Last week we took Ludwig into the jagged mountains of the Atacama desert, now we are in freezing Patagonia! More precisely, in Puerto Natales, the gateway to Torres del Paine. Fortunately, being out and about with a pensioner saved Florian and me from hiking the strenuous "W-trek". No mud and mosquitoes this time! Thank you Ludwig :-) Instead we sat on an organized bus tour, that conveniently brought us from one attraction to the next. First stop was the cave of an extinct giant sloth, the "Milodon".
Inside the park we got many glimpses of the famous peaks (Torres), but unfortunately, never the full panorama. Whenever the wind managed to clear up one section, there were new clouds emerging from somewhere else. But on the other hand, we did see countless guanacos, flamingos, and even a condor! The last official bus stop was at the lagoon of Grey Glacier. The moraine was like a beach. And as we walked on, we saw big blue chunks of ice floating towards us! The black scrubs in the first photo are witnesses of December 2011. Apparently hikers on the "W-trek" tried to burn toilet paper (because park rules say you mustn't bury it), when flying sparks started a firestorm, that swept all across the park. The embers are still smoldering at some places...
The next day was the scheduled start of our cruise to Cape Horn. But the port city of Punta Arenas was hit by disaster too! Only here the cause was not fire, but water. Locals told us, that it had been raining for 4 consecutive days, thus tree trunks and other material blocked the bridges, which in turn led to flooding in Punta Arenas' city center. Luckily, this mess didn't affect us. The cruise boats were all running and waiting for us!
