While not often visited, the 5,000 hectare Pali Aike National Park offers barren beauty and lunar landscapes, just 200 kilometers northeast of Punta Arenas near the Argentine border. The dry Magellanic steppe is mostly covered in basalt, volcanic craters and caves, which provided shelter to inhabitants thousands of years ago. In the 1930s, an excavation of the Pali Aike Cave uncovered the remains of a prehistoric native horse and giant ground sloth called the milodon, after becoming extinct some 11,000 years ago. Human remains, tools, and cave paintings were also found. Today the semi-desert vegetation is home to roaming herds of guanacos, in addition to foxes, armadillos, pumas, and waterfowl, which can be spotted from the various hiking trails that lead through the rocky terrain. As there is no public transportation to the area, hire a car or book a tour in Punta Arenas. Park admission is $2.

National Park

By Karen Nagy

Karen Nagy is a staff editor/writer at V!VA. She studied travel writing and learned the joys of Mediterranean island-hopping in Greece, and went on...

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