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  On New Year's Day we fly down to Punta Arenas in Patagonia. Great views of the Southern Ice Field on the way.
From the airport we drive for 30 mins across the moors to the Seno Otway Nature Reserve where we watch hundreds of Magallenic penguins lounging on the beach, waddling around and lying in their burrows.
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  Then off north on the 250km drive to Puerto Natales, just avoiding a suicidal armadillo. Long straight roads and rolling pampas. Estancias, sheep and more exotic wildlife - nandu (lesser rhea), flamingos, grey foxes and Canquen (ashy headed geese).
Woods of lenga, the local beech, much of it dead or dying. Lupins growing in huge clumps by the road - imported by the Germans.
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  Puerto Natales is still a pretty basic town. Colourful houses of wood and corrugated iron with shops selling outdoor gear, tour operators, bars and restaurants. Our hotel, the Costaustralis burned down a few weeks earlier so we stay in a smaller hotel in the back streets.
As we set off the next morning black neck swans are swimming in the fjord.
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  The milodon cave is a few km outside PN, high above the fjord. Here remains of a giant sloth were found in the 1890s. These were in such good condition that it was thought the milodon might still be alive. Now the site is busy with tourists. Clear blue skies but cold and the strong Patagonian winds are blowing.
Click here for the Torres del Paine, or back to menu.
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