To take nothing but photographs, and leave nothing but footprints.
Travels of a Lifetime VBlog Series: Southern Patagonia, Chile
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
Series #5: Torres Del Paine National Park, Southern Patagonia
I caught my first glimpse of the distinct peaks (Torres) from Lake Sarmiento, an interesting lake that looked as if it had a ring around it. Leading up to Lake Sarmiento, we passed the Deciduous Magellan Forest with poplar and conifer trees but mostly dominated by Lenga trees. Then on to Patagonian plains and plateau covered in pampas and walled by rocky hills: a landscape said to be lower than sea level and created by glacial movement. And of course, the famous symbol of anything Patagonia, the horn-shaped towers (the jagged mountain peaks) dominated the horizon and could be seen from all directions. With the changeable weather, the snow-capped mountains suddenly appeared with glorious blue light or buried under a shroud of dense, gray clouds. The sky was vast and dominating. Milky aqua waters of Rio Paine and lakes were part of the surreal landscape. While I expected to see glaciers near the mountain, I was surprised to see some vegetation, flora (yellow lupines, Calafate/blueberry) and fauna (wild turkey, geese, and neandus). Guanacos dominated the animal landscape.
Torres Del Paine National Park is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It is a massif, a mountain system independent of the Andes mountain range in Patagonia. It centers on an alpine massif of three imposing granite towers (Torres) reaching more than 10,000 feet, together with several lesser horns, or cuernos, formed of black shale, and a variety of glaciers, lakes, and wild rivers.
Here's a video of my Patagonian adventure (long version). Click HERE to watch it on YouTube or click the thumbnail below.
Press play to watch a short preview of Torres Del Paine.
My interest in exploring the northern part of the Philippines started from looking at a piece of art at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California. Among the display of ceramics and pottery engraved with gold and other decorative stuff, a wooden carving of a male figure squatting on a platform with the lower arms on top of each other, resting upon his knees, caught my eye. According to the docent, the wooden sculpture was called "Bului" which literally means "granary guardian" in the "Ifugao" tribe dialect. The carved wooden sculpture was set on a platform on top of another platform, a mortar. Our docent explained the significance of the wooden mortar (which was used with the pestle, to separate the husk from the rice, sort of rice mill) and linked the story to the Rice Terraces in the Cordillera Mountains of the Philippines built 2000 years ago by the “Ifugao” tribe. So two years and three hundred kilometers north of Manila later, we explo...
From Shimmering Sea Caves to Sky-High Monasteries: My Two Favorite Places in Greece When I booked my recent trip to Greece, I thought I had everything planned perfectly—until I realized I had a major scheduling conflict: Meteora or Rhodes? Both are UNESCO World Heritage sites, both stunning in their own right, but my heart had been quietly leaning toward Meteora for a while. My research confirmed what I suspected: while both destinations are equally rich in history and beauty, Meteora has that wow factor—especially for someone like me who’s passionate about photography. But before reaching the stone spires of Meteora, I returned to a Greek island that has long held a special place in my heart: Corfu Corfu: From Sea to Sky in Paleokastritsa This wasn’t my first visit to Corfu. On my previous trip, I had explored Corfu Town, the Old Fortress, Mon Repos Estate, and taken a brief dip at Paleokastritsa Beach. But this time, I wanted to really get to know Paleokastritsa. And it didn...
Morocco Road Trip, Part 1: From Fez to Erfoud I must admit, I came to Morocco with one thing in mind: to photograph the golden sand dunes of the Sahara Desert at sunset, and I’m not even a photographer. To get to the Sahara I expected an arduous road trip, a few stops here and there, one night at a hotel, one journey and then another. However, the whole trip was totally a pleasant surprise. We stayed in Fez for a couple of nights and visited the oldest (8th century) Medina. Tired from exploring and walking through a maze of more than 800 very narrow streets of El Bali Medina the day before, I expected to sleep during the whole journey to Erfoud where our five-star campsite (hotel) was located near the Sahara Desert. Well, I did not sleep during the ten-hour journey because I was so enthralled by the scenery - a gradual collection of landscapes that meld together to create a real sense of Morocco. This segment of the journey gives the literal meaning to the saying, “It’s not t...
Comments
Post a Comment