Chilean Patagonia

Saturday–Thursday November 8–13, 2003

We landed at Punta Arenas (53° South) mid–day and immediately departed in a van for the five hour journey north to Torres del Paine National Park. Along the way we saw many native animals by the side of the road—camelids (guanacos), an armadillo and large flightless birds (ñandus). Large, flightless birds are interesting.

When we arrived at the park it was cold, and so windy it was difficult to walk. Then things changed. The photograph above was taken the next morning by a fellow tourist, Dr Ray Milton-Barker of the United Kingdom. His camera and method are evidently better than our own. 

People in the park said it was a rare and glorious day. We had two more of them, right after this one. Extraordinary. 

These granite peaks are not far away and are over 10,000 feet above the level of the lake in the photograph.

Add a small breeze to create ripples to the lakes, add one hundred feet of elevation and wait for the sun to move and the result is a different photo. 

At a different lake we saw fresh water icebergs. In the distance is a glacier that is about eighty miles long. 

A pair of guanacos. It is not the best photograph ever taken, but now the viewer knows what a camelid looks like. A llama is another camelid, as is an alpaca and a vicuña. Torres del Paine has a lot of guanacos. Good thing they are not vicious beasts. 

On a sunny day the park is very pleasant. The temperature here was probably in the mid 50s.

One last photograph of the park with the Torres showing. We took this walk after having a BBQ lunch provided at a ranch were there were working gauchos.

We started at Punta Arenas and worked our way north. Torres del Paine is the marker in the upper left. It was about a five hour drive to the lodge from Punta Arenas.

We landed at Punta Arenas and drove north to spend four days in Torres del Paine National Park. Then we returned to Punta Arenas to see penguins that live in homes dug out of turf. Better photographs of the penguins found at Seno Otway are at this web page.

Next—one long plane trip, four hours north to Santiago, another three hours to Lima, then eight more to Los Angeles and then one last hour north to get home; 6,400 nautical miles/11,900 kilometers.