Torres del Paine National Park, S Patagonia

Today we had to be ready at 5.30am to get a flight from Puerto Varas to Punta Arenas, followed by too many hours in a minibus to Southern Patagonia. The landscape was flat and grassy with many estancias and some good wildlife. We saw rheas, flamingos and guanacos and hoping for more to come. Gradually more spectacular mountains and massive volcanic rock shapes began to appear.

Just short of the hotel in the National Park the guide suggested a walk across a wide glacier-formed flat by Lagos Grey and up onto a lookout. There was a beautiful iceberg in the lake and it was blowing a hoolie, stronger than us. I was glad of my warm clothing but more will be donned tomorrow. The lookout provided a great vantage point over the front of a glacier, the mountains and lake.

My main is the calafate flower which turns into the local blueberry. My extra is the flower of the firebush, which I'm told ptovides hummingbirds with food over winter. Aussie blippers might note its resemblance to the waratah. Both are in the proteaceae fanily.

Thanks for hosting BikerBear. Happy weekend blippers. I'm knackered and off to sleep.