Adventures in Patagonia

Sunday evening I purchased a plane ticket from Santiago to Punta Arenas, in the southern tip of Chile.  Though the purchase was quite spontaneous, I have long since wanted to visit this part of Chile to explore Patagonia.  After arriving in Punta Arenas, I took the bus to Puerto Natales and spent the night in a great hostel, Erratic Rock, full of backpackers setting off to or returning from hiking through the area´s national park, Torres del Paine (¨towers of blue¨).  Since my time was limited, I scheduled two day-trips to see the park.  Wednesday we took a bus through the park, taking hikes to visit a glacier, lakes, lagoons and a waterfall.  That night I met up with a couple other travelers to go to a free wine tasting in a restaurant near the port.  We  sampled many Chilean tintos and blancos and filled up on the hors d’oeuvre, comically finding out afterward we had crashed an invite-only party.  My trip the next day was the most enjoyable.  We set off from the port in Puerto Natales to visit a glacier-fed waterfall and  a cormorant colony and then docked for a hike back to the Serrano Glacier.   The sky finally cleared as we walked along the edge of the lagoon to the glacier.  It was gorgeous.  From the group, only four of us were brave enough to complete the trip on a zodiac, an inflated boat.  We cruised up the Serrano River getting splashed by water and pounded by the cold mountain wind.  Fortunately they supplied us with over-sized, orange floatation suits that also provided much warmth and protection from the elements.  Our view of the torres (towers) was spectacular.

Friday I flew north to Puerto Montt to meet my mom.  A delayed flight in Atlanta caused her to miss her fight out of Santiago, but she eventually made it to where I was waiting.  We immediately set off for Chiloé, an island covered with small fishing villages and farmland, set in the Pacific Ocean.  For dinner last night we tried curanto, a native dish made with every meat imaginable and decided it was a little too much for us.  Today, after doing some shopping in the artesan markets, we taxi ride along the coast to where a boat took us out to visit a penguin colony located on a couple small islands.  We both found it beautiful.  I am so happy to be able to have my mom here and she is equally enjoying being in such a unique place.

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