Parque Nacional Torres del Paine

My second day in Puerto Natales, I finally got to hang out with Sarah! We had both decided to take a tour of Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, which is one of the most famous sites in Chilean Patagonia. It has a number of famous peaks that are all featured in pictures of Patagonia around the world. The thing to do in the park is to hike the "W", which takes five days and takes you up into the mountains for close-up views of the unusual peaks and rock formations. Unfortuantely, I didn't have the time, experience, or knowledge to hike the W, plus Villarica had shaken my confidence in my physical abilities, so I elected to view the sights from the distance.

I will freely admit, I didn't really understand why everyone thinks Torres del Paine is so spectacular until I saw it in person. Even looking at post cards, I didn't get it. However, up close and in person, they really are incredible. The area just looks so wild and ominous. Some of the peaks look like knives, others are oddly rounded, all our carved and grooved by glacial movement. If you can picture the peaks of hell, they would look like this. However, viewed from a distance, the scenery is subdued by beautiful glacial lakes, green hills and valleys, snow and wildflowers. The entire effect was a dichotomy only nature can produce.

We started our tour in the cave where in 1896 some guy discovered the remains of the milodon, the giant sloth that roamed Patagonia back in cave man times and went extinct 10,000 years ago. It was kind of hokey, but at the same time it was pretty amazing to consider that the remains were so well preserved in this cave that some of the milodon's skin survived! Also, it again made me reflect on how incredible and ancient our world is. One day, some sort of something will be looking back on the remains of humanity and thinking about how amazing, magical and unlikely it was. The eternity of the world is the true miracle of the lives we are living.

Inside the cave, which is pretty big. If I were a milodon, I would live here too I guess. The cave was created by waves of a lake that used to cover this land.
Me hugging the ridiculous statue of the milodon, a life-sized replica.

The scenery surrounding the Cueva de Milodon.

The rest of the tour mostly consisted of driving around the park and looking at the various vistas of Torres del Paine. It may sound boring, but it was actually highly entertaining, and because we were always moving, we got to see the park from many different angles. It lacked the wonder and intimacy of seeing the park from the perspective of a trekker, but this trip has inspired me to return to Washington and start hiking more, maybe even do a few over-night trips, and return to Patagonia to tackle the terrain with proper training and experience. Also, maybe I need some sort of outdoorsy boyfriend to accompany me!

Our first view of Torres del Paine. You can't see the famous Torres (towers) because they are obscured by clouds, but it was still a beautiful sight.

As we drove into the park, we started seeing herds of guanacos, which are the camelids of Patagonia, related to vicuñas and llamas that I have seen in other parts of my travels. I have decided the best time to visit Patagonia is in the spring, because not only are flowers blooming everywhere but every kind of animal you see is running around with its offspring. The baby guanacos were precious, obviously!

Mama and baby guanacos.

The damn clouds continued to foil my photos of the Torres, but you can see two of the famous towers starting to disappear into the clouds.

Another vista of the peaks of Torres del Paine.

Animal sighting of the day! A fox! He was all stretched out sleeping in the rocks.

He was also clearly accustomed to the presence of humans, because once he woke up he followed us around begging for food. I was torn between wanting to cuddle him to my bosom and being afraid that he was going to bite off my fingers.

Torres del Paine is gorgeous.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant Sarah and I decided we couldn't afford, so we ordered diet cokes with glacial ice (how random and exciting!) and ate sandwiches we had brought from Natales.

My windblown self really excited to be drinking diet coke with glacier ice!

After lunch, we took a walk on the shores of Lago Grey, a lake fed by the glacier of the same name. It was filled with ice bergs. It was also cold and windy! Several times the wind changed the direction I was walking by blowing me a different way than I wanted to be moving. I enjoyed this part because we got to be out in nature, walking around, but after awhile, my ears hurt from the wind so I sat on the beach and looked at the rocks. Also, around this time, my camera battery died.

Lago Grey.

Ice bergs glowing blue.

Shortly after our Lago Grey adventure, we started heading back to Puerto Natales. The drive to and from the park is incredibly beautiful in its own way as well. Huge sprays of lupins sprout up along the road in shades of purple, mauve, pink, white and yellow. Lupins always remind me of my mom because she used to have some in her garden. They also remind me of walking through Weyerhaeuser park with my dad and brother. Torres del Paine, Puerto Natales, and really all of Patagonia is surrounded by estancias, essentially sheep farms. Thus, the green pastureland looks incredibly rich and pastoral with sheep (and currently, baby lambs!) grazing among cows and horses.

As such, Sarah and I decided we couldn't leave Patagonia without tasting the ubiquitous grilled lamb, so that night we went to a Parrilla (basically a place that barbeques all sorts of meat) and indulged in an authentically Patagonian meal. With our piles of succulent, juicy lamb we drank some red wine. After dinner, we continued our celebratory spirits with a shared piece of three-chocolate mousse and another bottle of red. It was a tasty and decadent evening after our experiences in the rugged wilderness of Torres del Paine.