At 4:30 AM, I left my cozy tent, stepping into the freezing -4°C morning to join expert tracker Rodrigo Moraga Zuñiga and guide Nico in a jeep. As we drove through the frosty grasslands of Leona Amarga estancia, we spotted foxes and hares under the headlights, but our main goal was pumas.
Rodrigo scanned the vast land with his heat-detecting binoculars, searching for the big cats. After hours of tracking, he finally found one—“Let’s go, there’s a puma! Vámonos!” Our jeep roared to life, racing toward the sighting.
Pumas, found across the Americas, are usually elusive, but here they roam freely, unbothered by human presence. We followed a female named Escarcha as she silently stalked guanacos, her natural prey. Later, we encountered Petaka and her twin cubs, who walked by us casually, focused on their hunt.
The landscape was breathtaking—rolling plains, towering mountains, and exotic plants like mata negra and calafate bushes. This private reserve, run by twin sisters Dania and Daneska Goic, has created a safe haven for pumas while offering visitors a rare chance to observe them up close.
One unforgettable moment was witnessing a puma chase a guanaco and its baby, leaping effortlessly over a fence in pursuit. Another time, Escarcha caught a baby guanaco and played with it for hours before finally eating it—an intense but eye-opening display of nature’s raw survival.
Walking with pumas in the wild was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, proving that in this remote corner of Chile, humans and wildlife can coexist peacefully.
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