Our next stop after Puerto Rio Tranquilo was Patagonia National Park. There are multiple entrances to this park, as it is quite large. So we started on the Tamango side by the town of Cochrane.
We stayed at a lovely little campground right inside the park itself. The campground was tucked in between some rolling hills and the Cochrane river, which starts from the Cochrane Lake, a little ways further up the canyon. It was the perfect spot for us, so we stayed here 5 nights.
The first full day we were there, it was pretty rainy, so we hunkered down. But day 2 was nice, so we hiked Los Carpinteros, which was about 10km long. Look at me using the metric system, jajaja. The hike was fun, following the river valley with alot of ups and downs. It basically takes you to an overlook where the river and lake meet.
Drew and Emerson actually continued on past the lookout for another 4 km to camp overnight just the two of them. After Avery got his chance to camp with Dada in Futaleufu, now it was Emerson's turn. Their hike was legit for sure, but Emerson did great. The campsite was right alongside the lake. It rained all night long, but they were well protected under some large trees. It cleared around 10am the next morning, so they just waited to hike back out after that. Sounds like a fun time, overall.
On Saturday afternoon, we went out on some kayaks in the river for about an hour. It was lots of fun. We went into the wind on the way out, so on the way back, the boys basically steered us home. The wind was starting to pick up quite a bit by the end, and even though the paddle back was against the current, because we were with the wind, it was still easy.
Grandpa got in some well deserved fishing time on the river.
And I found another apropos bottle of Sav. Blanc called Patagonia "Nature Rules." When in Rome.
On Sunday we journeyed over to the Valle Chacabuco entrance to the park, which is alot more popular. It has a proper Visitor Center and a Museum which is very well done. It highlights climate change impacts to the world at large, the need for national parks, and dives into the local flora and fauna found in the park.
Of which there are many. The highlight of this park are the guanacos, which are ancestors of the llama. They are everywhere and are not shy of humans or cars. We saw hundreds of them. It's like going to Yellowstone and seeing the bison.
The main predator of the guanaco is the puma. We didn't see a puma, but when we were on a little 6km hike, we heard one growling in a grove of trees we had just walked through. There was no mistaking it: definitely a puma. To protect the herd against said pumas, the dominant male guanacos will post themselves up on high rocky outcropping to stand watch while the herd grazes with their heads down. We saw this exact thing while on the hike. At first we thought it was just a few random guanacos being adventurous, but when we noticed the entire herd had 4 or 5 different sentries surrounding it, we realized it was on purpose, and a google search back at the car confirmed it. Thanks Starlink!
