One of the biggest attractions in southern Chile is Torres del Paine National Park. Most visitors to the park complete multi-day treks such as “the W” and “the circuit” but, being short on time and perhaps toughness, we opted for a simple day tour ($40 per person) of the park’s highlights. After a hearty breakfast at the Yaganhouse hostel in Puerto Natales a bus picked us up at the dark hour of 7:30am. We were the first ones to board and, consequently, were able to snag the two front seats.
On the drive north to the park, we made a very short stop at Milodón Cave. The milodón is an extinct giant ground sloth and apparently the remains of quite a few of them were found in this cave. We believe it is Puerto Natales’ claim to fame as its silhouette is depicted on all the town’s street signs. Oh, and there is also a giant metal statue along the road into town. The cave was nice enough (it is impressively large) but perhaps not worth the 6 USD entry fee since we were only there for 30 minutes.
Before we reached the park we started to see large herds of guanaco, a few ñandu and we managed to catch our first glimpses of the spectacular mountains. Before reaching the guardhouse we stopped at Laguna Amarga (Bitter Lagoon) a stunning turquoise-colored lake tinted by the heavy mineral content. Unlike most of the other lakes in the park, this one is “closed” meaning it has no outflows of water. The continuous evaporation makes the water six times saltier than sea water and the banks are crusted with white salt.
We paid our entrance fee (30 USD for non-residents) and drove onward to Lago Nordenskjold. Before unloading at the mirador, our guide warned us numerous times about the strong winds. Sure enough, we jumped off the bus and before I knew it Amy was chasing her glasses which had been ripped from her face. The winds that day were in excess of 100kph and we heard later that some climbers had been blown off one of the peaks.
A couple of stops later we checked out the very scenic location for Hosteria Pehoé in the middle of Lago Pehoé. We took a lunch break at a small tourist village outside the park. Some of the people on the tour had their meals included, however, we budget-sensitive travelers had packed our own food. They still let us eat in the restaurant and enjoy the spectacular views.
Our final scheduled stop was at Lago Grey on the western end of the park. Lago Grey has a wide stony beach and, on a clear day, a view of the Gray Glacier some 10+ km away. Unfortunately, the high winds that day were kicking up so much mist from the water that we could scarcely make out the glacier. We were able to spot some electric blue icebergs. One upside to the mist was that it produced a very nice rainbow over the beach.
On the way home, as a final treat, we managed to spot an Andean Condor. These birds have the largest wingspan of any land bird at 10.5 ft. They aren’t all that rare, however, it is pretty uncommon to see one up close and I was very happy that we had those front bus seats so that I could hop out and snap a photo.
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