Patagonia

In late November of 2012,
I had the distinct pleasure of traveling

 to Chilean Patagonia
 in the Magellan Straights. 

Punta Arenas

 I flew into Punta Arenas in southern Chile and met up with a British friend who works as a scientist and had been on a scientific cruise off the coast and came ashore in PA.

 We traveled first to the lovely city of Puerto Natales, gateway to Patagonia; 

the Magallanes and Antartica Chilena Region in the southernmost part of Chile. 

Dr Gavin Tilstone

Then we took a bus
for 3 more hours
 to Torres de Paine, a national parque.

From there we traveled first by boat, then trekked in another 3.5 hours and finally reached Refugio Grey on Lago Grey,

view from Refugio window

The Patagonian forest was unexpectedly enchanted and elven.

 There was a massive wildfire a year ago

 so much of what we hiked by was burned 

and just now a year later starting to resprout.

 It made what remained untouched even more precious. 

There were clearly faeries living under the hills here.

 Glacier Grey was amazing.

 Ive never seen one in person before, and being able to spend
 2 days leisurely relating to it, 

napping near it,

 gazing upon it, breathing in its vapours

was divine.

 We slept in the Refugio but vowed next time 

to bring sleeping bags and a tent so as to be able to camp out in the meadow

 at the base of the mountains.

 The mountains!
The Cordillera del Paine lies in a transition area
between the Magellanic sub polar forests and the Patagonian Steppes.
The ever changing light throughout the day

 inspired me to keep a close eye on them.

I saw some wildflowers that took my breath away. 

Codonorchis lessonii

Calceolaria uniflora

Olsynium biflorum

It was all very magical and nourishing in a really sublime way. 

The colours of the glacier fed lakes defy description.

Then it was time to leave that precious place 

and so we returned, 

slowly winding our way out 

 of the labyrinth.  

On our way in it had been really windy, too windy to ride up top. But on out way out the conditions were perfect. We got some of our best views of the entire trip riding across the lake.

Our way out of the parque was also very majestic.

Puerto Natales was technically heading for the peak of their summer,

 but it looked like a newly born springtime in British Colombia.

Peonies everywhere!

Then I spent one last day in Punta Arenas 

before leaving that charming nautical city
 and heading north,

 to Ecuador!

South American powerlines

Flying out of Southern Chile was very beautiful.