Visiting Patagonia for the first time early this Century, I encountered the Lenticular Patagonia Clouds which were new to me.
We were traveling to Torres del Paine National Park, that I had known for a long time. I belonged to an Italian Alpinism club, where we had an arduous training twice a week. The idea was to be prepared to climbe Torres del Paine horns, which needed to be done within the day. Due to the strong winds of the Patagonia could expel you out into the abysm while rock climbing.
I never had the chance to hike or visit the park as I move to Bolivia. While living in Argentina, I saw many tourist guides recommending visiting Perito Moreno glacier. At my office a colleague mentioned that I should travel to Torres del Paine and also visit the Argentine glacier.
The first Lenticular encounter
Early internet helped find a hotel within the Torres del Paine Park as well the town of Calafate in Argentina.
The hotel was in the South end of the park, more than 20 kilometers away of the landmark horns. To get to the hotel, you needed to park your car in one side of the Serrano River. They would send you a boat to take you and belongings to the other side.
The view of the of the surroundings and Torres del Paine horns was majestic. As we arrived late evening and almost dark, I missed taking images of the sunset. I woke early at around 6AM, thinking it would still be dark, but the sun was already up.
Saw red and pink colored clouds over the horns, rushed to set up the tripod and camera. I was using my 6006 Rollei medium format film camera, which was very noisy. To avoid waking my wife, I covered the camera with towels to reduce the noise.
However, the window was dirty, so needed to open it. As soon as I opened the window, the wind started whistling waking my wife. I was only able to take a few images that came out very good. The Lenticular clouds form mostly in the troposphere, typically in parallel alignment to the wind direction, look like UFO.
Ending my first trip to Patagonia, again I encountered the Lenticular clouds which I register and are in my catalog.
Latest Lenticular encounter
During last week visit to Torres del Paine, I was granted the privilege to have a collection of Lenticular clouds. They looked like a UFO convention, and my camera did not stop registering the many forms I saw.
Some images were taken at sunset 10PM, and some late, as dusk light continued till 11PM.
