I Cave In: Puerto Natales, Chile

In the cave looking at.

It was a full dat trekking through Torres Del Paine, but there was one more Chilean national park on the day's agenda: Monumento Natural Cueva del Milodón, or the Milodon Cave.

The Milodon Cave is (1) a cave, where (b) the milodon used to live.

Here is a milodon:

OK. It's only a silhouette of what a milodon looked like. The milodon is an extinct giant sloth. It lived in the cave, along with its pals the saber-toothed tiger, the Patagonian panther, an early horse, and the still plentiful guanaco lived in peace, love, and harmony, except when one was the meal of the other. THe milodon and the saber-toothed tiger, at least, not sure of the others, became extinct somewhere after the end of the last period of glaciation ended. Like the Woolly Mammoth in North America, there is debate among scientists as to what led to the extinction of "megafauna," as the large animals of that era are now called. What is climate change, which most certainly was occurring at that time with the retreat of the glaciers back to Antarctica where they belong? Or was it the arrival of the super-predator homo sapiens? There is no scientific consensus on this.

The cave is not go deep into the rocks. It's deep enough to offer protection from the elements. But it's not a deep underground chamber of tunnels.

It's only a short hiking loop to see the entire cave.

Humans did not live here. There is a very interesting, fairly-recently discovered Early Man site in Central Chile near the City of Puerto Montt that is around the same age as the Meadowcroft Rockshelter outside of Pittsburgh, both of which have destroyed the notion of Clovis, New Mexico, being the site of the earliest known human habitation in the New World. Clovis was the cornerstone of the "Land Bridge from Asia" theory as to how man arrived in the Americas, as the archaeological findings found there aligned perfectly with when the so-called "Land Bridge" would have been open during the Last Ice Age. The theory made no sense. Early crossed a "land bridge" between Siberia and Western Alaska and, suddenly, without leaving any trace of having been anywhere else, ended up in New Mexico? That makes sense. Both Monte Verde in Central Chile and Meadowcroft Rockshelter pre-date the opening of the "Land Bridge" and both have unique characteristics that led to the preservation of the historic record. No one is claiming that either Monte Verde or Meadowcroft were the very first places humans colonized the Americas. The claim -- and right now it is a very viable claim -- is that these are the oldest "known" records. Anyway, the Milodon Cave is younger than Monte Verde (and Meadowcroft) and was not the site of "Early Man." Just the home of fascinating and now-extinct megafauna.

And that's good enough.

The tourists visiting the cave do not seem unduly concerned by the presence of a milodon at the mouth of the cave.

(Actual size)

Time to head back to Punta Arenas. But, first, a stop in downtown Puerto Natales, to gas up.

Puerto Natales is a small city between Torres Del Paine and Punta Arenas. They love their milodon here:

What a nice way to be welcomed into town. By a mega-predator.

Puerto Natales, being a port, is located on a gulf off the Pacific Ocean. It has its own mini-version of "Los Dendos," the Fingers, also known as the "Ahogados."

Who does "Los Dendos" better? Puerto Natales, Chile?

Or Punta Del Este, Uruguay?

By the way, the name "Ahogados" is Punta Del Este refers to "The Drowned." This is a monument to victims of drowning, as the fingertips are the last thing you see,

Anyway, the hour was getting late. Time for the final push back to Punta Arenas.

To get to Torres Del Paine and back, we take Ruta 9, Route 9, known on signage as "La Ruta a la Fin del Mundo." The Route to the End of the World. Ruta 9 ends at the southern tip of the South American landmass, just south of Punta Arenas. One of the great names for a road anywhere.