Welcome to the heart of Patagonia, where nature paints the most breathtaking canvas.

Rain or shine, this place is beautiful.

I had ventured to the southern reaches of Chile to take you along what's called the route of the parks, and show you some of the important conservation work that is not only protecting the wildlife here, establishing national parks, but protecting this wild and beautiful landscape so that people from all over the world can come and see it.

I'm Alice Ford and we're back in Northern Norway.

This is the Garden Island, Kauai, Hawaii.

As you guys can see, it is absolutely beautiful down here.

The views are just already stunning and.

We are on our way to Antarctica.

So right now we're having a traditional tea here.

Wow.

This adventure begins in the stunning lakeside town of Puerto Varas.

This is part of the lakes region here in Chile.

Well known for its plethora of outdoor adventures, nearby national parks, and the pretty epic backdrop of the Osorno volcano.

I wish we had more time here, but it's just a mere stopover on our couple week journey that's going to take us south through Chile and Patagonia to see some of the most spectacular national parks.

But while we're here, we're going to be meeting with one of the organizations that has been fundamental, not only in establishing seven of the national parks, but helping them be rewilded and all throughout this part of Chile and Argentina too.

Carolina.

It is so nice to meet you.

You're welcome to Chile.

Thank you.

I am so excited to come and explore some of the national parks here.

I spent a good hour with Carolina learning about some of the projects and the keystone species that rewilding Chile is helping to protect.

Much of Patagonia, since the arrival of Europeans has been covered in large ranches, or estancias, as they're called down here.

Thousands of miles of fencing and habitat degradation to the livestock moved wild animals like Puma and Guanaco and Waymo deer to the brink of these habitats, putting many species in danger of extinction through land purchases and help from the Chilean government.

Rewilding Chile has been on a decade plus journey to bring this part of the world back to its natural habitat and with it, repopulate once scattered and minimize populations of wild animals.

And I am here to see just how far we've come.

We work in a section of Chile that is right here.

We are in Puerto Varas and ends in the southern tip of Chile, and we have a promote that area.

And through a name that is the route of parks of Patagonia, it's a it's a territorial vision.

But with a deep conservation vision.

This vision was launched by Douglas Tompkins.

Basically, we work in three areas.

We help create national parks.

And then through rewilding, which is our conservation approach, which is ecological restoration, but in a more dynamic way.

We take care of not only of species that is missing, but, but in every species that needs to be there in the ecosystem and all the interactions between the species.

Just to be clear, this huge territory between Puerto Montt and Cape Horn, it has today in 17 national parks, of those 17, seven Tompkins Conservation help make it concentrates 91% of the acreage and the national park of Chile.

So we're talking about this green land for the planet.

The route of the parks is separated into three distinct zones.

In the north you have the Lakes District, which is where we started, and now we're in the icened region, which is in the middle of Patagonia.

Down in the south, you have the Magallanes Region, which is home to Torres del Pioneer National Park and Tierra del Fuego.

But this region is really distinct for its northern and southern ice fields of the Patagonian Ice Field.

You also have mountains that go into grasslands into the Patagonian steppe and Rewilding Chile has been working for many, many years and not only rehabilitating this area, taking away some of the livestock and agriculture to ranchers and turning them back into native grasslands so that species like the Waymo deer can thrive.

Right now I am with Cristián from Rewilding Chile.

We are just hiking up some deer trails here in the park in search of the Waymo deer.

This is a rather elusive species because they believe there are just around 1500 of these left in the country of Chile, with about 10% of them living here in this park.

Well, Cerro Castillo National Park, is a very special place.

It has the characteristic that an important section of the park is cut by the strand.

So it's a place where, for the first time, many people had the chance to spot to site huemul.

And it represents, unique opportunity for many people for the first time to be in touch to, to see these endangered deer and to be connected with nature, with, the national park and understanding the value of the natural places, also promoting the good behavior of people.

So people should behave properly, respecting the space of the wildlife who has the priority here.

We are just visitors, and we should enjoy and on the landscape, on the nature.

I spent most of the afternoon with Cristián, learning about the way more and getting to spot several as well.

The Waymo is considered the southernmost deer in the world.

It is on the coat of arms for Chile and once roamed all throughout Patagonia.

