Oct 31, 2016.  Hostal Nancy, Puerto Natales, Southern Patagonia, Chile.

An all day tour of the Paramus Nacional Torres del Paine.  Very lucky on the weather: clear with patchy clouds until late afternoon.  Began with a visit to the Cueva del Milidón, where the partial remains of an enormous ground sloth were discovered in the 1890's by the German pioneer Herman Eberhard.  This discovery was apparently the motivating factor behind Bruce Chatwin's book "In Patagonia" (which I am currently reading).  The sloth was nearly 4m tall.  The remains of other very cool animals were found as well, including saber tooth tigers, and ancestors to present day horses.  

Then on to a loop past the park, with the granite pillars of Torres del Paine dominating the landscape.  Also saw plenty of grazing guanacos, who have become accustomed to vehicles, so we could get quite close to them; condors flying low and feeding on a cow carcass (twice); Patagonia fox; and several Rheas.  Hiked to a beautiful waterfall, and also at Grey's Lake, to an overlook for a great view of Grey's glacier, as well as a bunch of icebergs that had floated free of the glacier.  On my hike back to the bus, it started to rain and blow extra hard, and I got truly soaked - and convinced that I don't want to do any long (or even short) hikes in the area - the weather is too chancy.  But wow, what a set of gorgeous mountains.  I took over a hundred photos.

Dinner was at another amazing restaurant - El Bote - where I had Rhea carpaccio (not kidding) followed by grilled conger eel, and tiramisu for dessert.  As good a meal as I've had anywhere, and with a local craft beer and a copa of Chilean Cabernet, it cost about thirty bucks.  Here I am, in the middle of Southern Patagonia, eating like a king.  Who'd a thought.  

Tomorrow is an all day boat trip to see a couple of glaciers.  The forecast is for good weather, but then the next several days it is supposed to rain.  Time to move on ... to Argentina.