Mar 03 - Santiago here we are !

Mar 03 - Santiago here we are !

After a leisurely breakfast we headed out to explore Santiago. 

First stop was the hardware shop to get Steve a set of allen keys for his camera tripod which the fascist security at Birmingham airport had decided were dangerous weapons and confiscated them. 
A friendly English speaking Santiagoan helped out to get us what was needed. Everyone is so friendly, very unusual for such a big city and we are sure that everybody is going to be easy to get on with.

Then on to the central market where every kind of fish and shellfish was available. Santiago and Valparaiso have great seafood.

Steve was hating this, complaining about the smell of fish even though it was minor compared with the stench of penguin poo we had experienced 

We then spotted a city bus tour and decided that was the best way to get our bearings, so we headed off to the office to buy our tickets.

Now we had had several warnings about looking after our belongings and trying to remain low key for safety reasons in Santiago, but the tour bus company blew that out the water ! All we needed was a neon sign and we would have had the full set………

Fortunately for us, Santiago while a big city (9 million people and half the population of Chile) had none of the edginess of Buenos Aires and felt much more friendly and safe. Everyone we encountered was friendly which for a big city was really great.

We were very glad we did the city tour when we realised how vast this city is ! We would never have covered the ground the tour did. We were on the bus for 3 hours and just covered the main central areas. It let us see which areas we wanted to try & visit in more depth and was a great introduction.

There is a real street culture here and the area we are staying in has lots of great bars and restaurants, so we strolled out in the evening to a little area in La Sterria and had some beers, Chilean wine & pisco sours in a bar on the street and ended up spending the evening there watching the world go by. 

Not a bad way to spend an evening !!

Mar 02 - Farewell Patagonia - hello Paul and Mandy !!

Tomas drove us down to Puerto Natales the nearest town where we said farewell and took our transfer down to Punto Arenas for our flight to Santiago. We were very sad to leave this beautiful place and the thought of the largest city in Chile does not have too much appeal at the moment !!

The drive took 4 hours through the flat and seemingly endless steppes of the Andean plains. We were already missing the mountains and views of Patagonia but looking forward to meeting up with Paul & Mandy in Santiago this evening.

Our driver was a real character. He was a chef who had been working in Antarctica on the Worlsley expedition where Worlsely who had tried to follow Shackleton’s path across Antarctica but had to be medi vac’d to Punto Arenas and sadly died. 
Cesar had also worked in Santiago and was full of useful recommendations & suggestions.

When he heard we had seen a Puma and a Huemel in Torres del Paine, he dropped us off saying he was off to buy a lottery ticket as he was channelling our luck !!

We arrived in Santiago after a 4 hour flight, this country is so long & thin, the distances are immense.Flying in over it, the city is vast. It has a population of 8 million (of a total Chilean population of 16 million !) and is surrounded by the Andes as a dramatic backdrop.

At 26 degrees and humid, we were already desperate to get rid of our hiking boots and thick socks !!

When we got to the hotel, Paul and Mandy had decided to deal with jetlag by self medicating with Pisco Sours at a local hostelry !!  We caught up with them at round two and tried our best to catch up. Great to all be together again & ready for the next stage of our adventure !!

Mar 1st - Patagonia Finale

Mar 1st - Patagonia Finale

Our last day in Patagonia dawned with true Patagonian weather. We couldn’t see the mountains at all, the wind was ferocious and the rain like bullets. 
As we needed some time to sort our gear out and pack for tomorrow, Tomas suggested it would be better to do that this morning as the weather was going to clear a bit by lunchtime.

In the afternoon, it was looking better, so we headed out round the other side of Lake Sormiento for a hike round the lake. It was full Patagonian wind and the lake which had been like glass yesterday was crashing against the beach today but it was really beautiful. Noticeable was the bright turquoise colour caused by the white coral like rock of this unusual lake.

As the afternoon wore on, the wind dropped again and we had a beautiful day again. We then went out to the Estancia on the edge of the National Park to see how the ranches in the area were organised.  

The Gauchos stopped by and had a drink

There was a lovely wooded area near the main Estancia and we went in there to have another view of the top of the lake and as we drove through Tomas spotted a female Great Horned Owl. We stopped and got out to see it and higher up in the branches there was the male. Next moment another female flew in, we had found an owl family all staring at us.

Two gauchos from the Estancia came by and said hello to us. Tomas showed them the owls which they hadn’t seen before. They were given a drink from our truck and after a chat, they were on their way presumably to do gaucho stuff.

The Great Horned Owl living in the estancia.  




Nowadays, Gauchos are heavily involved in tourism using their horse skills.

A lovely end to our wonderful time in Patagonia. A truly beautiful wilderness.

Tee shirts in the morning and then........

The Chile Argentina Border -
gate is opened by a junior soldier

28 Feb - Patagonia continued

28 Feb - Patagonia continued

The best bedroom view ever

We opened our shutters this morning to see the most fantastic view of the Massif Central & the Towers in glorious sunshine. Just stunning….. our weather luck was holding !!

After breakfast we headed out again with Tomas for another day exploring. Our first stop was on a small lake where some Pink Flamingos had landed. We trekked round to get some better shots and Steve’s new lens proved handy again !

The Lago Amarga was calm & beautiful in the morning and the reflection of the Massif in the sunshine was just lovely.From there we went to the Lago Azur and had a trek round the lake following the river round to a waterfall which divided the two lakes. The scenery all the way round was just breathtaking.

Little not so furry friend

While Steve was setting up his best photography shot at the waterfall, Janette wandered off and heading down a path nearly trod on an little armadillo !  Very cute.

Stunning Waterfall dividing 2 lakes

The scenery everywhere is so different. From here we could see the Horns of the range instead of the Towers we see from our hotel. It was just beautiful

The Horns

For lunch Tomas had brought a picnic and set up at a little picnic site near the lake with a great view of the Massif. However, Patagonian weather had other plans !  We had just set everything up and the wind picked up, the mist came down, the rain started and you couldn’t see a foot in front of you. It was very funny. We hung on to the table cloth and after 5 mins the wind dropped, the sun came out, the mountains reappeared from the mist and all was well.

We were packing up to move on to our next stop when a pretty deer came wandering through the picnic site and came right over to where we were. We thought, pretty deer, but then Tomas our ranger nearly had a fit and when we turned round all the Chileans in the area were running over with cameras, cell phones trying to take pictures of it !

It turned out to be a Huemul, the Andean deer that is the emblem of Chile and extremely rare. There are only 1000 in the world and 40 in the whole Torres del Paine national park. 
Tomas had not seen one for several months and even then only at a distance, so the fact it had decided to join us for lunch was pretty special apparently !

In the afternoon we walked round Lake Sormiento which is an alkaline lake which houses bacteria that produce oxygen. They leave calcium carbonate deposits round the lake as the water recedes so the whole lake is surrounded by coral like orbs, very surreal….its like Mars.

Another day of stunning scenery and great luck with the weather and the wildlife. 

Back to the hotel to soak our feet and have a nice dinner with some good Chilean wine !