National Parks in South America

Situated way down south on the Southern Patagonian Ice Field is the village of El Chaltén popular amongst hikers, campers and adventurers as a gateway to the Los Glaciares National Park. Stopping in at the ranger’s station close to the entrance of town, visitors can obtain a photocopied map of the national park and venture out by themselves on a number of day trip and overnight hiking trails. Don’t let the photocopied map on an A4 piece of paper discourage you as the trails are well marked and most lead to the same spot at the camp close to Mt. Fitz Roy. The mountain is the tallest in the area, standing at 3,375 m which is small by South American standard’s. It does however create a challenging walk for climbers taking the windy route to the glacial pool situated at the base of the mountain.

The south-west corner of Bolivia, straddling the border to Chile, is a unique area on this planet. It is protected as a national park but the beauty of this region reaches way beyond the borders of the park. The arid altiplano landscape is dotted with volcanoes such as the active Ollagüe (5863 m) where you can see smoke rise from its side, and the perfectly symmetrically shaped Licancabur volcano (5920 m) on the border with Chile.
The park and region is however mostly known for its many lakes that all have different colours from white to blue, green and red. The most famous ones are the Laguna Verde, at the Licancabur volcano and the Laguna Colorado. The colours of these mainly salty lakes come from different algae and plankton. It is this algae that attracts the three different species of flamingos that are present in high numbers at most of the lakes. This area keeps surprising because there is still much more to see. There are geysers and bubbling mud pools at Sol de Mañana, there are hot springs to warm up on a chilly morning, rock formations such as the Arbol de Piedra and there is the rabbit with a long tail called viscacha.

Torres del Paine National Park covers approximately 180,000 acres, and one can easily spend 2-3 days in the park. The area is beautiful and very varied with mountains, glaciers, forests, beautiful ice blue lakes and is covered with fire bushes with bright red flowers. A number of mammals live there, for instance several fox species, guanacos (a llama species), huemuls (a deer species) and pumas - the latter very rarely. It is also here that the mountain range Torres del Paine is located, and when trekking to the higher peaks, it can be a challenge to stand firm on the hillside, where you encounter the wild winds of Patagonia.

This national park is famed for its beautiful beaches. Stretches of sand that slopes into turquoise water and surrounded by soft boulders and dense jungle. There are no roads, only trails leading you from one bay to the next. Small eateries and simple accommodation (hammocks and cabanas) make out the development on this stretch of else wild coast. Tayrona Indians are still inhabiting the forest and you might catch a glance of them while looking for birds and howler monkeys. The park is understandably very popular with locals, but it is not hard to find your own patch of Caribbean paradise under the palms.