WINE, DYNAMITE AND PENGUIN TOUR: 03/07/17

27th February 2017 – Patagonian Paradise

Tomas, our ranger, arrived to collect us early for our sunrise photography session and off we set across bumpy tracks and a riverbed in our indestructible Land-Cruiser and 45 minutes later we were on a beach on the edge of the Bitter Lake with the most stunning views of the Massif Central and the Three Horns.

Patagonia is a geographical region half owned by Argentina and half by Chile although Chile has the interesting bit including the Lake District which we do not have time to visit and the the Torres Del Paine region which is probably the most famous and stunning.

Breakfast is a little different

Steve got all set up and was snapping away happily. When we turned round, Tomas had set up a picnic table and had made fresh coffee & scrambled eggs so we ended up having breakfast outside with this fantastic view ! What a start to the day….

The sand her is black volcanic dust and the whole region has very mixed geology due to a huge lava tube pushing its way though the original sedimentary rock and then being folded by earthquake activity,

On next to another angle view of the massif with a powerful waterfall and then on to the Lago Azur, blue lake, where again we had the whole place to ourselves. We needed a walk after breakfast so we walked the full way round the lake with the Massif Central always as backdrop.

Wildlife abounded, there was a herd of Guanaco’s (like small llama’s) with babies, Caracara birds, lapwings, Ibis, small ostriches all around the lake.
Guanaco (pronounced "wan-a-ko" was a difficult name for Steve to remember until he was told the story of an Australian who advised that they have them in Australia too.
These males fight by biting each others' testicles so in Australia, they are called "One Knackers" and Steve was now able to remember the name of them with easy.

We were really lucky again with the weather. It rains most days and the Torres del Paine is renowned for the strong winds that sweep across all the time. Today there was no wind, we had lakes like glass and no rain. Once again, the weather gods had been good to us.
The huge (hourly) climatic variation here are caused by the prevailing air off the Pacific coming into contact with the Andes and in a panorama, you can easily see all of the seasons in one view.

Everybody is friendly here probably surprisingly to us and everybody wanted to help including a Gaucho that passed by as we were the only people on the lake.

Back to the hotel for a quick bite and then out again in the afternoon to the Bagualas range of mountains for a run through Condor valley.

Condors flying high over a target

The Condors nest high up in this austere forbidding range and soon we had up to 10 Condors flying overhead. They are huge birds with a 3m wingspan and they fly high unless hunting.

Thanks to Steve’s new telescopic lens (thanks birthday contributors !) we managed to capture some images of these majestic predators.

We set out back to the hotel for dinner passing through a valley with large boulders & mountainous backdrop when Tomas our eagle eyed ranger spotted movement up on the hill……..it was a Puma !!

We watched him pass through the area, saw him pounce on a kill (we think a hare) and hone in on the Guanacos who set up alarm calls once they spotted him. Eventually he headed further up into the brush and we lost him, but how lucky had we been. Our ranger said the last time he had seen Puma in this area had been 4 months ago and he had never watched one hunt a kill. Just fantastic !!

Finally, as we were looking for a mobile signal to ring Janettes' sister to wish happy birthday to, we happened across a sheep sheering station used only for a couple of weeks a year so we had a nose around as it was unlocked.