Dec 5 - Up and breakfast. At 9 we met our guide for the Hunter's Trail hike. Our guide today was Sebastiano (Seba). We were the only ones going on this particular hike. It was a walk along the Patagonian steppe land, up a little hill to a cave where there were cave drawings. Below are some of our photos.
We came across a sad scene. A mother guanaco had leaped the fence (it separated the privately owned ranch from the national park). Adults can easily leap the fences. The baby, not so much. He got caught on a wire.
One of the entrances to Torres del Paine park. Several busloads of people had just arrived. The passengers were queued up to get their entrance tickets. Somehow, Seba managed to convince the guards here that we'd pay for the tickets on the way out.
This unassuming spot is a guanaco toilet. The alpha male poops here and so does all the members (his harem). Quite tidy.
A caracal checking out the surroundings
A guanaco also checking out the vista. He was clearly a male looking at his territory.
This time of year is the season that the guanacos give birth, and immediately mate for the 11 months gestation for next year. Males fight, in a way, for territory. One challenging male runs at another. Sometimes they actually crash, sometimes the challenger lowers his head and runs past. Probably if we could translate their yells, "Just kidding"
We came across a sad scene. A mother guanaco had leaped the fence (it separated the privately owned ranch from the national park). Adults can easily leap the fences. The baby, not so much. He got caught on a wire.
The adult guanacos were really not able to do much
The mother wouldn't leave her baby, but couldn't help him either.
Seba stepped in to save the baby. He's got himself covered as best he could. The mother's thanks was to spit at him. He freed the baby, but once that was done, it just laid on the ground. We were hoping it eventually got up.
Seba. in the first photo below, on his way up to the cave with the cave paintings
View from the cave
Us at the mouth of the cave
Two guanacos mating. They apparently mate for 40 to 45 minutes. We couldn't descern any movement at all. It seemed about as erotic as sitting on the couch
A guanaco dust pit. They use the same one over and over. They roll around to rid themselves of parasites
Can't remember the bird's name.
Mama fox outside her den. She had two kits, but they wouldn't come out of the den for a photo. We could barely see them
A little lake-let in the steppe.
We went back to the hotel and had a lovely lunch. We tried Pomay, a Chilean stew that had chicken, beef, fish, shrimp. The soup itself was a bit salty, but the ingredients were delicious.
At 3:30 we went out for our tour of Mirador Cuernas. We did not really know what to expect, but this tour was lovely. Our guide was Patrick. This turned out to be one of the most beautiful walks I have ever taken. It was about 4 km long, and every turn was more beautiful than the next. The only drawback was that the winds were whistling through this area at about 60 mph. I've never been in such strong winds. It reminded us of the reporters at the edge of hurricanes trying to say how strong the winds are. Bad - very bad.
We spotted the baby rheas with their dad by the side of the road. The usual mob was a dad and two kids. This guy had 16 babies with him!
Upland geese. White male and dark female.
A horrible fire swept through the park in 2011. Wind was whistling and blew from forested area to forested area, devastating the lengas and a close relative, leaving the charred remains of lenga trees behind. There's a hope that the trees will regrow from the remains.
Us with the mountains behind. Those peaks are Los Torres del Paine. (The towers of blue - blue in the local indian language)
Charlie
Me
This walk can only be described as drop-dead-gorgeous!
Patagonian lady slippers
River Paine and a waterfall.
A skunk by the side of the road on the way home.
No comments:
Post a Comment