Overhunting, livestock fencing and habitat encroachment have caused their numbers to decline greatly and force them to change their native migration patterns.

The total estimation for the population is about 1500 individuals in total, so not many, and they are just, distributed in the south of Chile and Argentina.

The issue that these species face is that the population is distributed in these small and fragmented groups.

So the connectivity in the long term is an issue.

And of course, these species face different challenges along the distribution in some areas.

We have issues with disease on huemul.

You know, there is they are really at the very top of the mountains, without access for wintering ideas and good quality of food in winter.

So it's, a real challenge, to recover these species and is super important for the ecosystem in Patagonia.

Of course, the species is keystone and interact with other species like pumas, foxes, condors.

We share these species with Argentina along the end.

So yeah, of course it requires, cooperation between countries as well.

Now, not just a single country, but also, a large scale perspective for the future of these species and the ecosystems where these species is blessed.

The unique thing about Cerro Castillo is that unlike a lot of national parks that have a really big swath of connected land, this park has just these little sections here and there because it's that's the amount of land that they've been able to buy so far and protect, but it's not necessarily connected.

And there's a lot of farmland that's still on the outskirts and within this area that they'd like to have protected, which means there's a lot of fencing and that can really segregate the deer from being able to migrate or move freely in the area.

So being able to see this many, that was really, really cool thing.

And I've got one more stop today because Cristián actually told me about this cool prehistoric site that is up the road from here.

There are supposed to be some handprints.

I'm not sure if they're painted or if they're pressed into the rocks.

But they're really old, and it's something that we definitely have to go check out.

So that's where we're heading now.

Well, welcome to the wall of hands.

Now, this is an old slate, these handprints that you can see behind me are they think around 3000 years old or newer.

There was actually a tradition here that goes back about 10,000 years where people would paint their hands on walls in what is now Patagonia in Argentina and Chile.

Now, these are actually negative handprints.

So people would put their hands on the wall and then they would blow paint over the backs of their hands, leaving what's called a negative handprint.

I'm going to get up close here so you guys can take a look Today we're not deer tracking.

We're actually hiking.

Now.

This park is actually really unique because most of it's actually not open to the public.

There are just a few trails that they open in the summer season here, which is our winter for people to be able to explore.

There's a four day backpacking trail, and then there's also a couple other trails like go up to Cerro Castillo Peak and some of the neighboring alpine lakes.

And that's what I'm going to be doing today, going up to Lago, Cerro Castillo, which is said to be really beautiful, and I'm really excited to see it.

Well, it is nearly impossible to get just the scope of what this landscape looks like up here is just so vast and just incredible.

On one side of the river you can see the Patagonian steppe.

Far down in the distance, you can see where the two rivers actually unite, where the brown water meets this turquoise blue.

And then you have the mountains and the forest on the side.

We are almost at the lake, and this trail is certainly steep, but I think it's going to have a pretty big reward.

I mean, honestly, it already has with just these views.

Well, this is certainly a place that will absolutely take your breath away.

I don't care how many hikes you've done and places around the world.

The water here is just this unbelievable color of blue.

I've never seen anything this vibrant, this rich in turquoise in nature until now.

This is definitely a hike that's going to go in my my record books.

of the best hikes for sure.

All right, friends, I am back at the car where we started this hike and now it's time to hop back in the car, get back on the road down the Carretera Austral, and head south to the waterfront town of Puerto Tranquilo.

Welcome to what's called the Marble Chapel or Marble Cathedral.

This rock formation behind me is absolutely beautiful, but it's going to get better because this actually creates some caves and we're about to paddle right through them.

Marble is slightly soluble in water, so over just a few thousand years, this corridor of marble eroded.

Combine that with the crystal clear blue glacial waters of this lake, and it's formed a place of bewildering beauty with countless caves, mazes, columns and tunnels in the marble.

I've paddled Jersey caves and many parts of coastal California and other parts of the world, but never anything quite like this and never anything made of marble.

The water here is about 15m deep, so give or take around 50ft.

Yeah, and the reflection from the sun and the sky off this water and into these marble caverns is just absolutely incredible.

I continued my journey by road along the narrow dirt road of the Carretera Austral, to reach one of the other national parks started by the Tompkins Patagonia National Park.

