Friday, January 11, 2019 – Puma hunting and changing weather
They say that in Patagonia you can see four seasons in a single day, and we seemed to experience that today. We started off early, trying again to see pumas. So we were up at 5:30 and on the road just before 6:00. The towers were covered in a little mist but looked nice as the sun rose.
We drove around for almost 2 hours without seeing any sign of a puma, so next we went hiking. This was called “porteria porteria” or the “fauna” trail, and we did see lots of guanaco – but still no puma!
Nice scenery along the way, despite the absence of pumas. The views were beautiful and the towers were clearing up, so there was lots to see.
It was 4.5 miles round trip, with a stop at the turnaround point for coffee. Our turnaround point was at the ledge on the left side of the picture.
As the lighting was gorgeous, with very few clouds, we decided that we'd stay out longer. Here is a particular type of cloud called a lenticular cloud - lens-shaped, and shaped that way due to the wind.
We headed into the northeast section of the park, where we hadn't been before, and stopped at the Rio Paine waterfall for an overview. Gorgeous! What a backdrop. Picture-perfect.
If only those tourists would get out of our picture...
From here we went further north to Laguna Azul. First, an overlook from above.
The towers were the clearest that we had seem them all trip, with just a few wispy clouds in the background.
But the wind was strong! Without the wind, it was hot and sunny, but when the wind blew it was fairly chilly.
We hiked another 0.5 miles around the shore of Laguna Azul and the wind was really intense by now. I could not believe the views, however. Some birds were trying to fly, and a pair of ducks launched themselves into the lake – they almost capsized in the waves. Amazing!
We had a packed breakfast, which Rodrigo had brought for us, at Laguna Azul before returning home. No chance of eating outdoors, so we ate inside the truck! But breakfast with this view was worth the struggle. The blues were vibrant and the mountains...
Then we completed the loop and made it back home just before noon – a long day already. We asked about horseback riding for the afternoon, but Rodrigo could not get the estancia on the line right away to confirm, so we’d wait to hear about that later.
Back to the room for a shower, and to get ready for lunch. We went up a little early to find that the lodge was completely empty. So we settled in on our couch with a view to await the stroke of 1:30 (lunch begins) with drinks, and started with a Calafate (Native blueberry) sour.
Luciano offered to serve lunch where we were, which we graciously accepted. Surprisingly, the view had clouded over considerably but was still mostly clear blue sky at the hotel.
I started with my favorite fried potatoes, which I sprinkled with smoked chile powder which is on the table for every meal. Chris was good and had a salad. I had Cab Sauv and she had Chardonnay.
The mains were a beef short rib paired with Carmenère, and Chris had the chicken which I’d had yesterday paired with a Viognier. We were good and didn’t have dessert.
One of the front desk staff found us, and we were pleased to hear that our horseback ride was confirmed for 4:00!
So our decision to skip dessert was wise - we didn't want the poor horse to carry all that extra weight!
Back to the room to change for that, and we met Rodrigo at 3:45 for our ride. It was at the estancia situated at the hotel entrance, so only a 15 minute ride. The clouds are getting thicker. Will there be precipitation?
We met our gaucho Oswaldo, put on leather chaps over our lower legs, helmets, and mounted up.
Oswaldo made sure to tell us to challenge the horses, and not let them get lazy. Otherwise, he said, they will plod along slowly and it won't be much fun.
And sure enough, he was right. My horse "Gauchito" was content to mosey along slowly, leaving a huge gap behind Oswaldo. Time to speed things up a bit?
We rode more like 90 minutes and enjoyed it thoroughly. It was nice to chat with Oswaldo about farming differences between US and Chile, about horse care, and numerous other things.
The horses seemed to want to travel in a line and mosey along slowly.
But with a bit of urging, I could make my horse catch up with Oswaldo, and then we could ride abreast and continue our conversation.
But then Chris’s horse would think that he was missing something, so he would catch up and sometimes pass us. Here is "Cabezon" chasing down Oswaldo's steed.
