Patagonia (Chile)

Patagonia is the mountainous region toward the bottom of South America, centred on the Andes. It is not the very bottom tip - that is Tierra del Fuego - but it is relatively close. We flew down from Santiago to Puerto Natales (3.2hrs) to visit the Chilean side. It was spectacular. We visited the Torres del Paine National Park as well as the archipelago adjacent to the town, where we cruised to a few huge glaciers. Here are some pics...

On the flight down there some views of glaciers and Andes from the plane...

Torres del Paine National Park has many jagged peaks and a glaciers. We just did a day trip to see the views, but many people do the 'W' walk (4-5 days) or the 'O' walk (7-9 days) around the main massif. These are various views from the day....

On the way around we saw these Lesser Rhea, which are like a small Ostrich....

The icebergs on Lake Grey were great and the scale awesome. Check out the size of the people in the pictures for reference...

A female Magellanic Woodpecker on the way to Grey Lake...

The last stop was a cave where they found remains of a large sloth-like critter (4m tall), roaming around at the same time as the sabre toothed tiger...

This is the foreshore of Puerto Natales outside our hotel at sunrise...

These Black-Necked Swans were common in the waterways opposite town - I like the style of the young ones on Mum's back...

We had a day cruise through the waterways between the town and the Magellan Strait to see two glaciers. Incredible landscapes. On the way we saw waterfalls, a Cormorant colony and Sea Lions...

Cormorant colony....

Love the quiffs and blue eyes on these Imperial Cormorants...

This Chimango Caracara was causing all sorts of drama amongst the Cormorants....

Nearby were these Black-Faced Ibis...

The first glacier was called the Balmaceda Glacier...

We walked to visit the second glacier (Serrano Glacier) and got quite close...