This was one of the parks created by the Tompkins and Explorer Lodge is such a special place because, much like the Tompkins, they're also trying to conserve land.

They have a goal of conserving 10 million hectares in the next ten years.

Right now, they're at about a million, and they've bought some land nearby this park right outside Torres del Paine as well.

But we'll be expanding that reach all across the world, trying to protect more and more land.

Now, over the next couple of days, I'm going to be exploring this park.

As you can see, there's also already some wildlife here, some guanacos, but I'm going to be taking two full days here in the park to be able to explore this just wild landscape, very different from the last park here along the route of the parks.

But I'm going to give you a quick room tour here at the Lodge, and then we're going to head off for some adventures.

Explora Lodge is the only hotel inside Parque Patagonia, offering exclusive access to the wildlife and landscape.

The lodge itself is set in several buildings, blending into the natural surroundings, built with stone from local quarries and recycled wood with copper for the roofs, it was built with sustainability at the forefront.

The rooms are spacious, feeling more like a private apartment than a hotel, and the grounds also feature a spa and hot tub, restaurant, bar and lounge, and of course, unparalleled access to adventure.

The lodge is also located at the park information center and headquarters, so anyone coming into this park will pass through here.

You can grab lunch, dinner, check out something at the store and get your entrance ticket to the park.

Today is my first of all day exploring this park, and you know, we're starting off with a hike up to a place called Lago Chico.

This is a pretty popular hike here in this park, and I'm going to be joined by my expert guide from Explora, Poncho, who's going to be pointing out some of the best things to take a look at here in the park.

The landscape here could not have felt more different than Cerro Castillo, with huge rolling hillsides of grasslands that dipped into the valleys full of icy glacier water that always seemed to be the perfect shade of blue.

We are just approaching Lago Chico.

This hike has been absolutely beautiful.

We've been hiking through the Langa forest, but years ago this was actually all cut down for livestock, sheep, cattle and these trees are now regrowing.

It's just really incredible to see how much the forests and the grasslands here have regrown.

After years and years of animals being grazed in here, and the views along this hike have been incredible.

There's a huge lake that we passed on the way up here, and we're off to this little lake behind me here.

Logo Chico.

Just amazing.

I cannot wait to get down there.

This trail just goes right around the lake all the way around.

It's just absolutely beautiful.

A perfect day today.

This hike is a lot less strenuous than the one we did in Cerro Castillo, and in my opinion, a lot more beautiful too.

As we come around the bottom side of Lago Chico, we have these fantastic views of Lake Cochran behind me.

And like many afternoons here in Patagonia, the wind has picked up and it might just blow me away.

But we've got a couple more kilometers left to get around this lake.

And man, is it beautiful.

The land here was once part of the region's largest sheep and cattle ranch, which operated for over 100 years.

Ranching has done a lot of damage to the landscape, not only in driving out native animals, but degrading the grasslands too.

When Douglas and Christine Tompkins first came to this area of Patagonia, looking out over these vast territories, much of the land was separated by fences and full of cattle and sheep, while grazers and predators had been pushed high into the mountains.

Now, it's often that the land that is the most suitable to wildlife is also the most economically attractive to land developers and farmers, which means in order to safeguard wildlife and healthy ecosystems, it's imperative to also protect and restore these landscapes just like this, to their native habitat.

And that's just what the Tompkins thought too, when they looked out over this landscape at the crystal clear lakes, the rolling hills and the distant mountains that captivate you to your core.

Now, Doug Tompkins died in 2015, tragically, in a kayaking accident in the very lake I had only been in just days before.

But he survived by his wife, Christine, who's head of Tompkins Conservation, and she is a fiercely determined doer that will inspire all of us to believe we can make a difference.

And I have the pleasure to sit down with her and ask her just how these big dreams became reality.

I'm the chairman of the board of Rewilding Chile in Chile.

I do a lot of writing and talking, but my love is being on the ground.

I still love strategy.

I still love figuring out how to work with presidents and other people whom you really need to have on your side to make these larger things happen.

I love all that stuff.

I have no interest in stopping.

What can anyone do today to help?

I think it's two things.

One, decide.

I mean really decide.

I'm going to start working for the things I love.

