Walk to Laguna Torre

It was time for another walk! This one to Laguna Torre, a walk of around 10km each way, plus a bonus 2km return walk to view a glacier – but only if it wasn’t too windy…. the wind can be VERY ferocious up there, and you can get blown off a cliff…not something that we would like… πŸ™‚

The weather was not quite so clear for this one, and during the whole walk we never saw the famous Cerro Torre which was under a cloud the whole time πŸ™

This walk was not as spectacular as the Laguna de los Tres walk – but we did see some cool wildlife πŸ™‚

Start of the trail.
Our first wildlife spot – a Chilean Flicker (a type of woodpecker)
View down the valley.
Heading up to the mountains.

The walk was very easy compared to Lagos de los Tres and went through a fairly flat valley.

CC heads down the valley.
The next wildlife spot – aΒ Thorn-tailed Rayadito

The destination of this walk was another glacial lake with a view of Cerro Torre – a peak with a very sharp point which famously has a hat of snow on the top of it the whole time. Even though it was a clear day, there was always a cloud in front of the peak – we were CONFOUNDED at every turn… it turns out that this is fairly common and that often the only clouds in the sky are in front of this peak – because it’s further back than Cerro Fitzroy and the clouds get stuck between them. ANYWAY, the lake was still nice, although it was cold and windy up there!

WE MADE IT… Laguna de Torre.

What happened next though was a bit of a surprise! Suddenly an Andean Fox, also know as a CulpeoΒ appeared! They look a bit like the red foxes of the UK, but are bigger and have a bit of grey on them. They are a truly beautiful creature. This one was a bit tame – as it was used to walkers being by the lake all the time, and it wandered around looking for scraps of food left by picnickers.

The fox appears from out of nowhere…..
Andean Fox with a big bushy tail!
The fox is looking at us….

After the excitement of the fox (and eating lunch), we were inspired to do the extra walk towards the glacier. It was a bit windy in places but we battled on.

PB heads along the ridge to the glacier.
CC loves walking up steep, slippery piles of rocks πŸ™‚
View of the glacier.
CC rests at the glacier.
Glacier close up.

After congratulating ourselves on conquering the mighty glacier πŸ™‚ we made our way back down.

Another bird spot – austral thrush.

This is also the walk where we saw the AMAZING torrent duck πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

Nearly back at town.

All in all, a good walk – but the walking committee decided that it wasn’t as good as Laguna de los Tres – but did award it a special ‘Amazing wildlife’ award…

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