Steven and I had spent the last five nights in Torres Del Paine National Park, in the Chilean section of Patagonia, one of the most beautiful places we've ever been lucky enough to visit. We live in Colorado, surely one of the most attractive states in the US with its majestic mountains that draw visitors from all over the world. However, the equally gorgeous mountains in Torres Del Paine are surpassed in my opinion by many Caribbean blue-green lakes that make the park an utter joy to tour.
It was with more than a touch of sadness that our time in the park had come to an end and we were about to embark on the next phase of our six-week trip to South America. It had begun with a magical ten-day cruise through part of Antarctica, then a four-day cruise through part of Patagonia from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas where we'd rented a car to explore the park. As we headed back to the airport near Punta Arenas about four hours south, we stopped briefly at Mirador Lago Grey for a last few pictures of the park. The winds were so ferocious here that I could only just stand up! The winds weren't at all an anomaly as we'd experienced more fierce winds in the park than anywhere else in the world.
You can almost feel the hellacious winds if you look at the trees on the right!
Photos from the drive south to Puerto Natales, the town nearest the park, which was about 2.5 hours away. That was the closest gas station to the park BTW!
This was the traffic circle in Puerto Natales with what we thought was a statue of a bear when we'd seen it when driving north toward Torres Del Paine almost a week earlier. But the statue was actually of a mylodon, an extinct animal whose remains had been found near the park as we knew from touring the intriguing Mylodon Cave Natural Monument.
As we continued driving south, we came across a scene that reminded us of the American Wild West where some cattle had escaped from a herd and run across the almost totally deserted highway in front of us only to be corralled by the gauchos or cowboys! That certainly reminded Steven to drive with lots of caution as you never knew when we might have to stop suddenly.
In the middle of nowhere was the impressive Cristo da Camino or Christ of the Road.
The pampas were vast plains that extended westward from central Argentina to Chile. There were no communities in the pampas we saw on the single highway, only large estancias or ranches. I was surprised at how few cattle we saw since this was prime cattle country.
Beyond the pampas, we saw miles upon miles of pygmy forests.
I wrote down that we saw more black swans as we approached Punta Arenas but I sure can't see them in this photo. Guess you'll just have to take my word for it, huh! Something I definitely wish we had stopped for while driving toward Punta Arenas was what looked like a wind turbine and was a monument to the wind. What a neat photo it would have been to remind us of the windiest place we'd ever encountered.
We got a flight later that afternoon on to Santiago, the capital of Chile, we'd first explored our earlier trip to South America two years ago. It was an exciting city and one we'd looked so forward to seeing more of until recent civil unrest had sadly changed the once charming city.
Next post: Seeing turbulent Santiago.
Posted before dawn makes it glorious arrival on January 24th, 2020, on what is forecast to be another bone-dry day in Denver. Lezlie: Thank you for being such a faithful early morning reader. I wanted to be sure you had this in your inbox before I see you shortly at water aerobics!
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