Today we spent the day in Torres (Towers) Del Paine National Park. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, founded in 1959, 450,000 acres. It consists of the Eastern part of the Andes and the Patagonian steppes, mostly granite, and quite a lot of glacial lakes. We first stopped at Cueva (cave) de Milodon, where archeological remains of people and a previously unknown large animal (milodon) where found.
We drove through the park on a gravel road and stopped at scenic lookouts. At one stop we all went for a walk (about 1.5 hours) before a late lunch. Some parts of the park had been devastated by fire several years ago. The weather was sunny with lots of dramatic clouds, due to its location with the coast and the mountains to our west, it was quite blustery. After lunch we were due for another walk but it was too windy and our guide decided to call it off as we were to go over a suspension pedestrian bridge and she didn’t think it would be safe as the wind had gotten quite intense. We checked into our hotel, which was located just outside the park. Quite ritzy and we were upgraded so we got free drinks until we left - beers, wine with dinner, free mini-bar - nobody complained 🙂. The views from the hotel, of the park were amazing. After dinner three young climbers put on a slide show and discussion about their trek up one of the three towers in the park.
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