Varied landscapes along the way
Once "Cabezon" got going, he wouldn't let "Gauchito" and me pass him!
The time went quickly and too soon, it was over.
The clouds over the mountain got more intense but didn’t start reaching in our direction, but they did look like they were carrying some rain.
One more sighting before we finished though - a Patagonian fox! It's just above the center of this photo.
Back to the hotel again, and we arranged one more shot at puma tracking – Rodrigo thought we'd have a better chance earlier, so this time we're starting at 4:30. Time to clean up for dinner!
They had left us a bottle of the smoked chile flakes that I like as a gift in the room, so I was very happy. We went up to the lodge for a glass of Riesling. The sky was getting wild, with dark clouds spreading from the mountain. It almost looked like it would snow! What a change in the weather! It was much darker tonight than on other nights, and the sky looked intense.
We moved over to the dining room for a welcome drink (vino y melon, like it sounds) and an amuse bouche (mini Caprese salad). Starters were quinoa tabbouleh for Chris with Sauv Blanc, and I went with the soup of the day (green pea, not split pea – very fresh and tasty) also with Sauv Blanc. I wasn’t craving more octopus, which was the other choice.
Mains were salmon with Chardonnay, and lamb racks with Chilean Malbec from Casablanca Valley, a warm weather region. Nice flavor with undertones of tar. Looking forward to tasting more wines in a few days.
The sky put on a great show with fast-moving clouds, alternating dark and light colors, with rays of sunlight streaming over the mountains. The towers were completely socked in and non-existent. Such a change from this morning – and I saw new snow on some of the slopes. In January! That would be like snow in mid-July at home. Awesome.
Desserts were tiramisu, and a “deconstructed” lemon meringue pie. Both went with a late-harvest Carmenère – which was reminiscent of a ruby port, only lighter.
Back to the room by 10 for an attempt at sleeping. Luckily the clouds were dark so again, it didn’t seem as light as the first night. Last chance to see a puma before we leave tomorrow.
They say that in Patagonia you can see four seasons in a single day, and we seemed to experience that today. We started off early, trying again to see pumas. So we were up at 5:30 and on the road just before 6:00. The towers were covered in a little mist but looked nice as the sun rose.
We drove around for almost 2 hours without seeing any sign of a puma, so next we went hiking. This was called “porteria porteria” or the “fauna” trail, and we did see lots of guanaco – but still no puma!
 |
| Guanao vs. Fence. Guess who won that round? |
Nice scenery along the way, despite the absence of pumas. The views were beautiful and the towers were clearing up, so there was lots to see.
It was 4.5 miles round trip, with a stop at the turnaround point for coffee. Our turnaround point was at the ledge on the left side of the picture.
As the lighting was gorgeous, with very few clouds, we decided that we'd stay out longer. Here is a particular type of cloud called a lenticular cloud - lens-shaped, and shaped that way due to the wind.
We headed into the northeast section of the park, where we hadn't been before, and stopped at the Rio Paine waterfall for an overview. Gorgeous! What a backdrop. Picture-perfect.
If only those tourists would get out of our picture...
From here we went further north to Laguna Azul. First, an overlook from above.
The towers were the clearest that we had seem them all trip, with just a few wispy clouds in the background.
But the wind was strong! Without the wind, it was hot and sunny, but when the wind blew it was fairly chilly.
We hiked another 0.5 miles around the shore of Laguna Azul and the wind was really intense by now. I could not believe the views, however. Some birds were trying to fly, and a pair of ducks launched themselves into the lake – they almost capsized in the waves. Amazing!
We had a packed breakfast, which Rodrigo had brought for us, at Laguna Azul before returning home. No chance of eating outdoors, so we ate inside the truck! But breakfast with this view was worth the struggle. The blues were vibrant and the mountains...
