11 days of diary entries in Patagonia

"The holiday with Pura Aventura was an amazing adventure. We loved every minute of it. The hiking in Patagonia was probably the best we have ever done, and the scenery was amazing. The trip around the Puna area in Northern Argentina was breathtaking and unlike anything we have experienced before (not only because of the high altitude, but the huge landscapes and ever changing scenery)."
 

Our tour-guide, Christian, who is a professor at one of the Universities in Santiago, met us at the hotel and showed us around town. Santiago on Sunday morning was very quiet. The weather was very nice, clear blue sky at about 15°C. 

We came across a large group of Mapuche people gathering at the park. They were all dressed up in traditional clothing. National guards were everywhere in central Santiago. Some of important buildings and roads were blocked. Nevertheless, Chris managed to show us historic places and gave advice for places to eat!

After Chris dropped us off at the hotel, we took a quick shower and went back to Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art again. It was very interesting and made us understand more about people who lived here before Spanish came to Chile. After we finished with the museum, we just got something to eat at one of local restaurant near the main square. We didn't really know what or how to order the food. We asked the young couple at the next table as their food looked really nice. They were very friendly and helped us order our food. Tummy full, time to explore more of Santiago before going back to the hotel for a rest. That's all for our first day of the trip!

We managed to see a lot of Santiago. From old town (some parts are full of graffiti) to the new financial, business and residential area with very nice-looking restaurants, parks, clean streets and shopping areas. Nice to see both sides of one city! 

It was so nice to see Santiago old town area in early morning. People were catching the bus and getting on with their routines. Early market starts trading. Hustle-bustle of city life. 

Goodbye Santiago! 

Flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas was full.  Arrived at Punta Arenas after 1pm. By the time we picked our hire car it was nearly 2pm. Lovely quirky boutique hotel. Dumped the bags, had lunch at the hotel and went out for walk around the town. We were very lucky with the weather so far. Say no more, pictures as follow!

Went out for walk to the lighthouse at San Isidro and visited Fuerte Bulnes, the fort which became the first permanent settlement in the region in the mid-19th century. 

We then went to have lunch at the museum, following by visitting Fuerte Bulnes.  By the time we got back to the hotel was quite late so we decided to have dinner at the hotel. That's all for today.  Overall, it was a good long day!

It's early start today as we board the boat out into the straits. We were travelling 35km north towards Isla Magdalena, home to a colony of around 40,000 breeding pairs of Magellanic penguins. 

Got back to Punta Arenas about 11.30am, then got our car and drove to Puerto Natales. The road Ruta 9 north was wide-open landscapes and so windy. 

Some parts of the road were so straight, seemed like the road to nowhere!  We saw some wild guanaco by the side of the road. We arrived at Puerto Natales about after 4.00pm. Ready for more adventure tomorrow.

Steve drove to one of the local farms by the mountain so we could start our hike from there. I couldn't believe myself how high it was! After hiking through open hillside, we could see beautiful Lake Sofia and views up the valley north towards the mountains near Torres del Paine. We could see condors flying above our head. 

An absolutely wow morning. Our guide Jacqui is a geologist, so she explained all about landscape, the plants in the area, how the locals lives. We also saw male and female Magellanic woodpeckers together, eagles, condors and so many other birds. 

We were also saw ancient cave paintings. It was so nice to have the local knowledge to explain things to us. It was about a 7 km hike. We were so hungry by the time we finished hiking. We didn't come across any tourists at all. 

After lunch, we did another hike. This time it was shorter but quite steep. We saw 10 condors flying around at the same time. We couldn't really believe our luck! 

After we finished the hiking, we went to the shore of Lake Sofia.  It was very windy by the lake.  We then headed back to the hotel.  We had a very lovely day with Jacqui. Now time to relax and prepare for tomorrow! 

Today we enjoyed a bit of a lie in (up at 07.20) and after a lovely breakfast, we checked out, packed the car and headed off towards the Torres del Paine national park.

After we turned off the Ruta 9, the road was around 60% gravel. There were paved sections between gravel ones which had quite deep potholes, so you had to be vigilant or you may end up damaging a tyre or worse. The views on the way just kept getting better and better until we reached our hotel. 

Wow, wow, wow! 

The view of mountains from our room is absolutely stunning! We stayed in the 'pueblo' Rio Serrano, a sort of seasonal village on a wide flat area in a bend in the Serrano river.  It's going to be a very busy next two days so I'm happy to give my body a bit of a rest today and enjoy the scenery around the hotel!

Our tour guide Kote and the driver Chistian picked us up at about 8.00am. Christian drove about 2 hours on the gravel roads, up and down, passing through flat land full of sheep, cattle and wild guanacos. We saw a fox and loads of big rabbits.

We went through some wet land, dried wood and saw evidence of wildfires. Kote said there were wildfires in 2005 and 2011. In 2005, a tourist accidentally overturned a gas stove. The result: about 15,000 hectares of nature burnt.

In 2011, about 17,000 hectares of the park were affected by a fire caused by another tourist who burnt toilet paper in the woods at the shore of Grey Lake. Thousands of animals died during these tragic events and all tourists were evacuated from the park.

We stopped for lunch at a perfect spot overlooking the mountains, after which we carried on hiking up and down. After lunch it started drizzling. There were only 3 of us in the whole place.

I thought we might come across a Puma. But we were not that lucky! Then we reached the place overlooking the Rio Serrano. Wow, the scenery below was absolutely stunning. The problem is, we had to start going down the mountain. It was very steep and scary! I didn't realise how steep it was! We followed Kote very closely. She was very patient guiding us downhill.

Today, we visited the Grey Glacier on Lago Grey. The check in for the boat was at 12.00, which gave us time for a short lie in. We left the hotel just after 10.00.

The view from the hotel was stunning. I could take hundreds photos of the icebergs. I think our boat had probably about 70 passengers today but could take about 100 people.

There were only 2 boats per day. (Only what I could see) Some people got off to do hiking into French valley or other places. The boat trip took about 2.5 hours plus walking time on the beach.

I didn't realise that this lake has no fish or other living creatures! 

After we got off the boat, we drove further into Torres del Paine National Park, to take photos of the high peak of the mountain before heading back to the hotel. We were very lucky with the weather. 

Today it was time to return to Puerto Natales. Following advice from Rosario, our point of contact in the Puerto Natales area, we took the road back via the east side of the park, which turned out to be a great decision. 

On the way we had one last hike to Mirador Cuernos via Salta Grande (waterfalls). We were advised to get there early as it was one of the most popular hikes in the park. We left the hotel at around 08.30 and after a bit of a delay due to roadworks, we arrived at the Salta Grande car park at about 09.40. Lucky there were only two other cars there. 

We hiked to Mirador Cuernos and we were the only 2 people in sight. By the time we finished taking photos there were loads more people there. On the way back, we saw guanacos very closely again. More photos! 

Scenery was different from the west side of the park but still spectacular. We stopped time to time for more photos until we arrived at Puerto Natales!

We are so sad to have to say goodbye to Chile. The people we met and places we went were all very nice. This place will be in my memories for a long time!