We celebrated Thanksgiving in Santiago in style with a long 16 mile walk/hike, happy hour monster mojitos and a cheap pitcher of beer with pizza.
The truth is I had to use the bathroom so badly, and we had to buy something to be able to use the bathroom, so Andrzej bought a pitcher of beer (of course?). We were so hungry that we got a pizza too. After that, we were too full to and tired to find a nicer place to celebrate. We are, however, both very thankful for the opportunity to do this trip and also for the lives we have in the USA.
Santiago is huge!
We enjoyed the city, but we were really excited to head down to Patagonia.
PATAGONIA
First stop was Punta Arenas, where we arrived by plane and then took a bus directly from the airport to Puerto Natales, just three hours north. Puerto Natales is a sweet little town that has definitely experienced unplanned growth due to increased tourism from people heading to the Torres del Paine national park. It is considered the “Gateway” to the park. We spent a whole week here so we could get oriented and plan our trip to the park while we were there. We got lucky! We got the “last” campsites (according to fantasticsur.com) during the week we were there. We went to the park by bus at 7 am the two days later, with two nights booked and a relatively loose plan of how much hiking we were going to do...Of course Andrzej figured out how we could do the entire W Trek with the two nights and three days we were in the park. And we did it! Nearly 60 miles of hiking in three days! It’s not the AT or anythinglike that, but it was some serious hiking!
That’s Gray Gkacier begins us at the end of our hike
Us at Mirador Británica
Our first hike on the day we arrived was to the Grand Torres.
Our first campsite at the Torres Central base camp area. Not a bad view, but a tad crowded...
Loved the color palette
The sound of glaciers falling off cliffs is hard to describe, but it’s memorable and unmistakable
We loved every breathtaking moment of our time here and hope that we might have the opportunity to return.
After Patagonia, Chile we headed to Bariloche, Argentina.