Day 5 (Feb 24) - Bus ride from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales

We ate breakfast at the hotel before checking out at 11 am. Since we had some down time before catching our 12:30 pm bus to Puerto Natales, we wandered around Punta Arenas a bit and got a small lapis lazuli and marble penguin as a souvenir. The world's primary lapis lazuli mines are in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Andes in Chile!

Some wool penguin blankets! Patagonia has quite a bit of wool due to the booming sheep farming industry that began in Patagonia in the mid 1800s.

We then rode the bus to Puerto Natales for 3 hours. Along the way, we saw several classic Patagonian animals!

Horses!

Guanaco (relative of the domesticated llamas)

Chilean flamingos!!!!!

Sheep! Baaaaa

Cows!

Patagonian Darwin's rhea, which can grow up to 3.25 ft tall!

Puerto Natales from afar.

Once we arrived, we wandered from the bus station to a restaurant called "Raices de Chiloé," where we ate Chiloé-style seafood.

Raices de Chiloé in Puerto Natales.

Sof and I eating seafood in Raices de Chiloé.

Cerveza Austral Calafate Ale, a Patagonian beer that has some juice from Calafate berries in it.

Cebiche (that's how the restaurant spelled it).

After delicious food, we took a taxi to La Cueva del Milodón (the Cave of the Mylodon) north of Puerto Natales. The mylodon was a 5000 pound herbivorous bear/sloth-like animal that lived in the area about 10,000 years ago. This cave is where some of its remains were discovered.

Entrance to the area containing the Cueva del Milodón.

The pathway leading toward the Cueva del Milodón.

Entrance to the cave.

Short video showing the inside of the cave and dripping water that contributes to stalactite development.

Life-size statue of the mylodon.

After viewing the mylodon and the cave, we taxied to our hotel and signed in. It was about 3 miles north of Puerto Natales and was close to the water.

View from our hotel room.

We coordinated with my sister Christa, who had just taken a 26 hour bus ride through Argentina to meet us in Puerto Natales, and we made plans to go horseback riding. We finally had a chance to catch up on some much needed rest so the next day we could make arrangements for our horse riding adventures.