile, her hometown of Ancud on the Great Island of Chiloé, or places they’ve traveled. Those encounters keep her learning, something she values just as much as the opportunity to share what she has discovered during her own years in Patagonia.

When she isn’t at the lodge, Ariadna prefers to experience Torres del Paine on foot, backpack on and hours ahead of her. She gravitates toward lesser-traveled trails that wind through forests and past glaciers, mountains, waterfalls, and rivers, with Los Cuernos del Paine and the Dickson sector among her favorite places. But she doesn’t believe there is one landmark every traveler needs to check off a list. Instead, she encourages guests to give the landscape their full attention. The Paine Massif shifts with the weather, seasons, and light, and even after five seasons, she still finds something new in it. “I believe it is in these moments of contemplation and connection that the true essence of Torres del Paine reveals itself,” she says. For Ariadna, the best way to understand Patagonia is simply to give it enough time to show you.