Patagonia's Torres del Paine
We began our trip from Buenos Aires. During our one day there we photographed birds in Costanera Sur Wildlife Preserve. These birds are guira cuckoos.
TorresdelPaineArgentinaBuenos AiresCostanera Sur Wildlife PreserveGuira CuckooPatagonia
Note the enormous feet and claws of this wattled jacana allowing it to walk on water plants.
TorresdelPaineArgentinaBuenos AiresCostanera Sur Wildlife PreservePatagoniaWattled Jacana
Mother and her young limpkin. This bird also has long feet so it can walk on water plants.
TorresdelPaineArgentinaBuenos AiresCostanera Sur Wildlife PreserveLimpkinPatagonia
This is a rosey-billed pochard.
TorresdelPaineArgentinaBuenos AiresCostanera Sur Wildlife PreservePatagoniaRoseybilled Pochard
A monk parakeet perched high in a tree.
Monk parakeet eating seeds on the ground.
On our first morning in Torres del Paine we are greeted with beautiful light on Cuernos del Paine.
Early morning light on Cerro Paine Grande.
Early morning light on the blades behind Cuernos del Paine.
Closer view of the blades.
I first thought these were llamas or alpacas, but they are guanocos.
Guanocos are wild and llamas and alpacas are domesticated species, all of which are related to camels.
Guanocos weigh about 200 lbs and live about 20-25 years.
Before sunrise we climbed the hill next to our lodge, which is nestled on a small island on Lake Pehoe, to capture this scene of Cerro Paine Grande and Cuernos del Paine.
A view of Cuernos del Paine from the beach on Lake Pehoe.
Cuernos del Paine and Monte Almirante Nieto as seen from the edge of Lake Pehoe just before sunset.
This is Monte Almirante Nieto taken along the shore of Lake Pehoe.
Closer view of Monte Almirante Nieto with the sunlight hitting its westerly face.
TorresdelPaineLago PehoeMonte Almirante NietoPatagoniaTorres del Paine
I rarely do black and white photographs, but I like this one of Cuernos del Paine and Monte Almirante Nieto.
We drove about 30 minutes from our lodge at Lake Pehoe to reach this spot overlooking the same mountains from a different perspective. Here are several photos as the light of a new day touched the mountains.
Early morning light on Cumbre principal.
Cumbre principal in full day light.
Look close to see the grey fox scampering away from the guanoco, who quickly gave up realizing it had no chance to catch the speedy fox.
Here's the same guanoco with the mountains reflecting in the background.
Just after the sun peaked over the mountain the guanoco looked back at me because I had quietly moved within about 30 feet of him/her to take this shot.
I joined my guanoco friend to pause and view this spectacular scene.
Here are three more photos from this beautiful part of Torres del Paine.
Have you noticed I like guanocos, although I had trouble pronouncing their name initially. It's pronouced gwa NOC oh, emphasis on the second syllable.
Jim, a fellow photographer, yelled "a puma." I turned to see him on top of the ridge. I fired off several shots before he slipped behind the rocks. It was the only puma we saw.
Another wonderful sunrise with amazing clouds.
On one of the coldest mornings we made our way to this point to get a mirrored reflection of the Torres del Paine mountains. As you can see there was a slight ripple that made the reflection more (or less) interesting.
The cara cara then found its mate and the two perched themselves high on a branch as a dozen crazy photographers fired away.
Having exhausted the usual photographic locations in Torres del Paine because we had had such good weather, our guide had us stop to take photos of a small forest of burned out trees. I found the black and white rendition more interesting.
