The long
drive to get to the park is an experience in itself, as the long dirt road
traversing the immense Patagonian plains with the mountain ranges in the
distance is a beautiful thing to do. Especially if one has the chance to
observe the local fauna en route; yesterday, we were lucky enough to see groups
of condors hovering overhead, cara-cara devouring carrion, a vixen basking in
the mild sunlight with her cubs, skunks lazily crossing the road, and a guanaco
giving birth to an astonishingly agile calf that started nursing a few minutes
after entering this world!
All the
time, we were enticed by the imposing Paine mountain range, which this day was
showing itself in its full splendor: the strong winds kept its massive glacier-laden
slopes, sheer cliffs and vertical towers completely exposed, with clouds being
swept away and shredded when torn with the jagged rocky peaks. Albeit the mountains
forming the Paine massif are not particularly high, reaching about 3000 meters,
they are – literally – awesome as one watches them from almost sea level and it
is quite an impressive sight to gasp at 3 kilometers of rock reaching to the
sky! Add to that a collection of turquoise lakes in the foreground and hills
covered with blossoming bushes and you get the picture…
After such
an exhilarating journey, we had to start the new day with something rather
exciting – and we did: we landed early today on Isla Magdalena, where a colony
of 40 thousand pairs of inquisitive Magellanic penguins greeted us.
Later in
the day, we sailed south through the Straits of Magellan, en route to the Gabriel
Channel and enjoyed the magnificent scenery this part of the world has to
offer. Once inside the Gabriel Channel, we could see at close quarters, just
how dense and impenetrable the rainforests in this region are. The only gaps
between the trees, were those formed by beautiful waterfalls, cascading down
from the glacial meltwater… a wonderful sight to close a wonderful day.