And, two, ask yourself, what am I good at?

And then where ever you are, you could be in Paris or Timbuktu.

You will find people.

And if you're young, ask somebody to help you find the people and you go do what you're good at.

You know that saying if you can accomplish everything you wanted to do during your lifetime, then you're not thinking big enough.

I love that!

I do too.

one of the species Rewilding Chile, and Tompkins Conservation has worked hard to bring back is the puma.

It's an animal I longed to see on this trip.

It is so vital for healthy ecosystems to have a balance of predators and prey, to keep plants and wildlife in balance.

And here in Parque Patagonia, the best way of bringing back the puma was to bring back its favorite prey species, which was the guanaco.

And there are tons of them here in these healthy grasslands.

But in order to bring them back, they had to take down those fences.

They had to remove the livestock.

And when they did, these grazers came back in full force.

And with them.

So did the Pumas.

Since coming down here to Patagonia, one thing I've wanted to see is a puma.

And tonight it was just so lucky.

It actually planned on after dinner, just going out on one of the hillsides here with some hot tea and my cameras and just waiting and hoping.

And when I left dinner, I didn't even have to do that because there he was.

I have heard over and over again from the people that work in these parks, that they want people to come and have these experiences with wildlife, because you can't protect a place until you love that place if you don't see it with your own eyes, if you don't experience these fantastic moments that you can have when you come into these places, seeing the views, having experiences like I just had with that Puma, then you won't want to protect it.

So we need more people to have the opportunity to come and spend time in nature, because that is what is going to make conservation happen.

And that's why I make this show, so that people can fall as much in love with nature as I've fallen in love with it my entire life.

What are the most important valleys here in the park is called the Chacabuco Valley.

It has some of the most expansive grasslands and is home to several hiking trails at which I was traveling along today.

This park is one of the largest grasslands restorations in the entire world, and when you reestablish those species, come back.

One of the first ones to come back in this part of the world is this one behind me, the guanaco.

Now, these are in the camelid species very closely related to the llama.

The guanaco aren't just fun to watch, but they're also one of the keystone species here, feeding on 75% of all the plant species in the Patagonian steppe.

They're great for dispersing seeds, fertilizing the ground, and they have high reproductive rates, providing food for large carnivores like puma.

One of the other really important projects that Rewilding Chile is doing here in this park is helping to protect the giant Andean condor.

Now, this is the largest scavenger bird on Earth.

They have a wingspan of up to ten feet across.

They can also live up to 70 years old.

And this species has been brought to the brink of extinction and is just starting to be rehabilitated here.

I've seen many flying the skies here in the park, which is a really good sign, but they're super important to the ecosystem.

And here in Patagonia National Park, they actually have a rehabilitation center where there are a few Andean condors.

We've been invited over there to take a closer look at these massive birds this morning, and I am really looking forward to seeing them.

Condors are like lobsters.

They mate for life and they spend 6 to 8 months just courting each other.

A female has just one egg at a time that takes about 60 days to hatch, and then these little guys usually stay in the nest for 6 to 8 months.

So that's a long time, which means there's usually only one.

Andean Condor born to a couple every two years, which is one of the reasons why reestablishing the population of these birds has been so difficult.

Luckily, this is a wonderful place for condors.

I've seen about a dozen over the last few days flying in the sky, and soon these guys will be joining all of the ones flying free.

This is such an amazing place, Patagonia.

I have had just the most wonderful time here, and all these opportunities that I have been given to be able to meet up with Rewilding Chile, learn about the conservation work that they're doing, and learn more about these really unique species that are so important for the ecosystem here, like the Andean condor today is just I'm very fortunate and I pinch myself every day being able, to be able to have these experiences and share them with you.

And I hope that in watching this video, if you didn't already understand how important it is to conserve species to protect the landscapes, I hope this gave you a little bit more of an insight picture into why it's important to do these things.

Ecosystems like this, before it was brought back, as you saw when we walked through that farm, the land was just devoid of almost anything.

And look at what it looks like when it's healthy.

Just incredible.

And I hope you guys have enjoyed exploring Patagonia National Park with me.

Our adventures here in Patagonia aren't over yet, so I'll see you in the next episode.

And as always, never stop exploring.