Today was set for a visit to one of South Americas magical sites, Torres del Paine: “The Blue Towers.” With an early wake-up call the first buses with our long hikers departed from Puerto Natales at 6:30 a.m. The bus ride over the Patagonian steppe took us up to the national park but first we traveled through the steppe landscape, which has mainly been used since the late 19th century for grazing cattle and sheep, operated by huge estancias.
It was here that the remains of the large Milodon was found in 1895, at Cueva los Milodon. As a reward was set, lots of people went out to search for this mystical creature, a giant sloth. In 1899 a Swedish explorer, Erland Nordenskiöld, visited the area and was able to finalize the hunt; the animal had not been seen on the Patagonian steppes for 10,000 years. Like many mammals living in South America, these small horse-related mammals disappeared at about this time, and maybe there is a correlation with humans arriving in the area? The end of the South American Mega Fauna!
Before arriving at the border outpost Serra Castillo (between Chile and Argentina), the road passes an area with minefields on either side. This goes back to 1978, when Argentina made claims on four islands in the Beagle Channel under Chilean jurisdiction. The conflict almost made it to a full war but luckily the Vatican was able to mediate the harsh feelings.
Torres del Paine National Park was created from a large estancia, owned by a keen Italian mountain climber, Count Guido Monzino, who wanted to return to his homeland and offered the land to the Chilean state under the condition it was established as a national park. Nowadays it is for sure one of the most remarkable sites on land anywhere in the world. Not only is the scenery outstanding, with the high peaks, azure blue lakes with melt water from the huge Patagonian ice cap, but it’s also rich with wildlife. As we approached the park in the early morning, hundreds of guanacos and a few lesser rheas were seen along the road, condors were sitting on hills waiting for the Patagonian wind to pick up and as soon it arrived we saw them soaring. The park holds many species of birds, mammals and plants unique to southern South America. It is not often that a skunk creates passion but as a Humboldt’s hog-nosed skunk made its way toward us, people got excited. The puma is of course the ultimate predator here in the area but unfortunately, like most big cats, hard to find. We searched hard but were not lucky.
Place names and names of animals are always interesting and very often connected with early explorers to the area. Humboldt was a German scientist and cartographer who sailed along western South America in the 19th century. The cold water current sweeping north along the coast of Chile, Peru and southern Ecuador is named after him. Two lakes at Torres del Paine, Lago Nordenskjöld and Lago Dickson are named after two prominent Swedes! Otto Nordenskjöld, a geologist, was the second scientist to investigate Tierra Del Fuego in 1895-97, after Darwin on his Beagle expedition described the area. Oscar Dickson was a very wealthy Swedish investor with a great interest in mining, who sponsored several Arctic expeditions between 1850 - 1900. He also sponsored Otto Nordenskjöld’s expedition to southern South America and in 1898 his expedition to Klondike. Nordenskjöld is better known to Lindblad travelers who sail to the Antarctic Peninsula, where in 1901-04 his Swedish Antarctic expedition established a base at Snow Hill.
The long hikers made a five-mile hike and the others, in three buses, made it slowly through the park, east to west, with plenty of stops to take in the magnificent beauty of Torres del Paine. The scenery was always magical and we made a shorter hike to one of many waterfalls to be found here in the park, Salto Grando. For lunch we all gathered at Rio Serrano Lodge for a huge asado, with plenty of very nice Chilean wines. In late afternoon it was time to embark the buses for the drive back to Puerto Natales.
