One the the major reasons we stopped in Puerto Natales was to visit Torres del Paine National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and the eighth wonder of the world (as declared in 2013). It’s a huge park of about 700 sq. Miles, so we could only scratch the surface of a place where you could spend weeks. It was about a 70 mile (but 2 hours by car) drive to the park from Puerto Natales, partly because of the quality of the roads but also because of the number of stops we made along the way. There was so much wildlife to see including guanacos (related to llamas and alpacas), foxes (including a small ”false” fox called a chilla, rheas (smaller cousins of ostriches), and birds including the condors and cara caras. In one incident, we saw a chilla feeding on a dead sheep with a family of condors and cara caras waiting for their turn. The park itself is an amazing mix of mountains, glaciers, lakes of many colors, and grasslands. The three major things we were there to see were the Torres del Paine (towers of blue, taken from the local native language), the Cuernos del Paine (horns of blue) and the Salto Grande (Big Jump) Waterfall on the shores of Lake Pehoe. While stopping in a number of spots from the bus, we got a nice 2-hour hike in to the Cuernos del Paine lookout. There we saw a part of the glacier calve with a resounding boom. It turns out that we were incredibly lucky with the weather. At this time of year, it’s often very cloudy and rainy. This is definitely a place to return to!
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
