Scenes of Puerto Natales

Splendid views of glacier-capped peaks are assured throughout.  

Commencing at the port, a short drive leads to the Plaza de Armas, a pretty, tree-lined square in the centre of town very typical of Chilean small towns with its church, Town Hall (Minicipalidad) and post office clustered around it.  

Continue to the Milodon Cave, in 1896, local resident Captain Eberhard found a scrap of skin and some bones in a large cave near his property that were later determined to be from a Milodon, a prehistoric ground sloth. The story of the Milodon was popularized by Bruce Chatwin's travelogue In Patagonia. Although the Milodon is depicted in a full-size replica at the cave's entrance, most of the Milodon's remains were shipped off to London, which means the real attraction is the 30m-high (98-ft.), 200m-deep (656-ft.) cave itself, which has an eerie, shaggy roof and is surrounded by interesting conglomerate rock formations. An interpretative centre with a few Milodon bones and a display showing the geological formation of the cave provides some interesting additional background. There is also a historical display of the indigenous tribes who inhabited this and nearby caves as far back as 12,000 years ago.