2014/01 Chile trip - Laguna Azul |
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Monday January 27th
The Canadians were off home and many others had gone on the trek to the base of the Towers, a hike I would have done a few years ago. We were going to the area around Lago Sarmiento with Sebastian, Valentina, and Pauli. The weather was improving, and we were getting occasional glimpses of the Torres.
New companions were Russ and Anita, from Shoreview, Minnesota, and Amanda from Adelaide; her husband Brenton was on the trek.
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Lago Sarmiento and Laguna Azul |
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We were towing a 
trailer-load of bikes, occasionally stopping so that those who wanted could ride the bikes.
We didn’t but we enjoyed the opportunity to see more while the bus was following slowly. We saw a fox, plenty of geese, herds of guanaco, and a few rheas.
Guanaco are similar to llamas, and related to camels. The young ones are called chulengos. They aren’t hunted inside the park, so they mostly ignore humans. Rheas look like half-sized ostriches; they have little wings but can’t fly. 
Like emus, the males look after the chicks.
At one of the lakes we were surprised to also see flamingoes; always considered them to be a tropical species.
We hiked down to the shoreline of Lago Sarmiento, a land-locked lake with soapy water. The lake is surrounded by a ring of calcium deposits (behind us in the picture), which might be hydrothermal or possibly ancient fossils similar to stromatolites.
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We drove to Laguna Azul for a barbecue in a quincho, literally a shack, but actually much more comfortable than that. We had all the beef, sausage, and chicken we could eat, very tasty and unhealthy.
We hiked a little around the lake to burn off some of the food. It was sunny and warm with a breeze. 
More flowers and birds though I don’t remember the names.
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Rio Paine (4.03) |
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On our drive back we stopped at this waterfall on the Paine River. The other picture is of run-off from a distant snowfield, just nice patterns.
All was changing at dinner. We said goodbye to Nigel and Bindi; they’d made it to the base of the Towers, and were heading off to El Calafate in Argentina in the morning, hoping to report their theft there. Brenton joined us for dinner, as did Jose and Lee from Maine, and Marti, a young lady from New York.