Then we completed the loop and made it back home just before noon – a long day already. We asked about horseback riding for the afternoon, but Rodrigo could not get the estancia on the line right away to confirm, so we’d wait to hear about that later.
 |
| Calafate Sours with a View! Awasi Patagonia |
Back to the room for a shower, and to get ready for lunch. We went up a little early to find that the lodge was completely empty. So we settled in on our couch with a view to await the stroke of 1:30 (lunch begins) with drinks, and started with a Calafate (Native blueberry) sour.
Luciano offered to serve lunch where we were, which we graciously accepted. Surprisingly, the view had clouded over considerably but was still mostly clear blue sky at the hotel.
I started with my favorite fried potatoes, which I sprinkled with smoked chile powder which is on the table for every meal. Chris was good and had a salad. I had Cab Sauv and she had Chardonnay.
The mains were a beef short rib paired with Carmenère, and Chris had the chicken which I’d had yesterday paired with a Viognier. We were good and didn’t have dessert.
One of the front desk staff found us, and we were pleased to hear that our horseback ride was confirmed for 4:00!So our decision to skip dessert was wise - we didn't want the poor horse to carry all that extra weight!
 |
| Chris on "Cabezon," ready to go! |
We met our gaucho Oswaldo, put on leather chaps over our lower legs, helmets, and mounted up.
Oswaldo made sure to tell us to challenge the horses, and not let them get lazy. Otherwise, he said, they will plod along slowly and it won't be much fun.
And sure enough, he was right. My horse "Gauchito" was content to mosey along slowly, leaving a huge gap behind Oswaldo. Time to speed things up a bit?
We rode more like 90 minutes and enjoyed it thoroughly. It was nice to chat with Oswaldo about farming differences between US and Chile, about horse care, and numerous other things.
The horses seemed to want to travel in a line and mosey along slowly.
But with a bit of urging, I could make my horse catch up with Oswaldo, and then we could ride abreast and continue our conversation.
But then Chris’s horse would think that he was missing something, so he would catch up and sometimes pass us. Here is "Cabezon" chasing down Oswaldo's steed.
Varied landscapes along the way
Once "Cabezon" got going, he wouldn't let "Gauchito" and me pass him!
The time went quickly and too soon, it was over.
The clouds over the mountain got more intense but didn’t start reaching in our direction, but they did look like they were carrying some rain.
One more sighting before we finished though - a Patagonian fox! It's just above the center of this photo.
Back to the hotel again, and we arranged one more shot at puma tracking – Rodrigo thought we'd have a better chance earlier, so this time we're starting at 4:30. Time to clean up for dinner!
They had left us a bottle of the smoked chile flakes that I like as a gift in the room, so I was very happy. We went up to the lodge for a glass of Riesling. The sky was getting wild, with dark clouds spreading from the mountain. It almost looked like it would snow! What a change in the weather! It was much darker tonight than on other nights, and the sky looked intense.
 |
| Quinoa Tabbouleh, Awasi Paragonia |
We moved over to the dining room for a welcome drink (vino y melon, like it sounds) and an amuse bouche (mini Caprese salad). Starters were quinoa tabbouleh for Chris with Sauv Blanc, and I went with the soup of the day (green pea, not split pea – very fresh and tasty) also with Sauv Blanc. I wasn’t craving more octopus, which was the other choice.
 |
| Rack of Lamb, Awasi Patagonia |
Mains were salmon with Chardonnay, and lamb racks with Chilean Malbec from Casablanca Valley, a warm weather region. Nice flavor with undertones of tar. Looking forward to tasting more wines in a few days.
 |
| Deconstructed Lemon Meringue Pie, Awasi Patagonia |
Desserts were tiramisu, and a “deconstructed” lemon meringue pie. Both went with a late-harvest Carmenère – which was reminiscent of a ruby port, only lighter.
Back to the room by 10 for an attempt at sleeping. Luckily the clouds were dark so again, it didn’t seem as light as the first night. Last chance to see a puma before we leave tomorrow.
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