A double goodbye

Get up one last time at 6 a.m. at sunrise and take some pictures. Again the weather is almost too perfect, cloudless sky, hardly any wind and even in the morning hardly cold. For that I will with wonderful dawn rewarded on the steep granite walls. Soon I'll slip into bed again.

We have breakfast again at one of the well-equipped camping shelters, as our hut has neither space nor a table. A strong wind comes up and pushes a cloud cover over the mountains at an astonishing speed. One of notorious weather change so what the park is known for. An hour later the sky is completely cloudy and it has become significantly cooler. However, rain hardly falls on the dry land. Somehow fitting to leave Torres del Paine without having experienced a change in the weather would have been somehow atypical. The weather of the last few days has been incredible, the park has an average summer temperature of 11 degrees, while it is 1 degree in winter.

Now it is time to leave this wonderful place. We always drive south along the sea-like Rio Paine, where we at Visitor center make a short stop. Then we drive to Puerto Natales on the dusty but easy to drive Routa Y-290.

We'll stop at the Cueva de Milodon on. Here in 1895 the German adventurer Hermann Eberhard found a piece of fur from a hitherto unknown animal. Analyzes showed that it was an excellently preserved fur remnant prehistoric giant sloth (Mylodon) acted. Other bone finds also show that until around 10,000 years ago, Patagonia was inhabited by a species-rich giant faun with saber-toothed tigers, Patagonian panthers (an archetype of today's jaguar), primitive horses and macraucheria, the disappearance of which has not yet been clarified. Climatic changes and the appearance of the first humans are likely to have been the most important factors. True-to-original models and good information make the short visit interesting. The The cave itself is of impressive proportionsIt leads 200 m into the rock, is 30 m high and 80 m wide. We climb a vantage point where we look out into the pampas-level pampas and feed ourselves with the remaining food supplies.

Then we drive the last few kilometers back to civilization. Niki and I are staying at the El Sendero Hostel for the next two nights. Together we check all of our luggage again and give some unneeded little things home with us. We drive Mum and Pap to the bus station where in a hurry farewell is taken. The two will now spend a few more days in the south of Argentina and in Buenos Aires before their vacation comes to an end again.

Niki and I have already agreed to meet again. We meet with Jemma and Martin to eat pizza and share our travel experiences. The two of them will travel roughly the same route as we did, only that they still have until October to get to Mexico.