We headed north from Punta Arenas to the Torres del Paine national park (www.parquetorresdelpaine.cl) droving across the vast Patagonian Steppe.

It is the 8th largest desert in the world, occupying 673,000 square kilometres. We saw some varied wildlife along the way:

Chilean Flamingos

Black-necked swans

Darwin’s Rhea (aka Lesser Rhea) and lost of sheep (not pictured)

Just outside the park we stopped at the Mylodon Cave Natural Monument. In 1895, one of the first settlers found an animal hide with thick hair. It belonged to a Mylodon, now extinct, which was a relative of the sloth and lived in this area over 10,000 years ago.

 

We checked into the Hotel del Paine (www.hoteldelpaine.com), also just outside the national park.

It had the best view from the hotel window so far on this trip.

It got even better at dawn.

The scenery on our first day in the national park was stunning.

Walking in the park we came very close to several different animals. They are protected in the park and, with no predators, are much more tolerant of people around them. We saw many Guanaco

and some Rheas.

We also saw some ancient cliff paintings.

We also took a boat ride up the Serrano river to see the Serrano Glacier in the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park (named after the first head of state of the Republic of Chile).

We trekked along the side of the valley for a closer look at the glacier.

The glacier is moving continually and breaking off into the river in front of it.

On our second day, we took on the most popular trek in the park is up to Base Las Torres (the lookout to the towers). It is 11km up to the lookout rising 775m (2,540 feet). Start at just over 100m above sea level, the first part of the trek is up steep mountain side.

This brings you to the entrance to the valley known as the wind pass. Luckily there was very little wind when we went through.

You then descend into Ascencio Valley (named after a horse thief)

The next section follows the river through the woodland up the valley floor.

The final 800m is the steepest, ascending one third of the total height climbed.

We finally arrived at the lookout.

The weather was starting to turn so there was just time for a quick lunch before starting our descent.

I never noticed this in the woods on the way up.

It took four and a half hours to ascend and just over 3 hours to descend.

The next day we headed north to Calafate.