Central and South America

A view from the fort. The next picture shows fishing boats that are positioned at one of the inlets along this coast.

Meet Pancho. Pancho is a full grown Andean condor. His head reaches above my waist and check out those feet.

The story is that Pancho’s mom, like all good condor moms, at some appropriate condor-mom moment, pushed her baby out of the nest. This is when condors realize flight but Pancho did not take wing and rather made a messy thud-crash landing. Mom immediately abandoned Pancho as one Loser condor. Ol’ Pancho has in fact never flown but his wing span is something like 12 feet.

There’s more to say about condors in the Peru section but this is my only picture and although it is odd to see him here in this Thanksgiving turkey pose instead of as a spot in the sky, at least you Can see him and marvel at those awesome claws.

A view from the bridge that leads to our hotel. Irresistible foto-foto.

In the 1890s Hermann Eberhard discovered the remains of a huge prehistoric ground sloth, the milodon, that became extinct in the late Pleistocene. A very modest walk takes you into its cave and this is a shot looking out at a full scale model of the milodon. That’s it. Tourist attraction.

My first stop – Punta Arenas – there at the very southern tip of Chile, a spit from Antarctica. I will execute this map idea again as soon as I finsh the pictures of the rest of the trip which I Hope will be sometime before the new year.

The flag of Chile.

In the grand tradition of God Bless America, from a local tour operator’s website: ‘The blue represents the sky of Chile, blue and free. The red stripe stands for the blood shed for Chile’s independence. The white stripe shows the snow on the massive and beautiful Andes Mountains. The white star in the blue corner allows us to see their progress and honor.’

The back of the little coffee and souvenir shop where The Guy and his wife live. And where Pancho lives.

This is the whole site – bridge, hotel, lake and killer mountain.

That night’s sunset from inside the hotel.

Here’s a pano from a different perspective and you can see the main landmarks that are visible from most of the park. The bit on the left that looks like a saddle is called Paine Grande and on the right is Los Cuernos, The Horns.

This is the national tree of Chile called locally the Monkey-Puzzle Tree, sometimes called the Chile Pine in the US and to be precise, Araucaria auracana. It looks like long rows of thick prickly succulent leaves attached to the limbs of the classic form of ‘tree’.

That’s our car with a big tourist bus pulled up behind. The whole tour bus scene was quite impressive – all of them like this one – new, clean, imaginatively painted. I especially liked this one because you’ll notice the figures along the back side. This is Dad in his rancher get-up and his three gaucho daughters who run the business.

Wilson and Ramon knew every single person on our route. We have stopped here for coffee and a chat and for me to see a must-see for all the tourists who pass by. You’ll soon see why.

Be grateful for all the ones I Didn’t include!

We’re up the next day to start back to Punta Arenas where I will join the ship that afternoon.

Your eyes do not deceive you. That Is a hand. Hi. Bye.

This little cutie is the churrete austral, or the tussockbird.

Ramon is setting up his camera for a group shot, so we could all be in the same picture but I didn’t know that at the time. He is hanging off the edge of a cliff here and is leaving his camera teetering half on the ledge and half off. I’m holding my breath and saying what? what?.

Here and following are three pictures of steeples and there were plenty more in this town of about 120,000. Chile is very Roman Catholic with a hint of Lutherans added in for diversity.

Right at the airport, as Ramon went to sit in the front seat I right away, not being shy, asked if I could sit in the front seat, being as I was the customer and all. They thought it a bit odd (little did they know…) but agreed because I was indisputably the customer.

So that was our seating arrangement from then on and Ramon had to lean forward to be the guide but I got the best view. Can you just imagine the luxury? I had the full attention of two great guys whose only task was to see to my amusement.

I held the camera backwards over my head and took this shot.

Wow.

Torres del Paine is most well known for its appeal to backpackers and the glory of the trekking. There are two main routes – the ‘W’ which moves you around the major peaks and ‘the Circuit’ that is the W plus ‘the backside’.

The Circuit takes seven to nine days, all camping out, the most challenging part being the weather. They say you get all four seasons in a day, all complemented by ground level clouds and gale force winds.

I of course wouldn’t know as my two days were perfection itself.

I’m waiting by the side of the road in the picture above while the guys get gas. So what to do? Why foto-foto of course.

or this one or both?