Today was a GREAT day!!!!! I hit the jackpot with today!! The weather was perfect here. It was warm, sunny, barely a cloud in the sky and no wind. Apparently, that is very, very rare here.
Today I went on a tour called the Full Paine. It was a van tour and we saw all the major sights in the Torres Del Paine National Park. We started out at about 9:30 and met up with our guide, for the day, Carolina. She was a really sweet person. Not to mention really gorgeous. The tour included myself, Nick and Kathy from yesterday's post (I kind of feel like they think I may be stalking them), Carolina, our driver, and two employees from the hotel. So, it was a nice sized group. We loaded into the van and we were off! We made quite a few stops along the way for photo's. We saw many different lakes, mountains, a huge waterfall and rivers, and some Guanaco (the llama looking animal). At about Noon, we were at one of the lakes and we had lunch. The night before we had to choose what kind of sandwich we wanted. So, that was all I was expecting, maybe some chips too. Well, I was down at the beach looking at the lake and came up to our picnic spot and they had laid out a huge spread for us. It included great meats and cheeses, a bunch of fruit, our sandwiches of course, beer, wine, soda, water, and a tray full of desserts. All laid out nicely with tablecloths. It was impressive!!! I really, really wasn't expecting this. It was very luxurious. It was just kind of perfect. To be in this setting with all this great food and wine and beer. I don't know what I did to deserve this. Livin the life!!!
After lunch, we loaded up into the van and made our way to Lago Grey (lake). We had a little walk to a boat and we were loaded on a smaller boat, and taken to a much larger one out on the lake. About and hour and a half on the lake and we made it to the glacier. I had never seen a glacier before. It was unbelievable. So impressive! The boat got really, really close to the glacier and we stopped at three different "faces" of it. While cruising around, they served Pico Sours. I think they taste like a margarita. They are made from the wine grapes (sort of like grappa, I guess) and pack a punch! I only had one. We spent about an hour at the face of the glacier, then headed back to the dock. Another relaxing hour back. Once back, we hiked back to the van and we were off, back to the hotel.
On the way back, at a certain point, Carolina told us to watch for Puma's. I didn't think it was going to happen. All of a sudden she tells the driver to stop. He stops and backs up and they get out the binoculars. Carolina was disappointed because at first look she thought it was two foxes. Then she looked again and it was two Pumas!! She was so excited, as we all were. Well, she asked if we wanted to get out and get a closer look. Hell yeah!!! By the time we got out of the van, they were gone. So we walked for a while down the side of this big hill and the driver spotted them again. By this time it was after 7:00 and getting dark. I managed to race down the hill to the spot and saw one just as it was rounding a corner away from us. I had my zoom lens on, out to 300 and the photo above is as close as I could get. I hope you can see it in the photo. I managed to get a photo as it turned back to look at us and then disappeared. They are fast! Then we headed back to the hotel as it was dark at this point and arrived back here at a little after 8:00. I went to the reservation desk and signed up for a morning horseback ride tomorrow. Looking forward to it!
It was a great day!!!! I am having such a great time here, and have been so lucky with everything that I've been able to see. I think you should probably come here if you can. It's pretty amazing. Until tomorrow...