End of November 2006
From El Chalten we drove back to El Calafate and then took a bus over the border into Chile and the Torres del Paine national park. We stayed in Puerto Natales in Chile for two nights. We did not have time to hike but again the weather cooperated and the scenery was spectacular.
This was a cave where they found a giant ground sloth back in the 1800s. Argentina has some very interesting fossils, include the oldest dinosaur.
In the background you can see the three towers of Torres del Paine sticking up into the clouds to the right of the snow covered main peak. Why are these people so happy?
Torres del Paine from a different viewpoint.
One of several waterfalls.
Basically the Torres del Paine is the Chile side of the mountains around El Calafate. Sort of. And this is my attempt at a panoramic view. It is cool that the geological layers are so clear. We, however, heard an interesting explanation by a guide who claimed the layers were where the ice reached in the last ice age. I guess guides make stuff up if they don't know. We have also heard that there are about three different stories for the origin of the word Patagonia. One, which was widely circulated and even appeared in guidebooks has apparently been traced back to a guide who made it up. He claimed the original people here had big feet and the Spaniards used the word pata (which means animal feet) to describe the people. This is evidently entirely bogus.
