torres del paine

I have SO MANY pictures from my week in Patagonia that I'm going to split them up for you.

On our first day, we went to a national park called Torres del Paine. It's famous for its lakes, which are huge and gorgeous and all kinds of different colors.

One of the lakes had glaciers in it...because, you know, that's what you get in Patagonia.

Group shot (minus our hombre, who was taking the picture) by a lake.

We saw tons of alpacas! The weird rock formation in the background is called torres (towers), and it's where the park gets its name.

It was soooo windy everywhere we went -- we're talking winds up to 80 mph! It was a really crazy sensation to step outside and get pushed along by the wind. I was seriously worried about getting blown away.

I wish I had a way to capture the wind...the best I can do is point out the plants that are getting blown sideways.

I don't think I've ever been surrounded by so much natural beauty.

At the end of our tour of the park, we visited a milodon cave. The milodon is a prehistoric mammal (that supposedly looks like this statue) whose remains were discovered here in Chilean Patagonia. Weird, but a good photo op!