This update includes that reason but let’s start where we left off – leaving Punta Arenas.
Moving day on Sunday was pretty uneventful, which is always nice. We wanted to go back to Be Happy for breakfast but they weren’t open yet and so we found a little café not too far from the bus station and had really good croissants along with juices and hot chocolate. Our new friend, Vanita (from Switzerland, whom we met on the bus from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas), happened to walk in while we were there so we got to chat with her a little more about her upcoming plans. Our bus left Punta Arenas at 12:30pm and pulled into Puerto Natales at 3:45. We grabbed a taxi to our house in the suburbs (Puerto Natales isn’t big enough to have suburbs – 18,000 people – but we are a 45-minute walk from the main plaza).
After settling into our new home, we walked down to the grocery store – well, first we looked for a place to eat dinner, but we couldn’t find anything open on a Sunday evening in our neighborhood. We got our groceries and picked up the fixings for turkey sandwiches and had those for dinner. We then watched some of the Saturday Night Live 50 Year Anniversary celebrations and headed to bed.
The weather on Monday caused us to change our plans and just stay in all day. It was raining hard on and off all day and the winds were gusting over 50mph. We had our normal breakfast food – bananas and cereal, we had turkey and cheese sandwiches for lunch, and then we made spaghetti for dinner. We worked on the journal and Sandy had a chance to catch up on the phone with Sara B. in the afternoon. It was just a great day to spend inside and watch the weather outside.
Tuesday’s weather was better – still windy, but no rain to deal with. We combined our plans for Monday with our plans for Tuesday and went out to walk all over Puerto Natales. We checked out a couple of gyms to see which would be best for our purposes – they do have a municipal gym that is free, but the weight equipment needs some love – beautiful building though. We walked a section of the waterfront. Several artworks are placed along the waterfront, including a monument to the mylodon. The mylodon was like a ground sloth or type of bear that lived more than 10,000 years ago. Remains of a mylodon were found in a cave just outside Puerto Natales in the late 1800s.
We stopped into Transprint Patagonia to get information on potential day tours we had our eyes on. Francisco and Cecilia were super helpful. For lunch, we went to Mesita Grande and had what we thought was one of our favorite pizzas – the crust was slightly overcooked, but the cheese was excellent. It reminded us of the pizza we liked so much when we were first in Buenos Aires several years ago. After lunch, we spent time in the History Museum to learn more about this part of Chile. It’s a small but full-of-information museum. They do a good job of describing the persecution that the indigenous people endured when the European immigrants arrived – not unlike the experience in North America. It’s aggravating to reflect upon. We needed to get some more groceries so we went to a couple of grocery stores in the center of town and then walked home. For dinner, we took an Uber back into the center and ate at El Bote – excellent restaurant with a focus on fish. Sandy had a huge piece of grilled salmon and I had three filets of Chilean Sea Bass, both with sauteed vegetables. I didn’t know it was going to be so much fish and it was great. We took an Uber home and then caught up with Brian while he was driving to a concert in Tampa. I stayed up and watched the Lightning game. Uber is very inexpensive here – we are able to use it to get into the center for around $3 each ride. The 45-minute walk is fine if we have the time, but sometimes it is just nice to get the journey done in ten minutes.
We learned late Tuesday night that 98% of Chile had lost power due to a malfunction in electronic and software protection systems. Fortunately, our district (Magallanes) is a part of the 2% that kept power. And it was still fine on Wednesday when we woke up. We did a four-mile run down to the waterfront and along it. While out, we stopped back into Transprint Patagonia to pay for the trek we decided to do tomorrow and then we went to the grocery store to get food for tomorrow’s full-day trek. We took an Uber back home and had cereal and salad. There is a gin distillery here called Last Hope Distillery. Neither of us are gin drinkers, but we wanted to check it out based on the description in Lonely Planet. It was opened before COVID by an Australian couple – the first gin distillery in Patagonia. They have done a great job – the staff is totally bought into the concept and the service, drinks, and food are fantastic. We shared a gin and ginger cocktail and some peanuts with merken (Chilean spices) before we went to tour the shed where they make the gin and also whiskey.
Keira, one of the owners, gave the group taking the tour an hour-long education on the gin-making and whiskey-making process. She was great – very entertaining.
When we came back in, we each had another gin and ginger cocktail and this one included Austral Lager beer. The drinks were so good that I could become a gin drinker if they all tasted as refreshing as those did. We each also had Reubens made with guanaco meat. It was a lot of food. They brought one serving that had four small sandwiches and we thought that was our two orders combined into one plate. Then they brought the second order and we realized how much food we had. It was a really fun night.
Okay, now Thursday. When we started this first phase of our journey (the full journey is to see all the countries in the world that are safe to see), we each picked our top ten countries to focus on first. I put Chile on my top ten and it was primarily because of Patagonia. And it is this image that prompted my desire to go to Patagonia.
Today was the day when we made the trek to the base of Torres del Paine. We knew it would be a long day. Early start, seven miles uphill, seven miles downhill, and some parts that would remind us of Mount Toubkal (see the journal entry from May 10th, 2024). But was it worth it?? Absolutely!!
Mauricio (our guide) and Juan (our driver) picked us up at 6am and then we picked up Michael, age 73, from the USSR (grew up in Minsk prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union) and now lives in California. His wife was also supposed to go, but she was not feeling well. We saw the sunrise as we drove into the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine and Juan dropped us off at 7:45.
We started the hike at 8 and the beginning was relatively flat, followed by plenty of uphill, and then as we got toward the top of the hike and above the tree line quite rocky.
The weather was fantastic though – it can be very windy on this hike and we only had a few short gusts, but otherwise, sunny and warm. The temperature was around 60 degrees, which was great for the hiking we were doing. Mauricio shared with us his perspective on things happening in the area and in Chile – he is a part of the Mapuche tribe, which is one of the tribes that suffered changes to their way of living when the Europeans arrived. They work hard to help their culture survive. He said that around 800-1000 people per day hike this iconic trek, during the high season. Mauricio shared that the majority of international visitors are from the USA, Germany, United Kingdom, and Korea. We made quite a few rest stops on the way up and then on the way down, really just one longer stop at one of the refuges where they have overnight lodging, food, drinks, and toilets. We made it back down a little before 6pm and Juan was there to drive us back to Puerto Natales.
They dropped us off at El Bote at our request because we were craving those fish dinners again after the long day. We finished at around 14 miles (23 kilometers) and 36,000 steps for each of us. After an Uber home (we already had plenty of steps in) and showers, I watched another Lightning game and Sandy went to bed. It was an outstanding day!
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