Once we got to Patagonia, I started taking pictures as if my life depended on it. This day, for example, I took over a hundred. But relax, folks, they’re not all to be seen here. Still, to make it easier for viewers, I split up this day’s shots into two batches.
This was the day we saw our first guanaco. Later on, we got up
much closer to numbers of these animals, but I think these
are my only pictures of them.
It was fairly cold outside our hotel in Puerto Natales, waiting for the bus to
get loaded up. The left thumbnail (big image;
small) shows Stan, Sandy, Russ, and Janice, just four of
the bunch of us who were standing around stamping our feet. It was low tide
in the harbor, as you can see in the right thumbnail (big image;
small), maybe better for picture-taking, especially
with the clouds and mountains across the way.
Along the way from Puerto Natales to the Torres del Paine National Park, we stopped
at a hotel and restaurant called Hostería Lazo, where they had prepared for
us a huge table full of pastries, for a morning break before lunch. We looked at
all the food that had been set out for us with amazement, thinking that much of it would
surely would go to waste. No chance! We ate it all up. The three pictures above show
views (left: big image, small;
center: big image, small;
right: big image, small).
The right one, in particular, is the view we had as we walked out of the Hostería
into the countryside, towards the Park.
Lakes, mountains, clouds, clear blue skies. That’s what we saw on this day’s
walk. (Left thumbnail: big image, small;
right: big image, small).
Here we are again, the rear guard. Not that Mark was a laggard—just making sure
that I didn’t get left too far behind. Right ahead of us are Bill and Olga,
who usually were way up at the front.
(Big image; small)
Water everywhere, even though the rainfall is not that much. Big lakes, little lakes,
ponds. In the left picture, Dennis relaxes at the left, and Olivier admires the
scenery (big image; small).
The other two pictures (middle big image,
small; right big image,
small) I took because I liked the pattern of the dead trees.
I believe that the right picture is one of my first shots showing the Cuernos
del Paine, the “Horns” of the Paine Massif. You can see them just to the
right of the completely dead tree—they’re distinguished by consisting
of a basalt base, light gray, capped by shale, very dark gray. I make such a deal
of them because climbing to the base of the Horns was the cap of our walking
trip—I’ll be describing that in the entries for 11 November.
Here, we rest while a cloud passing over the sun leaves us in shadow, but the
mountains in the distance are brightly lit. Again, the Cuernos del
Paine are in view. Olga and Bill in the foreground.
(Big image; small)
Reflecting lake
Previous day’s pictures;
second half of this day’s pictures;
next day’s pictures
Mark’s pages for this day:
first part;
second part;
third part.
Return to the main Chile page; to my home page.
