Day 214: Mylodon’s Patagonia

Puerto Natales – Torres del Paine, Chile

After all this time gawking at photos of Torres del Paine on the Internet, it finally came the day I actually got to see it in person.

The day trip brought us first to the Cave of Mylodon. I had no clue what a mylodon was. Found out later that it’s some sort of giant sloth from 10,000 years ago. Now, I understood why on all the street signs in Puerto Natales was a graphical silhouette of a dancing polar bear sort of animal. While, obviously, we didn’t get to see any mylodons per se, the cave itself was quite a sight. It’s massive!

After paying the fees for Torres del Paine national park, we began to visit the main miradors (viewpoints) of the park. Some of which, we got to spend time trekking for an hour or so. The areas we visited were: Lago Gray, Glaciar Gray, Paine Grande, Salto Grande and Las Torres. It’s unnecessary to try to describe these views with words, especially with my writing skills. Here’s some pictures instead:

My day tour was supposed to bring me back to Puerto Natales, but I asked to be dropped off at the park entrance. From there, I planned to ride a shuttle bus to the Refugio. It was more than a half hour wait for the shuttle. I decided to just walk the one and a half hour dirt road. Fifteen minutes in, I was regretting it somewhat. Then, from afar, I saw two vehicles driving towards my direction. I immediately thumbed the hitchhiking sign. The first car passed by with the driver just giving me a shrug. The car was full. The second vehicle was a huge RV. They waved no to me but then stopped 10 metres in front of me asking me where I was heading to.

I got into the RV owned by a lovely Chilean couple. I noticed that they decorated the RV like a home. It turned out to be their home indeed. Patricio and Margarita bought this RV two years ago and had been travelling in it since throughout Chile and Argentina. We had some language barrier but it didn’t stop us at trying to communicate. I remarked on how impressed I was with the RV and Patricio was so proud that he showed me everything in it. It has a bedroom, shower and toilet, kitchen, dining room, fridge and a washing machine! A washing machine! This RV, named “Casa 1113″ is better than my studio apartment in NYC. Anyway, check out Patricio and Margarita’s Casa 1113 blog.