Day 11- Thursday, November 29, 2023 - Touring Tores del Paine national park

By Ellen Outten

 

Today was one of those special days when you get to see nature at its finest and are astounded by what you see. 

We have been so lucky to have seen some of these sights today. The waterfalls are often so windy, the park rangers don't allow anyone to hike out to them.










We started at 9 am from our hotel and we're on an off the bus frequently.












The famous mountains here in the Andes are the Horns of Pinea and the Three Towers. It's not often that you get a clear day to be able to see one, much less both of them.














As for animals that live in the park, Guanaco, a part of the llama and alpaca family are present in many areas if you're lucky to find them. We were able to see groups of them many alongside the road. While they are used to seeing humans, they run at the slightest human noise.






The hike to the waterfall wasn't long but it sure was windy. What's new! It was worth the walk. 

Our stop for lunch, at the rapids was a pretty spot. We ate our box lunches standing up outside the bus looking out over the rapids with the Three Towers in the background. It would have been hard to find a more beautiful place for lunch.









Christian,our tour guide, was absolutely amazing, keeping us together, finding us rest stops in such a wild and desolate national park.  

Tonight we have another surprise. We are being treated to a Patagonian outdoor barbeque at the hotel, finger food, we're told.

The lamb was cooked over an open fire for 5 hours.  I have never tasted anything this wonderful in my life.  It was amazing to taste.  






For dinner tonight, I chose Conger. They call it an eel, but frankly it's just a firm white fish that swims through the water similar to an eel.  After the lamb, there was no way I could eat dinner.  I passed entirely on the main course andy dessert of fresh fruit was perfect but I didn't eat all of it.   

Tomorrow we leave the national park and head back through Puerto Natal as where we'll have lunch before we continue our drive to Punta Arenas.

So it's a day in the road and then Saturday we fly to Santiago Chile for the last few days of our trip.

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