Our Travel Tales
We spent the day wandering around Puerto Natales, reading and generally chilling.
Had a great feed at Cafe Artimaña- although we were surprised at the 55,000 peso bill ($120). The two double whiskeys didn’t help (bought a decent 750ml bottle in the supermarket for $25). I won 4 cribbage games on the trot to take it to 6 each.
The dogs again were very cool. Deryn and I chased the dood below several times over the course of the day trying to get a photo. He looked like a lion.
We are staying in a lovely little hotel called Toore Patagonia https://www.toorepatagonia.com/en-gb.
We spent a very lazy day wandering around the town. The town was bigger than we expected and we found some useful stores – a shop to buy a portable speaker and a supermarket in which we bought supplies for dinner and breakfast. First home cooked meal in a week.
It was a cold, cloudy and windy day but occasionally when the clouds broke we could see the snowy mountains in the distance, hinting at the beauty to come.
Our 5 day W trek starts tomorrow.
We headed out early evening to go have dinner at the Nam en el Cerro Santa Lucia – a festival of produce from around Chile. And also to see the sun set from the Castillo Hidalgo at the peak of the hill.
The produce was amazing and the view of Santiago spectacular. It was fun exploring the nooks and crannies at the peak. We bought some free range eggs from a local who had spent 2 years on a dairy farm in Geraldine .
We grabbed an Uber to the airport the following morning and found out on route that Ubers are not allowed at the airport. 10 minutes of Google translate and a friend on the drivers phone resulted in us agreeing we were familia and would be discrete in the payment of cash (Uber would not work)
After a 3.15 flight, we landed in Punta Arena (53.10 Deg South) – the most southern part of our journey – or in fact as far south either of us have ever been
We decided to walk the 5km down Catedral to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. The first couple of km’s took us through the main shopping precinct before crossing over the Autopista Central and into the grungy part of town.
We were walking through a part of town that had certainly had better days. However the former glory was still evident in quality of the buildings, although today the graffiti was competing for attention.
The Museum itself was confronting, particularly when you think that the military regime only ended in 1989
And to finish – another photo of these crazy Santiago dogs…
We got the first lesson of our travels before we even left Sydney. You cannot enter Chile without a ticket out of the place. So $42 later 2 bus tickets were purchased taking us from Puerto Natales to El Calafete in Argentina.
We (I) coped ok with the overnight to Santiago in the back of the plane and before we knew it we were in out little apartment in the heart of old Santiago.
We spent the afternoon exploring San Cristóbal Hill – a funicular to the top followed by a teleferico from one end to the other. A great way to get view across the whole of Santiago. A bit of a shame that the pollution prevented us from seeing the distant mountains. Also the statue of the Virgin Mary was spoiled by being surrounded by radio masts.
The next morning we explored our local area, visiting the main Santiago Cathedral (worth a visit) and also the Pre-Columbian Museum.
Some highlights / observations to date:
