After our last breakfast at Pampa Lodge on Friday the 13th, we grabbed the rest of our luggage and hopped back into a van for the return trip to Puerto Natales, stopping for a self guided tour of the Milodon Cave about 30 minutes out of the city.
The massive cave (200m deep, 80m wide, and 30m tall) is part of a bluff that rises above the surrounding steppe and is relatively young in geological terms, having been carved out of the rock by a prehistorical lake after the ice age. The cave was used as shelter by early humans in the area as well as local mega-fauna, including the giant sloth (Milodon). We didn’t spend a huge amount of time here, but Tori was excited to nerd out over the geology and it was a beautiful area.
After exploring the cave, we wrapped up our time in Puerto Natales with some final souvenir shopping and dinner and prepared ourselves for the bus ride to Punta Arenas the next morning.
