June 13th – We woke up early to start on our tour of Torres del Paine. We had hired a bus and tour guide to take us around the park, and we shared the bus with two other people who were staying at the same hostel as us. We started off by going to the Mylodon Cave National Monument. This was a large cave where early European explorers had found the bones and skins of several mylodons (aka giant ground sloths). Apparently they had been hibernating in the cave, and after conveniently dying in this location, their remains lasted another several thousand years for us to discover. We kept traveling into the park, and we had amazing views of the granite features of the park all day. The park’s namesake, Torres del Paine, are huge granite towers that have lasted the erosion of a couple million years, and jut up into the sky from the surrounding landscape. There are also other granite formations, and this is the southernmost part of the great southern ice field. We got to see a glacier, an avalanche from comfortably far away, and icebergs in a glacial lake that had calved from the glacier. The day was mostly spent driving in the van, stopping for a scenic overlook, taking pictures, and driving to the next place. We also got to see some wildlife including Guanacos, Darwin’s Rheas, Upland Geese, and a solitary Humboldt’s Hog-nosed Skunk scampering away across the road. The vistas were incredible, and it was well worth the trip down south to see the landscape. We were very tired from the day, and went to bed soon after we got back to the hostel.
A flock of Upland Geese, the males are white, the females brown.
Darwin's Rhea, basically a dinosaur
Andean Fox
Black-chested Buzzard Eagles, one juvenile and one adult
The cave where the Mylodon was found.
Gray Lake and some icebergs calved from the glacier that feeds the lake.
The avalanche we saw.
The structure on the right is known as the "Cuernos del Paine" and it is produced by two layers of rock, one granite and white, and the other igneous and black, that have both been eroded into towers.
The famous Torres del Paine on the right and surrounding mountains.
Wild guanacos. The species from which llamas and alpacas are domesticated.
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