Day 13: Torres del Paine

We spent an amazing day on a “land safari” in the Torres del Paine National Park.

Sunrise at 06.42a / Loading the bus at 05.45a! It was a long but wonderful day of beautiful mountains, varied geologic formations, a safari of animals and ancient cave paintings. This is the most visited park in Chile. It’s rare to see pumas but we saw a mother and her 4 cubs on a hill top. The guanacos are very regal looking and the original wild llama.

Warning: This post has a ton of full-sized images. We couldn’t resist.

The day kicked off with an early morning bus ride through Chile to get to Torres del Paine National Park. The name roughly translates to Towers of Blue. The towers are the amazing mountains that surrounded us at all points during the hike.

Our hiking crew (moments before seeing the puma)

Part of the way through the hike, we saw some prehistoric cave paintings.

One of the most amazing moments was when we saw a family of five pumas.

Rufous-collared sparrow - annoyed at us because he was making his nest and we were in the way

Rufous-collared sparrow - loved singing to us along the path

After a lovely hike with a few very steep sections we had a traditional asado lunch with lamb cooked over an outdoor grill with of course a dog for everyone to enjoy :)

Bonus: Pierre doesn't love getting his picture taken