Punta Arenas - Torres del Paine National Park

Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas 3rd March

Up early off to the airport via taxi all went like clockwork. Air tickets brought on skyscanner have heard some nightmare stories about that so when we arrived at the airport and flight wasn’t on the board a small panic. The emailed documentation also said only electronic boarding passes but the links didn’t work so bit more of a panic. No need to worry the nice man at the counter printed us out some and the flight went well - all on time. Arrived at Punta Arenas and Uber to BnB.  Great little apartment nice and warm. Quite cold and windy about 6 degrees – weather app on phone said with the wind feels like 0 degrees and we agreed. Went into city and had a quick look around quite tidy. Walk along the water front. Booked some tickets for a trip to the Torres del Paine National Park on Sunday.

Rest Day Punta Arenas 4th March

Had a rest day in our warm apartment, didn’t really want to go out and about just did admin, washing and sorted the blog. Nice to have a day off and relax.

Torres del Paine National Park 5th March

Up at 4.30am for the pick up by tour van at 5am from our apartment. The commentary was in Spanish with a few words for us but the guide wasn’t that fluent in English so just picked up bits and pieces. There were 10 people  on the tour in quite a good mini bus,  the driver (no English but very nice) and guide. I think the guide had quite a big night the night before because she had to keep having wee lay downs in the front between stops. 

Driving through the park though the weather not the best - rugged landscapes to see even though low cloud and rain.

The farmland on the way up to the park was like upper Wairau and Molesworth, low beach forest and tussock / tundra. Some more developed land here and there but most of it looked like low intensity grazing. On the way home the sun was out and it looked quite stunning. Got too the park and saw a few animals some Guanaco (looks like a Llama) and Rhea (looks like an Emu) even some flamingos much to Maree’s amazement, as she had previously commented about the unlikelihood of flamingos this far south. The lake where we saw the flamingos had a crust of what we think was a calcium deposit around the edge of a very jade green coloured lake water. We also saw evidence of the fires that have caused a lot of damage in the park.

Unfortunately we didn’t see the full grandeur of Glacier Grey and the mountains which are the highlight of the tour, we stopped at the Mylodon Cave Natural Monument where there were remains of megafauna that were now extinct including a giant sloth and a sabre tooth tiger. All very interesting and some signs in English. Highlight was the drive home with sun coming out and the rolling farmland going on forever. 

Links to Torres del Paine National Park and Wiki info also info on  Mylodon Cave Natural Monument

A few shots from Punta Arenas quite a nautical influence

The flight south to Punta Arenas

Cascade Paine day out in the park.

My best photo of a Rhea. We saw plenty but driver didn't stop for photos

Some of the Guanaco once again we saw plenty not many photo ops

One of Maree's flamingos 

What we saw at Glacier Grey

What we could have seen if the weather had been better

One of the caves at the Mylodon Cave Natural Monument

Life size models of the extinct megafauna

And the sun came out on the way home.