Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Cal and David left at 6:30AM for sunrise at Laguna Amarga, Cascada Paine, and Laguna Azul.

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David and Cal had breakfast waiting for the sun to hit the mountains - the sun never did fully embrace the Torres. Still a beautiful morning.
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After breakfast we headed over to the Paine River and a spectacular waterfall.

Appropriately named Paine (pronounced Pie-Ney) River Waterfall (Cascada Paine)
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Then a short trip to Laguna Azul which is simply beautiful - the water was a brilliant blue.
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Darren and Virginia Ann met for breakfast at the lodge at 8:15AM and then Carolina picked them up for an hour's drive to meet Cal and David. We did a short hike with a scenic view of Horn's Lookout. This area attracted lots of people who trekked out to a lookout with beautiful waterfalls and rippling currents over the lake.
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Mountain top of the massive Torres del Paine
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A great view of the geology of the massive - the gray rock is granite and the dark rock is slate. So it is hard to climb the mountains as the slate is soft and hard to use ropes.
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The granite peaks of Torres Del Paine
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As we moved along the park roads the "Horns" came into view

on the right is Cuerno Principal and on the left Cuerno Este
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Cal and Virginia Ann with the Horns
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Then we saw Mirador Nordenskjold Lake lookout. The wind was quite brisk and we had poles to help keep us stable. Virginia Ann did about half the hike before her back got tired and she returned to the car.

The hike to Nordenskjold Lake lookout took about an hour starting along the Paine River.

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All during the hike Paine Grande was before us - with the wind and clouds shaping the view.
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Hanging glaciers high up in Paine Grande - the French Glacier.
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Wind and snow on Paine Grande
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The view across Lago Nordenskjold
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I enjoyed the way the wind and the mountain tops played with each other
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The Punta Bariloche hidden in the clouds - this is Trinie's (our guide) favorite mountain.
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We had lunch under a lean to at Camp Peane where we saw a very tame, female Huemule. The Huemule is the national animal of Chile and the condor is its national bird.


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